Left-handed people are able to think much more quickly when playing computer games and any athletic sport than are their right-handed friends, according to new research from Australia, reports the BBC News.
Why? Connections between the left and right sides of the brain are faster in lefties and that makes them more efficient when dealing with multiple stimuli. In addition, lefties are more adept at using both sides of their brain, something that is much harder for right-handed people to do.
The study: Led by Nick Cherbuin, the research team from the Australian National University recruited 80 right-handed volunteers and 20 lefties. They measured the transfer time between the two sides of the brain by measuring reaction times to white dots flashed to the left and right of a fixed cross, notes the BBC. This was then compared with how well participants were able to spot matching letters in the left and right visual fields, a task that required them to use both sides of their brain at the same time.
The results:
- In the right-handed volunteers, there was a strong correlation between how quickly information was transferred across the left and right hemispheres and how quickly people spotted matching letters, reports the BBC.
- No matter the speed, the strongly left-handed volunteers were far better than their right-handed counterparts at processing information across the two sides of the brain. The pattern wasn't as clear-cut for those who were only mildly left-handed.
The study findings were published in the medical journal Neuropsychology.
--From the Editors at Netscape
