Mixed-Handed Advantages

Unlike ambidextrousness, which is the ability to use both right and left hands equally well, mixed-handedness is the need to do some activities with the right hand and other activities with the left hand. Most commonly, mixed-handedness shows up as a need to write with one hand but to throw or do other physical activities with the opposite hand. This characteristic usually appears in childhood and has been proven to relate to higher rates of ADHD and behavioral problems. However, there are some advantages to being mixed-handed.

Sports

• Mixed-handed people who usually throw or hit with one hand often have their dominant eye on the opposite side of their body as their dominant hand rather than on the same side, which is typical of right-handed or left-handed people. In fencing, boxing, baseball and tennis, this advantage can mean winning against an opponent who is not mixed-handed.

More Accurate Memories

• Mixed-handed people have been proven to have better episodic memories. In other words, they are better able to remember past events. The researchers who study this believe that it may be related to the fact that mixed-handed people have more communication and interaction between the two sides of their brains. The increased linking between the two hemispheres of the brain allows for more accurate memories of the past because the memories are encoded on the left side of the brain but are retrieved using the right side of the brain.

Recovery from Stroke

• People who are mixed-handed have demonstrated faster recovery times when they have suffered a stroke. They are able to make progress in physical therapy more quickly, and they also are able to recover speech and facial muscle control faster than patients who are simply right-handed or left-handed. Researchers in this area think that this improved outcome is related to the improved communication between brain hemispheres in mixed-handed people.

Metacognitive Skills

• Metacognitive skills are those thinking skills related to monitoring, regulating, thinking about and reflecting on your own thinking. Mixed-handed people are better at this skill, and it can help them to think through complex situations. These metacognitive skills also can help mixed-handed people deal with conflict in a more calm way and to balance new information against the whole of existing information when making a decision.

Musical Ability

• Although there is no scientific proof that mixed-handed people have an improved ability to play musical instruments, anecdotal evidence from music teachers supports this idea. Also, the same part of the brain that is used to communicate between the brain's left and right hemispheres is believed by neuroscientists to be very involved in musical ability.