Right Handed vs Left Handed: A medical mystery

[Gvac]

Hey Doc - are we all born either right or left handed or is it more the way we're taught? Do we all have the ability to be ambidextrous?

A few years ago I had shattered the middle finger on my right hand, and being right handed I started doing a lot of things lefty. I was surprised at how many things I not only did capably, but did well. I even got to the point where I could throw a pretty decent spiral with a football left-handed, even though I had never attempted it before.

Is it because I might have the ability to be ambidextrous or because we never test ourselves?

[silks]

Hey Doc - are we all born either right or left handed or is it more the way we're taught? Do we all have the ability to be ambidextrous?

A few years ago I had shattered the middle finger on my right hand, and being right handed I started doing a lot of things lefty. I was surprised at how many things I not only did capably, but did well. I even got to the point where I could throw a pretty decent spiral with a football left-handed, even though I had never attempted it before.

Is it because I might have the ability to be ambidextrous or because we never test ourselves?


This is a damn good question.

When I was learning how to write as a child, I would start writing with my left hand and then switch halfway across the page and finish with my right. When I first picked up a guitar, my first instinct was to hold it left handed. Same held true with firearms, I always wanted to shoot left handed. Getting older and realizing how difficult it was to find guitars and firearms made for left handed folks, I 'taught' myself to play and shoot right handed. I throw left, but I write with my right hand.

[Dr Steve]

Hey Doc - are we all born either right or left handed or is it more the way we're taught? Do we all have the ability to be ambidextrous?

A few years ago I had shattered the middle finger on my right hand, and being right handed I started doing a lot of things lefty. I was surprised at how many things I not only did capably, but did well. I even got to the point where I could throw a pretty decent spiral with a football left-handed, even though I had never attempted it before.

Is it because I might have the ability to be ambidextrous or because we never test ourselves?

This is an interesting question...handedness remains a bit of a medical mystery; the reason not too much research is being done on this is because 1) most people are right handed, and therefore most researchers are right handed and they couldn't care less, and 2) there's no money in it.

But I can share a few things about how the brain works and you can make your own interpretations of it.

1) the brain is an amazing fucking thing. If you break your hand and HAVE to use your left hand when you're normally right handed, it can retrain itself. It's interesting that you say you got to the point where you could throw a "pretty decent spiral"...I'm betting it never quite matched the spiral you could throw with your other hand.

2) the brain is "handed" already, in the sense that the right brain and the left brain do different things. For example, in the vast majority of the population, the speech center is on the left side of the brain. Destroy it by having a stroke on the left brain (just above the ear) and you will have RIGHT sided body weakness and can't talk. Or can just utter a few hardwired words (in my case, "shit" and "oh god"). That's called "Broca's Aphasia". There's also another kind of stroke nearby that can cause "Wernicke's Aphasia"...this destroys the brain's ability to make sense of speech and to speak sensibly. Again, this is on the LEFT side of the brain (well, again, in the vast majority of people). The thing is, once you've knocked out the speech center, the other side of the brain can't compensate for it, can't retrain itself. So there IS a preferred "side" for certain actions. Writing and eating may also be one of them.

3) There are a couple of studies out there that indicate that left handedness is caused by birth trauma, at least in some cases. My ex-wife's kids were twins...one left handed, one right handed...guess which one spent time in the ICU after he was born?

4) I had a really great point to make here, but I already forgot what it was. That has more to do with "dementia" than "Handedness" so I'll leave that for another thread.

5) ok, I remember, I think. You actually have TWO brains in your head, the right sided one, and the left sided one. In most people, the right side is totally mute, the left side is verbal and analytical. How do they know? well, the brains are connected by a trunk line called the "corpus callosum". Sever it and you can do all kinds of cool experiments, like putting a porcelain horse in someone's left hand behind their back. They won't be able to say the word "horse" to identify it, but they can point out a picture of a horse. it's amazing shit. the right side of the brain sees things perfectly and is artistic...if you can't draw it's because the analytical left side of the brain thinks it knows everything and fucks up your drawings with icons (like circles for noses and stuff) and other mistakes. If you don't believe me, try this experiment:

Find a nice headshot of someone in a magazine. Set it upright and draw the picture the best you can...follow the shapes and the empty spaces (or try to) the best you can and really draw it. Put that drawing away.

Now TURN THE HEADSHOT UPSIDE DOWN. Draw it again, following the shapes and the empty spaces....when you're done, compare the two drawings. 90 times out of 100 the drawing made when the picture is in an unfamiliar position (upside down) will be far superior.

Anyway, so I don't think it's a choice. I think there's a hardwired tendency to be handed, and it must have provided a survival advantage at one time or another...


OH WAIT!

6) I totally remember what I was going to say before...DEXTER means "RIGHT" and "SINISTER" means left. Left handed people were considered touched by the devil in the old days, which is where the word "sinister" meaning evil comes from.

[Dr Steve]

This is a damn good question.

