What does left-handed and right-handed mean? Differences between left-handers and right-handers

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Only 10–15% of all people are left-handed. Minority status sets a certain frame of perception: those who are somehow different from the main mass are perceived by others as inferior or, on the contrary, gifted. Then speculation begins: they either try to retrain left-handers with all their might, or expect outstanding success and brilliant solutions from them. Meanwhile, today it is becoming increasingly clear that the connection between the brain and the dominant hand (leg, eye, ear) is not as straightforward as it previously seemed. Research shows that many of our beliefs about left-handed people still need to be adjusted.

1. Left-handers are “programmed” not only by genes

There is no clear answer to the question of why some people become left-handed. It is known that genes are responsible for this feature in 25% of cases. Left-handedness is also inherited, but not as often as height or eye color. Even identical twins can sometimes have different dominant hands. The brain can also make a choice in favor of left-handedness in the womb. For example, one theory associates this development scenario with exposure to large doses of the male hormone testosterone. In addition, severe maternal stress during pregnancy can cause oxygen deprivation (hypoxia), which leads to depression of the more sensitive left hemisphere.

2. Lefties are not necessarily “right-brained” people.

The right and left hemispheres control not only “their” (opposite) side of the body, but also differently determine how we process information, solve problems and respond to stimuli. It was previously believed that most right-handers use the left hemisphere of the brain for speech-related tasks, while left-handers have a speech center located in the right hemisphere. But further research did not reveal a clear trend: left-hemisphere language was observed in 88% of right-handers and 78% of left-handers. Only 7% of left-handers had pronounced right-hemisphere language activity 1 . "Most left-handed people use the same language areas as right-handed people," says Gina Grimshaw, a neuroscientist at the University of Wellington in New Zealand. - Regarding functions such as attention, emotions, perception, we do not have data to make generalizations. But left-handed people definitely don’t have an “upside-down” brain, as some people think.”

3. Left-handedness is not a sign of creative thinking and high intelligence

You can often hear that left-handedness comes with extraordinary abilities. But according to Ronald Yeo, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, there is no serious evidence of this. This rumor dates back to 1995, when a study found that left-handed men found more varied and unusual ways to solve problems. “There is a reasonable grain in this idea, but still it cannot be said that a left-handed person should necessarily expect discoveries and breakthroughs in science or art,” says Ronald Yeo. Neurobiologist Tatyana Akhutina agrees with him. “A neuropsychological study of gifted schoolchildren with high achievements in mathematics showed that among them there are both pronounced right-handers and left-handers and ambidextrous people.”

4. Lefties are likely to be more emotionally sensitive.

Psychologist Zhanna Lukyanchikova and her colleagues found that among gifted adolescents, left-handers and ambidextrous people (especially those with different preferences for the eye and ear) often have increased levels of anxiety, introversion and asthenicness, while right-handers more often showed strong-willed qualities and persistence in solving problems. In addition, in a study by psychologists at the University of Abertay (UK), left-handers more often agreed with statements such as “I often worry about my mistakes”, “criticism really hurts me” 2. At the same time, data obtained on a larger sample did not reveal significant differences in the temperament of right-handers and left-handers. Perhaps the anxiety of left-handers manifests itself precisely in stressful situations, when their abilities will be assessed by others. One way or another, this question is not yet completely clear.

5. Lefties really see the world differently.

In many languages, “right” also means “true,” “fair,” “truthful.” Left-handers are characterized by the opposite attitude: what is on the left evokes more trust and sympathy in them. “A person with a dominant left side of the body (hand, eye, ear) will intuitively prefer those objects and images that are on the left, even if he cannot justify this,” explains Ronald Yeo. - This effect can be observed in various life situations when you need to make a choice. For example, during voting in elections, when the names of candidates are placed on the left and right of the page, a left-handed person is more likely to choose a left-handed person (if he is new to them and their program).”

