A new study has given light to why some people are left handed and majority of people right handed.
Doctors previously thought that being right handed or left handed had to do with gene activity of the right and left hemisphere of the brain. New evidence however suggest otherwise.
Your handedness might actually be the result of a decision you take whilst still in your mother’s womb. According to ultrasound scans, you begin to prefer one over the other at around eight weeks into conception.
Researchers from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, who analysed gene expression in the spinal cord during the eighth to the twelfth week of pregnancy last year, believe that our hand usage preference originates in the spinal cord.
Both your arm and hand movements start in the motor cortex of your brain, which sends them signals via your spinal cord. It is through you spine that thoughts and commands become motion.
However, the motor cortex and the spinal cords are not connected at the time a fetus begins movement.
Therefore, it is believed that your spine makes the decision of which hand to use as it forwards your brain’s command.
