Are you in the minority of people who use their left hand to write? If so, it just may be that you’re a genius.
New research has shown that using your left hand could make you more naturally gifted than those who use their right. At least, that’s when it comes to things such as solving math problems, or so says Swedish newspaper Expressen, citing a study by IFL Science.
Better cognitive ability
The left-hand vs right-hand debate has been around for as long as people have been using their hands, which is to say forever. Some have argued that left-handed people have shorter life expectancy, others that there’s a link between left-handers and crime. There are also those who claim that left-handed people are more intelligent.
It’s on that latter point where things get interesting, though. Researchers have been able to see that the right side of a left-handers brain is, on average, higher than that of their right-handed counterparts.
This means that their cognitive ability and perception of space is better than those people who predominantly use their right hand. Not only that, but their cerebral cortex is also larger. A larger cerebral cortex means that information is processed faster, because the link between the two halves of the brain is improved.
Now, after several studies on left-handed people, researchers have apparently found that left-handed people are better than right-handed people at maths.
It was IFL Science that formulated studies that included some 2,300 students.
The participants were tasked with solving different mathematical challenges of varying degrees in difficulty. They then also had to answer what hand they most often used when performing certain tasks.
After the tests were completed, it became clear that left-handers solved the more difficult of problems far more efficiently than the right-handers. When it came to simple maths, there was no great difference between the groups, though those that admitted to never using their left hand where amongst the worst overall.
Of course, this hardly proves that left-handed people are more intelligent than right-handed people, merely that there could be a correlation found between use of the left hand and having an aptitude for problem solving and such.
Are you right-handed or left-handed? Let us know in the comments box!
Share this article with your left-handed friends so that they can learn something new!
