Left Handed Since In The Womb

Left handed people have been the subject of research for few decades now. Scientists are simply intrigued by the difference in preference of the hand that people use in carrying out the most delicate manual tasks. This article is about the talk about some of the most recent developments in the left handed research and the factors that might influence the choice of the dominant hand.

Scientists have been showing for a while now that there is a connection between the choice of a dominant hand and the brain. Also, it has been shown that left handedness or right handedness on the other side could be genetically transmissible. There seems to be a gene that can carry the preference for a dominant hand which is in many cases the right hand. However, a more recent scientific research shows that the preference for a particular hand may very well appear since the time spent in the mother’s womb.

Fetuses were studied at the Queen University in Belfast and the study also involved observing the babies after they were born. The first results showed a preference for a dominant hand since 10 weeks in the womb. This might have great impacts on the way that people regard left handers and their characteristics as for a long time it was thought that the preference for a hand is determined by an external factor. Thus, this study may confirm that individuals have a hand preference since a very young age and it contradicts previous studies claiming that the preference for a hand developed around the age of three. The study also made it clear that most fetuses and thus individuals have a preference for the right hand. During the study, 60 fetuses sucked their right thumb in the womb and 15 their left thumb. After birth, about 60% of the babies who had sucked their left thumbs kept a preference for the left hand as their dominant hand whereas the rest changed it to their right hands.