Left-Handedness: Association with Immune Disease, Migraine, and Developmental Learning Disorder

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 79; no. 16; pp. 5097 - 5100
• Main Authors: Geschwind, Norman, Behan, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 01.08.1982; National Acad Sciences
• Subjects: Celiac disease; Cerebral hemispheres; Disorders; Functional Laterality; Handedness; Humans; Immune disorders; Immune system diseases; Immune System Diseases - epidemiology; Learning disabilities; Learning Disorders - epidemiology; Left handedness; Migraine; Migraine Disorders - epidemiology; Testosterone
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.79.16.5097

We report an experimental study designed to test the following hypothesis derived from clinical observations: There is an elevated frequency in left-handed individuals and in their families of immune disease, migraine, and developmental learning disorders. In two separate investigations the frequency of these conditions was compared in strongly left-handed subjects and in strongly right-handed controls. In each of the investigations we found markedly higher frequencies of immune disease in the left-handers than in the right-handers. The rate of learning disabilities was also much higher in the left-handers than in the right-handers in both investigations. In a second study the frequency of left-handedness was compared in patients with migraine or immune disease and in general population control subjects free of these disorders. There was a higher frequency of left-handedness in patients with migraine and myasthenia gravis than in controls. We present a brief outline of a hypothesis that may account for an increased frequency of immune disease in left-handers and in their families.