Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Let's Hear it for the Left!

I’ve always been fascinated with handedness. Only 10% of humans are left-handed, and being left-handed has some consequences for how the brain is organized. In lefties, language, a normally left-hemisphere dominant function, is more lateralized between both hemispheres of the brain – some even show a right-hemisphere dominance. While it is still unclear what effects these differences in cortical organization have on everyday functioning, it is possible that lefties, being wired a bit differently than 90% of the population, may have a few extra tricks up their sleeves.

With that being said, I was reading a popular press article about the handwriting styles of the candidates. While this stuff is probably a bunch of bunk, I thought it was fun to see that our two nominees (for all intents and purposes) are both left-handed. And, that four of our last six presidents were left handed (the exceptions being Bush Jr. and Carter).

Now we just have to hope that the left-leaning lefty becomes the next president.

3 comments:

joshua francis said...

Handedness played a pivotal role in my presidential choice. I'm going to celebrity endorsements as my tiebreaker in the general election.

Maureen Gillespie said...

Chabon isn't a bad celebrity endorsement.

joshua francis said...

he's no heidi montag