Surprisingly, a left-handed gene was discovered

 Researchers at the University of Oxford believe they have identified a genetic reason for being left-handed. Interestingly, the same changes in DNA are also associated with different brain function, especially when it comes to speech.

About 1 in 10 people are left-handed. Until now, it has been difficult to determine the specific reason why someone is better with the right or left hand. The study of twins, which focused in particular on the analysis of the DNA of left-handed people, was to help in this. Today it is known that left-handedness can be hereditary. What's more, a team of researchers from the University of Oxford believe that left-handed people may show better verbal skills.

To conduct the study, data from the British Biobank were used, in which approx. 400,000 people registered the full sequence of their genetic code. Just over 38,000 of them are left-handed. Conclusions on the analysis of the DNA structure of left-handed people were published in the scientific journal Brain.

The DNA changes that distinguish left-handed people from right-handed people arose in the complex cytoskeleton that organizes the inside of the body's cells. They occur not only in the DNA of humans, but also in many simpler organisms, such as snails, whose shell turns to the left. In humans, the cytoskeleton also alters the structure of white matter in the brain.

It has been shown that left-handed people have a stronger connection between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, as well as a better developed area of ​​the brain responsible for speech. For this reason, scientists speculate that left-handed people may have more advanced verbal skills, although this has yet to be proven in any separate study. The bad news for left-handed people is that they have a slightly higher risk of developing schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.

In many cultures, left-handedness is a cause for stigmatization, although this is slowly changing. Research showing that being right-handed or left-handed is purely a random outcome, partly determined by genetics, certainly helps.