The Causes and Effects of Left Handedness Observed in Individuals
For thousands of years, there has been evidence of humans’ fascination with handedness, particularly regarding left-handed individuals. In the past, southpaws have been represented as a sign of evil, mental illness, defiance, creative and music ability, and empathy. As a result of these clichés, left-handers, had been alienated in the past. However, in more recent developments, psychologists and neurologists alike have investigated the potential causes of this rare trait, looking to genetics and early childhood development for answers and, more importantly, part of the effects that handedness has on left handers mentally, physically, and socially.
While scientists still have not been able to find a definitive cause for becoming left handed, many believe it to be based on factors such as genetics and neurological health. For instance, one study from the University of Leicester, believes that the answer to this question lies in our genes, each person carrying a recessive gene for left handedness, either inheriting it ourselves or passing it on to future generations. Furthermore, other theories support this idea, evidencing how two left handed individuals are far more likely to produce offspring that are also dominantly left handed as opposed to two right handed individuals. However, this conjecture has yet to be proven, leaving the work of other scientists to explain this phenomenon. Fortunately, some
If you think of life and existence in general as a canvas, meaning all of time included simultaneously, the past, present and future. Within that canvas lie certain sets of options(choices) which are available to us at any given moment. The path that we found ourselves are predetermined by factors we had no control over. Your genetic make up, for instance, you had nothing to do with. You can’t take credit for not having the brain of a psychopath, the brain of the mentally disabled person, genetic predisposition to cancer and you name it. The actions of others impact the options (choices) available to you-the actions of those around affects your will because it can change the choices that are available to you at any given moment. If certain
The other test held was an auditory test. The test was done in two different ways. One way was finding the objects in a bag that were mentioned verbally and the other was identifying the item reached by touch. This test’s results were also supporting the previous researchers’ logical conclusion about the left hemisphere ability of speech. It confirmed the right hemisphere’s ability of comprehending language and its ability of expressing it in a nonverbal way. During the test, evidently, the right hemisphere had no trouble identifying the unknown objects by touch as the left hemisphere did. Moreover, some three- dimensional drawings of the slit-brain patients, who were all right handed, developed much better drawings using their left hands compared with their right hands.
The participants for this study were recruited from a Spring 2013 Experimental Psychology Undergraduate Course at Queens College, City University of New York. The research study was IRB approved and the participants for this study were not compensated. However, by remaining in the course, the students gave consent to participate in all studies. There were a total of 22 participants, 20 being females and two males. The participants consisted of 21 right-handed individuals and one left-handed. The mean age was 21.09 years, and the standard deviation for age was 1.02.
Let’s start out with Jacquelyn McBain, an animal and human behavior specialist who commented on a question displayed on a website called Quora. McBain wrote that right handed people tend to turn towards the right while left
Pink’s argument that we are moving out of a left-brain dominance and in to a new era where right brain qualities will be prized is well illustrated in part one the book. According to Pink “the two hemispheres of our brain don’t operate as on-off switches…both halves play a role in nearly everything we do” (2011). Pink suggests that both hemisphere of the brain are equally important. In fact, “a healthy,
Since the advent of biogenetic explanations have gained more public support (Schomerus, G., Schwahn, C., Holzinger, A., Corrigan, P., Grabe, H., Carta, M., & Angermeyer, M. (2012) a number of studies have been performed and these studies have then been reviewed, using a variety of different methods including surveys and meta-analysis of data gathered over a number of
The global average calculated is -0.134, including the data from 25 participants in the class. The negative value indicates that most of the participants are left-biased. The average laterality quotient of the right-handers is -0.22 while the average of the left-handers is 0.36, inclusive of both genders. The average for right-handers is a negative value, indicating that they are leftward perceptual bias. The average laterality quotient for right-handed females is -0.325 while the average for right-handed males is 0.022, demonstrating that right-handed females are leftward perceptual bias compared to right-handed males. The average laterality quotient for left-handed females is 0.36, indicating that they are rightward perceptual bias. However, there is no data provided for left-handed males, thus no conclusion can be made about them.
For many decades people have been considered to be either right or left side dominant in regards to brain function which came with defined roles such as “creative” or “analytical”. This thinking tends to be over-simplified as most people use their entire brains daily (Jensen, 2010). On the other hand people do use different parts of their brain for different tasks according to how they perceive those tasks.
In 1967, M.S. Gazzaniga studied the split brain in man. Gazzaniga wanted to study how the two halves of the brain functioned independently. Since it a little unethical to snip the peoples corpus callosums just for fun, it wasn‘t until doctors discovered that cutting the corpus callosum could actually cure severe epileptic seizures that it was possible for Gazzaniga and Sperry to study them. They found that the test subjects intelligence, personality, and emotions had not changed. We use each half of our brains for specific skills. Three different tests were designed to check mental capabilities. It was found that the left-brain is better at speaking, writing, reading, and math, and the right brain is better at recognizing
She came to this conclusion after studying over a thousand death certificates from people in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, along with having survivors fill out questionnaires. Although there is a multitude of hypotheses on her findings Halpern theorizes that left-handedness accompanies other problems and has confirmed
Over the years, new research has been emerging to prove that handedness may develop in the womb and not around three or four as previously believed. This would mean that handedness is purely a nature issue and has nothing to do with nurture or preference. One 2004 study “nine out of 10 fetuses at 15 weeks’ gestation preferred to suck their right thumbs. Hepper’s team followed 75 of those fetuses after birth, and found that at 10 to 12 years old all 60 of the right thumb-suckers were right-handed, while 10 of the 15 left thumb-suckers were left-handed and the rest right-handed”. (Spinney, 2004) These results challenge the long standing theory of how handedness develops.
11 A.M, November 11, 1918. War is at a standstill as the armistice just took effect. The war is finally over. However, all is not swell as it seems. The total death toll (consisting of the military and civilian) was about 16.5 million, not including the 20 million wounded. The effects of WWI led into the future causes of WWII and its major events.
Lateral preference portrays people or 'non-human creatures ' prevalent utilization of either side of the body for doing particular activities. EFFECTS ARTICLE START In 1977, a study proposed that roughly 8-15% of the grown-up populace were left handed. 7 Tan (1988) reported that the rate of left-handedness was 5% for the Turkish youthful populace. 8 Studies show that left-handedness is more normal in male than in females. 9 Left-handedness, in correlation with the general public, additionally seems to happen all the more as
“I’ll stop procrastinating…Tomorrow.” This is a mindset that is possessed by a majority of students today. Although putting off writing that English paper until the night before it is due may not seem like a big deal, it has many harmful effects. In fact, what better topic is there for that English paper? Very few are spared from the epidemic known as procrastination. Even less overcome this issue. In order to successfully defeat procrastination, we must first understand it.
There has been a lot of scientific research done into genetics, genetic crosses and inheritance enabling us to understand why we have the certain characteristics and traits that we do, how we inherited them and how we can pass them on. It’s because of this research that we can understand and learn about our genetic makeup and why it effects the way we are.