[Source:  Medical News Today]

The speed at which sign language users understand what others are ‘saying’ to them depends on whether the conversation partners are left- or right-handed, a new study has found.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham worked with British Sign Language (BSL) signers to see how differences in sign production affect sign comprehension. In BSL a signer’s dominant hand produces all one-handed signs and ‘leads’ when producing two-handed signs.

They discovered that in general right- and left-handed signers respond faster when they were watching a right-handed signer.

However, left-handed signers responded more quickly to complex two-handed signs made by signers who ‘led’ with their left hand. Similarly, right-handed signers reacted more swiftly to two-handed signs from fellow right-handers.

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