title: Mirror writing, left-handedness, and leftward scripts.
abstract: This minireview concerns a new observation on mirror writing. An uncommon form of writing, mirror writing is seen among healthy individuals, but it can also follow a variety of neurological diseases; it is nearly always carried out with the left hand and is more easily undertaken by left-handers. We have found that a particularly high prevalence of left-handed mirror writing has been reported among those whose native languages are traditionally written in a leftward direction, including Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. Innate left-handers and those whose languages are written leftward thus share an unusual facility for left-handed mirror writing, an observation that may have implications for understanding hemisphere specialization in relation to handedness.
authors.affiliation: The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, England. geoffrey.schott@uclh.org
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Schott
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Schott
mesh_terms: D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans