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."

[Pablo64]

He's good, but I have to put Stanley Jordan a notch higher, although perhaps Stanley defies the whole concept of right and left handed.

If you've never seen him play, do a search for him on YouTube and be amazed.

[karnage]

I’m a southpaw myself.

[cinives]

That’s funny; me too. My X is a complete lefty, I’m a lefty who does all fine motor skills with the left hand but uses the right hand for strength and power, and our kid was a lefty until age 4 whereupon she decided to become a righty.

Bad choice. :)

[Titan Magroyne]

Get a couple of liberal kooks and soon we’ll be passing laws against left-handed hate crimes. Yeah, but for the safety of all involved we'll only allow them crayons to write them.

[Farmer Dean]

Hey!I’m left handed and never have any problem operating power tools or hammers. I have the voices in my head to help me when the going gets tough.

[proudmilitarymrs]

Only left-handed people are in their right minds! :o)

[rineaux]

when you have members in the freemasons like jesse jackson and al sharpton, you really have to question the standards.

[bert]

Until the day she died my mother apologuzed to anyone who would listen for my being left handed.

She was a great believer in hereditary causes for most everything. She refused to believe she had a possibly fatal illness because it had never cropped up in her geneology.

But I digress..... she established that the first born of all my fathers brothers and sisters, ie my first cousins were left handed, thus relieving her of the responsibility. Strangely believe it, The first born of all my dad’s siblings was also left handed.

[rabidralph]

I’m left-handed. I turn my computer sideways to type.

[skimbell]

[acoulterfan]

Calculator - right
Volleyball - right
Violin - right
Scissors - right
Bat - right
Eating - left
Handwriting - left
Tennis - Left (backhand - right)
Archery - left

Does this qualify me as ambi-dextrous?

[A_Tradition_Continues]

I’m a lefty that plays the acoustic bass in the traditional right hand method. Strangely enough I have a dominate right eye so I play golf right handed and shoot a firearm right handed. In baseball I can bat either way but can only throw left handed. Tennis is left handed also. I write left handed except when doing caligraphy when I utilize the right..

[acoulterfan]

Does this mean you and I are bi-polar, LOL?

[OC_Steve]

Just keep away from me you left handed freak!!! I knew I was the only normal one in the family. By the way wasn’t the milkman right handed?

[FrogMom]

I was born left handed and forced to change (they used to do stuff like that!). My son is a lefty and he married a lefty.

We all nuts, so guess this is true ;) !!

Both of their children are right-handed, next generation is safe!

[RatRipper]

What happens when one of your multiple personalities is left-handed and the other is right-handed???

[FrogMom]

My wife and I are both left handed. She is profoundly left handed but I bat and golf right handed. I write, shoot and fish left handed. We were hoping our son would be left handed as well but he’s right handed and 4 inches taller than either one of us.

And your mailman?

(Kidding, in case you have no sense of humor!)

[Lx]

I play guitar “right handed.”

All the action is in the left hand, anyways!

And left-handed guitars are hard to find and expensive (more anti-lefty discrimination.)

I do as well with the same justification and I'm strongly left handed.

[Liberty Valance]

ROFL! Good one... ;o)

[ninergold3]

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...

Here's one that drives me CRAZY - those little folded paper cups that they serve samples in at Costco. The direction the cups are folded is for right handed people. When a leftie "scrapes" the spoon against the folds it isn't smooth (bump, bump, bump). Poor lefties.