Current Left-handed research

This section gives information on research that has been in the news recently or is particularly relevant to current events.

General information on left-handed research

If you are currently involved in research or studies involving left-handedness and would like more detailed information than we have available, you may find the following links helpful. You can view articles and often search for any papers or articles relating to your particular area of interest.

Research websites:
http://bmj.com
http://www.nature.com/nature
http://www.genetics.org

Research books:
Right-Hand, Left-Hand by Prof. Chris McManus
Available from our online shop

The Left-Handers Handbook by Diane Paul
Available from our online shop

If you discover any interesting research relating to left-handedness that we have not covered, please let us know about it, and we will add a link to this page.

Researchers at Oxford University find gene for left-handedness

An international group of scientists, led by a team from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, have discovered a gene that increases the chance of being left handed. The study is published on-line today by the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The research, which involved over 40 scientists from 20 research centres around the world, revealed a gene called LRRTM1; the first to be discovered which has an effect on handedness. Although little is known about LRRTM1, the Oxford team suspects that it modifies the development of asymmetry in the human brain. Asymmetry is an important feature of the human brain, with the left side usually controlling speech and language, and the right side controlling emotion. In left-handers this pattern is often reversed. There is also evidence that asymmetry of the brain was an important feature during human evolution; the brains of our closest relatives, the apes, are more symmetrical than humans' and they do not show a strong handedness.

The Left-Handers Club welcome these new findings, as a genetic link has long been considered the most likely cause of left-handedness yet a specific gene has until now remained elusive. This is the first potential genetic influence on human handedness to be identified, and the first putative genetic effect on variability in human brain asymmetry. LRRTM1 is a candidate gene for involvement in several common neurodevelopmental disorders, and may have played a role in human cognitive and behavioral evolution.

The researchers also discovered that LRRTM1 might slightly increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia often have unusual patterns of brain asymmetry and handedness, so the researchers were not surprised when LRRTM1 also showed a possible effect on the risk of developing schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a disorder of the brain which results in impaired perception and thought. It affects roughly one percent of adults worldwide.

There has not, however, been any assumption that left-handedness and schzophrenia are linked. The study leader, Dr Clyde Francks, said: "People really should not be concerned by this result. 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."

Some of the researchers involved in this discovery are now planning further study on the roles of LRRTM1 in the developing brain, and to find other genes with which LRRTM1 interacts. Dr Francks said: "We hope this study's findings will help us to understand the development of asymmetry in the brain. Asymmetry is a fundamental feature of the human brain that is disrupted in many psychiatric conditions."

For more information contact:

Dr Clyde Francks (Study Leader)
GlaxoSmithKline
Email: clyde.2.francks (at) gsk.com
Phone: +39 045 821 8059

Prof Anthony Monaco (Laboratory Head)
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics University of Oxford
Email: anthony.monaco (at) well.ox.ac.uk
Phone: +1 302 945 5349
07795 690173

See www.well.ox.ac.uk/~clyde/index.shtml

Higher breast cancer risk among left-handed women (Sep 2005)

Source : BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmj.38572.440359.AE (Pub. 26 Sept 2005)

New research suggests that left-handed women may be more at risk from breast cancer. The study, published online by the British Medical Journal , found left-handed women were more than twice as likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer as non-left handed women.

The researchers, from the University Medical Center Utrecht, looked at the relationship between handedness and cases of breast cancer in more than 12,000 middle aged women born between 1932 and 1941. As part of their examination, t he researchers also took body measurements and assessed risk factors such as economic status, smoking habits, family history of breast cancer and reproductive background.

The team of Dutch researchers believe the common link may be exposure to high levels of sex hormones testosterone in the womb. Previous research has suggested that exposure to high levels of sex hormones before birth may induce left-handedness. This exposure can also trigger changes in the breast tissue that make tumour growth more likely in later life. The researchers concluded: "Although the underlying mechanisms remain elusive, our results support the hypothesis that left-handedness is related to increased risk of breast cancer."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in the UK, with more than 41,000 new cases diagnosed each year. It accounts for one in three of all cancer cases in women, while the lifetime risk for women is one in nine.

