Available for left-handed and right-handed people. Lefty Day

Anna basis

The leading hemisphere of the brain is responsible for human development and thinking: the right hemisphere for left-handed people, and the left for right-handed people. However, the working hand does not yet determine the main hemisphere. There are absolute and partial left-handers and right-handers. In the former, one of the hemispheres is strongly dominant over the other, in the latter there is no such obvious difference. If a person has developed both hemispheres, then he is ambidextrous.

The left hemisphere is responsible for speech, as well as rational and constructive thinking, and the perception of verbal signals. It strives for consistency and specificity. Right-handers find it easier to concentrate, unlike absent-minded left-handers.

The right hemisphere is “associative”. Left-handers have developed intuition. They are constantly in close contact with their subconscious, so they have developed creative abilities, because it is the unconscious that processes all the information perceived by a person. If you know how to listen to it, it will definitely give you the most unimaginable and brilliant idea. This is the answer to the question why there were so many left-handers.

Some statistics

Lefties in a right-handed world

Scientists put forward several hypotheses about why there are more right-handers than left-handers: this is both natural selection and initial predisposition. Here is the most convincing of them: the left half of the brain began to sharply predominate over the right at the moment when a person mastered speech and thinking. This happened in ancient times, when primitive people lived in caves, hunted wild animals and survived by any means. In ancient drawings from the late Paleolithic, a person is already depicted with a metal spear or club in his right hand.

Naturally, the tools were made to suit the needs of the majority. The economy and everyday life were formed in such a way that it was carried out by the main part of humanity - right-handed people. This is how the cruel world of right-handers was built. For left-handed children, he was harsh and merciless. In the Middle Ages, out of fear, mothers swaddled and immobilized the baby's left arm while breastfeeding. A left-handed child became not only useless to society, but also dangerous. While mowing wheat, a left-handed peasant could injure another worker with a sickle or break a saw while working in pairs. Girls needlewomen also had a hard time; many skills required active use of the right hand.

The word “left” was associated with something bad and negative. In Spain, the Devil was considered left-handed. On icons depicting the Last Judgment, sinners were always depicted on the left side of Christ. Under Peter the Great, crooked people, red-haired people and left-handed people were not allowed to be witnesses in court.

In the 21st century, civilized countries are creating comfortable living conditions for left-handed people. Household items for left-handers are produced, and even work machines, cars and other serious equipment are manufactured.

Historical exceptions

On Greek vases there are images of left-handed warriors: they hold a shield with their right hand and a sword with their left.
In the army of Alexander the Great there was a detachment of brilliant warriors of 700 people. They were all left-handed and were called the "Left Division".
For the Egyptians, entering a house with the left foot was a good omen.
Left-handedness was considered great luck among the Incas.
It is customary among the Eskimos to treat every left-handed person with respect, because he is the bearer of witchcraft power.

How to determine the main hemisphere

It is possible to determine whether a child is left-handed or right-handed only from the age of 1.5-2 years. Before this age, children are characterized by “obeseness.” They use one or the other hand at different periods of development, their duration is from 1 to 3 months. From the age of two, it is no longer difficult to understand which hand will be the dominant one. Observe the child with which hand he draws, plays, combs his hair, dresses, eats.

For older children and adults, the following tests are suitable to help determine the main hemisphere:

Place your arms across your chest in Napoleon pose. Which one is on top? Left hand - the right hemisphere predominates, and if the right hand - the left hemisphere predominates.
Interlace your fingers. The thumb on top will show which hemisphere is dominant. The pattern is the same as in the previous test.
When jumping, a person pushes off the ground with his leading leg. Jump.
To identify your dominant eye, select an object and point at it with a pencil or pen. Focus on the target with both eyes. Close the left one, then the right one. The dominant eye is the one that, when closed, causes the target to shift more.

