Can People Be Neither Right Nor Left Handed?

[symbolipoint]

TL;DR Summary

Is neither being right handed or left handed possible?

I have sometimes been curious about this. Some people are right handed; and some people are left handed; and a few people may be ambidextrous. Can some people be NOT right or left handed, like being neither right nor left handed?

Not sure if for "Biology and Medical" or "Intelligence".

 

[DaveC426913]

Unless they literally can't manage to hold a ball or a 2B pencil in their hand, they can't be neither. They're ambidextrous.

Ambidextrous means 'can use either hand with equal ease'.
But there's no reason it can't mean 'can use neither hand with equal ease'.

 

[BillTre]

Here are some possible alternatives:

• person with no hands from birth
• person with no hands, but right or left handed until hands gone
• right handed, not right hand
• left handed, no left hand

there as also some people who are right handed for some things and left handed for others (throws right, bats left)

 

[DaveC426913]

there as also some people who are right handed for some things and left handed for others (throws right, bats left)

That's me. Writes left-handed; sports: neither-handed but sucks slightly less right-handed.

Also Gerald Ford. Left-handed sitting down; right-handed standing up.

 

[symbolipoint]

BillTre,
I intended the assumption the possibly hypothetical persons do definitely have both hands; not missing any.

DaveC426913,
I see some possible meaning or 'answer' here:

That's me. Writes left-handed; sports: neither-handed but sucks slightly less right-handed.

Also Gerald Ford. Left-handed sitting down; right-handed standing up.

 

[symbolipoint]

That's me. Writes left-handed; sports: neither-handed but sucks slightly less right-handed.

Also Gerald Ford. Left-handed sitting down; right-handed standing up.

Here is something, which probably does not fit within the question which I asked, but not sure; but it is this:

I use fork in dominant hand and butter or steak knife in the non-dominant hand and cut food according to this arrangement.
BUT I use non-dominant hand to stabilize a food sample and use a knife in the dominant hand to cut or slice pieces of the food sample.

 

[Godot_]

Let's do a quick experiment: Learn how easily you can write mirror script.

Take a pen in each hand, sit down in front of two pieces of paper, which should be secured against sliding away. Write a word with your normal writing hand, and don't suppress the other, just move it along in unison.

Look at the result, report.

 

[symbolipoint]

Let's do a quick experiment: Learn how easily you can write mirror script.

Take a pen in each hand, sit down in front of two pieces of paper, which should be secured against sliding away. Write a word with your normal writing hand, and don't suppress the other, just move it along in unison.

Look at the result, report.

Try describe that again. It may be very interesting but I do not completely understand your instructions.

 

[DaveC426913]

Try describe that again. It may be very interesting but I do not completely understand your instructions.

This (but side-by-side):

word with your normal writing hand, and don't suppress the other, just move it along in unison.

I think you mean reflect it, don't you?
Otherwise it's not really mirror script.

 

[berkeman]

Try describe that again. It may be very interesting but I do not completely understand your instructions.

No, no! please don't. I barfed from vertigo when I tried it. No fun...

 

[berkeman]

Also Gerald Ford. Left-handed sitting down; right-handed standing up.

Really? Link?

So he could sign bills into law when seated using his left hand, but if he tried to do it standing at a lecturn, the bills would have been declared null and void because of the handwriting match problems with the signature?

 

[DaveC426913]

word with your normal writing hand, and don't suppress the other, just move it along in unison.

I think you mean reflect it, don't you?
Otherwise it;s not really mirror script.

 

[DaveC426913]

Really? Link?

So he could sign bills into law when seated using his left hand, but if he tried to do it standing at a lecturn, the bills would have been declared null and void because of the handwriting match problems with the signature?

Nah. Just a cryptic way of saying
Writes left-handed; plays sports right-handed.

Heard it as a young man. Dont even know if its still true.

 

[pinball1970]

Summary: Is neither being right handed or left handed possible?

I have sometimes been curious about this. Some people are right handed; and some people are left handed; and a few people may be ambidextrous. Can some people be NOT right or left handed, like being neither right nor left handed?

Not sure if for "Biology and Medical" or "Intelligence".

That's me. Writes left-handed; sports: neither-handed but sucks slightly less right-handed.

Also Gerald Ford. Left-handed sitting down; right-handed standing up.

