Is left handed an inherited trait?

Question

Please provide some extra information. Thanks!

Answer 1

Left-handedness occurs in about 8% of the human population. It is more likely in a child if one or both parents are left-handed, and since adopted children do not show similar links this is taken as evidence of a genetic rather than an environmental origin. However, environmental factors may influence hand preference: there is some evidence that a difficult birth may delay the establishment of preferential hand use and slightly increase the probability of left-handedness.

More detailed info here
http://www.nurseminerva.co.uk/handedne.htm

Answer 2

Yes it is. Left handers (like me) are right brainers too and right brain'edness is inherited. Unless you get a lobotomy you can't change that. Whoever said you can choose to be left or right handed is absolutely wrong on this. The reason why SOME people think this is in certain cultures lefties are forced to conform to become righties due to social pressures and the negative stigma attached to it. Even if you "conform" you will still have a tendency to favor your left hand naturally but if you have it beat out of you from birth, because your parents are idiots, then yeah of course you're going to become right handed instead but that STILL doesn't change your natural tendency to have better coordination with your left hand. Now if you are born ambidextrous that is a gift in itself but this too is not something you can choose... Otherwise schools would be teaching it just like learning to read and write because it would be such an important skill to have if it could just be learned.

In fact, if you truly believe you can train yourself to be ambidextrous then try using your left hand instead of your right and see if you can become left handed. You'll quickly find out it just doesn't work that way.

Also, just because you have someone in your immediate family that is a lefty doesn't necessarily mean that you or your offspring will pick up the trait. If it is not a dominant gene in your family then chances are it won't get passed on. Same with anything else like eye color, shape of your nose, or the color of your hair. Nonetheless it is still an inherited trait but rarely is anything 100% when it comes to passing on genes.

Answer 3

In some cases it is inherited but in others, it is caused by other factors such as accidents and diseases that affect which side of the brain is dominant. Also it could be an adaptation to a physical limitation of what would have been the dominant hand, i.e. the use of the left hand because the right hand has been damaged in some way.

Answer 4

No left handed is not an inherited trait it is just the hand you used the most, lots of times there is no one else in the family left-handed but you.

Answer 5

Yes, it is, but it is not simply a recessive vs. dominant inheritance. According to a recent publication by Amar Klar, the inherited trait is one that causes appropriate assymmetry in early embryogenesis. People who are dominant for this trait have a functioning copy of a DNA modifying enzyme (I think), and these people always develop right-handedness. People who are recessive, and don't have this enzyme, develop their hand-preference randomly - so, some are left-handed, and some are right-handed. This pattern makes it hard to identify people who are recessive for symmetry because some are right-handed. Klar also correlated the same trait to the direction of the scalp hair-whorl - the direction of the rotation of your hair growth on your head, clockwise vs. counter-clockwise.

Answer 6

Genes play a very minute part in lef-handedness. It's actually how the brain developes during the foetal stage. Environmental factor should also be taken into consideration. In fact, a lot of right-handed couples ended up with left-handed children.

Answer 7

If you're interested in this subject I recommend the book mentioned below, one of the best books I ever read. Or just google on
mcmanus left

His model looks like this:
There is a particular gene which influences lefthandedness in the following way:
RR-genotype: 100% chance of being right-handed
Rr: 75% chance
rr: 50% chance

So if both parents are left-handed, the child has a chance of between 50% and 75% of being right-handed.
If one parent in right-handed and one left-handed, the child has a chance of between 50% and 87.5% of being right-handed.
If both are right-handed, the chance of the child being right-handed is between 50% and 100%.

Answer 8

Its Possible. Supposedly Polar Bears are predominately Left Handed.

Answer 9

Left Handed Genetic Trait

Answer 10

yes. it is a genetic trait. someone responded that they are the only leftie in their family but like anything in genetics its always a gamble. also......i had a friend who showed strong left handed traits in infancy so his parents, wanting him to have it easier, sort of trained him to be right handed...so while he was born naturally to be left handed he could do pretty much anything with both hands. there are probably a number of lefties out there who actually use their right hands for things out of convinence to a society dominated by right handed folks.