Lefties found to be(more likely) to be Mentally Ill

[Lonestar]

The Beeb

Gene for left-handedness is found

Scientists have discovered the first gene which appears to increase the odds of being left-handed.
The Oxford University-led team believe carrying the gene may also slightly raise the risk of developing psychotic mental illness such as schizophrenia.

The gene, LRRTM1, appears to play a key role in controlling which parts of the brain take control of specific functions, such as speech and emotion.

The study appears in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The brain is set up in an asymmetrical way.

In right-handed people the left side of the brain usually controls speech and language, and the right side controls emotions.

However, in left-handed people the opposite is often true, and the researchers believe the LRRTM1 gene is responsible for this flip.

They also believe people with the LRRTM1 gene may have a raised risk of schizophrenia, a condition often linked to unusual balances of brain function.

Further research

Lead researcher Dr Clyde Francks, from Oxford University's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, said the next step would be to probe the impact on the development of the brain further.

He said: "We hope this study's findings will help us understand the development of asymmetry in the brain.

"Asymmetry is a fundamental feature of the human brain that is disrupted in many psychiatric conditions."

However, Dr Francks said left-handed people should not be worried by the links between handedness and schizophrenia.

He said: "There are many factors which make individuals more likely to develop schizophrenia and the vast majority of left-handers will never develop a problem.

"We don't yet know the precise role of this gene."

About 10% of people are left-handed.

There is evidence to suggest there are some significant differences between left and right-handed people.

Australian research published last year found left-handed people can think quicker when carrying out tasks such as playing computer games or playing sport.

And French researchers concluded that being left-handed could be an advantage in hand-to-hand combat.

However, being left-handed has also been linked to a greater risk of some diseases, and to having an accident.

Lefties schizophrenic? Who knew? We must mobilze quickly and purify the human race of the leftist scourge.

[Darth Tanner]

Nooooo

First you right handed bastards design your scissors to be uncomfortable to hold for us and now you want to send us off to mental institutions.

I say we fight!

If only we could find bomb making tools that were comfortable to hold for the left handed.

Although apparently there's a 76% chance of twins being left handed together so there must be some genetic element to it and the fact that neurological disorders are disproportionally left handed is troubling.

[Drooling Iguana]

I knew there was something sinister about those folks...

[Enigma]

I'm left handed and I embrace these new findings! No it sucks! It does not! Does too! Does not! Does too! *huge inner battle rages on. Many personalites have perished*

[Darth Ruinus]

Nooooo

First you right handed bastards design your scissors to be uncomfortable to hold for us and now you want to send us off to mental institutions.

I say we fight!

If only we could find bomb making tools that were comfortable to hold for the left handed.

We'll make a massive army of awesome hand to hand combatants and quick thinkers (if only there were more left handed stores, we could use comfortable tools to pass out leftie army propoganda!)

BTW I saw this on wikipedia on Lefties

"In 2006, researchers at Lafayette College and Johns Hopkins University in a study found that left-handed men are 15% richer than right-handed men for those who attended college, and 26% richer if they graduated. The wage difference is still unexplainable and does not appear to apply to women."

Anyone got the whole thing?

[Surlethe]

I knew there was something sinister about those folks...

That was a wonderful pun!

On a more serious note, it increases the risk (the technical term for "correlation") of schizophrenia by only a little bit, according to the article. I'm sure other factors dominate the development of the disease.

I've sometimes wondered how people become left-handed, anyway. Is it a flip in the embryo? I know a man who has a left-handed identical twin; that is, they're identical in every way except they're mirror opposites.

[Master of Cards]

Nooooo

First you right handed bastards design your scissors to be uncomfortable to hold for us and now you want to send us off to mental institutions.

I say we fight!

If only we could find bomb making tools that were comfortable to hold for the left handed.

Although apparently there's a 76% chance of twins being left handed together so there must be some genetic element to it and the fact that neurological disorders are disproportionally left handed is troubling.

Yeah its so hard to find left handed wire clamps isnt it?

Really this does not surpirse me, most lefties (including me) are very MANICAL.

[DrMckay]

Huh. Guess that explains Ned Flanders, then.

aand I thought it was plain 'ol fundie-ism

[Broomstick]

I've sometimes wondered how people become left-handed, anyway. Is it a flip in the embryo? I know a man who has a left-handed identical twin; that is, they're identical in every way except they're mirror opposites.

