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13/09/2017

Results of a new study rule out all beliefs about the reason for being left-handed or right-handed, stating that it depends on the spinal cord and not the brain.

Scientists say that being left-handed depends on the spinal cord and not the hemispheres of the brain

Between 10 and 15 percent of the population (figures vary depending on the statistics we consult) is left-handed. Their existence is not determined by race, sex or geographical location.

The halo of mystery that surrounds those who write with the left hand has related them to painting, music and introversion, myths that science has been responsible for erasing in its path.

The explanation of why some people show dexterity with one hand (or one foot) and the rest with the opposite, or both, until now seemed an enigma. Although it was related for a long time to the result of the activity that registered the right or left hemisphere of the brain during the development of the fetus.

However, researchers at the Ruhr University in Bochum (Germany) point out in a published article the 1st. of February in the magazine eLife that, although this ability does develop in the maternal womb, its cause is not the brain, but the spinal cord.

Scientists found that at eight weeks of gestation there are already marked genetic differences between left and right-handed. The expression of certain genes in the spinal cord responsible for controlling the movement of the legs and arms is different for each of these groups.

Even so, it remains unexplained why we use one side of our body and the other the opposite: tracking the cause of this asymmetry, experts have found that the preference to use the left or right hand is not written from the beginning in the DNA, but depends on environmental factors (yet to be determined) produced during pregnancy.

That is, epigenetics influences: DNA is a chain of genes in which some are expressed and others are not, depending, in many cases, external stimuli. The explanation of laterality, according to experts, would be on how "these environmental influences differently affect the left or right spinal cord".

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