Left handed is about 1 in 7 ambidextrous is rarer and then you have 'cross dominance' which is task A left handed task B right handed.

More issues for learning if a child is ambidextrous or cross.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/81322/mixed-handed-children-more-likely-have-mental/

EDIT: Stats/studies suggest

1 in 10 Left handed

1 in a 100 Ambidextrous

1 in a 100 cross dominance or mix handedness

 

[Godot_]

Try describe that again. It may be very interesting but I do not completely understand your instructions.

Best works with a black- or whiteboard... ...but:

Place a big sheet of paper (or two pads) in front of you. Take two pens or pencils, one in each hand, and grab them as you would for writing. In the inferior hand, grab it just like you do in your dominant hand.

Now write a word with your dominant hand, and move the inferior hand along. If you're right-handed, start in the middle, if you're left handed, start at the edges.

Do not suppress movement of your inferior hand (which you'd normally do...). it might not work immediately, and when I do that for shows, I also have to take a breath or two before starting to write, but once you got it, voilà,...

Spoiler

The inferior hand should just tag along, using the same muscle groups in the same sequence as the dominant hand - thus writing mirror script. And while the letters might look a wee skewed, as the muscular modulation is less trained, this normally should yield legible handwriting.
Reason: The mechanical part of the task of writing is triggered from the premotor cortex and "saved" there as a series of movements, which always are repeated in the same sequence. This is called "procedural memory". So in a timed cascade, it activates the motoneurons in the motor cortex that control the muscles in your hand and forearm to make these move.
(Almost) Every neuron in the motor cortex sends the impulse down to the corresponding motric neurons in the spinal cord. And it also sends some impulse to contralateral neurons, both on the cerebral as on the spinal levels. So when you relax the contralateral inhibition, it triggers the same move on the other side, too - which normally is suppressed.
And as the muscles are arranged in a mirrored fashion, the result of those movements also is mirrored. Presto, bingo! Mirror script.

This (but side-by-side):
View attachment 301939I think you mean reflect it, don't you?
Otherwise it's not really mirror script.

Exactly. And re. "reflect": s.a. in the spoiler.

No, no! please don't. I barfed from vertigo when I tried it. No fun...

This is an unusual result. I do hope you didn't actually barf, but it might really plausibly cause vertigo...
...closing your eyes when doing the stunt might or might not prevent that.

 

[mfb]

I removed three off-topic posts that were the result of an accidental quote from another thread.

 

[Godot_]

Here is something, which probably does not fit within the question which I asked, but not sure; but it is this:

I use fork in dominant hand and butter or steak knife in the non-dominant hand and cut food according to this arrangement.
BUT I use non-dominant hand to stabilize a food sample and use a knife in the dominant hand to cut or slice pieces of the food sample.

If you're left-handed, this might have a plausible explanation, at least with the steak knife...

Bread, steak and other serrated knives are typically honed from the right hand side. Like this: " |/ " when viewed from the handle. This places the flat side against the bread (or steak) and thus makes cutting off straight, even slices way easier.

This practice might or might not have led you to use the same hand (right, if you're left-handed) with symmetrically honed knives.

When using the knife only to push or stop food, this doesn't matter.

Also, there are at least left-handed serrated bread knives with a " \| "-edge. They might not be available in your supermarket, but they don't cost a fortune.

 

[DaveC426913]

Best works with a black- or whiteboard... ...but:

Place a big sheet of paper (or two pads) in front of you. Take two pens or pencils, one in each hand, and grab them as you would for writing. In the inferior hand, grab it just like you do in your dominant hand.

Now write a word with your dominant hand, and move the inferior hand along. If you're right-handed, start in the middle, if you're left handed, start at the edges.

Do not suppress movement of your inferior hand (which you'd normally do...). it might not work immediately, and when I do that for shows, I also have to take a breath or two before starting to write, but once you got it, voilà,...

Spoiler

The inferior hand should just tag along, using the same muscle groups in the same sequence as the dominant hand - thus writing mirror script. And while the letters might look a wee skewed, as the muscular modulation is less trained, this normally should yield legible handwriting.
Reason: The mechanical part of the task of writing is triggered from the premotor cortex and "saved" there as a series of movements, which always are repeated in the same sequence. This is called "procedural memory". So in a timed cascade, it activates the motoneurons in the motor cortex that control the muscles in your hand and forearm to make these move.
(Almost) Every neuron in the motor cortex sends the impulse down to the corresponding motric neurons in the spinal cord. And it also sends some impulse to contralateral neurons, both on the cerebral as on the spinal levels. So when you relax the contralateral inhibition, it triggers the same move on the other side, too - which normally is suppressed.
And as the muscles are arranged in a mirrored fashion, the result of those movements also is mirrored. Presto, bingo! Mirror script.