Emma Taggart, director of policy and campaigns at charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "Women who are left-handed should not worry about these findings. Although this is an intriguing study, it doesn't give us enough evidence to link left handedness with breast cancer.

"Breast cancer is an extremely complex disease and very little is known about the causes."The answer is likely to be a complex interplay of factors."

Ms Taggart said women could minimise their risk by eating a balanced diet, drinking less alcohol and exercising regularly.

"It's also vital for women to be breast aware and visit their GP if they are concerned about changes in their breasts."

Lesley Walker, of Cancer Research UK, said the study was based on a relatively small sample.

"A much bigger study is required to determine the actual risks of left handedness.

"If the results of this study are borne out, it could highlight a group of pre-menopausal women to whom early screening could be targeted. She continued "We know that the strongest risk factor for breast cancer is age. Eighty per cent of breast cancers occur in women over the age of fifty."

Left-Handers Club comment:

The results of this study are based on an extremely small sample, as out of the 12,000 women initially included in the study, only 165 women studied in the final sample were left-handed. The causal link between exposure to high levels of testosterone in the womb and subsequent left-handedness has not been conclusively proven, and indeed more recent research strongly suggests a genetic link to left-handedness being far more likely.

However, if we accept the hypothesis the research was based on, these initial findings would certainly indicate a need for further and more detailed studies to establish a possible link. If these results are conclusive, left-handedness would be a valuable signal to encourage early screening.

The loneliness of the left handed surgeon (Jan 2005)

Source: BMJ  2005;330:10 (1 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7481.10-f

Left handed surgeons lack access to left handed instruments while training, receive little mentoring about their left handedness, and are more prone to needle stick injuries than their right handed colleagues. They also have considerable difficulty handling some instruments. One in 10 left handed surgeons was also uncomfortable with the idea of being operated on by a left handed surgeon, says a report in Current Surgery (2004:61:587-91). Six per cent also reported concerns by patients about their laterality.

The perils and pitfalls of being left handed emerge from a survey of surgeons in New York city, Manhattan, and Brooklyn; there were 68 responses from clinicians aged 27 to 60.

The authors, from New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and other institutions, say that left handed surgeons feel that they are the last unorganised minority. The survey found that only 13% of left-handed surgeons were provided with left handed instruments while training.

"Having basic sets of left-handed instruments (scissors, clamps, and needle holders) available in the teaching hospitals for medical students and surgical residents may minimise the inconveniences associated with learning," the authors wrote.

The report says there is a lack of laterality related mentoring for left handed surgical residents: "There are no studies or teaching material available to teach left-handed surgical residents. Laterality-related guidance was reported to be minimal in medical school.

"Nearly half of the left-handed surgeons surveyed were anxious about their laterality related difficulties and sought advice during surgical residency, but only one in 10 programs mentored for laterality predominance. Provision of a left-handed mentor and other environmental modifications could be used to minimise the recurring difficulties for left-handed learners.’’

The report says that left handed surgeons preferred an approach that might be different from a right handed surgeon in an invasive procedure: "Mentoring by a right handed surgeon will only leave the left-handed residents to teach themselves a procedure."

It says that left handed surgeons felt that several surgical procedures were difficult to learn standing on the right side of the operating table, including open cholecystectomy and pelvic surgical procedures: "Left-handed surgical residents should be given a chance to stand on the left side of the operating table."

Another finding was that laparoscopy and laparoscopic instruments have not eliminated the problems of instrument handling: "The popular belief that laparoscopy and minimally invasive surgical instruments have completely eliminated difficulties for the left-handed surgeons does not hold true for the respondents in this study. Laparoscopic surgery involves more static posture of the neck and trunk with more frequent awkward movements of the upper extremities than open surgery."

Another unexpected finding was that some respondents were uncomfortable with the idea of being operated on by a left handed surgeon: "We were surprised to learn that one in 10 left-handed surgeons have perceivable difficulty in being treated by another left handed surgeon. Unfortunately, our survey did not have the provision to inquire into the reasons for this perception."

