Latest Left-handedness Stories

Gay men can recall familiar faces faster and more accurately than their heterosexual counterparts because, like women, they use both sides of their brains, according to a new study by York University researchers.The study, published in the journal, Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, examined the influence of gender, sexual orientation and whether we're right-or-left-handed on our ability to recognize faces. It found that when memorizing and discriminating between faces,...

Despite the almost universal association of the right with life, right, positive and good things, and the left with death, inadequacy, negative and bad things, recent researches show that left-handed people hold the opposite association. Thus, left-handers become a critical case in which conceptual associations, result of a sensory-motor experience, and those that rely on linguistic and cultural uses, are contradictory. A sensory-motor experience in itself is capable of creating abstract...

Children who are mixed-handed, or ambidextrous, are more likely to have mental health, language and scholastic problems in childhood than right- or left-handed children, according to a new study published today in the journal Pediatrics.The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London and other European institutions, suggest that their findings may help teachers and health professionals to identify children who are particularly at risk of developing certain problems.Around one...

There are areas in the brain devoted to our arms, legs, and various parts of our bodies. The way these areas are distributed throughout the brain are known as "body maps" and there are some significant differences in these maps between left- and right-handed people. For example, in left-handed people, there is an equal amount of brain area devoted to the left and right arms in both hemispheres. However, for right-handed people, there is more cortical area associated with right arm than the...

A British underwear manufacturer said it is catering to the left-handed demographic with a line of men's underwear designed for ambidextrous access. Underwear brand Hom said the new underpants, which went on sale Wednesday at store chain Debenhams, forgo the traditional vertical slit on the right for a horizontal slit at the top of the gusset, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday. The designers of the underwear said left-handed men can save three valuable seconds at the toilet by switching to...

U.S. researchers identified an increased prevalence in left-handedness in children with a congenital disorder known as hemifacial microsomia. Dr. Albert Oh, director of pediatric plastic and craniofacial surgery at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., said that overall, 10 percent of the U.S. population is left-handed. A higher frequency has been associated with certain craniofacial malformations such as cleft lip and other conditions. Hemifacial microsomia is the second most...

A new study by scientists in France offers a possible explanation for left-handedness, finding that the trait survived since prehistoric times in part due to its rarity, which offered benefits. The question of why some people are left-handed while the vast majority of humans are right-handed has puzzled scientists, who have long believed that genes that don't aid in the struggle to survive typically get squeezed out of the genetic code, leaving instead the ones that are fitter.However, in...

A new study suggests people who are "mixed-handed," those who are able to use both hands with equal dexterity, may have a harder time conceiving a child than righties or lefties.A study of more than 9,000 Danish couples showed that those in which one partner was mixed-handed, rather than exclusively right- or left-handed, tended to take slightly longer to conceive.Mixed-handedness, also known as cross-dominance, is being able to do different tasks better with different hands. For...

Genes determining asymmetry probably arose in the first bilaterally symmetric organismsBiologists have tracked down genes that control the handedness of snail shells, and they turn out to be similar to the genes used by humans to set up the left and right sides of the body.The finding, reported online in advance of publication in Nature by University of California, Berkeley, researchers, indicates that the same genes have been responsible for establishing the left-right asymmetry of animals...

New research points a finger to left-handed people who are more likely to get anxious or feel shy or embarrassed about saying or acting on what they want. Researchers at Abertay University gave the study participants a behavioral test that gauges personal restraint and impulsiveness. Left-handers agreed more with statements such as "I worry about making mistakes." They also noted in the test that "criticism or scolding hurts me quite a bit." Dr Lynn Wright, who led the...