The Hemispheres
The mammalian brain consists of many parts, which may be summarized into
two main hemispheres, the left and the right. Each half of the brain controls
the opposite side of the body. Each is also tasked with the control,
interpretation, and command of various types of comprehension, knowledge, perception and movement.
The Left-Side Brain
The left side controls the right side of the body, is the home of
language comprehension, math, science, logical and analytical thought,
reasoning and writing, and memory retrieval. The left side also makes the
ability possible for thoughts to become words, and the manipulation and
understanding of language. It makes more precise math calculations and mathematical
functions possible.
The Right-Side Brain
The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and is the home of creativity, spatial sense and
manipulation, and facial recognition. It grants music and art awareness (and
the ability to create each), with holistic thought and insight, and the ability
to perceive 3D forms. This hemisphere can make general estimations and ‘rough
guesses’ numerically speaking, but leaves accurate forms of calculation to the
more capable left-side brain. It also reads those types of human communications
and interactions (like tone and context) that are nonverbal. This side of the
brain is the seat of daydreams and other flights of fantasy and imagination.
For more details on brain anatomy,
click here.
The Facts & Theories
Currently, left-handed people make up about ten
percent of the world’s population.
Of that population of 7 billion, at least 700 million of them are
hard-wired by Nature to do things with the ‘wrong’ hand. Left-handed individuals
are relatively rare, and usually ‘hidden’ until they began writing. (Even among
their own kind, lefties know how rare it is to meet other left-handed people,
and usually comment on and acknowledge that fact immediately.)
Lefties are rare, to be sure, and a silent minority, vocal more among
themselves, but not to the world-at-large.
Left-handedness is almost certainly a mutation, which would make lefties
real-life mutants
after a fashion. (More on this later.)
Left-handedness, when it occurs, is more a male trait than female, percentage
wise. Left-handed females are
the rarest of the rare. They (male and female) also have a greater tendency to
suffer from being ‘high strung’, alcoholic, have anger management problems,
migraines, schizophrenia, and other mental health concerns.
Surprisingly, among animals, left-handedness is also a rare phenomenon,
for animals that actually ‘use’ any appendage remotely resembling hands in form
and function, or as a leading, or ‘step off’ limb. Kangaroos are
lefties, as well as many (male)
dogs, cats (50-50), and most horses
(left ‘hoofed’), depending on which ‘expert’ site is checked. Handedness in
other animals tends to be about 50-50,
depending on the complexity of the task, and with individual preferences within
groups.
Back to People
Left-handedness may be a mutation,
and lefthanders may represent either a leap forward, (or a leap backward) on the evolutionary scale of
human development. (This theory could explain why only 10% of
the population is left-handed; evolution takes a long time to do its work,
which may be an eventual 50/50 split between preferences for handedness. It
also indicates that, as the brains of higher animals grow more complex, a
division of complex functions may be a more efficient use of the
disproportionately large amount of resources demanded by that organ of the body.)
Handedness in general is also an indicator of bodily symmetry and
preference, AND an indicator of future ailments
and health problems, which, by the way, lefties can suffer from in
abundance.
Besides evolution
and mutation,
left-handedness can be caused by trauma at
childbirth or during gestation.
***
Cultural Responses to Left-Handedness
In former times (and also today), lefties also required protection
from teachers, (sometimes) their own parents,
zealots and religion groups, governments and cultures, and even (and still)
from inanimate objects made especially for right-handed use.
In some
countries, left-handers are still scorned, shunned, and discouraged, mostly
for religious or sanitary reasons (in countries where the left hand is still
used predominantly for ‘personal cleansing’.) Those countries are also more
likely to associate left-handedness with ‘the devil’ or evil intent. Surprisingly,
bias based on handedness is still quite common in the US as well.
Many cultures (including ours) still associate anything ‘left-handed’
with nearly every negative trait human beings can label each other with, such
as: clumsiness (for obvious reasons), bad luck, sinister intent, (sinister means ‘left-handed’, in Latin),
and poor performance; the list
is long. Suffice it to say that a ‘left-handed
compliment’ is no compliment at all.
