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Can you train your non-dominant hand to draw?
Practising drawing with your ‘none dominant’ hand, (right hand if you are left handed, left hand if you are right handed), can be a useful strategy for loosening up and for experimenting with the potential of mark making without the preconception of a finished result bogging you down. Likewise, when you write with your non-dominant hand, you are so focused on forming the letters that your ego can’t interfere with the inspiration that is coming in. “You’re pulling yourself out of your own way. You’re putting yourself into closer communication with your guides. Train Your Brain Forcing the non-dominant hand to perform an unfamiliar task requires the brain to map new neural pathways. These new pathways rejuvenate the non-dominant hemisphere controlling the hand and rejuvenate the brain, thus stimulating the brain’s cognitive and creative functions. Research from the US actually suggests that mixed-handedness (using both hands equally or using one hand for some activities and the other hand for other activities) gives a creativity boost. … the good news is that creativity — like most skills and abilities — can be trained. Your brain is an organ that improves through mental stimulation and, through the growth of new neurons, adapts and rewires itself non-stop. Therefore, the use of your non-dominant hand will support your brain’s neural connections and even develop new ones. After much practice, some people do improve the ability of their opposite hand. However, truly equal skill with both hands is very difficult to achieve.
Can hand dominance be learned?
Although hand preference can be learnt, the genetic influence is surprisingly consistent. If two parents are right-handed, their offspring has a 10% chance of being left-handed. They found no difference in IQ levels among left- and right-handed people, but left-handers appeared to be more likely to have an intellectual disability. However, this study indicated that people who were intellectually gifted or following typical development were also just as likely to be left-handed. Most children have a preference for using one hand or the other by the age of about 18 months, and are definitely right or left-handed by about the age of three. However, a recent UK study of unborn babies found that handedness might develop in utero. 48% of left handed subjects had higher grip values at their nondominant side but this percentage was only 6.9% for right handed subjects. A general rule often used suggests that the dominant hand is approximately 10% stronger than the nondominant hand(10,11). Obviously, a great advantage of being ambidextrous is having the option of using either hand during sports, chores, or at work. The ease of using both hands helps them do tasks with greater efficiency.
Can you change your dominant hand?
Despite our genetic predispositions, however, many people do change handedness. Mostly, they are forced to switch as a result of injury, Porac says. She has seen many cases, mostly long-time righties who had to go left. If they’re forced to, they can switch a lot of their behaviors, she says. In fact, one of the more unusual hypotheses to explain the rarity of left-handedness is that a genetic mutation in our distant past caused the language centres of the human brain to shift to the left hemisphere, effectively causing right-handedness to dominate, Alasdair Wilkins explains for io9 back in 2011. Truly ambidextrous people only make up about 1 percent of the population. People who have no dominant hand, and can use both hands with equal skill, are about 1 in 100, though many people who are left-handed can use their non-dominant hand nearly as well as their dominant one. The study found that left-handers and right-handers had similar IQ scores, but people who identify as ambidextrous had slightly lower scores, especially in arithmetic, memory and reasoning.
What happens to your brain when you use your non-dominant hand?
One hemisphere of the brain is activated when we use our dominant hand, but both are activated when we use the other. If creativity is located in your non-dominant hemisphere, for example, using your non-dominant hand may stimulate those brain cells. Cooperation between hemispheres is good. What happens if you force a left-handed person to be right-handed? Forcing a left-handed to be right-handed causes reduced activity in the dominant right hemisphere and increase activity in the non-dominant side. Slightly Lower IQ, Higher Creativity This symmetric brain activity comes at a cost: ambidextrous people score slightly lower on IQ tests than those with a dominant hand. They have lower ability in reasoning, math, and memory. But it’s also true that ambidextrous people tend to do better in sports, arts, and music. What is the difference between a dominant and a non-dominant hand? Your dominant hand has faster and more precise movements, as well as better control over fine movements. The non-dominant hand might be less comfortable to use and harder to do controlled movements with. It was initially thought that a single gene controlled handedness. However, more recent studies suggest that multiple genes, perhaps up to 40, contribute to this trait. Each of these genes likely has a weak effect by itself, but together they play a significant role in establishing hand preference. 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. Calls for ambidexterity were especially prominent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Is it good for your brain to write with your non-dominant hand?
Using your opposite hand will strengthen neural connections in your brain, and even grow new ones. It’s similar to how physical exercise improves your body’s functioning and grows muscles. Try using your non-dominant hand to write. Whilst both require the use of both hands, a person who is ambidextrous can perform any task equally well with either hand, which includes the ability to write. Mixed-handedness means that a person favours a certain hand for a certain task, which requires a certain amount of dexterity but it lacks in strength. Writing. Some people can write with both hands. Famous examples include Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, and Leonardo da Vinci. These studies show that ambidextrous people perform more poorly than both left- and right-handers on various cognitive tasks, particularly those that involve arithmetic, memory retrieval, and logical reasoning, and that being ambidextrous is also associated with language difficulties and ADHD-like symptoms. The 10% rule states that the dominant hand possesses a 10% greater grip strength than the nondominant hand. This rule has been used for many years to assist therapists in setting strength goals for patients with injured hands.
Does using non-dominant hand make you smarter?
A stronger neural connection doesn’t equal a smarter brain And people do perform tasks better with their non-dominant hand after training. But the gains are limited to the particular task or skill that is being trained and not the entire brain. One hemisphere of the brain is activated when we use our dominant hand, but both are activated when we use the other. If creativity is located in your non-dominant hemisphere, for example, using your non-dominant hand may stimulate those brain cells. Cooperation between hemispheres is good. It has been shown that practicing to use your non-dominant hand has more benefits than being ambidextrous. It helps “train” your brain and create new neural pathways due to the “plasticity” of the brain. The results indicated that, as a rule, the right hand measurements are higher than those of the left hand, regardless of hand dominance. The bilateral differences in total width, length, total area and cortical area are significant among the right hand dominant and nonsignificant among the left hand dominant. About as long as it took you to learn to write and draw with your other hand. Probably even a bit faster, as you ‘only’ would need to train the muscles and not the whole cognitive process involved in drawing and writing. The trick you would have to consider is to eliminate the use of the dominant hand completely.