LEFT HANDED

 Zurdo is an adjective that alludes to that linked to the left hand. In general, the concept is used to describe the person who has a natural predisposition to use the extremities on the left side of the body.

For example: "Diego Armando Maradona and Lionel Messi, two of the best footballers in all of history, are left-handed" , "In ancient times, teachers forced left-handed children to write with their right hands" , "It is difficult for me to use this clamp because I'm left-handed ” .

It called zurdera to the condition of the left - hander. The left-hander is considered a phenotype : a specific manifestation of a genotype according to a certain environment. The genotype , for its part, is constituted by the genetic material that an organism harbors in its DNA .

Left-handers, on a social level, are a minority : the majority of the population is right-handed (they tend to use the right side of the body ). Those who can perform fine motor tasks with both sides are known as ambidextrous.

This situation places the left-handed individual in a disadvantageous situation in many respects, since most tools, utensils and structures are designed for right-handers. In some cases, special left-handed editions are produced (such as musical instruments, to name one case).

For video game lovers, for example, the normal thing is that there is no adequate control option to the predisposition of each user, but that all must adapt to a single scheme. When in 2006 the Japanese company Nintendo launched its console called Wii , it opened the doors to a new era in which it would be possible to divide the controls into two parts, each of which can be used with either of the two hands. , something very appreciated by left-handed people.

Although in the past being left-handed had negative consequences in society, already from the student stage, one of the myths that are currently held regarding this laterality is that it goes hand in hand with superior intelligence. In other words, these individuals went from being considered retarded to gifted, but how much truth is there in this new conception of the left-hander?

It is worth mentioning that many simply cling to the list of outstanding lefties throughout history, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Darwin, Newton, Marie Curie, Einstein, Bill Gates, Joan of Arc and Marilyn Monroe; Of course, that cast also includes Hitler, Bin Laden and Vladimir Putin, which is not enough reason to go from despising to admiring lefties, but it is necessary to investigate their true relationships with intellectual development .

One of the most common statements is that left-handers use the right hemisphere of the brain more than right-handers, and that this results in better performance of spatial functions. However, the scientific evidence has not been satisfactory to back it up.

With regard to the performance of left-handers in the visual arts, music or the exact sciences, among other areas, the examinations carried out so far have not collected enough results to ensure that right-handers are below. In sports, on the other hand, many of the world's leading figures are left-handed ; Whether or not there is a connection between physical ability and laterality, this data cannot be denied at the statistical level.

In the context of politics, people with left-wing ideology (which focuses on social equality ) are called left-handed - usually in a derogatory way : "I am not going to vote for that left-hander" , "The mayor speaks like a left-hander but he governs as a conservative ” .