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23/11/2019
A new study from the University of Oxford has identified for the first time regions of the genome associated with being left-handed in the general population and has related its effects to the architecture of the brain, as published in the journal Brain.
This research, led by researchers at the University of Oxford who were funded by the Medical Research Council, part of the UK Research and Innovation and Wellcome, links these genetic differences to the connections between areas of the brain related to language.
It was already known that genes have a partial role in determining the hand: twin studies have estimated that 25 percent of the variation in the hand can be attributed to the genes, but what genes in the gene have not been established. general population
The new study identified some of the genetic variants associated with being left-handed by analyzing the genomes of approximately 400,000 people in the UK Biobank, which included 38,332 left-handed people.
Of the four genetic regions they identified, three of them were associated with proteins involved in brain development and structure. In particular, these proteins were related to the microtubules, which are part of the scaffolding inside the cells, called the cytoskeleton, which guides their construction and functioning in the body.
Using detailed brain images of approximately 10,000 of these participants, the researchers discovered that these genetic effects were associated with differences in brain structure in white matter tracts, which contain the cytoskeleton of the brain that binds to language-related regions.
Dr. Akira Wiberg, a member of the Medical Research Council of the University of Oxford, who carried out the analyzes, explains that “about 90 percent of people are right-handed, and this has been the case for at least 10,000 years. Many researchers have studied the biological basis of the hand, but the use of large datasets from the Biobank of the United Kingdom has allowed us to shed much more light on the processes leading to the left hand.
«We discovered that, in left-handed participants, the language areas of the left and right sides of the brain communicate with each other in a more coordinated way. This raises the intriguing possibility for future research that left-handed people could have an advantage when it comes to performing verbal tasks, but it should be remembered that these differences were only seen as averages over a large number of people and not all left-handed people will be similar.
For her part, Professor Gwenaëlle Douaud, joint lead author of the study, at the Wellcome Center for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford, recalls that “many animals show left-right asymmetry in their development, such as snail shells that are rolled up left or right, and this is driven by genes for cell scaffolding, what we call the 'cytoskeleton'.
«For the first time in humans, we have been able to establish that these differences in the cytoskeleton associated with the hand are really visible in the brain. We know from other animals, such as snails and frogs, that these effects are caused by very early genetically guided events, which increases the tempting possibility that the characteristics of the future development of the hand begin to appear in the brain in the uterus ».
The researchers also found correlations between the genetic regions involved in being left-handed and a very slightly lower chance of having Parkinson's disease, but a very slightly higher chance of having schizophrenia.
However, the researchers point out that these links only correspond to a very small difference in the real number of people with these diseases, and are correlational, so they do not show cause and effect. Studying genetic links could help improve understanding of how these serious medical conditions develop.
Professor Dominic Furniss, lead author of the study, of the Department of Orthopedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Science at the University of Oxford, explains that “throughout history, being left-handed has been considered unfortunate or even malicious. In fact, this is reflected in the words for left and right in many languages. For example, in English ‘right’ also means correct or proper, in French ‘gauche’ means left and clumsy ».
“Here we have shown that left-handedness is a consequence of the biology of brain development, partly driven by the complex interaction of many genes. It is part of the rich tapestry of what makes us human, ”he concludes.
Text: EP
This research, led by researchers at the University of Oxford who were funded by the Medical Research Council, part of the UK Research and Innovation and Wellcome, links these genetic differences to the connections between areas of the brain related to language.
It was already known that genes have a partial role in determining the hand: twin studies have estimated that 25 percent of the variation in the hand can be attributed to the genes, but what genes in the gene have not been established. general population
The new study identified some of the genetic variants associated with being left-handed by analyzing the genomes of approximately 400,000 people in the UK Biobank, which included 38,332 left-handed people.
Of the four genetic regions they identified, three of them were associated with proteins involved in brain development and structure. In particular, these proteins were related to the microtubules, which are part of the scaffolding inside the cells, called the cytoskeleton, which guides their construction and functioning in the body.
Using detailed brain images of approximately 10,000 of these participants, the researchers discovered that these genetic effects were associated with differences in brain structure in white matter tracts, which contain the cytoskeleton of the brain that binds to language-related regions.
Dr. Akira Wiberg, a member of the Medical Research Council of the University of Oxford, who carried out the analyzes, explains that “about 90 percent of people are right-handed, and this has been the case for at least 10,000 years. Many researchers have studied the biological basis of the hand, but the use of large datasets from the Biobank of the United Kingdom has allowed us to shed much more light on the processes leading to the left hand.
«We discovered that, in left-handed participants, the language areas of the left and right sides of the brain communicate with each other in a more coordinated way. This raises the intriguing possibility for future research that left-handed people could have an advantage when it comes to performing verbal tasks, but it should be remembered that these differences were only seen as averages over a large number of people and not all left-handed people will be similar.
For her part, Professor Gwenaëlle Douaud, joint lead author of the study, at the Wellcome Center for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford, recalls that “many animals show left-right asymmetry in their development, such as snail shells that are rolled up left or right, and this is driven by genes for cell scaffolding, what we call the 'cytoskeleton'.
«For the first time in humans, we have been able to establish that these differences in the cytoskeleton associated with the hand are really visible in the brain. We know from other animals, such as snails and frogs, that these effects are caused by very early genetically guided events, which increases the tempting possibility that the characteristics of the future development of the hand begin to appear in the brain in the uterus ».
The researchers also found correlations between the genetic regions involved in being left-handed and a very slightly lower chance of having Parkinson's disease, but a very slightly higher chance of having schizophrenia.
However, the researchers point out that these links only correspond to a very small difference in the real number of people with these diseases, and are correlational, so they do not show cause and effect. Studying genetic links could help improve understanding of how these serious medical conditions develop.
Professor Dominic Furniss, lead author of the study, of the Department of Orthopedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Science at the University of Oxford, explains that “throughout history, being left-handed has been considered unfortunate or even malicious. In fact, this is reflected in the words for left and right in many languages. For example, in English ‘right’ also means correct or proper, in French ‘gauche’ means left and clumsy ».
“Here we have shown that left-handedness is a consequence of the biology of brain development, partly driven by the complex interaction of many genes. It is part of the rich tapestry of what makes us human, ”he concludes.
Text: EP
