Thursday, October 31, 2013

Differences in the wag of a dog

tail wagging the dog?

"The direction of tail wagging does in fact matter, and it matters in a way that matches hemispheric activation," says Giorgio Vallortigara of the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences of the University of Trento. "In other words, a dog looking to a dog wagging with a  to the right side—and thus showing left-hemisphere activation as if it was experiencing some sort of positive/approach response—would also produce relaxed responses. In contrast, a dog looking to a dog wagging with a bias to the left—and thus showing right-hemisphere activation as if it was experiencing some sort of negative/withdrawal response—would also produce anxious and targeting responses as well as increased cardiac frequency. That is amazing, I think."

dogs-familiar-images

Follow up article LA Times

Lefties More Likely To Suffer Schizophrenia?

Abstract

The human brain develops asymmetrically, such that certain cognitive processes arise predominantly from the left or right side. It has been proposed that variations in this laterality contribute to certain forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia. A convenient measure of brain laterality is hand dominance, and prior work has found that patients with schizophrenia are more likely to be left-handed than the general population. This finding is not consistent, however, and fewer studies have directly compared handedness between psychiatric diagnoses. We assessed hand dominance in 107 patients presenting to an outpatient psychiatric clinic with diagnoses of a mood or psychotic disorder. The prevalence of left-handedness was 11% for mood disorders, which is similar to the rate in the general population. It was 40% in those with psychotic disorders (adjusted odds ratio = 7.9, p < .001). The prevalence of left-handedness was much higher in psychotic disorders compared with mood disorders in this community mental health sample.


Just a link. 


Saturday, October 26, 2013

Unactivated left side of my face.

Walking the bike path today again with my wife. It is becoming more and more clear that my normal way I use the left side of my head (face.eye,tongue,etc) is to keep it passive and subservient to the right side of my head. I can now allow a softening of my left eye as it meets another persons left eye. I believe I can activate my left tongue in speech. My left side of head and neck was essentially undifferentiated from my right side in normal use. My use of the left side of my head face and tongue is still no where near the competence that I use the right but I am now aware of the discrepancy. Years ago I was not even aware there was a discrepancy. I believed this was how I used my head and it was the only way possible to use it..

My sense is this developed from how I perceived and mimicked others as I grew up.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Defining where my left tongue is

It feels more and more where I identify where my tongue is in my mouth is by the right side of the tongue. The left side of the tongue appears to be determined by the right side in a negative sense. Part of my difficulty of getting the left tongue to move may be is that I am not identifying the left tongue accurately in my attempts to move it. My play with the left tongue left eye "synergy"  (I tend to dislike that word) seems to be getting stronger. I can see the left side of another's face with the sense that there is a persona behind the left eye/face.  It is a new skill something that was impossible for me in the past. It seems to bring changes in how I able to communicate and my perception of the left tongue.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Anxiously reading faces

Study Anxiety,Face reading and Trusting

I am high on the anxiety type guy  however when I try to relate with my left eye to other's left eye I am often surprised by the seemingly "niceness" of the people I make contact with. There have been occasions I make contact with the dominant male type on their left with my left eye and get a very friendly smile. My feeling is that I would not have been able to make that contact with my right eye. My sense it has a great deal to due with my own anxiety. I perceive the dominant male types as potential threats when they are probably not.

I am still playing with the left tongue and trying to see a person on the left side of face. There are actually a few times where I see/imagine a persona on the left side of others. It is more difficult than it would seem as my overwhelming tendency is to identify the persona on the right side then switch to the left consciously and try to identify what I see.