# @science on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DOcA2Rqk_B0
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34396713-science-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/142f68f21e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-09-10T22:00:35.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Science 🧬 (@science) — https://gondola.cc/science

## Caption

Lyam Bailey, who studies neuroscience and psychology at Dalhousie University, in a 2020 interview, said that this isn’t an accident. He described it as a “widespread convention” that stems from the idea that left-handed people will “mess up” the data. Neuroimaging brain research uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI or fMRI) to capture pictures of active regions of the brain. ⁠
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Researchers want subjects that are comparable to each other so they can average their data and draw conclusions about whatever variable they are looking at. But lefties’ brains are different enough that researchers wish to exclude them to reduce data irregularities.⁠
The brain is divided into two hemispheres that aren’t perfectly symmetrical in form or function. Because of this lateralization, some brain functions are dominated by one-half, especially when it comes to motor skills and language processing.⁠
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In the 1800s, researchers discovered that the right brain hemisphere controls the left side of the body and vice versa. When later researchers found that, in 95% of right-handed people, the left brain controls language skills, they assumed that the opposite must occur in left-handers. It turns out that is not true at all. Lefties have “atypical language processing” — they are a wild card.⁠
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In about 75% of left-handed people, the left brain controls language skills. So — to be precise — the vast majority of left-handers also have left-sided language processing, but at a lower proportion than right-handers. That finding motivated a lot of people to screen out left-handers — an exclusion that continues today.⁠
Bailey advocated for including left-handed people in research. He said that they won’t negatively impact the data. But deeply entrenched habits are hard to break.⁠
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Source: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the Donders Institute in Nijmegen⁠
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#lefthand #hands #biology #science

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science, lefthand, biology, hands

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