The team, who have today published the results of their study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, saw that left-handers had the advantage in sports such as fencing, tennis and baseball. They said that Western interactive sports such as these can be classed as "special cases of fights - with strict rules, including the prohibition of killing and intentionally wounding the opponent".

This led them to speculate the same advantage may persist in more aggressive contexts, such as war, so societies which are more violent would have a higher frequency of left-handers.

The suggestion that left-handers have an advantage in combat is not new. It has long been thought that, in the days when arguments were resolved by hand-to-hand combat, being left-handed gave people the benefit of surprise against a right-handed opponent. This advantage, however, would only have persisted if left-handers remained in the minority. Otherwise, right handers would soon get accustomed to fighting with left-handed opponents.

For this latest study, the researchers analysed data for eight traditional societies; the Kreyol people of Dominica, the Ntimu of Cameroon, the Dioula-speaking people of Burkina Faso, the Baka of Gabon, Inuit people and the Eipo people of Irian Jaya, New Guinea. Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond compared homicide rates (which includes murders and executions) and the frequency of left-handedness, and found they appeared to be linked.

The Dioula were found to have a homicide rate equivalent of one hundredth of a death per 1,000 people per year, and a left-handedness rate of just 3%.

Handedness develops in the womb (July 2004 )

Source: New Scientist Print Edition, 22 July 2004, Laura Spinney, Lisbon

The hand you favour as a 10-week-old foetus is the hand you will favour for the rest of your life, suggests a new study.

The finding comes as a surprise because it had been thought that lifelong hand preferences did not develop until a child was three or four years old.

A team led by Peter Hepper of the Fetal Behaviour Research Centre at Queen's University, Belfast in the UK reached this conclusion after studying ultrasound scans of 1000 fetuses.

In one study, nine out of 10 fetuses at 15 weeks' gestation preferred to suck their right thumbs. Hepper's team followed 75 of those fetuses after birth, and found that at 10 to 12 years old all 60 of the right thumb-suckers were right-handed, while 10 of the 15 left thumb-suckers were left-handed and the rest right-handed.

At 10 weeks old, even before they suck their thumbs, fetuses wave their arms about. A second study found that most prefer to wave their right arm, a preference that persisted until 24 weeks, after which the fetus is too cramped to move. Hepper reported the findings at the Forum of European Neuroscience in Lisbon, Portugal, earlier in July.

Reflex arc

Hepper is quick to point out that these observations do not show that the fetus can control its movements at such a young age. Nervous connections to the body from the brain are not thought to start developing until around 20 weeks' gestation.

In addition, at the same stages of development fetuses that lack a brain cortex, a condition called anencephaly, move their limbs in a similar way, also favouring their right arm over the left.

"There is no evidence that the brain has any control over these movements at this stage," says Hepper. "It's most likely to be a local reflex arc involving the spinal cord." He speculates that the fetus may have a preference for one side of its body simply because that side develops slightly faster.

The findings challenge the favourite theory of how handedness in humans develops. According to that theory, it is a side effect of brain lateralisation, in which one side of the brain predominantly handles certain functions, such as language. As the fetal scans show that handedness appears long before the brain has any control over limb movement, that theory cannot be correct.

Sensory connections

Instead, Hepper speculates that the reverse may be true: the fetus's body movements

may somehow lead to the development of an asymmetrical brain. He points out that the sensory connections from the body to the brain develop before the connections that allow the brain to control the body's movement.

But Stephen Wilson, a developmental biologist at University College London, is sceptical. "The movements you see in a fetus don't have to be influencing brain asymmetries."

It is more likely, he says, that in the early fetus there is already a difference in gene activation between the right and left sides of the brain and that this leads to lateralisation.

