Although teaching people to become ambidextrous has been popular for centuries, this practice does not appear to improve brain function, and it may even harm our neural development.
- About 90 percent of people are right-handed, says Corballis.The remaining 10 percent are either left-handed or some degree of ambidextrous, though people with "true" ambidexterity—i.e., no dominant hand at all—only make up about 1 percent of the population.
- As each hand is competent at performing the same tasks to the same quality level, this makes the brain more symmetrical; as proven by the little differentiation between hemispheres seen in brain scans of ambidextrous individuals. This lack of asymmetry is tied to heightened risk of ADHD, language problems, and subsequently poor performance in school.
- Specialization of the hemispheres is what the brain is programmed to do, and not allowing for that to take place is a key factor in understanding ambidextrous cases of atypical brain behavior.