When I was learning how to write as a child, I would start writing with my left hand and then switch halfway across the page and finish with my right. When I first picked up a guitar, my first instinct was to hold it left handed. Same held true with firearms, I always wanted to shoot left handed. Getting older and realizing how difficult it was to find guitars and firearms made for left handed folks, I 'taught' myself to play and shoot right handed. I throw left, but I write with my right hand.

people are right and left "eyed" too...some people who are left handed have to shoot right handed because their right eye is dominant.

weird

[Sinestro]

Sinestro is left handed. So Sinestro is Sinister. Makes sense to me.

[underdog]

I write, eat and shoot pool left handed. I do everything else right handed. I have no fucking idea what that means.

[PapaBear]

I'm left eyed. So is my oldest son. I hear it's very rare.

[PapaBear]

people are right and left "eyed" too...some people who are left handed have to shoot right handed because their right eye is dominant.

weird
Wow! I totally missed this post. My son that I mentioned above had to learn to shoot left handed in boot camp because of his left eyed condition.

[boosterp]

I was left handed, in the 70s in the second grade the school I was in tried to make me a righty and they failed because right handed I wrote in mirror images. Well, learning to write cursive was done with my left, I remained highly ambidextrous, and when I broke my left wrist I had to learn simple things like brushing my teeth with my right hand. When I had surgery that left my left hand with 20% of it's original strength and 30% of range of motion I re-tooled to a righty fairly easy except for a few things. My right cant hold my cock to pee, wash my back, etc, and I can not write cursive right handed still. The brain is an awesome machine that we only partially understand.

[DantheBartender]

I find wiping with my left hand to be more difficult...

[PapaBear]

I find wiping with my left hand to be more difficult...
That's because you're right cheeked.

[Radioguy]

3) There are a couple of studies out there that indicate that left handedness is caused by birth trauma, at least in some cases. My ex-wife's kids were twins...one left handed, one right handed...guess which one spent time in the ICU after he was born?

I had heard several times over the years that left-handed people are, on average, less intelligent that those who are right-handed.

Are those beliefs based on studies ?

[sailor]

it is hard-wired. i forget the percentages, but there's something like a 90% link between hair whorl direction and handedness (clockwise hair = right-handed).

i know you can overcome it, like gvac said. i had a friend throwing darts who for fun decided to learn to throw lefty and became equally as proficient with his left over time.

[silks]

people are right and left "eyed" too...some people who are left handed have to shoot right handed because their right eye is dominant.

weird

I had that problem. I was right eye dominant and found it easier to 'train' my left eye rather than to try to re-teach myself how to shoot right handed.

[Furtherman]

6) I totally remember what I was going to say before...DEXTER means "RIGHT" and "SINISTER" means left. Left handed people were considered touched by the devil in the old days, which is where the word "sinister" meaning evil comes from.

I write, eat and shoot pool left handed. I do everything else right handed. I have no fucking idea what that means.

I'm kinda like that too. I do everything left handed... except write.

Does this mean I'm sinister in action, but pure in thought?

[Aggie]

My husband is a lefty but he does many things with his right also. I feel bad for lefty's since it seems from a young age people are trying to retrain them.

I remember hearing this so I just Googled it. Tons of presiden'ts have been lefty's and I think a lot of famous intellectuals and eEntrepreneurs have been also (like Leonardo DaVinci, Bill Gates and Einstein).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/03/AR2008070303202.html

In the race for the White House, lefties seem to have the upper hand. No matter who wins in November, six of the 12 chief executives since the end of World War II will have been left-handed: Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, the elder Bush, Clinton and either Obama or McCain. That's a disproportionate number, considering that only one in 10 people in the general population is left-handed.

[Furtherman]

Vote Underdog/Furtherman in 2012!

[underdog]

Vote Underdog/Furtherman in 2012!

We'll rule the world with our iron left fist some times, and the right one the other times!

[Bob Impact]

We'll rule the world with our iron left fist some times, and the right one the other times!

Can I be minister of right handed torment?

[Gvac]

I'm right eye dominant and right handed, so I bat lefty in baseball and I fight southpaw.

Dominant hand and eye forward.

I'm brilliant.

[Bob Impact]

I'm right eye dominant and right handed, so I bat lefty in baseball and I fight southpaw.

Dominant hand and eye forward.

I'm brilliant.

I fight with my dominant (left) hand back, and always circle to my left... terrible habit.

[Gvac]

I fight with my dominant (left) hand back, and always circle to my left... terrible habit.

Good to know...

[cougarjake13]

Hey Doc - are we all born either right or left handed or is it more the way we're taught? Do we all have the ability to be ambidextrous?

A few years ago I had shattered the middle finger on my right hand, and being right handed I started doing a lot of things lefty. I was surprised at how many things I not only did capably, but did well. I even got to the point where I could throw a pretty decent spiral with a football left-handed, even though I had never attempted it before.

Is it because I might have the ability to be ambidextrous or because we never test ourselves?



i dont know how it works medically but for me i was trying to be left handed, being taught by my left handed dad but b/c of my condition i was unable to do it well and had more sucess righty

around 13 or 14 my dad told me this story and i taught myself to do things lefty and im know ambidextrous