POR QUE MOLA SER ZURDOS

26/11/2017

Although they are a minority, surely you know some lefty. That boy who always had his blue-stained hand, the boy who gave out the drunken exercises, the girl who always cursed when trying to cut with scissors when doing crafts ... From opening a can to writing on a desk chair, which the left hand is the one that commands can make difficult the simplest tasks in all the stages of the life.

In Spain, 12% of the population is left-handed, which means more than five million people. To honor them and to know something more about them, we have compiled these curiosities about them:

1. ALWAYS ARE 10% OF THE POPULATION

Left-handed has been stigmatized in most cultures until very recently. The term sinister, contrary to right-handed, has very negative connotations and comes from the Latin sinister. In English, left is left, which comes from old English lyft, meaning weak or useless.

The percentage of left-handed people in mankind has remained stable since prehistory around 10% of humanity (between 8% and 13% in its most extreme cases), across continents, races and cultures. Scientists point out, therefore, that it has to have clear evolutionary advantages.

2. CRAZY AND MORE HEALTHY

Is being left handed is good for health? A survey of 1,400,000 people, published in the journal Laterality, found that those who use the left hand suffer from fewer ulcers and arthritis. Scientists theorize that they may also retain memory better as they age, when brain processing slows down.

Although there are no established theories about this, many scientists point out that the reason for these and almost all the peculiarities of lefties lies in the structure and functioning of the brain, which is divided into two halves. Most people rely on the left half for language-related tasks. But 30% of left-handed people prefer the right or do not choose any.

This would give lefties greater sensitivity and speed when processing information and storing it, since the connectivity between both hemispheres is more intense and flexible. When the brain must process and file information that is passed from one half of the brain to another, left-handed people have an advantage. Another study, from the National University of Australia, notes that left-handers process several stimuli at a time better than right-handers.

The counterpart is curious. It was once thought that lefties were more likely to develop mental illness. Modern science has discovered, and can not explain, a surprising finding that seems to corroborate it: about 20% of schizophrenics are left-handed.

Science has also found more lefties to develop dyslexia, attention deficit, hyperactivity and other mood disorders, according to The Wall Street Journal. Having a dominant hemisphere is much more efficient most of the time, and not having it can pose a greater risk of developing learning problems and mental disorders.

3. MORE CREATIVE AND INTELLIGENT?

drawing left hand

It's a cliché. Historically, lefties were thought to be slower, clumsier, and dumb. Nowadays, watching the lists of famous lefties, they are said to be more brilliant, brilliant and talented. What is true in all this?

It seems that it is not so much left-handed as the intensity with which one hand is preferred over another (a cerebral hemisphere over another) which determines cognitive abilities. Experimental studies suggest that memory, flexibility to change opinion, tastes and judgments, risk perception and other abilities depend on the right half of the brain.

The greater the inconstancy when preferring one hand over another, the greater the interaction between the hemispheres of the brain and the possibility of access to the processes of the right hemisphere.

Hence, there are studies, such as that carried out by the University of Toledo (Ohio, USA), whose conclusions are as fun as this: the right-handed people like less alternative music or not as popular as reggae or jazz. Left-handed people are more open-minded and more inclined to update their preferences.

Right from the right hemisphere also depends one of the fundamental qualities of creativity: divergent thinking, the ability to generate innovative ideas or conclusions from the exploration of multiple solutions to a single premise or problem. Hence it tends to think that lefties have more developed the artistic temperament.

A study by Peabody College concluded that among precocious children in math and language, there are high rates of left-handed, myopic, and allergic / asthmatics. All these difficulties could point to another reason for left-handers to be so sharp: the constant need to adapt to a world of right-handers.