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I have found this topic very interesting for a long time.
Here is a Twin study on cerebral asymmetry as it relates to right vs. left handed-ness (as well as some interesting findings on the less talked about symmetry or ambidextrous). I don't have enough posts yet in order to include a link. The name of the study to find it:
"Heretability of lobar brain volumes in twins support genetic models of cerebral laterality and handedness"
According to this study, I would fit into the RL cohort (Left-Right discordant or in other words swayed toward not being overtly asymmetrical and thusly with a favoured/stronger left hemisphere, yet not becoming fully LL/left-handed, either).
I write with my right hand and perform many other functions with my right hand, but at the same time, I am also fairly ambidextrous as well as preferring and performing better with my left hand/side of the body in sports and other motor activities.
It seems the vast majority of humans develop more of the left hemisphere and end up with lateral asymmetry (RR), whilst a minority (LL and RL) for some reason get "randomized" or less asymmetrical brains. The jury seems to be still out on how this happens.
As per genetics and potential heretability factors, this is fascinating. I have two daughters - one right-handed and the other left-handed. My left-handed daughter fits all the study/reports that correlate higher artistic-spatial ability. In fact one area (architecture) in which is often cited as a higher than average "lefty" skill is exactly what she does.
My Dad was like that and most of his brothers. I always thought he was a lefty who was just forced to use his right hand for writing, but maybe not. In golf, soccer, working with tools of any kind, he was a lefty. He also was very artistic, sculpted when he was young, always wanted to be an architect, and was excellent at math.
My brother is like him. I'm like my mother, so right dominant that my left hand is almost useless, although I played piano pretty well when I was younger, which might require being a bit ambidextrous?
For me, I know I wasn't forcibly switched in school. I am just like your dad. It does come in handy! :grin: I also wanted to become an architect when I was young, but ended up as an artistic director and am always creating and constructing something. Kind of close.
Perhaps, musical aptitude also has strong elements of left brain language/linear cognition, at least as far as reading the music and making sense of it. My right-handed daughter is like you - very left-brain dominant. She played the drums when younger and did very well at it, which seems counter-intuitive as per motor skills when it comes to the drums?
It is indeed handy being ambidextrous. My Dad favored his left foot in soccer, but could switch to his right!
You're right. I was very good at reading music and reading words before that, but still you have to be a tiny bit ambidextrous to play piano: your left and right hands are doing completely different things.
Real musical talent is different. My son barely reads the music; he can hear even a long piece once and reproduce it, whether on piano, trombone, or guitar. My father's family is like that. I could never do it. Yet, strangely, like my mother's family my son can't sing on pitch to save his life. At least I can do that.
Amazing how these traits pass and recombine.
Coincidentally, a big study on left-handedness was published using the U.K. biobank data which tried to confirm genetic links for it, but found only one possible marker. Perhaps something in utero might also affect it?
See:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/10/19/447177
I'm an "everything" lefty when it comes to coordination (terrible I might add, I literally can't play the guitar and I have tried), writing, and sports. I've never taken a good stab at visual arts because I don't find it interesting, but I find myself brainstorming creative writing all the time. I've adapted to the world of math, science, programming and even learning new verbal languages because that's what interests me, despite all of them being "right" tendencies.
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