On The Other Hand: What Differentiates Left-Handed People

I recently purchased a new water bottle. It had a handle and a straw, and the reviews were fantastic. “I love having this with me. It holds a large amount and doesn’t need to be refilled often. The handle is really helpful. It keeps drinks very cold,” one reviewer, Duckee81, wrote.

But when I received the bottle, it was far from perfect. Please do not misinterpret that statement. It was in pristine condition: no scratches, no dents, and no cracks. However, I realized I would never be able to drink from it. Why? The handle and straw were meant for right handed people. If I held the bottle in my right hand, the straw was facing me, providing easy access to my beverage. But, if I transitioned the handle over to my left, dominant hand, the straw was facing away from my mouth.

I already know what you’re thinking. Why don’t you just turn the cap around, dummy? The cap screws on, meaning the only way for my water to be completely secure and drinkable would be by holding the bottle in my right hand.

This situation sparked my interest in my lefty struggles. Because, to clear up the confusion, the obstacles are not limited to tumblers. Right handed desks, spiral notebooks, smudged pen marks, scissors, decorated mugs, pens attached to clipboards at banks, can openers, “improper” manners at the dinner table, and covering up previous sections of a reading when annotating are among some of the challenges of being left handed that immediately come to my mind.

The argument that the latter list needs to be adapted for the benefit of the left handed population has previously been made. Instead of exhausting this line of reasoning, I thought it might be beneficial to educate my readers on why some people, like me, are lefties.

The human brain has two hemispheres, each of which have different functions. According to neuroscience specialists at the University of Utah, the left hub of the brain is specialized in language and logic, encompassing the prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, Broca’s Area, and Wenicke’s Area; on the other hand (get it?), the right brain specializes in attention control, spatial awareness, and facial recognition. It is true that the right brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa. This means that me, as a left-hander, uses the right side of my brain to move my left hand. However, the notion that some people are “left-brained” or “right-brained” simply because of their hand dominance is entirely incorrect. While the hypothesis that the two hemispheres have different functions has been supported, there is no significantly heavier reliance upon one side of the brain over another; the hemispheres must be in communication, which can be done through the corpus callosum. In fact, the University of Utah researchers even found that handedness influences the laterality of visual, default, salience, and language frameworks, meaning hand dominance can influence aspects of both hemispheres’ specialties.

In terms of a biological necessity, there is evidence that evolution may have favored right handedness. Cerebral and life science specialists detail that handedness could have allowed for different speech and fine motor abilities, thereby selecting for a majority of right-handed individuals. Researchers of the University of British Columbia and California State University even present the argument that left-handed people have a reduced longevity, where the number of left-handers is decreasing steadily, causing less representation in the older population; their paper also explains that left-handedness could have appeared as a result of birth stress, developmental issues, and immune system deficiencies. Although complex, as it always is with our brains, it is possible that being left handed has implications far beyond the manner in which someone holds their pen.

It was not my intention to go off on a neuroscience and physiological tangent, so allow me to simplify the explanation of left handedness. Around 10% of the human population is left handed. This is a product of our cerebral activity and hemispheric specialization. So, don’t you think it is about time we start adapting? We should not consider altering our brains and specialization patterns, but instead the way we think and create products. As a student, I should not have to repeatedly beg to be sat at a comfortable desk where I may be supported as I write, nor should I have to leave class with the markings of a spiral notebook on my hand. While some issues are understandable and unchangeable, the things that can be changed should, as it is harder to change our brains than it is our products and mindsets.

References

Are you left-handed? science still yearns to know why. Office for Science and Society. (2021, September 18). Retrieved August 27, 2022, from https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-general-science/are-you-left-handed-science-still-yearns-know-why#:~:text=%2DCounting%20how%20many%20people%20are,world%20population%20is%20left%2Dhanded.

Coren, S., & Halpern, D. F. (1991). Left-Handedness: A Marker for Decreased Survival Fitness. Psychological Bulletin, 109(1), 90–106.

Gutwinski, S., Löscher, A., Mahler, L., Kalbitzer, J., Heinz, A., & Bermpohl, F. (2011). Understanding left-handedness. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2011.0849

Nielsen, J. A., Zielinski, B. A., Ferguson, M. A., Lainhart, J. E., & Anderson, J. S. (2013). An evaluation of the left-brain vs. right-brain hypothesis with resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging. PLoS ONE, 8(8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071275

Stanley 40 oz. adventure quencher tumbler. DICK’S Sporting Goods. (n.d.). Retrieved August 27, 2022, from https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/stanley-40-ozadventure-quencher-tumbler-22stau40zstnlyqnchyda/22stau40zstnlyqnchyda