Lefties are discriminated against in many ways, but they have an advantage in one way that not even they have control over. In this Moment of Science, we discuss left-handedness and memory.
Researchers have found that there is a strong link between left handedness and memory. People who easily remember past events have strong episodic memory. Episodic memory, as opposed to factual and other kinds of memory, relies more on both hemispheres of the brain. Thus, people with more integration between their brain hemispheres typically have better episodic memory.
Evidence shows that there is some kind of a genetic component to handedness, though it’s not well understood yet. But what’s for sure is that people from families of lefties, though they themselves are right-handed, exhibit strong episodic memory.