Being an Honors student, I’m always up for doing anything for extra credit.  So when my into to psychology teacher mentioned there was a guest speaker coming on a Wednesday afternoon, I was marking it on my calendar before I even knew what it was about.

Dr. Stephen Christman came to Stockton College to shed some light on handedness in people.  He discussed the physiological, genetic, evolutionary, and behavioral aspects that affect the degree of handedness.  Most people think you are either right-handed or left-handed.  However, Dr. Christman claimed it’s really either mixed handedness or strong handedness.  Mixed handedness is when you use your opposite hand for at least one activity like brushing your hair, opening a jar, or throwing a ball.  Most people are strong handed on their right because the left hemisphere, accountable for things like motor control, is responsible for the right side of the body.  In people who are mixed handed, their brain hemispheres work together.  That is possible because their corpus callosums are larger so information can travel from one hemisphere to the other.  Mixed handed people are, therefore, good at tasks that require the hands to independently do different things at the same time like playing the piano. Those who are strong handed have smaller corpus callosums. Genetically, there are no genes that depict handedness.  It is determined by the connectivity of the brain’s hemispheres, the activation of the right hemisphere, and how you body decides to work when you need to perform a task.

I found it this presentation to be very compelling.  Christman changed my perspective on handedness.  It’s really interesting how our minds and bodies work in something as simple as what hand we use for a task.