HEALTH

Ambidexterity and
ADHD: Are They
Linked?
People whose brains are too symmetrical are at risk
for cognitive problems
By Emily Anthes on July 1, 2010
5

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Credit: iStockphoto
One of the first things that anatomy students learn is that the brain is
divided down the center. In most people, one half, or hemisphere,
plays a dominant role. Handedness has long been a crude measure of
hemispheric dominance, because each side of the brain controls the
opposite side of the body. Right-handers, for instance, are likely to
have dominant left hemispheres. Today researchers are realizing that
studying ambidextrous children (who have no dominant hand) could
yield insights into the consequences of an unusually symmetrical brain.
A team of European researchers recently assessed nearly 8,000
Finnish children and showed that mixed-handed children are at
increased risk for linguistic, scholastic and attention-related
difficulties. At age eight, mixed-handed kids were about twice as likely
to have language and academic difficulties as their peers. By the time
the children were 16, they also were twice as likely to have symptoms of
ADHDand their symptoms were more severe than those of right- or
left-handed students.
Ambidexterity is not causing these problems. Rather handedness is
really a very crude measure of how the brain is working, says Alina
Rodriguez, a clinical psychologist at Kings College London and the
studys lead author. In typical brains, language is rooted in the left
hemisphere, and networks that control attention are anchored in the
rightbut brains without a dominant hemisphere may be working and
communicating differently.
Consistent with this theory, a 2008 study by scientists at the University
of California, Los Angeles, found anomalies in cross-hemisphere
communication in children with ADHD. On tasks that should be the
domain of the left hemispheresuch as linguistic processingchildren
with ADHD seemed to be getting too much input from their right
hemispheres. Rodriguez is quick to point out, however, that mixed
handedness does not, by itself, indicate a malfunctioning brain and is
just one risk factor among many others.
So why do some kids have overly symmetrical brains? The answer may
lie in epigeneticsthe mechanism by which environmental influences
affect gene expression. In 2008 Rodriguez found that women who
experienced stressful life events or depression during pregnancy were
more likely to give birth to children who became mixed handed, adding
evidence to the idea that the experiences of a mom-to-be affect her
fetuss brain development. [For more about prenatal influences on
mental health, see Infected with Insanity, by Melinda
Wenner; Scientific American Mind, April/May 2008.] That means that
handedness, Rodriguez says, can be used with other markers to
predict whos going to have problems with behavior and give parents,
teachers and doctors the opportunity to intervene at the first sign of
trouble.
This article was originally published with the title "Ambidexterity and
ADHD: Are They Linked?"