[...] Since the 1970s, hundreds of studies have suggested that each hemisphere of the brain is home to a specific type of emotion. Emotions linked to approaching and engaging with the world -- like happiness, pride and anger -- lives in the left side of the brain, while emotions associated with avoidance -- like disgust and fear -- are housed in the right.
But those studies were done almost exclusively on right-handed people. That simple fact has given us a skewed understanding of how emotion works in the brain, according to Daniel Casasanto, associate professor of human development and psychology at Cornell University.
That longstanding model is, in fact, reversed in left-handed people, whose emotions like alertness and determination are housed in the right side of their brains, Casasanto suggests in a new study. Even more radical: The location of a person's neural systems for emotion depends on whether they are left-handed, right-handed or somewhere in between, the research shows.
Geoffrey Brookshire, Daniel Casasanto. Approach motivation in human cerebral cortex. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2018; 373 (1752): 20170141 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0141
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @03:58AM (2 children)
..What if I'm proficient at everything? Does that mean I'm good with my right hand, left hand, and the one in the middle?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @04:21AM (1 child)
(Score: 5, Funny) by Mykl on Wednesday June 20 2018, @04:50AM
Well, it's said that 10,000 hours of "practice" in anything will make you a world-class expert...
(Score: 3, Informative) by beernutz on Wednesday June 20 2018, @04:15AM (4 children)
The left/right brain idea has been studied a LOT and in many ways completely dis-proven, or so I thought.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201712/left-brain-right-brain-study-debunks-decades-old-neuromyth [psychologytoday.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday June 20 2018, @05:09AM (2 children)
Narcissistic personality disorder is another fake one. Winning tremendously is not a disease!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @06:21AM (1 child)
Who are you kidding? You'll be claiming mental deficiency as soon as you're charged with your first batch of felonies.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 20 2018, @03:10PM
He may claim mental deficiencies, but the IRS won't grant exemptions for them.
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Wednesday June 20 2018, @06:01PM
There's more than one left-brain/right-brain theory. One of them has been disproven. Some of them have been called into question, and a few seem reasonably solid. The "bicameral brain" hypothesis has pretty much been disproven. The ones about some forms of epilepsy tending to start on one side and spread to the other have been pretty solidly established. The processing of language tending to be done on one particular side of the brain is pretty solid.
Do note, however, that the theories are quite different both in their predictions and in their specificity. And language processing, while certain functions of it tend to happen on one particular side of the brain in any one person, it can happen on either side independent of handedness.
I don't know the details of the theory they're using. Some functions seem to be connected to handedness to varying degrees (varying by function). But certainly left handed people predominantly have some functions on the opposite side of the brain than right handed persons predominately do. And how tight that connection is depends on the function.
OTOH, I'm no expert in this area, I just read a lot of stuff. And certainly some functions shift around with practice and experience. If you're a piano player, imagine trying to play a piano with the keys organized backwards. It would take a lot of practice, but it's not intrinsically any more difficult.
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(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday June 20 2018, @08:07AM (1 child)
Recent NPR expose on the "Balanced Brain" scam by some quack chiropactor (but I repeat myself) claiming to treat autism spectrum, at great expense. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/06/18/616805015/cutting-edge-program-for-children-with-autism-and-adhd-rests-on-razor-thin-evide?t=1529480890180 [npr.org]
So, if we just put cognitive weights on the right brain, the left brain will be forced to compensate, and then little Anikan will bring balance to the force? Or, we just tie a pork chop around his neck, so the rest of the kids will like him.
I live almost entirely in the left lobe of my brain now, in a cubicle that my right lobe mined out some years ago. And the one thing I have learned from this, is not to trust any doctors of nerve fibers, or chiropractors. They speak of that which they know not, and are just as likely to prescribe Ritalin as Hemlock. Or Electrocuting your brain or doing a frontal lobotomy instead of putting a bottle in front of you. And these things work, when they do, why? Science! Except, it is not.
This is the problem with medicine. Doctors have no interest in ascertaining the causes of disease, they only want therapies. And therapies do not necessarily have to depend on an understanding of the underlying aitiology. They tend to be more effective when they do, but we can't wait for everything to be understood! So, in the mean time,
*take two aspririn, and call me in the morning.
Case 1-Patient: doc! I'm better! What was it?
-Doc: Who cares? Let me know if it happens again.
Case 2_ Patient: Ow! Still hurts!
_Doc: OK, Must be (unpronouncible syndrome). Take these pills.
Case one, problem solved. Case two, we rinse and repeat, until either the symptoms cease, or the patient does. And in no case are we really interested in the scientific question of causation. That is for Medical science.
Or, we could just go with GOOP, and stick some pieces of Jade up our Hoohahs, and feel better about ourselves. But only if we are left-handed. You know what "left" is in Latin? That's right, aut dexter, sinister.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday June 20 2018, @06:07PM
FWIW, there are some problems for which chiropracty is the best treatment available. The problem is, that most chiropractors don't know their limits, and they're working on invalid theories.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by Subsentient on Wednesday June 20 2018, @09:04AM
I'm mostly ambidextrous. Everything except writing is easily done with my left hand, and in many cases preferred. For example, I don't feel uncomfortable using my PC mouse left handed, and I default to the left hand for touchpads on laptops.
Maybe this partially explains why I'm such a fucking nutcase.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday June 20 2018, @10:00AM (1 child)
I'm kinda surprised we haven't really pinned down what causes handedness, and what purpose it serves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_birth_order_and_male_sexual_orientation#Handedness [wikipedia.org]
The linked wiki is interesting in some ways. One conclusion of the fraternal birth order is that the more sons born, the more competition for mates there might be. So there's a natural method to reduce this by balancing the random distribution through making some of the boys homosexual. However, for some reason it doesn't apply to left-handed boys. Is there some kind of priority given to left-handed people to prevent them from shrinking out of the gene pool altogether? If so, why? What purpose does having a small portion of the population be left-handed serve? And if some should be left-handed, why not 1/2 the population?
It seems the human race at some point needed a small, but not too large, portion of the species to be left-handed and has built in some protections to keep them about.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:34PM
One explanation I've seen proposed is combat advantage - something which until quite recently played a major role in our species - warfare, raiding parties, etc. A left-handed combatant (swords, clubs, fists, etc) has a significant advantage because they will be familiar with fighting right-handed opponents, while their opponents will not be nearly as familiar with fighting someone left-handed. Of course, that advantage only remains so long as left-handed people are comparatively rare - become too common and it stops being an advantage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:00PM (4 children)
but I find left-handed people kind of disgusting.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 20 2018, @03:16PM (2 children)
I suppose that xenophobia can explain that. Who else do you find disgusting? Asians? Chinese?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @04:43PM (1 child)
No, just lefties for some reason. [shudders]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @07:37PM
And Leftie hillbillies that are right-wing! [uncontrollable shuddering]
(Score: 3, Funny) by HiThere on Wednesday June 20 2018, @06:08PM
I think the word you're looking for is "sinister".
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