Hair Growth Clue to Handedness

Researchers have discovered that you can tell if someone is right or left-handed literally off the top of your head - by checking which way their hair grow out of their scalp. Right-handed people tend to have hair that swirls clockwise, from the whorl or crown (the place at the back of the head where hair appears to grow in a spiral). People who are left-handed or ambidextrous, however have no such pattern - the hair can coil in either direction. Amar Klar of the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, surreptitiously inspected people's pates by spying on them in airports and shopping malls - ignoring the long-haired and the bald. More than 95% of right-handers' hair whorls clockwise on the scalp, he found. The locks of lefties and the ambidextrous are equally likely to coil either way.

A single gene with either 'right' or 'random' forms might underlie the trend, says Klar. People with one or two copies of the right version would be right-handed, with clockwise hair; those with two random versions would split 50/50 for handedness and hair whorls. He is now seeking such a gene.
"It's one of the most exciting things [I've seen] in a while," says geneticist Ralph Greenspan of the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, California. A gene causing asymmetric cell division in the young embryo might set up asymmetry throughout the body, he suggests.

But many genes might influence handedness, counters Clyde Francks of the University of Oxford, UK, who is hunting for such genes. Only finding these molecules will reveal the answer, he argues.

Right, left
Around 90% of people favour their right hand for writing and throwing. Researchers argue about whether genes or learning create this preference. Most people assume that there is no single 'handedness' gene because it is not simply inherited. Two left-handed parents, for example, will often have right-handed children. Klar believes his hypothesis accounts for these puzzles. If children of left-handers inherit the 'random' gene, they could be left- or right-handed. This would also explain why identical twins can be right- and left-handed.

The genes underlying handedness might also explain why our brains are asymmetrical. And left-handed or ambidextrous people are more likely to store language in the right side of the brain, are more prone to schizophrenia and, anecdotally, are more often creative or even geniuses.

References
1. Klar, A.J.S. Human handedness and scalp hair whorl direction develop from a common genetic mechanism, Genetics, in the press, (2003).

2. Nature Science Update - Handedness equals hairstyle

BBC Test the Nation - Lefties have upper hand in IQ test

Left-handers across the UK edged ahead in the intelligence stakes this week, when the nation took part in the biggest IQ test ever undertaken. The British were all tuned to their TV sets on Saturday 11th May, as more than 90,000 people took part in Test the Nation hosted by quiz show presenter Anne Robinson on BBC1. Everyone had to complete 70 questions to assess their language, perception, memory, maths and logic in what the BBC called a 'light-hearted way of gauging Britain's brain power'

An IQ score of 90 to 110 indicates average intelligence, while anything over 110 points is in the highest 25 per cent. Anyone with 130 or above can consider themselves in the top 2 per cent of the population. The results revealed that left-handed people on average scored 109, slightly higher than the right-handers at 108. Smokers, scoring 108 were shown to be brainier than non-smokers with 107. 'Silver surfers' topped the hair colour stakes with 113 over brown hair at 108, blonde at 107, red 106 and black 106. Blue eyes beat brown with 109 over 108.

However, the overall highest scorer, Keith Jowett from Surrey did not fit into the stereotypes, being a right-handed non-smoker living nowhere near the cleverest city dwellers of Leicester.

Any budding Einsteins who would like to increase that left-handers lead can still take part, as the BBC's Test the Nation website will run the test for the next 2 weeks and results are constantly being updated with new figures. Visit www.bbc.co.uk/testthenation to find out more.

Americans may also soon be brushing up their brainpower, as it is rumoured that presenter Anne Robinson, well known in the States for her hostile hosting of 'The Weakest Link' has held talks with a US television company about taking the idea to the USA.

Ultrasound scans and left-handedness

Controversial new evidence suggests that ultrasound scans on unborn babies can not only make them more likely to be left-handed, but may cause mild brain damage, particularly in boys.

In the most comprehensive study yet on the effect of ultrasound scanning, doctors have found that men born to mothers who underwent scanning were more likely to show signs of subtle brain damage. The implications of the study are to be raised at an international meeting of scientists being held in Edinburgh.

