Left and right, a battle for the truth

Bad BBC News! Bad! Bad! The idea that the left hemisphere of the brain is solely responsible for language functions is wrong. The idea that the brains of all left-handers are functionally reversed is wrong. The idea that left-handers are likely to die younger or are more susceptible to disease is also wrong. The BBC news site manages to make two of these mistakes in reporting research from Nature Neuroscience.

The first two of these popular ideas, as ever, have a kernal of truth but are considerable simplifications of a complicated picture. The last idea is just plain wrong. If you don’t believe me then read Chris McManus’ excellent ‘Right Hand, Left Hand‘.

> From the (usually excellent) BBC News site


Get FREE email updates to PsyBlog

Hello, and welcome to PsyBlog. Thanks for dropping by.

This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

Get FREE email updates to PsyBlog. Join the mailing list.

Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book "Making Habits, Breaking Habits" (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks.