#laterality

The real problem with the need to be right is the occasional ridiculous lengths you will go to check if you are about trivial matters.

I just scanned through most of a chapter of Harry Potter to find the apparently one instance that states whether he is right or left handed.

Because I feel like he is supposed to be left handed but couldn’t actually think of anything to support that. So, I looked it up. And the reference in the wiki is The Prince's Tale, Chapter 33 of The Deathly Hollows.

And way down, where Snape is fixing Dumbledore’s hand after the ring, it mentions that Snape is holding his wand, casting a spell, and at the same time, in his LEFT hand, he’s holding a potion:

[Dumbledore’s] right hand dangled over the side, blackened and burned. Snape was muttering incantations, pointing his wand at the wrist of the hand, while with his left hand he tipped a goblet full of thick golden potion down Dumbledore's throat.

Meaning Snape’s RIGHT hand is his WAND hand. 

J Neurosurg 127:1407–1416, 2017

Cerebral damage in frontal, parietal, and temporal brain areas and, probably more importantly, their interconnections can lead to deficits in language. However, neural plasticity and repair allow the brain to partly compensate for neural injury, mediated by both functional and structural changes. In this study, the authors sought to systematically investigate the…

J Neurosurg 127:1407–1416, 2017

Cerebral damage in frontal, parietal, and temporal brain areas and, probably more importantly, their interconnections can lead to deficits in language. However, neural plasticity and repair allow the brain to partly compensate for neural injury, mediated by both functional and structural changes. In this study, the authors sought to systematically investigate the…

Abstract

1A) Early childhood - 5 years old

This is Alexis, a 5-year old female. Her previous experience with dribbling is limited to playing with other children in kindergarten class.

In both videos, Alexis is able to dribble through the course with basic control of the ball when using two hands. Alexis holds her head down and relies on visual cues in order to keep track of the ball relative to her body. Sometimes the ball bounces out of reach causing Alexis to alter her speed in order to regain control. Significant trunk flexion is visible, along with slight difficulty maintaining a consistent bounce-height while dribbling. A sharp slap can also be heard as her hand makes contact with the ball.

Dribbling requires development of walking; a skill that is present with advanced components as early as 4 years old (ch. 7, pg. 129). Alexis exhibits this through her use of a small base of support (BOS), increased stride length and opposition of both her arms and legs while dribbling. This differs from 70-year-old Jack, who tends to have a larger BOS, smaller stride length and minimal arm swing to increase stability while dribbling (ch. 7, pg. 131).

Alexis requires constant visual feedback while dribbling. This suggests that she perceptually relies on her visual system during a complex task. This aligns with the age at which a shift in reliance to kinesthetic perception required for advanced dribbling begins to develop (i.e. between 5-6 years old; ch. 10, pg. 218). Kinesthetic spatial orientation (perception of the body’s location and orientation in space) starts to improve between 6-8 years old (ch. 10, pg. 223). At 5 years old, Alexis still has some time before her perceptual abilities will advance to kinesthetic status.

It’s important to note that although Alexis is able to dribble, she struggles to use only one hand. This could be because her coordination and concept of laterality isn't sufficiently developed. It’s clear Alexis understands how her body has two distinct sides that can work independently, because she is able to bounce the ball with either hand at one time. This concept of laterality is usually intact between 4-5 years old (ch. 10, pg. 221). However, Alexis has difficulty executing tasks when a limb must cross the midline of the body. This is a typical challenge for children 4-5 years old, but can also persist in children up to 10 years old (ch. 10, pg. 222). In comparison, 7-year-old Peyton is able to dribble the ball with one hand because her perception of laterality - particularly in terms of crossing midline -  is intact.

References

noun.

Dominance of one side of the brain in controlling particular activities or functions, or of one of a pair of organs such as the eyes or hands. (Oxford)

I wrote a short story called “Laterality” for my last creative writing class. The most common note I got on that story was something along the lines of, “What the fuck is this word?” I guess nobody felt inclined to look it up. Maybe not everybody in the world feels an overwhelming urge to grab their dictionary when faced with a new and potentially exciting word. I won’t waste space by printing the story here. Honestly, I just reread it, and it’s kind of shitty. It was based vaguely on a relationship. I really didn’t have a whole lot of reason for choosing “Laterality” as the title other than an indistinct feeling that it was appropriate, but I still sort of self-righteously thought I was being very clever. There was some great metaphor there that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but I was certain it was very insightful. I remember sitting in the workshop listening to my classmates wonder about what it meant and feeling very disheartened that nobody got it, or even tried to get it.

I think I have a better understanding of what I was trying to say now, almost two years later.

When science-y folks talk about laterality, what they’re mostly referring to is the dominance of one side of the body over another, as in being right-handed or left-handed. One side has developed specialized functions that the other lacks.

You know me, I’m not particularly scientifically-inclined. I make shit up as I go along. Here’s what I think of when I think of laterality. Instead of talking about the right side or left side of the brain or body, I’m going to imagine our emotional side and our intellectual side. Most people will agree that one is dominant over the other. Emotions control your actions, or intellect does. I have always been a person ruled by feelings. I’ll follow my emotions to the bitter end, regardless of reason or sanity. When I wrote a shitty story called “Laterality”, that’s what I was trying to express. When I wrote a story based vaguely on a relationship, that’s what I was trying to get at. The logic of the affair was running out, and the entire thing was fueled purely by emotion. Two-years-ago me had a little more awareness than she wanted to deal with.

These days I’ve discovered that 99% of the time, it’s better if I don’t act on my feelings, or at least not on my feelings alone. That doesn’t mean that they don’t haunt me day and night, trying to get me to do something stupid and make an ass out of myself.