6. Left-handedness does not affect overall health

There has long been concern that left-handedness has something to do with impaired immune function and that it may be a risk factor for autoimmune disorders. Neurologist Norman Geschwind believed that exposure of the fetus to testosterone in the womb delayed the process of neuronal localization. In his opinion, this delay not only causes left-handedness, but also slows down the development of the immune system. Most of these suspicions were not confirmed, and Gershwind's theory as a whole was refuted. However, some diseases, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are actually more common in left-handed people than in right-handed people.

1 PLoS One, 2012, vol. 7, no. 4.

2 For more information, see abertay.ac.uk.

Even in biblical times, it was noted that people differ in whether they prefer the right or left hand when performing various functions. Thus, the Book of Judges says that in 1406 BC. in the army of the sons of the tribe of Velyaminov, 700 left-handers were selected who “could throw stones from a sling and not miss.” In the Bible, for the first time, a negative attitude towards left-handers was probably heard when describing the picture of the Last Judgment.

Since then, two lines can be traced in relation to left-handed people.

The vast majority of studies of the specifics of mental activity of left-handed people are associated with the study of pathological phenomena. At the same time, it has been established that they are significantly more likely than right-handers to develop specific forms of dysontogenesis associated with insufficiency of speech, reading, writing, counting, optical-spatial, psychomotor functions, etc.

The fact of the accumulation of left-handed people among patients with epilepsy, neuroses, alcoholism, and various types of substance abuse has been recognized; a connection is shown between the presence of left-handedness and immune disorders, chronic migraines, neuroendocrine pathology, a tendency towards the genealogical accumulation of Down syndrome, and early childhood autism. It is known that in left-handed people the course of psychopathological conditions changes significantly; they are prone to paradoxical reactions to various drugs. Extensive and extremely interesting material on this topic is presented in the works of T.A. Dobrokhotova and N.N. Bragina.

When describing left-handers, one cannot help but emphasize a number of their specific features in comparison with right-handers. It is possible to say with a high degree of probability that the formation of many mental functions in the ontogenesis of left-handers does not occur directly, but indirectly, in a multi-channel manner. In the process of development, left-handed children attract a maximum of external, voluntary means to master those operations that right-handers develop naturally, regardless of their voluntary desire, simply according to certain psychological laws.

Studies of adult left-handers confirm the fact that the involvement of voluntary, conscious means in the course of many types of mental activity is a specific property of left-handers as a population and does not depend on their age.

Unlike right-handed people, they do not consistently build that psychological layer of strengthened skills and automatisms that allow them to function in the outside world, largely without thinking: “How to do this?”, without involving additional conscious means. That is why, when raising a left-handed person, one should automate as much as possible from the outside as many operations used by him in everyday life.

A right-handed person performs many actions automatically. In left-handed people, nature does not always stabilize this level of mental life. Of course, relying on a rich arsenal of external, conscious means significantly increases the number of degrees of freedom for left-handers to achieve a particular goal. But the same phenomenon indicates the weakness of their adaptive mechanisms, the wear and tear of the nervous system as a whole: after all, everything is “passed through the head.” The consequences are frequent emotional breakdowns, a tendency to neurosis-like manifestations. Left-handed people are distinguished by their unique emotional status and vulnerability to various internal and external factors.

G.G. Arakelov and E.K. Schott identified the characteristics of stress reactions in right-handers and left-handers. Certain differences between right-handers and left-handers, both at the emotional and behavioral level, and at the level of organization of brain processes, suggest that their stress response will develop differently. Based on data on the great emotional instability of left-handers and their susceptibility to various mental and neurotic diseases, it can be assumed that they are less resistant to stress than right-handers, which is explained by different mechanisms of the stress reaction at the level of the central nervous system.

Lefties have a hard time with everything that involves the need to quickly switch from one process to another (or from one type of manipulation to another within the same process). Outwardly, this manifests itself in characteristic “stuckness” at the beginning of any type of activity, including speech utterance; in a constant search for words in spontaneous speech, a tendency to replace the necessary words with ones close to them in meaning. Left-handed children experience a relatively late debut of independent speech, and later it often bears a distinct accentuation: it is insufficiently developed, slow, sparing, there are moments of incorrect sentence construction, case correspondences, etc.