Ambidextrous means ‘right-handed’
or skillful with both hands, while ‘ambisinistrous’ means
the opposite, ‘left-handed’ or clumsy with both hands.
***
The Good
·
Lefties who are artists can be excellent
artists. Lefties who are not artists may have not yet discovered that latent
talent.
·
Eight American presidents have been left-handed,
including Barack Obama, James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald
Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.
·
Famous left-handers also include Albert
Einstein, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin & Benjamin Franklin, and of course
Leonardo da Vinci.
·
Left-handed athletes are typically very
difficult for their right-handed brethren to beat.
·
Lefties have a greater chance of having an
extremely high IQ (and CQ). Paradoxically, it is also true for the opposite; they
have an almost equal chance of lower than average IQs.
·
Lefties are generally better at multitasking.
·
Some lefties have better memories.
·
They also tend to have
quicker stroke recovery times.
·
The list of ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ items are
very probably the direct result of the right-side brain’s variation in
structure and wiring, as compared to its left-side counterpart.
***
The Not-So-Good
·
Lefties can suffer from an inordinate amount of
physical health concerns.
· They are prone to many mental health problems, such as various forms of psychoses. (The tendency per percentage of the population
is slightly higher than for righties.)
·
Lefties can tend towards a higher percentile of
anger management lapses for their group, as opposed to non-lefties.
·
Lefties are prone to drinking problems.
·
Alternative studies show lefties at a distinct
disadvantage in learning
& IQ level, income, test scores, and general comprehension.
·
The Boston Strangler, Jack the Ripper, and Osama
Bin Laden, John Dillinger, were all left-handed.
·
Lefties have a greater chance of being autistic
than righties, and tend more toward dyslexia and stuttering.
·
Left-handers are more easily
and deeply frightened and embarrassed.
***
No piece of this type would be complete without some mention of Dr.
Oliver Sacks.(I had the pleasure of meeting him at an author event at the
University of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op
Bookstore, where I was employed at the time, back in the early 90s.) His
pioneering medical and literary work in abnormalities caused by various types
of brain damage and cerebral malfunction (brought on by catastrophic illnesses
or near fatal accidents) has been seen as a breakthrough by some, including patients
and fellow doctors. However
not all his peers approved of his non-medical, colloquial and philosophical
writing style.
His books include ‘Awakenings’, ‘A Leg to Stand On’, ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat’, and ‘Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of
the Deaf’, among a host of others. Several of his books (except ‘A Leg to Stand On’) describe the first
inexplicable and bizarre reactions and symptoms his patients experienced after
severe brain trauma. (‘A Leg to Stand On’ is about his personal journey as a
patient after severely damaging his leg during an encounter with a bull.) His
patients (and their conditions) lent him considerable insight into the
mysterious, often baffling functions of the brain, which, when actually not functioning, shed more light and
detail on the mysteries buried deep within the endless wrinkles and folds gray
matter.
Chapter Eight of one of his most popular books, ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat’, entitled ‘Eyes Right’, is about a patient, ‘Mrs.
S’, who survived a massive stroke that severely damaged portions of her right
cerebral cortex, which controls various aspects of the left side of the body. Because
of the damage to the rear portions of her right cerebral hemisphere, she had
great difficulty perceiving anything to the left
of her field a vision.
This condition could only be temporarily remedied by her caregivers
constantly and gently turning her head as far as possible in that direction to
even see the left side of her dinner
plate and that portion of her meal. On her own, she has no concept of ‘left’,
could not turn in that direction, and could no longer understand what ‘left’
meant. It was as if the entire idea of left had been eradicated from her awareness,
as, indeed, it had. (To turn left, she had to revolve all the way around from
the right, something she eventually
learned how to do without the aid of caregivers.)
Because of the stroke, she has no conception of the left side of her body
(including that side of her face), no feedback from it, and no positional
awareness of it. Therefore, she often misses the portion of her meals on the left
side of her plate (as previously mentioned), and, would only put makeup on the right side of her face if she did it
unassisted, because the left no longer registered in her brain, so it did not
exist for her.
