Health UK (Commonwealth Union) – In a predominantly right-handed world, being left-handed carries a distinct charm and challenges that make it a fascinating aspect of individuality. Approximately 10 percent of the world’s population is left-handed, and throughout history, left-handed individuals have been both revered and, at times, misunderstood. In various times, left-handed individuals faced discrimination, and even in the recent past, efforts were made to convert left-handers to use their right hand. Despite these challenges, many left-handed individuals have left an indelible mark on history, proving that being a southpaw is far from a hindrance.
For a long period, the association between left-handedness and superior spatial skills has been a subject of debate. However, recent findings from researchers at the University of York and University College London challenge this notion. Through a unique approach involving a video game called Sea Hero Quest, which collected user data and tracked navigational challenges, the researchers gathered information from over 420,000 participants across 41 countries. Their analysis revealed that left-handed individuals exhibited no significant advantage or disadvantage compared to their right-handed counterparts in spatial tasks. This sheds light on a longstanding discussion about the correlation between handedness and spatial abilities.
The human brain consists of two hemispheres, each controlling the opposite side of the body. In right-handed individuals, the left hemisphere dominates the right hand, while the reverse is true for left-handed individuals. Cognitive abilities often align with the dominance of one hemisphere, and debates about handedness and cognitive differences often involve the effects of brain lateralization on these abilities.
Spatial cognition, crucial for perceiving and navigating the physical environment, is a set of fundamental brain-based skills. Unlike many cognitive functions, spatial cognition does not clearly favor either hemisphere, making it challenging for scientists to establish a definitive link to handedness.
Researchers of the study indicated that previous inconclusive research hinted at left-handers potentially excelling in virtual and real games, with left-handed athletes being overrepresented in sports demanding rapid and accurate responses. However, cultural variations in handedness prevalence and the need for large participant samples posed challenges to conclusive research. By utilizing the Sea Hero Quest video game, the researchers successfully addressed these obstacles, providing valuable insights into the complex relationship between handedness and spatial skills.
“Recruiting participants in our study through a video game is a new approach, which allowed us to standardise a test across a very large sample. We found no reliable evidence for any difference in spatial ability between left and right handers, across all countries. Moreover, that large data sample allowed us to confirm that factors like age, gender and education don’t play a part in the relationship between hand preference and spatial ability,” added Dr Pablo Fernandez-Velasco, who is a researcher at the Department of Philosophy from the University of York, a co-lead of the study.
Participants in the study engaged with Sea Hero Quest, a free app designed to assess spatial navigational ability and initially created for dementia research purposes. The app prompts users to view a map displaying both their current position and goal locations. Their task is to navigate a boat swiftly towards these goals in a specified sequence. Only participants reaching level 11 in the game were included, and all participants provided informed in-app consent.
The left-handed individuals constituted an average of 9.94 percent of the participants, with a higher proportion of males using their left hand compared to females, aligning with previous findings in the general population.
Dr. Fernandez-Velasco indicated that their understanding of cognition is still evolving, and while the study points out that large-scale spatial skills remain unaffected by left and right-handedness, future research may uncover differences in navigation styles or preferences for different environments based on handedness.