At the same time, the child almost always retains complete control over his own speech production, understands that he is speaking incorrectly, and strives to correct mistakes. A firm conviction is created that his internal speech is much richer and brighter than his external one.

Left-handers have very weak dynamic components of movements. Especially inaccessible to them are situations in which quick conjugate actions of both hands are necessary (especially if these movements are asynchronous

Left-handers do not have strong ideas about where, for example, the right and left hand are. In their world, a letter or number can be read and written with equal probability in any direction (both horizontal and vertical). Accordingly, this extends to more complex actions: reading, writing, counting, remembering, interpreting a plot picture, it turns out, you can start from any direction. When it is necessary to examine a large field, chaos and fragmentation are superimposed on the spatial insufficiency, i.e. snatching individual elements of a complete image.

Along with lagging behind right-handers in a number of parameters of mental development, left-handers exhibit a larger vocabulary, greater general awareness and erudition, and higher achievements in mathematics. Among them there are many artistically and artistically gifted.

When studying creativity (the ability to make creative decisions) thinking, its indicators turned out to be significantly higher in the population of left-handed people compared to right-handed people.

Finally, one cannot fail to note the main “advantage” of true, natural left-handers - the unusually high degree of compensatory capabilities of their brain. This fact reveals itself most clearly when assessing the course and spontaneous positive dynamics of speech disorders with local brain lesions. It is also obvious when considering the extraordinary qualities of left-handed children (and right-handed children with family left-handedness) in terms of compensation for various kinds of dysontogenetic phenomena.

Left-handers represent a specific group in terms of their ontogenesis, general patterns of the course of mental activity in normal and pathological conditions. Many of the “pathological” traits attributed to them are associated with insufficient attention to the process of their upbringing and training. This circumstance leads to the conclusion about the need to develop special psychological and pedagogical approaches to left-handed children.

Atypia of mental development is one of the basic features of persons with the presence of the left-handedness factor

In recent years, the point of view has been intensively defended that the functions of different hemispheres reflect different ways of cognition. Scientists have discovered that the left hemisphere is involved mainly in analytical processes; it is the basis for logical thinking. The left hemisphere provides speech activity: its understanding and construction, work with verbal symbols. The functions of the left hemisphere are thus identified with analytical thinking.

The right hemisphere provides concrete-figurative thinking, deals with non-verbal material, is responsible for certain skills in handling spatial signals, for structural-spatial transformations, and the ability for visual and active recognition of objects. Musical abilities are associated with the right hemisphere.

In right-handed people, there is a distinctly asymmetrical type of cerebral interhemispheric support of mental functions.

In left-handed people, the cerebral interhemispheric organization of mental activity becomes more symmetrical and less ordered. This part of the human population is amazingly, rarely individualized and diverse.

Thus, atypia of mental development is one of the basic characteristics of people with the presence of the left-handedness factor. Left-handed people have a number of specific traits compared to right-handed people. This part of the human population is amazingly, rarely individualized and diverse.

1. Left-handedness is the preference and active use of the left hand, i.e. an external manifestation of the fact that for some reason the right hemisphere of the brain has taken (temporarily or permanently) the main, leading role in ensuring voluntary movements. Left-handedness is not just a preference for the left hand, but also a completely different distribution of functions between the hemispheres of the brain.

2. The study of the origin of left-handedness proceeds in three main directions, developing within the framework of fundamentally different paradigms: “genetic”, “cultural” and “pathological”.

3. Atypia of mental development is one of the basic characteristics of people with the presence of the left-handed factor. Left-handed people have a number of specific traits compared to right-handed people. This part of the human population is amazingly, rarely individualized and diverse.

