Events
Scientists have been able to prove that left-handed and right-handed people see the world differently. Psychologists have found that they use different hemispheres of the brain when looking at something, thinking about something, or imagining something.
It is already known that depending on which hand a person has, he understands language and is oriented in space.
Details of the study conducted by experts from the University of Birmingham have been published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
As a result of experiments, it was found that right-handed people use the right hemisphere to view an image (in this case, they were shown a picture of a forest). But when it came to focusing on small details of the image, such as individual trees in the forest, they used the left hemisphere of the brain. In the case of left-handed people, it was the other way around.
In the study, experts used a technology called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which momentarily suspends brain activity. Experts used TMS on both the right and left parietal lobes of the back of the brain, while participants focused on the details of the visible image.
The effect of TMS on the left hemisphere of right-handed people made it difficult for them to be sensitive to detail, while the same problem occurred when exposed to the right hemisphere of left-handed people.
“Not only does our language ability depend on which hand is leading, but how we see the world also depends on it,” says Professor Glyn Humphreys. He also added that the results suggest that brain damage will have different effects on left-handed and right-handed people in terms of understanding fine details.
It is also possible that reading skills, which require understanding and relating many small details, also develop in different ways.
But psychologist Stephen Williams doubts that image perception is so different among right-handed and left-handed people. He explains that for a long period of time, it was believed that the left hemisphere was responsible for language abilities in right-handed people, while the right hemisphere performed the same function for left-handed people. However, subsequent studies have shown that 95 percent of right-handed people actually have a language center in the left hemisphere, and 70 percent of left-handed people have a language center in the right hemisphere. The rest use both hemispheres.
Among other things, studies have shown that left-handed people are more susceptible to a range of problems, such as allergies, autoimmune diseases, depression, drug addiction, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and sleep disorders.
Left-handed people tend to have poorer spatial skills, so they are more likely to be involved in car accidents and other accidents. However, it is worth noting that research has also refuted the prevailing view that left-handed people are more likely to die prematurely.