arndt@neavax.DEC (09/03/85)
Some interesting data has recently come to light on this whole issue. In the Aug.16th issue of SCIENCE Sandra F. Witelson reports on an actual anotomical difference in the brains of left handed and right handed people. Actually there are very few true left handed people - they are rare. What there is is right handed and mixed handed people. Anyway she studied the brains of persons observed and tested while alive who had signed permission for the examination of their brains when they died. She found a section of the brain - the corpus collosum or squishy spot - that was larger in mixed handed people. The first physical difference noted. This study is only a start and does not show that we left handers are smarter, prettier, smell nicer, people of vision and character and always a good shot. (But I'm sure this will be borne out in future studies!) (They sure can't spell better, eh? Anotomical indeed!) She says in the article, "A bigger corpus callosum may have more nerve fibers. This would mean there are more connections in the brain and more possibilities for (hemispheric) intercommunication." Non right handers may have a more even distribution of language and spatial functions that calls for more side-to-side communication along a larger corpus callosum. Now if they could only come up with the hard data that explains why women never speak in nouns! Stay tuned, Ken Arndt