Finally, society can also influence the phenomenon of right- or left-handedness. In Soviet times, for example, it was believed that left-handed children needed to be retrained. Therefore, if the parents saw that the child was holding a spoon or pencil with his left hand, they forbade him to do this and insisted that he use his right hand. Kindergarten teachers and school teachers did the same. Therefore, in principle, there may be more congenital left-handers than we think.
What is the difference between left-handers and right-handers?
It is known that many outstanding personalities - politicians, scientists, actors, artists, composers - were left-handed. Among them are Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Andersen, Mozart, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Charlie Chaplin... But does this mean that everyone is left-handed? – potential geniuses?
Psychologists from Ohio Stephen Christman and Ruth Propper conducted an interesting experiment to test memory. They selected 62 people and asked them to remember 55 words that flashed on the screen. Left-handers coped with the task two (!) times better than the rest. According to scientists, this is due to closer interaction between the hemispheres of the brain. However, the memory of left-handers is selective. Thus, it is easier for them to remember where they put something than to reproduce a culinary recipe or historical date by heart.
Over the past three decades, the number of left-handers in the world has increased significantly. According to Swedish researchers, this is because the ultrasound procedure that expectant mothers undergo during pregnancy affects the brain and central nervous system of unborn children. According to some reports, there are now more than 800 million left-handed people in the world, and by 2020 their number will exceed a billion...
Finally, a test for hidden “left-handedness,” recommended by psychologists. Cross the fingers of both hands together. If your left thumb is on top, you are left-handed from birth.

I remember when I was a child at school, a magazine with a photo of “The Beatles” came into my classroom. “Why is he holding the guitar backwards? "- someone asked about Paul McCartney. This is how we first learned that one of the Beatles was left-handed.

And then, years later, I read that the drummer of the famous band, Ringo Starr, is also left-handed. Having become a journalist, I saw with my own eyes how the magnificent singer Mireille Mathieu signed an autograph with her left hand for the readers of my newspaper.

Lefty- a rare and common phenomenon at the same time. Wherever more than thirty people gathered, there was always a left-handed person.

Linguists have found that in different languages, the word "right" is similar to words like "right" and "right", while "left" is similar to words such as "sinister" and "broken". Left-handers have always been looked upon as a kind of deviation from generally accepted norms: the English word left-handed is translated not only as “left-handed”, but also as “clumsy”, “hypocritical”, and as “defective” and “deceitful”. But is this fair?

Video: Features of left-handed people (children) or who are left-handed people

It has not yet been possible to establish absolutely exactly the reason why a person becomes left-handed. Scientists believe that in about half of cases, violations in the genetic code are to blame. In the other half, there is an incorrect course of shifting processes during the period of fetal development (this leads to a number of problems characteristic of left-handers: early puberty, dyslexia, insomnia...), or birth trauma.

In nature there is leftism and rightism is a little-studied phenomenon, although asymmetry is one of the fundamental properties of nature. How does it manifest itself at the level of organic substances and living organisms? It is known, for example, that a living cell is asymmetric in its structure, while a dead cell is symmetrical. Louis Pasteur's observations in the 19th century were that many organic molecules can form two distinct forms that are mirror images, just as the glove of the right hand is a mirror image of the glove of the left. Although chemically identical, such molecules differ morphologically and are called stereoisomers.

Even more strange is that living things are capable of producing either one or the other stereoisomer, while laboratory chemistry always produces a mixture of them in equal proportions. Take for example lemon and orange - two fruits with a characteristic aroma, which, although similar, are somewhat different. So, these two distinct odors are produced by the same chemical substance - limonin. However, the atoms in its two molecules are arranged differently: limonin produced in a lemon is a mirror image of the same chemical produced in an orange.

“From the observations of naturalists it is known that in nature movement goes from right to left. All luminaries and their satellites describe circular paths from east to west. In humans, the right hand is better developed than the left... The curls of the shell, with rare exceptions, are wrapped from right to left. And if you come across a shell - left-handed, experts value it as worth its weight in gold,” wrote Jules Verne.

Most people consider leftism to be anomalous, but life itself is predominantly morphologically leftist.

Is left-handedness a genetic abnormality?

The helix of the DNA molecule is invariably twisted to the left. And although all people outwardly look symmetrical, they all have a hidden one-sidedness that has nothing to do with whether a given person is right-handed or left-handed. So, in almost all of us the heart is located on the left side, and the liver is on the right. Beneath our skin we are quite asymmetrical.

