A study Australian National University suggests that
left-
handers are quicker thinkers than
right-handers.They are
faster at processing multiple stimuli than right-handers.The study suggests that while right handers primarily use the left hemisphere of their
brain,the left-handers use both the hemispheres.The two hemispheres, or halves, of the brain are pretty much identical,
and for the most part, they process the same information, with data
passing back and forth between them primarily via one large neural
pathway. However, certain tasks, like the language processing, tend to take place in one hemisphere or the other. For most
people, language processing happens in the left hemisphere. For
left-
handed people, it might actually take place in both hemispheres.The new research adds to the slowly growing body of work supporting the
hypothesis that people who favor their left hand for writing probably
have brains that are more conducive to simultaneous, bi-hemisphere
processing of information. The ANU researchers set up tests intended
specifically to test the speed of information flow between the two
sides of the brain. There were 80 right-handers and 20 left-handers
involved in the study. In one test, a computer would show a single dot
either to the left or to the right of a dividing line, and the subjects
had to press a button to indicate which side the dot showed up on. The
left-handed subjects were faster overall at this task. In another test,
subjects had to match up multiple letters that appeared in some cases
on either side of the line and in other cases on just one side of the
line. In this test, the left-handed subjects were faster at matching
letters that appeared on both sides of the line, while the right-handed
subjects were quicker at matching up letters that appeared on only one
side of the line. This latter observation could indicate that righties
are faster than lefties at processing stimuli that targets only one
hemisphere of the brain.I bet all those parents in the 70s and 80s would be kicking themselves for trying to convert their left-handed children into right-handers.
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