It is important to mention that most research around mood disorders or psychotic disorders only compares the data to healthy controls versus different psychiatric diagnoses. Jadon R. Webb et al on the other hand, examined the prevalence of handedness within the same population of outpatients on both mood and psychotic disorders to gain a better understanding of any correlation between the three. Left-handedness was shown in 11% of the patients with mood disorders and 40% in patients diagnosed with psychotic illnesses. They do discuss given the small sample size they had, that more research needs to be done in relation to handedness and these types of disorders, given that majority of the time they are excluded given to any noise they may contribute to the study.
Another study from Roel Willems in the Nature Reviews Neuroscience mentions how that many recent investigations, such as that by Jadon R. Webb et al, show that the “inclusion or targeted recruitment of lefthanded individuals can be informative in studies on a range of topics, such as cerebral lateralization and the genetic underpinning of asymmetrical brain development.” There is great potential in studying this group of research subjects, given that the minority of left-handed people have a substantive role in society.
In reading a study written by Rebecca Silton from Loyola University Chicago, why is it, that in a study measuring the link between positive affect (extent one experiences positives moods; joy, interest, alertness) and prefrontal brain activity in individuals at rest, failed to include anyone who was considered left handed and focused solely on those “participants who were right-handed as determined by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971).” Therefore, if handedness plays a factor on the side of the brain you use, and Siltons research take a look at the prefrontal cortex brain activity, wouldn't the information be skewed since she had no left handed people included in her study? Left and Right handed people would be necessary to factor to take into consideration given a higher prevalence of mood disorders and handedness, despite any “noise” it may contribute to the study. Much like medical research focused on the male anatomy, there is definitely room for the individuals with left-handedness to be included in more cognitive neuroscience and neurogenetics.
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| “Brain activation when participants imagined performing common hand actions” 7 Actions included that of throwing a ball or writing, notice how the left-handed participants had the most activity on the right-hand side of the brain and vice versa for the right-handed participants. Sources: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140213112640.htm http://commonplacebook.com/currentevents/religion/lefthandednesscatholicchurch/ http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F9780387790619_2193 https://luc.app.box.com/v/neuroscienceseminar/1/5783525629/62930100982/1 http://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00013 http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/3/4/2158244013503166 http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v15/n3/full/nrn3679.html |
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