For biological forms, however, there are exceptions. Every ten thousand people there is one whose internal organs are inverted. This phenomenon is called “situs inversus” in Latin. Dr Nigel Brown of St George's Hospital Medical School, who wrote a paper on "situs inversus", is convinced that asymmetry of the body is ultimately determined by the left or right morphology of the chemical "building blocks" of life, although he admits that it is difficult to link the molecule and the mammal directly is not yet possible. But does this mean that if the DNA helix were oriented to the right, then all people's hearts would be on the right? Dr. Brown thinks no, although he is no less sure that there is some kind of chemical trigger that somehow tells a human fetus at the age of fifteen days what is left and what is right.

8% of the world's population use their left hand

So, if the mirror arrangement of internal organs is observed in one person out of ten thousand, then people who write with their left hand and play tennis with it are quite common - 8 percent of the total number of homo sapiens. Dr. Christopher Makienas from University College London suggested that a process occurs in the human body that has two stages. Our body has a gene that allows us to distinguish left from right - a kind of mark. This tag is then read by another gene, not yet discovered by scientists. It is he who determines whether a person will be left-handed or right-handed.

If we are born with one variant of the latter gene, we become right-handed. But a significant part of people have another version of it, it reads the mark so that they become left-handed.

The division into right-handers and left-handers is a unique feature of humans. It is curious that only half of left-handers are genetic left-handers, and 50 percent are compensatory, that is They became left-handed as a result of damage to the left lobe of the brain.

Many little things irritate a left-handed person in a right-wing world. He enters the subway - the coin slot is located on the right. All manual training manuals are designed for right-handed people. And so it is in everything. Therefore, the slogan “Saving drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves” was adopted by left-handers in the Western world. They created all kinds of unions, associations and societies designed to protect their rights. In a widely known case, in 1980, the International Left-Handed Association secured the reinstatement of American left-hander Franklin Winboard, who had been fired from the police force for refusing to wear a right-hand holster.

And that’s right. In some cases, left-handed people require no less help than disabled people. The most striking example: all doors are hung so that they can be opened by right-handed people. If a young weak girl - left-handed, and the door has a strong spring, then it is simply not possible for her to open the door.

The problems of left-handers begin in childhood. In Russia, for example, there are practically no copybooks for left-handed children. By the way, until the mid-80s in Soviet schools they were forcibly retrained to be right-handed. The production of scissors for left-handed people has long ceased (in Soviet times they were made in Gorky). At all Lefties need a lot of left-handed items- from small things to serious things: hockey sticks, wristwatches, cameras (all models have shutter buttons on the right), phone books, and so on and so forth.

If you want to imagine how a left-handed person lives in our “right-handed” society, tie your right hand to your body for at least an hour or two. Or re-read "Alice Through the Looking Glass", where genius lefty Lewis Carroll brilliantly described the feelings of a left-handed person from living in a right-handed world. By the way, Nikolai Leskov, who wrote “Lefty”, was left-handed.

Famous left-handed people

There are not as many famous left-handers as there are right-handers, and yet there are a lot of fighters in their regiment. The word “fighters” is quite appropriate, since many outstanding commanders were left-handed. And among them are such geniuses as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon... Joan of Arc, who became famous in the military field, was also left-handed. But her left-handedness became one of the arguments for the prosecution that brought the Maid of Orleans to the stake.

Fidel Castro is left-handed

Left-handedness is not an obstacle for those who make a political career, nor does it determine the moral character of a politician. Queen Victoria and Adolf Hitler were left-handed. All US presidents of the last two decades of the 20th century - George Bush Sr., Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton - are left-handed, a tradition that could have continued if Al Gore (also a left-hander) had won the last presidential election. By the way, their common worst and closest opponent in a geographical sense is Fidel Castro, also left-handed.

The position of left-handers in art is traditionally strong. This is probably due to the fact that they have better developed imaginative (intuitive) thinking, for which the right hemisphere, which controls the left hand, is responsible, than logical thinking. Left-handers were Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Raphael and Rubens, Pablo Picasso and Pizarro, Franz Kafka and Paul Verlaine, Mozart and Beethoven, Paul Simon and Jimi Hendrix...

