Left-Handers More At RiskOf Mental Illness

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 7-31-2007 | Laura Clout

[blam]

Left-handers more at risk of mental illness

By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 1:49am BST 31/07/2007

Left-handed people may have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, scientists have found.

An international group of scientists, led by a team at Oxford University, have identified a gene that seems to increase the chance of being left-handed.

The researchers said that the same gene - called LRRTM1 - may slightly increase the risk of developing the brain disorder.

Schizophrenia is a highly complex condition that results in impaired perception and thought, it affects around one in every 100 people.

Although little is known about the gene, the Oxford team suspects it modifies the development of asymmetry in the human brain.

In humans, the left side of the brain usually controls speech and language, and the right side controls emotion. In left-handers, however, this pattern is often reversed. In a similar way, people with schizophrenia often have unusual patterns of brain asymmetry.

The leader of the study, Dr Clyde Francks of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, said: "People really should not be concerned by this result. There are many factors which make individuals more likely to develop schizophrenia and the vast majority of left-handers will never develop a problem. We don't yet know the precise role of this gene."

There is also evidence that asymmetry of the brain was an important feature during human evolution. Apes' brains are more symmetrical than humans' and they do not show a preference for using either the right or left hand.

Dr Francks added: "We hope this study's findings will help us to understand the development of asymmetry in the brain.

"Asymmetry is a fundamental feature of the human brain that is disrupted in many psychiatric conditions."

[Kaylee Frye]

Oh dear!!! ;)

[counterpunch]

I’m left handed and I demand reparations! Where’s Jesse and Al when I need them?

Me too.
Our people have been oppressed for hundreds of years.
They used to burn our people at the stake.
And that legacy of discrimination lives on in every kindergarten classroom where there aren't enough green-handled scissors to go around.
There, in these Classrooms of Shame, our people are forced to huddle around a single pair in the back of the room at the outcast table.

 

[Fester Chugabrew]

Famous Left Handers

[Ronin]

Let’s see... lefties have shorter lives, are more likely to get cancer... now are more likely to be crazy...and are slightly off (well, more than slightly in my case.)

The whole world discriminates against lefties in everything from the way they make tools, to the side of the door with the doorknob — hell even the button on the back of our pants is for the convenience of righthanders...

Yeesh...I think I want reparations too!

[Fishtalk]

Well I suppose you’re right.

But I’ve often pondered.....

When I watch my husband hammer a nail or horrors, unscrew a screw, at times I’ve wanted to pull the tool away from him and slap him silly.

Now it could just be him or maybe it looks funny to my right-handed view of the world.

The man does function and he has handyman duties around the house as husbands do.

But my father was a carpenter and I grew up with a hammer in my hand and had many nails in my feet. I know what a guy screwing in a screw should look like, much less hammering a nail like a real man.

A left-handed guy swinging at a nail just looks odd to me.

But I say....hey, let left-handed people pursue their happiness. For they are people too.

[Fishtalk]

Well you’re making me smile.

This could be a real “cause celebre”...I’m serious.

Get a couple of liberal kooks and soon we’ll be passing laws against left-handed hate crimes.

[Jean S]

Yeesh...I think I want reparations too!

I'm with you. Tool discrimination should be against the law and punished as a hate crime.

Equal rights for lefties now!

[joebuck]

This is just more anti-lefty prejudice. A lefty can’t get no justice in a right mans world. Down with righty, down with righty.

[Billthedrill]

Left-handed people are OK, I guess. I do have a complete collection of left-handed screwdrivers. And it’s funny as all git out to watch them write... ;-)

[socal_parrot]

This is going to validate what my wife has known for years.

[socal_parrot]

This is going to validate what my wife has known for years.

[Glenn]

I just finished watching the movie, “Wordplay”, and I was astonished at the number of left-handed people in that movie. It’s a documentary about competitive crossword puzzle players.

[appleharvey]

Ronald Reagan was left handed

My brother-in-law is left handed, and he's a raging moonbat. Go figger! I'm ambidextrous. Am I half mentally ill?

[Revolting cat!]

God is left handed. I rest my case!

[Revolting cat!]

[blam]

Is that Eric Clapner? (ahem)

[acoulterfan]

Well this confirms my suspicion that Liberalism is a mental disorder.

I worked Reception for a Librarary Headquarters for six months after being retired from same system. Sign in is required by all visiting Library staff when visiting headquarters and most were left-handed! Whenever I mentioned that they were another left handed Librarian/Library Tech they confirmed that they had also noticed this. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!

[khnyny]

I had an old friend who did his doctoral thesis on the differences between right brain/left brain dominance. It’s been quite awhile, but I read a book he recommended and from what I remember, right brain dominant people (left handed) are highly creative with a high preponderance of artists, writers, etc. Interestingly enough, a lot are also very gifted in sports. Left brained people have better language and math capabilities, perhaps including what most perceive as logic and problem solving skills.

Whatever, lol.

[Kozak]

About half of all Physicians are left handed, far higher then in the general population. Clearly a sign of superior intellect. (;-)

[counterpunch]

I'm with you. Tool discrimination should be against the law and punished as a hate crime.

I'm sure you know how hard it is to find a mouse that's not specifically contoured for right hands!
I was finally able to find a really good preference-neutral rechargeable optical mouse. The drivers even let you reverse the buttons for left-handed use (right-click becomes left, left-click becomes right.)

And it's fairly inexpensive for a rechargeable wireless, too.
It's from Hewlett Packard. highly recommend it.