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What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

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Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#31

Post by benj111 »

topmonk wrote: post #17

I'm left handed and have been studying Chinese for about 6 months, for 2 hours per day. Out of curiosity, I decided to learn writing Chinese characters with my right hand (also because I thought it was cool to be able to write English with my left hand while writing Chinese with my right hand at the same time). I'm in my forties for additional context. I've discovered the following things: * I've always had a moderat…

>I thought it was cool to be able to write English with my left hand while writing Chinese with my right hand at the same time

So can you? Reliably?

Btw, havent you made a tactical error? English is left to right, so kind of optimsed for righties. Chinese is top to bottom so more ambidextrous? Perhaps phase 2 could use Hebrew for the left hand? English for the right?

Ps. But yes very cool :)

Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#32

Post by jstimpfle »

virtualwhys wrote: post #18
jstimpfle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

left hand: hand-write, soccer (kick with left foot), tooth brush, scissors, ping-pong, billard cue right hand: computer mouse, handball (throw with left hand), gun-shooting?, guitar, mini-golf, hockey, baseball

Except for baseball (where a pure lefty would also bat left handed), you're almost entirely left handed (i.e. do the same as pure lefties and righties do). Unless I'm misunderstanding the guitar bit, assume you mean fret with your right hand. If it's the other way around that's pretty cool, and I would think highly unusual, to fret with the hand that you don't write with. Actually, now I'm totally confused, I write w…

I mistakenly wrote "throw with left hand" but it's the right hand as the others on that line.

As to guitar playing: Strumming with my right, holding the guitar to the left, like regular/right-handed guitar players. (Snowboarding, also regular, left foot in front).

Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#34

Post by Hoasi »

EngineerBetter wrote: post #23

Eating "right-handed" has always seemed irrational to me. It dates back to medeival eating traditions when folks only had a knife - therefore, it was held in the right hand as it was the primary and only implement. Fast forward to the present day, and the fork is the primary implement. Hence, to my mind, it makes significantly more aense to hold the fork in one's dominant hand.

Exactly, the "right-handed" way always felt more natural for me (left-handed). Interesting how tradition beats logic though.

Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#35

Post by Freak_NL »

Hoasi wrote: post #34
EngineerBetter wrote: post #23

Eating "right-handed" has always seemed irrational to me. It dates back to medeival eating traditions when folks only had a knife - therefore, it was held in the right hand as it was the primary and only implement. Fast forward to the present day, and the fork is the primary implement. Hence, to my mind, it makes significantly more aense to hold the fork in one's dominant hand.

Exactly, the "right-handed" way always felt more natural for me (left-handed). Interesting how tradition beats logic though.

Hey, let us south-paws have this one societal convention that feels natural to us!

Although to be honest, for gaming left-handed use of a mouse combined with the keyboard arrow keys for movement makes sense as well. None of these awkwardly aligned WASD-keys for us, just ↑←↓→ (conveniently marked with arrows already), and a bit of space around them so you don't accidentally lob a grenade when you step to the left.

Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#36

Post by virtualwhys »

jstimpfle wrote: post #32
virtualwhys wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for baseball (where a pure lefty would also bat left handed), you're almost entirely left handed (i.e. do the same as pure lefties and righties do). Unless I'm misunderstanding the guitar bit, assume you mean fret with your right hand. If it's the other way around that's pretty cool, and I would think highly unusual, to fret with the hand that you don't write with. Actually, now I'm totally confused, I write w…

I mistakenly wrote "throw with left hand" but it's the right hand as the others on that line. As to guitar playing: Strumming with my right, holding the guitar to the left, like regular/right-handed guitar players. (Snowboarding, also regular, left foot in front).

Oh, ok, then we're the same :)

Left handed for the fine motor tasks (write, eat, ...) and right hand dominant for the rest (throw, bat, ...)

I never played (ice) hockey, but I believe pure lefties tend to shoot right handed, and vice versa for righties (i.e. with dominant hand on the top).

Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#37

Post by fian »

dwd wrote: post #29
masonic wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but play guitar and hockey right-handed It's normal that one shoots right in hockey when one is left-handed (hence the rarity of right shooters). It's counterintuitive when going from years if baseball to hockey for the first time.

If you play field hockey the stick is right-handed similar to a golf club. A guitar is potentially better for a left-hander if your left is more dexterous.

Field hockey (ie not ice hockey) sticks are only available in the right handed configuration for safety reasons:

https://www.livestrong.com/article/368589-why-are-all-field-...

Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#38

Post by fian »

gabelerner wrote: post #5
roryrjb wrote: post #2

"For Southpaws themselves — the affectionate term for lefties ", yeah maybe in the US but not where I'm from. Anyway, I write left handed and hold a pool cue left handed (and also I think I'm correct in saying this: I would hold a rifle left handed), but in every other way that I can think of, I am right handed. I've always thought that was weird, I mean at least compared to others. Anyone else have similar experienc…

left: - write - pool cue - brush teeth - scissors - spoon - fork right: - throw - punch - tennis/ping pong - knife i've always seen it as left=precision, right=force for me

I'm similar:

left: write, throw, pool cue, scissors, tennis, kick (soccer, AFL), shoot (archery, gun)

right: cricket, baseball

squash, knife/fork - somewhat ambidextrous. In squash I serve left handed but sometimes throw my racquet to my right hand mid point when the ball swaps sides (I'm not a good player - just social).

My right arm is definitely stronger than my left but less precise. I wonder if this is an artifact of living in a right-hand centric world. There are many things that are subtly biased to right handed use.

I am also right eye dominant which means I would theoretically be better off throwing and shooting right handed (better aim) but my body naturally coordinates these actions better as left handed. I guess I want the precision of coordination over the benefit of more accurate depth perception in aiming.

Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#39

Post by rzzzt »

cgriswald wrote: post #20

Scissors is a bad measure given that many scissors have an inherent handedness.

Yup, you push the blades of a "regular" pair of scissors away from each other with your left hand, and if it is sufficiently loose, it will just bend the material you want to cut instead of shearing it.

Re: What Left-Handedness Reveals About How the Brain Works (2014)

#40

Post by jstimpfle »

virtualwhys wrote: post #36
jstimpfle wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mistakenly wrote "throw with left hand" but it's the right hand as the others on that line. As to guitar playing: Strumming with my right, holding the guitar to the left, like regular/right-handed guitar players. (Snowboarding, also regular, left foot in front).

Oh, ok, then we're the same :) Left handed for the fine motor tasks (write, eat, ...) and right hand dominant for the rest (throw, bat, ...) I never played (ice) hockey, but I believe pure lefties tend to shoot right handed, and vice versa for righties (i.e. with dominant hand on the top).

That's interesting, I'd never noticed that the majority of hockey shots are with the blade to the left. One-handed things like clubs, rackets, paddles, and swords, I like them in my right hand while most right-handed writers seem to prefer the right hand. Makes sense. So being a right-handed thrower with a dominant left hand would be the last thing where we haven't a good explanation.
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