h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

this a guide entry thread now

...back from the vernal equinox celebration...

I remember my mother talking about her grandfather being a switched left hander, and one of my nephews is left handed - he has (probably) Asperger's, and children with disabilities often are left-handed (it's a statistical oddity, but true..)
I did suffer some kind of intrauterine problem, but my parents were very closemouthed about such things, so I don't know what. I have a bit of scoliosis, and I am definitely lop-sided, my ribs on one side cave in, and a woman who is a nurse, said I must have had some kind of pre-or-neonatal 'event'. I'd love to know what!
I don't mind being considered a 'case', because it's interesting to me as well.

Hi Tox re
The brains functions, it has been observed that the areas of the brain that are involved in processing inforfation of specific
types ,can be transfered to other parts of the brain in some individuals as a result of accident,ambedexttricity ,can be achieved by many if taught at early age, I personaly knew one person who wrote lefthanded and drew right handed(or vica versa) this as a result of
watching a uncle draw who was "that" handed.

Not forgetting for several centuaries many "lefties" where forced to use right hand tied behind there back.Hang overs to this carried on to the last centuary ,Victorian physcologists had funny ideas Rittallin only slightly better than "electro theraphy".......
(childhood memories of grandmother remminiceing) Lateral thinking wise
a lot of our thought processes can be linked to our interputation of our reactions , gauged from the effects observed by others,.....

(peer presure)

Most importent functions that need an answer from our brains,appear to find alternative route to there processor, or so it seems !?
Seen several documentrys where someone who lost a large part of brain
but Nature often finds a way

In " the sex of your brain" quiz, my result was 50/50.

Alji

this ex explains the savant

I see

Look at the 747 posts i've missed any chance of a list of the bullet points

Hi, Della. Well, we now appear to have an explanation in your earliest days for the origin of your unusual laterality. The family stuff you describe seems to be environmental too. It is frustrating not to know whether you would have developed any differently if you had been a male child. Existing observations suggest that spatial processing would have been more to the fore in your early brain development.

I note that you are able to interpret people's facial expressions as readily as anyone else. This has to mean that you're comparing what you see with a known interpretation of that particular expression represented somewhere in your brain. Sure, it's at an unconscious level in the evolutionarily earlier brain layers. These must help you to manage some spatial tasks - just as 'blindsight' is possible because of the Superior Colliculus when the visual cortex is compromised.

The brain has remarkable plasticity of function in its early years as ltp mentioned. This is partly because the brain forms connections throughout its growth, in the first couple of years of life, in accordance with the environment in which it finds itself. This has a downside as, if an eye is not optically correct - for example - the brain will not bother connecting to it. Later corrections to the eye will be to no avail, since the required neurological structures will not form after the critical period has passed.

Yes ltp, I did see the video of the Frenchman who had only half a cerebral cortex, yet held down a job and lived a virtually normal life. In fact, I seem to recall showing it to students when I used to teach university introductory psychology.

toxx

Actually, I *did* have eye problems when I were a lass, I remember going to an optician, Dr Muriel someone, who stood out in '60s Rotorua, as a woman specialist...
Lazy eye, was part of it.
This is so interesting!

Hi Mata Hari

Only 747 posts? You've only been away a few days then .

I think what you ask for would be nigh on impossible except for a h2g2 anorak (I'm sure there'll be one along in a minute).

Suffice it to say that God is not the premier subject of debate at the moment, more psychology, sociology, chaos and quantum maths and wordplay. But hey, it was ever thus .

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

Della. I almost mentioned in my previous message Professor Colin Blakemore, who is a (the?) leading authority in this area. He tells that his daughter was born with an eye that didn't focus properly. When the fact was later discovered, the eye was already 'lazy' and never gained the nerve connections required for detailed vision.

In the circumstances, I suspect that your body did a good job of 'rewiring' itself in your early years. If the damage we must infer had occurred later, you would probably have had significant disabilities. It's interesting that it came out here only because of your inability to consciously visualise!

toxx

Matholwych

Re Chaos, some have suggested that chaos is the manifestation of god, the uncontrolable and incomprehensibe in the universe.

Toxxin

Thanks for the correction.

Re book, the temptation to try and write a book is quite a big one for me, the problem is (you guessed it) time and topic. To be honest one of the reasons that I like H2G2 is the opportunity to explore ideas with people who are not deeply steeped in the work I do (Which is very ideosyncratic) and gives me the opportunity to think about the relevance of certain ways of thinking in a much broader context. I also travel quite a bit at the moment and it's hard to write whilst driving a car. The other thing is that I don't feel 100% confident that I can write something which will be as authoritive as I would like it to be and I have valued some of the errors in my thinking that people on this particular thread have pointed out.

Finding a topic is also hard, I am interested in far too much, and I am also a bit worried about style as I like a fairly light hearted approach to some things and am not at all sure that this fits with the 'writing rules'

I have a guide entry I am nearly ready to post but it was more than 3000 words last time I checked. I think I will break it up into smaller pieces before 'putting it out there.'

Crazy horse's comments have bolstered my confidence somewhat and I suppose that I will soon have to bite the bullet and go for it, rather than prevaricating. Who Knows if I trawl through all my previous posts prehaps there will be a few bits worth posting as guide entries.

A bit self revealing for this thread prehaps but what the heck.

SD. I didn't intend any correction although, looking back, I was rather more specific than you were. The 'book' remark was just a jest too. Still, good luck with your plans. Have you tried putting your entry into the Writing Workshop? I understand that the 'italics' are experienced and helpful to contributors.

toxx

just passing through by means of a bookmark and to say that the results of the personality disorder test go into the TOP SECRET file along with my BMI.

az

I actually apreciate the correction (It was one honest), it helps me be aware of things like that (I feel most of are too touchy about being corrected anyway). I also understood the book comment as a joke but it sent me off on a thought which I wanted to express, and I didn't feel I had anything usefull to add to the topics discussd in other posts, since my last post so I went off on a bit of a ramble. And so on

Well for the personality thing, I got high on histrionic and low for everything else...*chuckles* Probably about right



The Geo also took the test, and was kind of a dichotomy - he ended up with both avoidant and dependant as high...kind of odd that...he doesn't come across that way to me.

I do wonder what the original problem was? "We'll never know" (my son would say this in a portentious and sepulchral tone.
Fascinating topic of conversation!

Della. I think we can be fairly sure that there was (very?) early damage to, or imperfect formation of, the central nervous system; in all probability, the brain itself. Psychological tests won't decide this, as an alternative part of the brain might well be carrying out a function. Some kind of brain scan (MR?) could reveal unusual areas in operation on some tasks. Without that, we are indeed unlikely to be able to narrow it down.

I can see some major possibilities: the language area was affected and so its functions migrated to occupy the spatial representation area; the latter was directly affected; it was a bit of both. I have already stretched speculation too far, but I would suggest that they would be the first areas to look at.

toxx