This condition is called ‘unilateral’ or ‘hemispatial’
neglect, and can be so severe
it renders that part of the patient’s surroundings (and therefore, their world) completely inaccessible,
unknowable, and invisible to them, effectively cutting it by half.
***
Personal Observations
·
Being left-handed tends to single a person out
and isolates them in a gathering of righties (every gathering is a gathering of righties), which makes being a
lefty a great conversation starter.
·
As personalities go, lefties can among the worst
people to know, or among the best, but not often quite in the middle (as in
‘uninteresting’ or boring.)
·
Even now, being left-handed still seems amazing
to non-lefties, especially if the left-handed person is also an artist or
guitarist. (This ‘amazement’, though
witnessed daily by lefties, is still baffling to them.)
·
Left-handed people can spot each other
immediately, and it’s usually enough for an instant friendship, or at least a
friendly conversation. (By comparison, righties are never heard to say, “Oh, you’re right handed! I am too!”)
·
Scissors are still a problem for most (if not
all) lefties, as well as remembering whether something was (or is?) on the left
or right side of the street. We also tend to say ‘turn left’, when we mean
‘turn right’.
·
Sometimes people (especially friends) will rush to
help a lefty with a task, or won’t let them do it at all, simply because they
know that person is left-handed. Jokes about being clumsy, if there are any,
are usually good-natured.
·
Remembering where a thing (or a place) is
located can be tricky for some lefties, as our brains want to put everything on the left, even to the
point of ‘rearranging’ our memories, so buildings we thought were on the LEFT
side of the street yesterday are on the RIGHT side when seen again the
following day.
·
Most lefties, (whether they have tried it) can
write backward with their left or right hands. Some (like me) can do both. Writing
backward is so natural for some lefties, that not only is it extremely easy, it
lulls the right-side brain into what must be an endorphin-fueled comfort zone
impossible to describe to non-left-handed people. So, yes, writing forward
(like a right-handed person) not only takes extra effort, it can also be
downright uncomfortable.
·
Many left-handed folk are extremely creative
whether they want to be or not. Some few actually find it irritating to have
creative urges which cannot be ignored for long.
·
For obvious reasons, lefties can make good
violinists, because playing the instrument combines left hand preference with
the lefties’ innate creativity. (This is
not to say that all lefties who take up the instrument become great at it, or
that all great violinists are lefties.)
·
Lefties secretly get a kick out of sitting next
to righties at the dinner table, and causing them grief, especially when they are children.
·
Depending on age, many of us recall a time when
it was a big NO-NO to be left-handed at school. (The only thing that saved me from some of my teachers’ ire was the
fact that I (by some mysterious and inexplicable process unknown to them!)
became a good artist. Add to that the fact that, of my six other brothers and
sisters, almost half of were lefties, including me, and the work of
‘converting’ us all to righties would have been too much, and our parents
wouldn’t have it, in any case.)
·
·
Ambidexterity is generally a ‘left-handed’
thing, because lefties are often forced to learn to use and manipulate devices
designed for the right hand, like scissors, knives, can openers, computer mice,
and so forth. Righties, however, do not feel the pressure to learn left-hand
designed devices, simply because they do not exist outside of special-order
catalogs and websites.
·
Left-handers (at least those who do not shake
hands often) never quite know which hand to shake with, our natural predilection
being to shake with the left always.
·
(Of my
brothers and sisters, the half that are lefties have light-colored skin, and light-colored eyes, while our darker brothers and sisters are righties with dark colored
eyes. Both of our parents were righties, and both African American.)
·
Another statistic: Although being a leftie is
rare, in the same family they often come in groups of at least two or more,
depending on family size.
***
One Last Link
This website speaks for itself, but what it has to say will not make many lefties
happy, because it attempts to debunk what it calls the ‘myth’ of left-handed
prevalence among history’s greatest artists.
I present it here out of fairness
and completion, although I don’t agree with its conclusions, or its interpretation
of historical data. (I’m also including it because I did link to the home page previously
when speaking of evolution and mutations.) I will let the reader draw his or
her own conclusions as to the veracity of the findings.
