10% of the population is better managed with the left hand

The lefties are less long-lived although the reason is unknown

The distribution of the brain is different than that of right-handed people

Isabel F. Lantigua | Madrid

Updated Wednesday 03/30/2011 08:38 AM

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Napoleon and Julius Caesar had something more in common than their leadership skills. Also with
Alejandro Magno, with Hugo Chávez and with four of the last seven US presidents. They are all
left-handed. Are the people who handle with the left hand more able to govern? What are the
differences in the brains of right-handed and left-handed people? Science is showing recent
interest in these issues but, for now, the answers are not clear.

"We still do not know why a person is left-handed or right-handed," acknowledges ELMUNDO.es
Roberto Gallego, from the Institute of Neurosciences in Alicante, which is part of the CSIC,
although it seems that "the predilection for one hand or another it begins to develop in the fetus.
" The theories suggest that the hand that the baby has always closer to the mouth is the most
used in his life.

There are some confirmed data on lefties. For example, that the percentage of left-handed
population in the world remains constant at 10%. "Although one is not sure to what extent some
of the current right-handers are right-handed left-handers," Galician admits, recalling that not so
long ago "these people were forced, with all kinds of methods, to use the other hand" .

Throughout history they have been subject to various outrages under the false beliefs that they
were possessed by the devil, that they were more likely to commit crimes and a myriad of other
myths. Therefore, it was necessary to "reeducate" children who were "deviant". It happened to
Daniel, who is now 33 years old and is still left-handed for everything, but who in school forced
him to write with the right. "By force you learn, of course, but once the class was finished I used
my left hand again, because that's what comes naturally to me," he says.

In fact, an investigation published recently in the magazine 'Cortex', carried out by a team from
the University of Ontario (Canada), shows that "right-handers are more skilled than left-handed
left-handed people". That is to say, "the people who habitually use the left are much more skilled
with the right hand than the right-handed ones with the opposite, possibly because they have
been forced to use both hands since childhood", explains David P. Carey, one of the authors.

Less long-lived

Another aspect documented in the scientific literature is that left-handers are less long-lived.
There are several hypotheses in this regard, as Roberto Gallego points out. "One of them indicates
that there may be a possible alteration during development that makes left-handers more prone
to suffer diseases, but the matter is not clear."

In 2007, a team of researchers from the University of Oxford discovered a genetic variant related
to the predilection for the left hand - the LRRTM1-. This gene is also characteristic of people with
schizophrenia, so at first it was thought that left-handers could have a higher risk of suffering from
the disease. However, a work from last year found no link between the two. As the authors
themselves explained in 'The New York Times', "Schizophrenia is a very complex and
heterogeneous disorder and it is not known exactly what role this gene plays, but we have seen
that you can not establish a relationship between being left-handed and schizophrenic. "

Cross brains

[photo of the news]

Brain differences between left and right handed confuse even more. The brain has a right
hemisphere and a left hemisphere and each one is responsible for very different functions. Thus,
the left side is responsible for processing the logical and numerical information while the right is
more focused on emotions and feelings. But what about writing? For most people are regulated
from the left side, but about 15% of left-handed people have speech centers in both hemispheres.