Posted on 07/31/2007 3:19:24 PM PDT by blam
Left-handers more at risk of mental illness
By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 1:49am BST 31/07/2007
Left-handed people may have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, scientists have found.
An international group of scientists, led by a team at Oxford University, have identified a gene that seems to increase the chance of being left-handed.
The researchers said that the same gene - called LRRTM1 - may slightly increase the risk of developing the brain disorder.
Schizophrenia is a highly complex condition that results in impaired perception and thought, it affects around one in every 100 people.
Although little is known about the gene, the Oxford team suspects it modifies the development of asymmetry in the human brain.
In humans, the left side of the brain usually controls speech and language, and the right side controls emotion. In left-handers, however, this pattern is often reversed. In a similar way, people with schizophrenia often have unusual patterns of brain asymmetry.
The leader of the study, Dr Clyde Francks of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, 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."
There is also evidence that asymmetry of the brain was an important feature during human evolution. Apes' brains are more symmetrical than humans' and they do not show a preference for using either the right or left hand.
Dr Francks added: "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."
My wife and I are both left handed. She is profoundly left handed but I bat and golf right handed. I write, shoot and fish left handed. We were hoping our son would be left handed as well but he’s right handed and 4 inches taller than either one of us. Don’t know about the mental illness part...I guess someone else would have to judge that. ;o)
I play guitar “right handed.”
All the action is in the left hand, anyways!
And left-handed guitars are hard to find and expensive (more anti-lefty discrimination.)
Left handed people use the RIGHT side of their brain. So there, we use the right side, and in the same token, all right handed people use their LEFT side of the brain and that is why everything is awkwardly made.
I Demand equal rights for us left handed......!!! Jesse, Jackson, come and defend our rights!!!
We were hoping our son would be left handed as well but he’s right handedWell you should probably love him anyways.
I was engaged to a lefty.... Glad that I didn’t make that mistake. Afterwards she confided in me, that I was the only one that knew that she was crazy. Talk about mood swings, jealousy, rage, etc. She had it all, raised to the nth degree.
I'm right-handed, but I play guitar left-handed, and it took me weeks to find a left-handed acoustic.
Why do you play left handed?
So you play left-handed guitar for the same reason I play right-handed! Cool.
It’s my understanding that Jimi Hendrix actually did the same.
I’ve always wondered about this. I figured since the fretboard required more dexterity in terms of being able to play chords, that meant you should use your dominant hand on the fretboard. I suppose if I did try harder to play right-handed when I was younger, I could have overcome it, but it’s too late to change now.
Well my wife would heartily agree with that!
Yeah.
The strength and coordination of my left hand really helped me.
The drawback though is I have never been able to speed pick, like Dick Dale style surf guitar, or do a fast metal solo.
But I play moody down tempo music anyways.
Perhaps the fact that I’ve never practiced those styles is why.
Even stranger is that my wife, and both of our kids are lefties.
I’m outnumbered in my own house. :)
As was Jimi Hendrix.............
Good thing I'm not red headed.
"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I'm schizophrenic,
And so am I!"
If you hear a lefty reciting this....;-)
That seals it; lefties are part of an evil plot, trying to take over the world.
(Makes as much sense as the nuts who complain about the Council on Foreign Relations and the Freemasons.)
(Veteran Mac users have known this for a long time, but I just learned it and thought it was pretty cool.)
Yes, but we lefties develop great problem solving skills as a result of having to operate in a right handed world.
You too?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.