6. They're more likely to have a sleep disorder. In a 2011 study, 100 people with periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) were divided into left-handed and right-handed groups. Researchers found 69 percent of right-handed patients had bilateral limb movements compared with 94 percent of left-handed ones, regardless of age, sex and race.
"What we know of people who are left-handed is they tend to have a slightly different dominant brain hemisphere than right-handed people," study researcher Dawn Alita R. Hernandez, a professor of medicine at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio, told LiveScience. "So if [PLMD] is coming primarily from the cortex, we should see a difference in handedness." Previously, PLMD was thought to originate in the spine, but researchers now believe it comes from the brain.
Studies have shown left-handed folks are more likely to be male than female. (Photo: VYarochkina/Shutterstock)
7. They feel and express emotion differently. Going back to the brain hemispheres, a 2012 study published in the journal PLoS ONE found that lefties processed motivation on the right side of the brain, whereas right-handed people had motivation activity on the left side. This finding may affect how mood disorders are treated, where the left side of the brain is stimulated.
“Given what we show here, this treatment, which helps right-handers, may be detrimental to left-handers ― the exact opposite of what they need,” one of the study’s authors, psychologist Geoffrey Brookshire, said in a statement.
8. Gay men are more likely to be left-handed. A 2003 study evaluated large numbers of heterosexual and homosexual men and women on handedness and gender-related personality traits. Here's what they found: "Homosexual men had 82 percent greater odds of being non-right-handed than heterosexual men, a statistically significant difference, whereas homosexual women had 22 percent greater odds of being non-right-handed than heterosexual women, a nonsignificant difference."
9. They tend to drink more often. If you've heard that southpaws are more likely to be alcoholics, that's a myth. A 2011 study on the rumor published in the British Journal of Health Psychology found that left-handed people do tend to drink more often, but they aren't more prone to risky drinking.
Maybe it's because they've long been forced to adapt to a right-handed world, whether it's the frustration over using scissors or a can opener designed for a rightie or the annoyance of trying to eat or write without bumping elbows with the person next to them!
10. The answer could lie in the spinal cord. There have been several theories as to what determines our preference for handedness. Over the past several decades, researchers have agreed that it is determined in the womb. Scientists previously thought that it was genetic differences between the hemispheres of the brain that decided if a person was born right-handed or left-handed, reports Business Insider. But a 2017 study found that the answer could lie in the spinal cord.
Researchers found that even though the motor cortex in the brain and the spinal cord aren't yet connected, up until about 15 weeks the baby is growing and making movements. The baby has chosen its favorite hand that early on, leading researchers to believe it's the spinal cord, not the brain, that is the key to hand preference.
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