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Study Shows Left-Handers Have More Flexible Brains
http://www.rense.com ^
| 3-6-02
| Robert Lee Hotz
Posted on 03/06/2002 9:50:08 PM PST by PurVirgo
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To: PurVirgo
I know a fellow who was born with no arms.
He was fitted with two prosthetic arms as a youngster. The therapists attempted to teach him how to use the prosthetic right hand. He was clumsy and had major trouble doing anything with it.
Eventually his mother (who lived in S. America) came to visit, saw what was going on, and said, "You know, I'm left-handed. Maybe you should teach him to use the left one."
This fellow very quickly mastered the use of his prosthetic left hand. Today as an adult in his 20s he still has a preference for his left prosthesis over his right.
This story indicates, to me, that handedness is wired into the brain in such a way that it truly doesn't depend on the actual existence of hands.
21
posted on
03/07/2002 5:21:17 AM PST
by
sonjay
To: Judith Anne
When I was teaching my left-handed daughter, at 3-years old, to print, she wrote from left to right with her left hand, but if she tried to write with her right hand she wrote mirror-style from right to left.
When she learned to read, she could read an upside-down book as fast as if it was right-side up.
22
posted on
03/07/2002 6:33:18 AM PST
by
diefree
To: PurVirgo
I'm left handed and find this very interesting, and have the same questions as you. While I continue reading this, try this experiment:
Cross your arms over your chest. Know what I mean? Like you were cold or whatever. Generally one hand will lie on the opposite bicep and the other will tuck under. Most of the time, your dominant hand will be the one that's up.
23
posted on
03/07/2002 6:44:21 AM PST
by
Lady Jag
To: diefree
She eats with her left hand but seems to do everything else with her right hand. I eat and write left handed but do almost everything else with my right hand.
I have noticed that some of the left handed people I know have trouble telling right from left. Is this a common thing among left handers?
24
posted on
03/07/2002 6:52:10 AM PST
by
muggs
To: stands2reason
I wonder if left-handedness can also be a result of brain damage? The mentally retarded also have a higher instance of left-handedness.LOL, I'm not sure I like your question but admit I have wondered the same thing. In addition to many left handed people I know that don't know right from left, it seems many of them were breech births also.
25
posted on
03/07/2002 6:55:08 AM PST
by
muggs
To: Rustynailww
Yea... but I heard he has a bad grip.
26
posted on
03/07/2002 6:59:34 AM PST
by
johnny7
To: PurVirgo
Interesting article.
My 7 year old son is a lefty, I thought this was a little strange because nobody else on either side is.
My husband swears he can use either hand, although he's never shown me this, except he can use a mouse equally well with either hand. Maybe he simply doesn't have the righty gene and ended up a righty and my son inherited it from him but ended up lefty.
27
posted on
03/07/2002 7:10:03 AM PST
by
mykdsmom
To: stands2reason
I am a left handed female. I produced two left handed children: both female. I can assure you none are retarded!
28
posted on
03/07/2002 7:38:03 AM PST
by
nyconse
To: diefree
When I was teaching my left-handed daughter, at 3-years old, to print, she wrote from left to right with her left hand, but if she tried to write with her right hand she wrote mirror-style from right to left. When she learned to read, she could read an upside-down book as fast as if it was right-side up.
I am the same way. When I write right-handed, it is mirror perfect and very legible. I can also read upside-down or mirror backwards without any problems. Very helpful when working on projects with people across the table!
One odd thing though... If I write with my right fingertip(on a dirty window or something), it comes out perfectly normal.
29
posted on
03/07/2002 7:52:40 AM PST
by
The Chid
To: RightOnline
Talking about lefty computer users, tell me in your 40% lefty office, how many lefties complain when they have to use a righty's mouse and vise versa. I haven't run into that many computer users, but as a lefty, I am flexible enough (learned from the above article) to use a right hand mouse without complaining but righties curse and moan when they use mine on the left. Is it that lefty flexibility that the article suggests?
And for lefties: not only can you change the buttons on your mouse and use it on the left, but you can get lefty cursors. I found mine on tucows.com.
30
posted on
03/07/2002 8:14:53 AM PST
by
Lady Jag
To: diefree
Yes, I can read upside down and backwards as if it were normal print, also. That's been useful...;-D Half our kids are lefties, half righties. When I had radial keratotomy, the surgeon did a test for eye dominance, mine is the left eye. He did the non-dominant eye surgery first...the dominant eye a week later...
To: muggs
I am also a lefty and was breech! A very difficult childbirth. I wonder if birth trauma can cause lefthandedness.
To: Judith Anne
Well, our left is right! 8-)
To: stands2reason
Right! Er...Correct! ;-D
To: muggs
Back when I took driver's ed I remember the embarrassment of my instructor drawing an "L" on the back of my left hand and an "R" on my right in red magic marker! Now that I'm married, I know the hand w/ the ring is my left hand. Pretty sad, huh?
To: diefree; all
My mother grew up in Korea, and was also forced to use her right hand, as she was born left handed, for the same reason. As a result, somethimes she has a bit of dyslexia.
I myself am left-handed, and my oldest brother is left handed also. My two other brothers are righty's. It's funny, cuz you can really see some personality differences among us. Me and my oldest bro, along with my mom, are more cognitive, so to speak. It's hard to compare us with my youngest bro, b/c we have different fathers. But Jason (the one between) is very mechanically oriented, hell he's like a damn tinker gnome the way he can take things apart, figure out how they work, and put it back together perfectly. But me and Eric (the oldest), we like to know why they work. I eat and write with my left hand, and my good ear/eye are on the left, but when I play ball, I bat right, and kick right when I play soccer. When I read a magazine, I read it from back cover to front, and can often read better if I hold the book upside down. I can remember in school, and when I fill out paperwork, I go from bottom right to top left, instead of left to right, top to bottom.
I know ppl get aggravated when they need to use my desk, because everything is "backwards" from them. But I know that it is predominantly a right handed world. Scissors, housing/building designs, yes even soup ladles are designed for righties.
36
posted on
03/07/2002 1:01:04 PM PST
by
PurVirgo
To: Judith Anne
hehehe, I still have to use my hand to make an "L" to figure out left and right sometimes. Maybe it's b/c we translate "right" to mean "left" when we're learning how to do something, and therefore when using it in a directional sense, we forget?
37
posted on
03/07/2002 1:04:22 PM PST
by
PurVirgo
To: nyconse
I didn't mean to imply that left-handers are retarded, just that the bell curve for lefties is more flat ie. there's also a higher chance of geniuses being left-handed. Lefthanders are slightly irregular--not impaired so much as inconvenienced. I wish righthanded people knew how many things in this world that are designed especially for them. I sure do! I still can't find a decent hand can opener!
To: RightOnline
You are absolutely right. I am left-handed, though to a large extent, bordering on ambidextrous. Since I entered the IT field six years ago, I have been struck by the unusually large proportion of left-handers amongst my collegues.
Don't know if it really means anything, but its an interesting thing to keep an eye out for...
39
posted on
03/07/2002 1:05:51 PM PST
by
Sicon
To: PurVirgo
It's easier for me to use North, South, East and West, when I can...Sometimes I hold up my hands to try to remember which one I write with. Typing is MUCH easier.
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