Which Disorders Lead to More Left-Right Confusion?
A new study investigated which disorders lead to more left-right confusion.
Posted September 20, 2025 | Reviewed by Margaret Foley
Can you remember the last time that you confused left and right?
Most healthy people have no issues telling left from right, but for some people (about 15 percent), left-right confusion is a somewhat common experience in their everyday lives. Common situations in which people confuse left and right every now and then include giving instructions about directions to somebody else who is driving a car, moving the wrong foot during dancing, or taking the wrong direction when hiking. However, some psychiatric and neurological disorders lead to a marked increase in left-right confusion. Studying patients with these disorders may help in understanding why left-right confusion occurs, but so far, there has been no systematic investigation about which exact diseases and disorders are linked to an increase in left-right confusion.
A new review study on left-right confusion
A new study, now published in the neuroscientific journal Brain Research Bulletin ( Thaler and Ocklenburg, 2025 ), focused on systematically assessing the scientific literature on left-right confusion in psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurological diseases and disorders (Disclaimer: I am one of the authors of the publication). The study was a so-called systematic review, a specific type of scientific article in which published research studies relevant to answering a question are identified using clearly defined search criteria for scientific databases. In the study, data from 20 original research studies were analyzed and integrated.
What were the results of the study?
For other investigated disorders, such as schizophrenia or prosopagnosia , the results on left-right confusion were less clear than for those three groups.
The study shows that different groups of people have problems with left-right confusion due to different reasons. One reason for left-right confusion is that the functioning of the parietal lobe, which is central for spatial abilities, is impaired. Another reason is problems linking words and directions. Clearly, more research on left-right confusion is needed to understand this fascinating problem.
Thaler, M., & Ocklenburg, S. (2025). Left-right confusion in psychiatric, neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders: a systematic review. Brain research bulletin , 111435. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresbull.2025.111435
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Sebastian Ocklenburg, Ph.D., is a professor for research methods in psychology at the Department of Psychology at MSH Medical School in Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on left-handedness and brain asymmetries.
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