Lefties just took over Hollywood. Among them are such stars as Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Deanna Durbin, Jean Harlow, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts, Charlie Chaplin, Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone...

Left-handed athletes effectively use their anatomical feature in those types of competitions where there is tactical combat - tennis, boxing, fencing. Left-handed tennis players include ten-time Wimbledon winner Martina Navratilova with her signature backhand, Monica Seles, Rod Laver, named the best tennis player of all time; Jimmy Conors and John McEnroe. In boxing, left-handers win up to 40 percent of gold medals, although there are three times fewer of them in this sport than right-handers.

Albert Einstein is left-handed

There are not so many left-handed scientists, but a few are quite significant: physicists Albert Einstein and James Maxwell, physiologist Ivan Pavlov, theologian and physician Albert Schweitzer.

Among famous entrepreneurs, there are also very few left-handers. Exceptions: John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Bill Gates. If among ordinary people 8 percent are left-handed, then among geniuses it is 20 percent. That is, left-handers in general are more than twice as gifted as right-handers. So if your child is left-handed, dont be upset. Just try to see the genius in him. By the way, left-handedness is often inherited. It is possible that you yourself are a genius. Only yet undisclosed and unrecognized. Do not miss your chance.

It's no secret that a left-handed person differs from a right-handed person not only in that he writes while holding a pen in the other hand. Let's try to find out about the features, characteristics and qualities of a left-handed person.

Today in the world, about 8-15% of people use their left hand as their dominant hand; they are called left-handed.

It is interesting that children choose their leading hand at the age of three, this manifests itself in games and creative activities - for example, when drawing, painting, sculpting. It is believed that in children who are left-handed, the right hemisphere of the brain is predominant (dominant). His work is responsible for the perception of location and orientation in space, artistic perception, creative, including musical, abilities, intuition, imagination, emotions.

Psychologists often note that left-handers are artistically gifted people and have an excellent ear for music. In addition, left-handers tend to have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds and sometimes have delayed speech development. Speaking about other qualities of left-handers, psychologists note stubbornness, the ability to draw, sculpt, sing, and difficulties with reading and writing.

Left-handed children are often trusting, spontaneous, subject to other people's influence and mood. They are also characterized by capriciousness, tearfulness, persistence and tenacity in achieving what they want. The reasons for the difference between right-handers and left-handers is that the right and left hemispheres of the brain are responsible for different areas of mental activity.

Experts also note the connection between temperament and left-handedness. Left-handed people are more emotional than right-handed people and have problems with self-control. Left-handers can instantly become angry and lose their temper, but they have logical thinking, the ability to consistently process information, generalize it and analyze it. Left-handers are distinguished by excellent physical mobility, a desire for sports, impressionability and vulnerability, they also have a tendency to fantasize and have excellent memory.

In the past, most children who involuntarily preferred using their left hand were deliberately retrained. Many parents perceive the news that their child is left-handed negatively, but there is no need to be so categorical in your judgments. Today, all experts agree that in no case should a left-handed person be retrained. The process of retraining a left-handed person is a difficult test for his psyche, which will only cause stress and neuroticism in the child.

After retraining, children often suffer from neurotic disorders, including sleep disturbances, appetite problems, headaches, enuresis, and stuttering.

As recommendations for the behavior of adults with a left-handed child, advice is given not to focus on the fact that the child is different from other children because he is left-handed. In a situation where the baby feels that his peculiarity is causing increased interest from others, his self-esteem may decrease and shyness and self-doubt may develop.

Interestingly, when choosing a profession, it is worth considering a person’s left-handedness. Left-handed people have proven themselves excellent in areas such as design, photography, painting, architecture, music, and sports. It has been noted that among left-handed people there are a lot of creative personalities who have achieved success; examples include: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Vladimir Mayakovsky, composers Bach, Beethoven, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe. If a left-handed child appears in the family, you should not retrain him; rather, you should give him a chance to express himself creatively and develop the characteristics and skills that he is good at. Children need and need the support of their parents. Be healthy!