Whether you are right- or left-handed could depend entirely on your spine

It might not be all in your head after all. A small team of biopsychologists from Ruhr University Bochum, in Germany, believes they have found evidence proving that whether you are right- or left-hand dominant comes from genetic activity in the spine, not just the brain, Science Alert reports.

Previously, researchers believed that gene activity in the right or left hemisphere of the brain resulted in a person's handedness. Scientists knew that such a preference starts in the eighth week of pregnancy, with unborn children preferring to suck on his or her right or left thumb by week 13.

That's where the new research comes in:

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"These results fundamentally change our understanding of the cause of hemispheric asymmetries," the authors of the study wrote.

And as Science Alert notes, the study is still very small and early to throw out all previous assumptions. That being said, "it's definitely intriguing new evidence that scientists will need to investigate further."