Left-handed and right-handed differences

Left-handed people are impressionable and emotionally excitable, they experience negative events in their lives strongly and deeply, and are easily offended. Left-handers are characterized by increased moodiness.
Left-handers are more susceptible to the influence and mood of others than right-handers.
Left-handers tend to have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds and difficulty speaking. They often have problems writing letters, sometimes whole words and even phrases: they write in a mirror manner (da Vinci phenomenon). Right-handed people don't encounter this.
Right-handers are more practical and stable, in contrast to fickle, sensitive and changeable left-handers.
Right-handed children find it easier to concentrate on their studies than their left-handed classmates with scattered attention.

Outstanding left-handers

Many famous artists, writers, musicians and scientists had right-brain thinking: Leonardo da Vinci, V.I. Dahl, N.L. Pavlov, Napoleon Bonaparte, L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkin, Albert Einstein, M.V. Lomonosov, Julius Caesar, Mozart, Bill Gates, Lewis Carroll...And this is not a complete list.

15 February 2014, 09:53

Our internal organs are not a reflection of the bilateral symmetry of the external body - the pairing of arms, legs, nipples, eyes, ears, and so on. For example, usually, the heart and spleen are located on the left side of the body, and the liver on the right side.

The brain also follows the bilateral symmetry of the body. It is divided in half into two hemispheres and each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body, that is, the left hemisphere of the brain controls our right side and vice versa. The same process occurs with vision - what our left eye sees is processed by the right hemisphere.

Although both halves of our brain have generally the same anatomy, certain tasks are generally more inherent to “one” hemisphere than to the other.

From hand to mouth

This phenomenon of brain lateralization and division of labor may help explain hand dominance. Interestingly, in 90-95 percent of right-handed people, the left hemisphere is dominant for language and speech functions, suggesting that evolution has honed one side of the brain for skilled manual work.

"If one part of my brain controls my fine motor skills, then it would be logical to assume that this part would also be responsible for language," says British neuroscientist David Carey.

Although the relationship is not so simple. He says that about two-thirds of left-handed people are also left-brain dominant in speech and language functions, and about 5 percent of right-handed people have an active right hemisphere of the brain.

Digging into genetics cannot yet explain the extreme tendency of people to be right-handed, although there are some hints in heredity. For example, a left-handed couple has a 25 percent chance of producing offspring that will also be left-handed, when the chance is usually only 10 percent. Discovered in 2007, the gene, called LRRTM1, is also found more often in left-handed people.

Left- and right-footed

Scientists also observe animals to help them solve the riddle of human left-right-handedness. Many mammals, including our closest animal relatives, the primates, prefer one hand to the other. The same is true for dogs.

Carey says, “If you force a dog to paw a toy through a hole, he will tend to use his preferred paw many times.

But in monkeys and dogs, the paw split is about 50/50, which is in no way similar to the right-handedness usually preferred by humans. This equal-handedness among animals extends not only to mammals. For example, crabs are equally likely to develop a larger claw on the right or left side of the body.

"Ill-fated" left-handers?

Wherever human hand dominance originated, it is clear that it has been going on for a very long time. For example, in many cave paintings, our ancestors painted little men holding a spear in their left hand.

The relative scarcity of left-handed people, like many “non-left-handers” in human history, has given rise to prejudice and discrimination. In some languages, “left” means “poor quality”, “sloppy” (in the original, the author analyzes the roots in English; approx. mixednews)

Although the biological reasons remain unknown, left-handed people may indeed be cursed in some ways. The left-handedness gene LRRTM1 is also often associated with schizophrenia. A link has been found between left-handedness and diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and alcoholism.

On the other hand, some evidence suggests that left-handers, on average, show greater mental and artistic talent than right-handers, which may be due to their “alternate” brains.

Living like a lefty

Overall, "there's no 100 percent correlation... If you're left-handed, it doesn't mean you're going to be gifted or have a disease," says geneticist Amar Klar.

Although the stigma against left-handedness has largely disappeared around the world, Carey notes that it is easier to be right-handed.

"Poor left-handers live in a right-handed world," Carey says. “The fly of the pants and the can opener are usually also adapted specifically for the right hand.”