Fer cryin' out loud - all those instructions and you still made the exact same omission!

'Move the inferior hand "along' - in which direction? The same direction or the mirrored direction??

 

[Mark44]

"I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous."

 

[pinball1970]

"I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous."

Sinister...

 

[pinball1970]

Just means a leftie @BillTre in Latin

 

[Mark44]

Just means a leftie @BillTre in Latin

Sinister -- left
Dexter -- right

 

[DaveC426913]

"Two wrongs don't make a right.
... but three lefts do!"
- DaveC426913

 

[pinball1970]

"Two wrongs don't make a right.
... but three lefts do!"
- DaveC426913

I absolutely don't get that but I've upvoted it anyway

 

[DaveC426913]

I absolutely don't get that but I've upvoted it anyway

Three left turns is counterclockwise 270 degrees.

 

[Godot_]

Fer cryin' out loud - all those instructions and you still made the exact same omission!

'Move the inferior hand "along' - in which direction? The same direction or the mirrored direction??

Just do what comes naturally... ...do _not_ force it. Don't try to control it. Just feel the breeze...

 

[berkeman]

Just do what comes naturally... ...do _not_ force it. Don't try to control it. Just feel the breeze...

https://drstankovich.com/see-the-ball-be-the-ball-imagery-tips-for-sport-success/

 

[Rocketdad]

Summary: Is neither being right handed or left handed possible?

I have sometimes been curious about this. Some people are right handed; and some people are left handed; and a few people may be ambidextrous. Can some people be NOT right or left handed, like being neither right nor left handed?

Not sure if for "Biology and Medical" or "Intelligence".

Write right, throw left, bat left, shoot rifle right, bow and arrow left, jump shot right, hook shot left, can consciously change dominant eye. Sort of seems like whatever hand I started with, I stayed with and the other hand never got it. Got hassled as a kid because I tied my shoes "backward" (mirror image). (I also thought I was an alien as a kid!)

 

[Tom.G]

On rare occassions my wife will play a game of pool. When she is faced with an awkward shot, rather than grab the bridge or sit on the table edge, she just switches hands when shooting. When I first noticed and commented on it, her bewildered response was essentially 'Of course! What else would I do?'

It may take a couple of occurences to be noticed, but the look on an opponent's face is often ...uhmm... notable (often a combination of surprise and 'Oh Sh.t, what did I get into.')

On another note, my sister, in the field of Fine Arts, is dyslexic and can naturally write mirror image script or printed with either hand.

I'm strongly right-handed and left-eyed myself.

Humans are quite a diverse species!

 

[symbolipoint]

"Two wrongs don't make a right.
... but three lefts do!"
- DaveC426913

Yes. I see. But that is for right angle turns only (that's "right" as in 90 degrees ; not right versus left for direction or handedness.)

 

[DaveC426913]

Yes. I see. But that is for right angle turns only (that's "right" as in 90 degrees ; not right versus left for direction or handedness.)

As a city driver of 40+ years, it never occurred to me that there was any ambiguity in my clever saying.

No wonder it never got the appreciative nods I expected.

 

[Mark44]

Yes. I see. But that is for right angle turns only (that's "right" as in 90 degrees ; not right versus left for direction or handedness.)

You're overthinking this. The "lefts" in what Dave said, "Three lefts make a right" are by implication 90° angles. If someone tells you that you need to drive 5 blocks and then turn left, it would be very unusual to interpret this to not mean 90° to the left.

As a city driver of 40+ years, it never occurred to me that there was any ambiguity in my clever saying.

Nor did I, but I doubt that it is "your" saying.

 

[pinball1970]

You're overthinking this. The "lefts" in what Dave said, "Three lefts make a right" are by implication 90° angles. If someone tells you that you need to drive 5 blocks and then turn left, it would be very unusual to interpret this to not mean 90° to the left.

Nor did I, but I doubt that it is "your" saying.

I've said this to @fresh_42 also, this is what happens when a seemingly innocuous question falls into the hands of a mathematician!

