reasons for handedness...

I have been reading a paper on the cognitive aspects of tools use, by Richard Byrne, University of St Andrews, Scotland, The manual skills and cognition that lie behind hominid tool use. The article offers help in understanding the relationship between handedness (left and right) and the level of efficiency achieved in the manipulation of tools and processes. For example, in some simple operations like probing a termite mound to eat termites, it would be advantageous for a species to be ambidextrous so it could approach the mound from either direction and be equally effective. But in performing hammering operations which became essential to development of man the maker, Homo Faber, species are able to reach a higher level of efficiency and accuracy when one hand or the other is offered greater practice in a clearly defined role. For example, while napping flint to make stone tools, one hand serves as the anvil to hold the stone being formed while the other holds the striking tool.

The significance of tools is what they imply about the cognitive abilities of their users. From examining the products of tool making and using, researchers hope to discern the thinking that governed these activities: everyday physics, means-end analysis, coordination of dextrous manipulations towards a predefined goal, recognizing and coping with local difficulties in a complex process, and so on.

As the mind and hand co-evolved in the development of our species, the adaptation of handedness facilitated efficiency. And so, if the hand developed its distinctive left and right functions, is there a corresponding development in the mind of left and right "handedness". Is our cognition also based on these same parallel lines? Just think about it and tell me what you think... and then on the other hand...

Make, fix and create...