Reference:

The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for: - concrete thinking - mathematical calculations - right arm and right leg - speech - right eye and right ear - reading and writing - motor sphere The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for: - abstract thinking - figurative memory - left arm and left leg - rhythm and perception of music - intonation - left eye and left ear - orientation in space - sensory sphere

A left-handed person uses his left hand much more often than his right hand, that is, he uses it when eating and preparing food, writing and doing other daily activities. Contrary to popular belief, the differences between right-handers and left-handers are not limited to just which hand a person writes with.

Left-handers' brains work differently because the right hemisphere, which is responsible for creativity, is more developed. That is, in a right-handed person, the left hemisphere dominates, which is responsible for the right side of the body, and if the right part of the brain, responsible for the left side of the body, dominates, the person becomes left-handed.

The degree of dominance of one of the hemispheres can be strongly expressed, that is, a person can be “one hundred percent” right-handed or left-handed, and weakly expressed, that is, there may be 1-2 signs of “left-handedness”: the dominant left eye and left ear, for example, but the dominant hand - right.

Causes of left-handedness

Science identifies four main causes of left-handedness:

Genetic feature. Right hemisphere dominance is inherited. And not only from parents to children, but also through a generation, that is, from grandparents to grandchildren, and sometimes to great-grandchildren. The probability of having a left-handed child if both parents use their left hand reaches 46%. It has been established that older mothers are much more likely to be left-handed. There is also a theory that exposing a fetus to high doses of testosterone before birth can result in a left-handed baby.

Birth injuries or pathologies of pregnancy in the last stages may affect a child's brain development, causing him or her to become left-handed. Sometimes it is very difficult for such children to use both their right and left hands. Speech delays, mental and physical development, and motor impairment may also occur.

"Forced left-handedness." Occurs most often due to injury to the right hand at an early age.

Imitation. It happens that a child simply imitates one of his left-handed parents, and as a result, left-handedness becomes a habit.

Left-handedness test

Typically, the test for left-handedness is carried out at the age of five, since until this time children can use both their right and left hands equally often.

Just because a child writes, draws and eats predominantly with his left hand, it is not entirely correct to consider him left-handed, since a true left-hander is one who has not only his left hand, but also his left eye and left ear - “leading”.

To understand which ear is the “dominant” one, the child is usually asked to hold the alarm clock with both hands and listen to the clock ticking. The ear to which the child puts the alarm will be the “main” ear.

To determine the “leading” eye, you need to roll a piece of paper into a tube, give it to the child in both hands and ask him to look at various objects through this “spyglass”. The sheet will be brought exactly to the “leading” eye.

Don't retrain!

Psychologists identify certain qualities of left-handed children, which in most cases distinguish them from right-handers. In particular, left-handed children are usually much more stubborn than their right-handed peers, and their period of stubbornness is protracted. At the same time, left-handers are more spontaneous, trusting, and easily fall under the influence of momentary feelings and moods. This is where the tendency to tearfulness, whims, and outbursts of rage and anger arise.

Such children are artistically gifted, they draw well and with pleasure, sculpt from plasticine and clay, many of them have good musical abilities and perfect pitch.

As for the disadvantages and difficulties, many left-handers begin to speak later than their peers, have difficulties with the pronunciation of certain sounds, with writing, reading and mathematics.

In any case, psychologists emphasize that left-handedness is not a pathology, but an individual version of the norm.

In the USSR, it was believed that left-handed children must be retrained to use only their right hand when writing. Only years later did the negative consequences of forced transformation become noticeable and recognized, as a result of which in 1986 the need to retrain left-handers was abolished at the legislative level.

Retraining left-handedness is an unsuccessful attempt to remake the biological nature of the child. He can be forced to write and eat with his right hand, but it is impossible to change the dominant hemisphere of the brain.

Retraining leads to a variety of neuroses, blurred vision, abdominal pain, enuresis, various sleep disorders, changes in appetite, headaches, and stuttering may occur.

Violations can manifest themselves either individually or in combination. In addition, retraining risks the child doing poorly at school and later at college.

How to help a left-handed child?

The leading hand of a left-handed child must be developed from childhood. When learning the alphabet, it is recommended to rely on imaginative thinking. For example, the letter “F” looks like a pretzel or glasses, and “X” is a walking man, “H” is an upside down chair, and so on.