The work of the Swedish scientists, which has been published in the journal Epidemiology, backs up earlier research which was conducted in the 1990's suggesting ultrasound scanning affected unborn babies. Previous research had suggested subtle brain damage could increase the risk of conditions ranging from learning difficulties to epilepsy, as well as causing people who ought genetically to be right-handed to become left-handed. This conclusion is based on a theory that if the right-handed brain is in any way hindered from developing to become the dominant half of the brain, the left-hand brain will take over to compensate - in itself a theory still under investigation.

The Swedish team from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm compared almost 7,000 men whose mothers underwent scanning in the 1970's with 172,000 men whose mothers did not, looking for differences in the rates of left and right-handedness. The team found men whose mothers underwent scanning were significantly more likely to be left-handed than normal.

The most significant difference was found among those born after 1975 when doctors introduced a second scan later in pregnancy. These men were 32% more likely to be left-handed. There are strong indications that, normally, left-handedness is genetic (see our FAQ's for more info). The likelihood of two left-handed parents having a left-handed child has been put as high as 35%, while for two right-handed parents it is thought to be only 9%.

Reporting their findings, the researcher warned that scans in late pregnancy were now routine in many countries. "The present results suggest a 30% increase in left-handedness among boys pre-naturally exposed to ultrasound" they wrote. "If this association reflects brain injury, this means as many as one in 50 male foetuses pre-natally exposed to ultrasound are affected." It is important to stress the "if" in this statement, as much research still needs to be undertaken to clarify whether any hindrance in right-brain development does lead to the left-brain taking dominance to compensate.

According to the Swedish team, the human brain undergoes critical development until relatively late in pregnancy, making it vulnerable to damage. The male brain is especially at risk, as it continues to develop later than the female one.

Professor Juni Pamgren, a member of the team, said "I would urge people not to refuse to have ultrasound scanning, as the risk of brain damage is only a possibility - but this is an interesting finding and needs to be taken seriously."

Dr Francis Duck of the British Medical Ultrasound Society will chair a discussion of the results at the International Meeting of Ultrasound Experts being held this week in Edinburgh. "When the first study suggesting a link came out, it was possible to ignore it, but now this is the third", he said. "What it demonstrates is the need to investigate the link further, and to look at possible mechanisms." Dr Duck cautioned, however, that ultrasound scanning has saved the lives of countless babies: "This research must be seen in context, and it should not deter anyone from having an antenatal scan.

British obstetrics professionals have also tried to quash potential fears, saying the findings should be met with "extreme caution". One critic of the research, Gordon Stirrat, Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics at Bristol University, notes the study was done in the 1970's when powerful, unsophisticated ultrasound was used. "Today's ultrasound is much more sophisticated," he said. "There's no comparison."

And even more significantly, in the 1970's ultrasound was reserved for pregnancies already suspect. "The males in the study might already have had abnormalities or a tendency to left-handedness before they had the ultrasound," said Professor Stirrat. "I think we can be confident today's ultrasound is very safe."

We will keep you informed of any further developments, but it must be stressed that this study focuses on only one of many situations that can result in a person being left-handed and is still in the very first stages, and needs further work to reach definite conclusions.

Left-Handers Remember Events Better Than Facts

Members of a family that is dominated by left-handers tend to be better at remembering events than facts, according to research published yesterday, in the journal "Neuropsychology".

Dr Stephen Christman and Dr Ruth Propper, of the University of Toledo in Ohio also think they may have a clue as to why few of us can remember things that happened in our lives before we were four years old. Dr Christman and Dr Propper studied two types of memory -episodic (the recall and recognition of events) and non-episodic (factual memory and implicit memory, which concerns things people "just know"). They concluded that the two halves of the brain work together in episodic memory to help to remember events because left-handers and those with left-handedness in their families recall events better than facts.

They also point out that the onset of episodic memory at around four years of age roughly coincides with the maturation of a structure called the "corpus callosum" that connects the two halves of the brain. More research is being conducted by the team to ascertain why episodic memory involves both halves of the brain whereas implicit memory appears to only be processed in one half.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Recent research has shown that left-handers are twice as likely to suffer from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (also known as Crohns disease or ulcerative colitis) as right-handers. This was how the story was reported in the Cardiff Western Mail in July 2001

See our archive pages of left-handed research