 

[DaveC426913]

Nor did I, but I doubt that it is "your" saying.

I came up with it on my own, I've never heard anyone else say it, though that's no guarantee someone else didnt invent it elsewhen.

 

[bob012345]

Here are some possible alternatives:

• person with no hands from birth
• person with no hands, but right or left handed until hands gone
• right handed, not right hand
• left handed, no left hand

there as also some people who are right handed for some things and left handed for others (throws right, bats left)

I gotta hand it to you... you came up with all the possibilities.

 

[bob012345]

Any differences in typing between RH and LH people?

 

[DaveC426913]

Any differences in typing between RH and LH people?

You betcha!

 

[berkeman]

You betcha!

Do you just mean the use of the Space Bar and Shift Key? Or do you have something else in mind?

After all, we all have to use our left hand for Carriage Return.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Carriage_return

 

[DaveC426913]

Do you just mean the use of the Space Bar and Shift Key? Or do you have something else in mind?

After all, we all have to use our left hand for Carriage Return.

View attachment 302285
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Carriage_return

There's lots of little things. Since I've always been left-handed, it's actually difficult to say what's harder for me than for you. (Took me into my adulthood before I learned that scissors don't raise welts on the hands of right-handers.)

• Some applications use the two Ctrl keys differently. To operate the correct one, I have to cross my arms.
• The touchpad on my laptop is shifted toward the left. I disabled it completely for a while, so I wouldn't keep scrolling the cursor while I'm typing.
• The mouse buttons are the wrong way.

 

[berkeman]

The mouse buttons are the wrong way.

There is a config setting on you PC to swap the mouse buttons...

 

[Godot_]

...using the NumPad should be easier for right-handed people. But spacebar? Right or left thumb - even I as a pretty much right handed person do it both ways. Where's the difficulty / difference?

 

[Tom.G]

(Took me into my adulthood before I learned that scissors don't raise welts on the hands of right-handers.)

Inspect carefully, it turns out there are two versions of left handed scissors.

Right handed scissors are assembled with the blade that is on top of the work positioned to the right during use. That allows you do see exactly where you are cutting.

Some left handed scissors just change the handles for a more comfortable fit without changing the blade overlap. This positions the top blade to block your view of the cut line.

I hear that is rather annoying for lefties.

 

[DaveC426913]

the handles for a more comfortable fit without changing the blade overlap. This positions the top blade to block your view of the cut line

It's worse than that. It often won't cut because the angle is wrong. It just twists the paper.

 

[Jodo]

Here are some possible alternatives:

• person with no hands from birth
• person with no hands, but right or left handed until hands gone
• right handed, not right hand
• left handed, no left hand

there as also some people who are right handed for some things and left handed for others (throws right, bats left)

I am right handed. I play guitar right handed but I play drums left handed. Trying to do either vice versa results in a sonic mess or personal body damage.

 

[pinball1970]

I am right handed. I play guitar right handed but I play drums left handed. Trying to do either vice versa results in a sonic mess or personal body damage.

Same as me but I am left handed.
I write left (hence lefty), use a mouse, play pool hold a fork and drum that way.
Guitar right, badminton, cricket.
I play chess left handed, seems odd but I just tried it. Right hand on the table and move the piece with my left.
I am right footed (football not bass drum)
Not surprising I am at times completely baffled by the universe and everything in it.

 

[DaveC426913]

Here are some possible alternatives:

• person with no hands from birth
• person with no hands, but right or left handed until hands gone
• right handed, not right hand
• left handed, no left hand

there as also some people who are right handed for some things and left handed for others (throws right, bats left)

I feel this is still reinforcing archaic binary stereotypes.You clearly have a hand-centric bias.

What about handed-fluid?
And why limit everyone to just two?

 

[berkeman]

And why limit everyone to just two?

https://www.sciencealert.com/images...imming_arms_stock_cover_getty_images_1024.jpg

 

[BillTre]

number of squid arms = number of octopus + 2

 

[berkeman]

number of squid arms = number of octopus + 2

TIL

 

[berkeman]

number of squid arms = number of octopus + 2

I don't like octopi. Not their fault, but when I'm skimming along the bottom free diving and all of a sudden a rock turns into an octopus with tentacles darting out at me and ink in the water, that is very startling for somebody not carrying any extra air!