It happens that left-handed children write letters in the wrong direction when writing, that is, they “mirror” them. At the same time, the handwriting of left-handed children has a slant to the left, or may not have it at all.

A left-handed person's workplace should be organized in a special way. At school, such a child should sit to the left of his neighbor, so as not to collide with elbows when writing, and as far as possible from the board, so that the leading eye and ear are directed to the source of information. , the light should come from the right. The notebook should lie tilted to the right, and the lower right corner of the page should be directed towards the middle of the chest.

"Left" rulers, pens and sharpeners

For left-handers, they sell special writing instruments: sharpeners with counterclockwise threads, scissors with the blade on the other side, pens with indentations for the fingers of the left hand, allowing you to properly grip the instrument, and even rulers with numbers printed in reverse order.

Manufacturers of many products are trying to target not only right-handed people, but also left-handed people, making their lives much easier.

In particular, European-style kitchen knives are symmetrical. For left-handed people there are also special corkscrews, computer mice and keyboards, surgical supplies, sporting goods and even musical instruments.

Which famous people were left-handed?

Some studies show that left-handed people have a different mental structure, they have an expanded range of abilities, and they are more likely to be creative.

Among left-handers there are many outstanding scientists, poets and composers, political figures: Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Benjamin Franklin, Prince Charles and Prince William, Henry Ford, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Lewis Carroll, Julius Caesar, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sergei Prokofiev, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Kafka, Mireille Mathieu, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Nicolo Paganini, Diego Maradona, Pele, Rafael Nadal and .

Alexander Pushkin and Mark Twain wrote with their left hand. The writer Nikolai Leskov, who glorified the craftsman Lefty, who shoed the legs of a flea, was himself also left-handed.

There are many left-handers among politicians: Alexander the Great, Mahatma Gandhi, Bonaparte Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Fidel Castro, Queen Victoria of the British Empire.

Many US legislative acts were signed by the left hand of presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.

Actors such as Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Julia Roberts, Keanu Reeves, Whoopi Goldberg, Nicole Kidman, Bill Murray and Tom Cruise are also left-handed.

All of humanity can be divided into many groups using different criteria: nation, religion, skin color, gender characteristics, tea or coffee lovers, and so on. Another significant difference that has divided the entire human race into two camps is the dominant activity of the right or left hand. How is left-handed different from right-handed? Let's try to figure it out.

Famous lefties

Such outstanding personalities as Julius Caesar, A. Macedonsky, W. Churchill, both Bushes, B. Obama, L. da Vinci, A. Einstein, N. Tesla, I. Newton, P. Picasso, and many film actors were left-handed.

A few facts about left-handed people from history

Simply put, some people are left-handed, others are right-handed. How a left-handed person differs from a right-handed person is obvious from the terms themselves. However, in addition to visual differences, there are also those that are not visible to the naked eye. For example, left-handers have a more developed brain, which is responsible for memory.

Indeed, many creative people are left-handed. In ancient times, much attention was paid to how a left-hander differs from a right-hander.

By the way, over the centuries, some peoples respected such people, while others, on the contrary, discredited them in every possible way. So, in Ancient Greece they were held in high esteem, since they were credited with nothing more or less - kinship with the gods, and it was believed that such people bring good luck. Similar beliefs prevailed in India and China.

Medieval Europe was not particularly tolerant, so here left-handers were suspected of conspiring with the devil, accused of all mortal sins and subjected to terrible torture. Those who survived developed amazing agility and adaptability, qualities that began to be inherited and made left-handers only stronger.

The fate of left-handers in the 20th century

At the beginning and middle of the 20th century, they abandoned such radical methods and from an early age the child was simply retrained, that is, they developed the habit of using the right hand more. A similar example is well described in the novel The Thorn Birds, where the main character, little Maggie, was subjected to similar practices.

There was a completely reasonable explanation for this. Almost all agricultural and military equipment was assembled under right-handers. Lefties would simply have a hard time adjusting later in life.

Later, psychologists proved that imposing skills contrary to their nature on left-handers has a negative impact on psychological and physical well-being. According to other authoritative researchers, in the process of suppressing their natural nature, they also lose their unique abilities.