Mirror-twins are not that unusual - a certain percentage of identical twins fall into this category where they are literally mirror images of each other, with one a leftie and the other a rightie. In some cases this mirroring extends even to the internal organs, with the lefthanded twin also having the heart tilting right and the liver and stomach swapping their usual places, the appendix on the left, etc.

Left-handedness can also arise from damage. Just as an right-handed adult who loses the use of his/her right hand or arm can learn to use the left hand for tasks that used to be performed by the right, in a child damage to either the limb or the motorcortex may switch handedness. This damage might even be quite subtle. This might also explain the higher rate of some learning disorders and mental illness among lefties if some of it is due to subtle or low-level brain damage that doesn't totally disable the person but does mess up certain systems.

And finally, there are people who were just supposed to be left-handed from day one, normal lefties if you will, who just happen to be a variation of the usual.

While being leftie can have disadvantages, sometimes it's in your favor. When my mom had her stroke and lost her ability to read and speak the doc said "Oh - she's lefthanded, that might be a good thing." According to him, it's not uncommon for left-handers to have language centers on both sides of the brain and when they do they're more likely to recover from such brain injuries. And mom is talking intelligably and she's reading again. Although she's not as literate as before (she used to enjoy reading Chaucer in the the original Olde English) she's now once again functioning above the minimum level to get by in the world.

[His Divine Shadow]

I'm a leftie and this is just bullshit, it's my right hand that tells me to kill people, not my left.

[Dark Flame]

Left-handedness can also arise from damage. Just as an right-handed adult who loses the use of his/her right hand or arm can learn to use the left hand for tasks that used to be performed by the right, in a child damage to either the limb or the motorcortex may switch handedness.

That seems to make sense. I was born left handed, but at around a year old I had serious brain surgery and I became right handed.

Now I'm trying to teach myself left-handedness again. It's just so much more fun!

[Ritterin Sophia]

That's right, you lefties and righties fight this war and we the ambidextrous will inherit the Earth!

[Drooling Iguana]

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

[ArmorPierce]

Are ambidextrous people actually good with both hands or do they just suck with both hands?

[Broomstick]

Sometimes one, sometimes the other.

Ambidexterity, like lefthandedness, can have multiple causes, and not always with good consequences. Normally, though, it's statistically abnormal but not pathalogical.

[fusion]

How about the people who switch their dominate hand every few years?

I know someone who is like that, but is one of the most clumsy person I have ever known

[GuppyShark]

That's right, you lefties and righties fight this war and we the ambidextrous will inherit the Earth!

Ambidextrous? We're at war, pick a side.

[Shroom Man 777]

Broomstick makes left handedness sound so weird and unnatural. But I'm right handed, so that's okay. *grabs his right-handed torch and pitchfork*

[Companion Cube]

Childhood years of fumbling with right-handed scissors have, I think, laid the foundation for some mental hilarity in my future.

[Sarevok]

Are ambidextrous people actually good with both hands or do they just suck with both hands?

I am better with my right hand but thats becaude I was born right handed and just learned to be ambidextrous through practice. I can write, play FPS games, sports anything I can do with right with my left hand. But the extra years of training the right hand has does give it an edge.

[Solauren]

Well, this certainly explains my mental state at times.

So, as a Systems Administrator at work, my hand really is the root of all evil....

[Ryushikaze]

That's right, you lefties and righties fight this war and we the ambidextrous will inherit the Earth!

Ambidextrous? We're at war, pick a side.

Ambidexterity is my side.

Are ambidextrous people actually good with both hands or do they just suck with both hands?

I am better with my right hand but thats becaude I was born right handed and just learned to be ambidextrous through practice. I can write, play FPS games, sports anything I can do with right with my left hand. But the extra years of training the right hand has does give it an edge.

Same here. Though I've always been ambidextrous (My parents noticed early on that I would hold things as a lefty or a right might interchangable, most notably silverware), I've had a lot more practice with my right hand, so it definitely has an edge over my left. For example, I can write with my left hand, but my penmanship is absolutely terrible with it. Similarly, I can fence either handed, but I'm just a bit better with ole righty.

[Adrian Laguna]

I'm a leftie and this is just bullshit, it's my right hand that tells me to kill people, not my left.

That's why it's not bullshit. Everyone else's right hand is too busy doing stuff to actually make murderous plans.

[Dark Hellion]

That's why it's not bullshit. Everyone else's right hand is too busy doing stuff to actually make murderous plans.

So masturbating prevents murder? That just opens all sorts of new problems.

And my girlfriend really liked this article. I make fun of her southpawedness and this was a nice little victory dance for me (not serious of course).