- Just because you're not 'left-handed', you might have a 'left-hand preference'
- 'Left-hand preference' has been linked to 'a more developed right-brain hemisphere'
- Here's why that makes lefties brainy, and what it means for right-handers...
From Aristotle and Mozart to Marie Curie, Bill Gates and Barack Obama, left-handedness has long been associated with talent and intelligence.
Now, a recent study has once again linked a left-hand preference with increased mathematical skills, which makes left-handed people more likely to be a genius, reports the Indy100.
Well, duh.
So, what exactly does 'hand preference' mean? Well, it's more than just which hand you write with; it's the hand you use most for a range of activities – from waving to catching. For example, if you write with your right hand but wave, shake hands or brush with your left, then you probably, actually, have a left-hand preference.
According to IFL Science, those who have a left-hand preference 'on average, [have] a more developed right-brain hemisphere', which helps when it comes to processing and understanding spatial awareness and mental representations of objects.
On top of this, left-handers also have a larger corpus callosum – the bundle of nerve cells connecting the two brain hemispheres – which suggests that 'left-handers have an enhanced connectivity between the two hemispheres and hence superior information processing', making them faster at processing information than those with a right-hand preference.
One theory argues that this is due to left-handers living in a world designed for right-handers, which forces them to use both hands – thereby increasing connectivity between the two.
So how does this make left-handers more likely to be geniuses? IFL Science carried out a series of experiments with various levels of mathematical difficulty on 2,300 people of different ages.
Via Prima