Differences between left-handers and right-handers

The difference between left-handers and right-handers becomes clear from an early age. More than half of left-handers have a faster rate of development compared to their right-handed peers. The percentage of people with the makings of genius among left-handers is much higher.

It has long been proven that this quality is inherited, starting from the second generation and beyond. The same parents may have different children.

Left-handed and right-handed: differences

An interesting fact based on research: for every thousand right-handers, one left-hander is born. There are other interesting observations:

• Not everyone will openly admit it, but an anonymous survey found that nearly 68 percent of right-handed people among 1,000 people surveyed did not trust left-handers and had no desire to develop closer relationships with them.
• In former times, in some countries, left-handers preferred to enter into marriages with their own kind, so that their descendants would also have this feature. This was due to a fairytale theory that said that being left-handed meant that a person had divine genes.
• Left-handers quickly master and adapt to themselves all the technical devices they need.

A few facts about lefties

There are several points about how a left-handed person differs from a right-handed person, what is the difference between them:

1. In left-handed people, the right is more developed. In right-handed people, the opposite is true. In the first case, it is creativity, emotionality, impressionability, sudden changes in mood, developed intuition; in the second - logical thinking, abilities in mathematics and other exact sciences. Both hemispheres control body movements, but do so crosswise.
2. Many athletes are left-handed. This applies to various martial arts, boxing, fencing, where they practice tactics that are convenient for them and problematic for their opponents.
3. Every fifth outstanding person is left-handed. A study was conducted: the “left” and “right” were asked to solve the same problem. Left-handers coped faster and almost always found more solutions.
4. In difficult circumstances, right-handed people act more quickly, but left-handed people find original ways out of the situation.
5. Retrained left-handed people, when returning to their natural abilities, can also return their “divine gift”.
6. There is also a downside. Many mentally ill people, famous serial killers, maniacs and rapists were left-handed or showed hidden “left-handedness”.

Tests: how to identify left-handedness in a child

There are several ways to determine whether a newborn belongs to a particular group. If during the first weeks of life a baby, lying on his back, raises his left hand up, holding his right hand tightly to himself, he is left-handed. In the first three days after birth, the child predominantly tilts his head to the right - he is right-handed, to the left - he is left-handed.

For older children, it is enough to observe their daily actions: which hand holds a comb, cutlery, which hand reaches out to take something. The conclusion is very easy to draw.

Left-handed children

It is worth mentioning that there is a third type of people called ambidextrous. These are people who can use both their right and left hands equally. It is a very rare phenomenon, possessed by less than 1 percent of humanity.

What distinguishes a left-handed person from a right-handed person at a young age is stubbornness and well-developed fine motor skills. Don't be surprised if a left-handed child at the age of three draws better than you did in high school, sings more melodiously than a nightingale, and shows interest in playing musical instruments.

Gullibility, one might even say naivety, is how left-handed people differ from right-handed people. It happens that such children begin to talk later and have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds.

Psychologists say that in order to form a full and healthy development in left-handed children, it is necessary to create for them an environment of love and understanding. Do not point out the sloppiness that appears in them at first, and do not compare them with other children. A child should not feel like an outcast because of his innate characteristics. The task of parents is to instill self-esteem in such children and help them master the things around them at their own rhythm.

The ability to persevere through difficulties is what distinguishes a left-hander from a right-hander. Perhaps this character trait was inherited from their ancestors, who were subjected to various kinds of discrimination.

Consequences of improper training for left-handed people

Of course, not everything is so simple and obvious. There is no need to immediately label people based on which hand they have. Almost all experts in the field of education and personal development unanimously declare the dangers of retraining left-handed people. Indeed, in the future this can lead to disruption of sleep and wakefulness, cause digestive disorders, frequent migraines, pain in the right hand and many other deviations from the norm.

How are left-handed people different from right-handed people? This list is big. But we should not forget that the ability to write with one hand or another is far from the most important quality of a person.

The difference between left-handers and right-handers is quite multifaceted, but in general their behavior can have a lot in common.