Why We’re Left-Handed
PsychedelicSchizo wrote 29 December 2009
I did some studying a while ago and found out that the gene LRRTM1 is what makes us left handed.
This same gene also increases the risk of schizophrenia, which is crazy because I have that and some other left-handers I know from the internet have it… weird huh?
-Summer Fields
Filed under: Talk About It |
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According to the researchers who did the study, this gene is linked in some way to left handedness, but is not essential for left handedness. They also said that lefties don’t need to worry about the connection to schizophrenia, as there many other factors involved. This gene affects the symmetry of the brain. But there are other reasons for handedness, and other research has shown that handedness is not an absolute.
Is there any evidence/research about the prevalence of left-handedness in countries where the mother tongue is written from left to right? I wonder if left-handedness has been suppressed less in such cultures where writing left-handedly is not (at least perceived to be)awkward.
(I am right-handed, but being an ergomonomist I am interested in designing for all of the population, and working in a multi-national organisation I am also interested in cultural differences which we need to design for in our products too, hence the question.)
If you actually read and understand the research, you will see that this gene does not cause left-handedness at all. It is sometimes associated with left-handedness. That’s all.
This post is really misleading. This gene does not cause left-handedness.