According to Health Day News on Sunday, a new study says genetics do not play a major role in determining whether people are right- or left-handed.
About 10 percent of people worldwide are left-handed, but the reasons why people favor one hand over the other remain unclear.
In an effort to learn more, researchers conducted genetic analyses of nearly 4,000 twins in the United Kingdom, but were unable to find a strong genetic factor in determining handedness.
Even though they didn't find a strong genetic influence on handedness, the researchers noted that it is widely believed that handedness is not just the result of choice or learning. Scientists at the Universities of Oxford, St Andrews, Bristol and the Max Plank Institute in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, found correlations between handedness and a network of genes involved in establishing left-right asymmetry in developing embryos.
Therefore, it's likely that genetic factors play at least a minor role in determining handedness. Scientists have noticed that being left-handed runs in families, so they're pretty sure your genes (DNA) influence whether or not you turn out a lefty.
Another recent study, published in the journal PLoS Genetics, has found that genetics do play a part in handedness, along with environment. John Armour of the University of Nottingham, co-author of the latest study, said in a university news release:
"It is likely that there are many relatively weak genetic factors in handedness, rather than any strong factors, and much bigger studies than our own will be needed to identify such genes unambiguously,"
Humans are the only species to show such a strong bias in handedness. The cause of this bias remains largely a mystery.
Like what you’ve read? Subscribe to receive (spam free) email notifications for top news articles.
Emily Sutherlin is also the Pregnancy Examiner.
Got something to say? Say it on Examiner by following this link to sign up.
©2013 Emily M. Sutherlin. All Rights Reserved.
