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Left-handed or right-handed: it can be determined before the baby is born
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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A group of specialists from Italy have discovered a method that allows one to find out exactly whether a child will be right-handed or left-handed. Moreover, this can be done even before the baby is born.
Experts examined 29 women at different stages of pregnancy – from 14 to 22 weeks. All women were required to undergo ultrasound scanning: scientists carefully analyzed any fetal movements and recorded changes on a video camera.
During the study, scientists were able to suggest that, starting from the eighteenth week of gestation, it becomes possible to distinguish between meaningful and chaotic movements of the future child.
The experiment continued. Observations were conducted daily, for 20 minutes for each woman. As a result, it was discovered that the future baby already in the eighteenth week begins to give preference to one limb, choosing it for more precise and accurate movements. In order to test their assumptions, the specialists held a meeting with all the born children when they turned 9 years old. The children were examined. All of them had already studied at school, and had a clear definition - right-handed or left-handed. At the same time, the scientists noticed that among these children there were no so-called "ambidexters" - people who are equally good with their left and right hands.
It turned out that the scientists were 90% right in their assumptions. That is, if during an ultrasound examination specialists noticed that the baby chose the right or left limb, then after birth the preference did not change in nine cases out of ten.
Experts are confident that the ultrasound scanning technique will eventually help not only determine whether a child is left-handed or right-handed, but also predict various diseases or developmental delays.
Does it really matter which hand a child uses more often? About 10% of people on our planet are different from others - they are left-handed. And this difference is not just in the mirroring of movements. Most people who use their right hand more often also have the right eye and right hearing organ as their leading ones. Left-handers do not have such combinations alone - their brain also has differences, for example, in functional organization. The peculiarities of left-handed people's brain activity contribute to the development of creativity - thus, among "left-handed" people, you can find many outstanding musicians, actors, artists. And recently, neurosurgeons have managed to discover another difference: brain function after a traumatic brain injury in left-handers is restored faster than in "right-handed" patients. Brain features contribute to the launch of compensatory reactions, during which undamaged areas of the brain take over the functions of the injured areas.
No one is worse or better – neither right-handed nor left-handed. They are simply different from each other – and this must be understood and accepted.
You can read more about the new method on the pages of ScienceAlert.
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