Posted on 11/22/2019 4:44:45 AM PST by SunkenCiv
While there's no righty or lefty gene, DNA does seem to play a role in handedness. In a recent study published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology, researchers at the University of Oxford looked at the DNA of about 400,000 people in the U.K. and found that four regions of the genome are generally associated with left-handedness. Three out of these four regions were involved in brain development and structure. Some researchers hope that studying the biological differences between lefties and righties could shed light on how the brain develops specializations in its right and left hemispheres...
Righties have dominated for as far back in the archaeological record as researchers can see, about 500,000 years, Uomini said. Neanderthals, our now-extinct human cousins, were also strongly right-handed.
That makes humans pretty strange among animals. Several nonhuman species, such as the other great apes, are individually handed, but the split between righties and lefties is typically closer to 50-50.
What caused our extreme bias toward right-handedness to evolve and persist? From an evolutionary perspective, if right-handedness evolved because it had some kind of advantage, then you might expect left-handers to disappear completely, Uomini told Live Science. She added that there are some disadvantages to being left-handed, such as higher frequencies of work accidents. Researchers also linked left-handedness to learning disabilities, in a study published in 2013 in Brain: A Journal of Neurology.
But there's a leading theory to explain why left-handers have maintained a constant minority: the fighting hypothesis.
"The idea is that in hand-to-hand combat, or in combat with weapons, there is an evolutionary advantage to being a minority left-hander," Uomini said. "If you're left-handed, you have a surprise advantage because most people are used to fighting against right-handers."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Yep, exactly! Left handed twist ties! Know how much that messes with anyone who has used tools to tighten fastener hardware like mechanics? The fastener industry is clockwise tighten and counter clockwise loosen. Then they go off and start tightening twist ties counter clockwise! lol
It's a true rarity to find any MLB baseball player that throws left and bats right - a few pitchers is all - and all suck at batting.
Longtime ago I read something about this and recall that the brain doesn't process the approaching baseball quick enough.
I’m in agreement with wally_bert on this. My husband, one of his sisters, and their mother are all left-handed. They can barely draw stick figures either.
About the most artistic thing my husband can do is to choose wonderful music for us to listen to from a variety of genres.
Bflr.
I have a fairly extensive collection of obscure TV and movie soundtracks. That includes both Quinn Martin show scores sets.
What times others have listened usually like what they heard.
Agreed.
I’ve noticed more lefty actors recently.
Lefties get seconds quicker at the Turkey Day table. They don’t have to waste time switching hands with their utensils.
Lefties are very goodlooking.
“So, both are swinging a sword and holding a shield, but in mirror image? Wow, that does sound like one side would have an advantage. (not)”
In a complete vacuum correct.
But in such an encounter, the lefty would have fought (or practiced against) his mirror image many times, the righty much less so, or not at all.
Advantage lefty.
“Ferniehirst Castle, Clan Kerr.”
That’s it!
And the staircases were open on the left side so lefty’s had the advantage...or something like that.
Like you, I eat and write left handed but click a computer mouse right handed, use scissors or shoot in my right hand. Was taught to shoot by a lefty who also used their right hand. Other things like which hand to use a golf club I’m ambidextrous. Directional turning is fine but have known lefties who had problems with which way to turn a screw even when saying righty tighty lefty loosy.
In school, teachers tried to force me to write right handed. The problems of writing upside down or with a twisted wrist is easily solve by turning the paper to 1 o’clock for lefties.
In a first encounter, a lefty will not have done that. No advantage, no complete vacuum either. Real life.
Scissors used to be made strictly for righties. Now days, they make left handed scissors. Simple solution for lefties who haven’t learned to cut right handed is to turn right handed scissors upside down. Put your fingers in the thumb hole and your thumb in the finger hole. Don’t know why that works unless it is the pressure that’s put on the blades.
I have never heard the term multidextrous before and that makes more sense.
I have a terrible time turning screws! I’m very mechanical minded and always dread screw turning. :-)
When we go places in my truck and I’m following the GPS and the GPS lady says take next left, when I turn on the right blinker I get the “your other left” snark from the man copilot in the seat next to me. ROTFL
That’s a huge issue in my family. Nobody will sit to the left of me.
At the very least, the lefty would have trained against predominantly right-handed fencers, while right-handed fencers also train against predominantly right-handed fencers. The advantage to the lefty is obvious.
I once had a muzzy boss. Not only was he freaked that I am female but also a lefty. He could barely tolerate being in the same room with females which caused all the females to quit. I tried to outlast him but was the last to finally put him in my rearview mirror. One of the final straws was when I tried to give him a watermelon from a client. He jumped away like I was handing him a rattlesnake. Seriously, jumped several feet back with terror and disgust on his face.
No.
A righty fighting a righty = very common
A righty fighting a lefty = not so common so the righty is likely to lose.
Not agreeing with much in that CNN article.
Food is passed counterclockwise. Lefties get their food at the table faster!
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