Saturday, December 28, 2013

Whitney's tongue a quiver

I have nothing

At different points in the video I get a good look at Whitney's tongue. When I fist saw her hitting some of the beautiful notes and watch her tongue quivering on both sides I could not imagine how that was done. My own tongue seemed so undefined and unrefined.  Singing to a CD in the car tonight I could actually feel the left tongue a quiver. The sound emitting from my piehole was probably more akin to the sounds of anguish than a song but there is a tremendous difference in my movement image of my tongue than years ago.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Holes in my thinking

There are still some holes in my thinking. I do not completely understand the right left relationship. I suppose that the left side computes the best way for one to achieve the immediate task of let'say getting food in ones mouth is to make the movements of the right side easier.  Using the example of eating with my left hand I need to reverse the usual habits of the shoulder complexes to make it somewhat coordinated.  Many (most) people can do it easily without thought. For me it was a bit of achievement for as the fork would get closer to my mouth I would run into more resistance as the shoulder complexes were doing the habitual movement. I am coordinated in one sense. To make the task easier for the right side.

However in life there are many tasks that need both hands to do complex tasks such as typing this sentence. Both hands and fingers coordinate almost without thought and the more I think the more I mistype. It would seem to me both sides of the brain have knowledge of the words being typed otherwise they would not be able to coordinate the movements. Each side of the brain must be coordinating based on it's understanding of the task.

One of the factors that still amazes me is that I would not really see the left side of someone's face as what I communicated with. If there was flaw or something outstanding I might make note of it but not something to read as they expressed themselves either verbally of non-verbally. I would imagine my learning of expressions came before the understanding of words. My right eye habitually drifts to the other person's right eye if in view. In a sense I talk right eye to right eye. When I switch my habitual to my left eye and try to make contact with another's left eye I can not do it as nearly as easy as it should be. I do not want to find the eye immediately. Somehow the scan of the left side of the face becomes incomplete. I can hear the words being said but with less comprehension as I try to maintain the attention in my left eye connection.  Some people look to have close to equal expressive ability in both sides of their faces others not so much.

Another factor that I find amazing is now that I am using and feeling the musculature sub-lingually on the left I cannot imagine how I could not feel the force and strength that they have. I believe that I kept them always contracted to a degree to make the complicated movements on the right side easier. Yet I could swallow, talk, breathe and make an ass of myself quite easily.

I have read that there is no little man inside our heads that previews our conscious thought. However I can focus my attention on my left hand ,eye or tongue. Once a new movement understanding takes place there is a greater ease in repeating if my attention has been focused on the subtle change in completing the task. Learning seems to happen more when I pay attention but there are times when things have just seemed to have soaked in.

Just a link

Monday, December 23, 2013

Opening my mouth

Just paying attention on how I open my mouth. My habitual is to do it from the right side perspective. It was impossible for me to sense that until relatively recently. My movement 'image' only included the right side.When I include an active image of the left side in that image there is a much different feel of the left jaw. It is almost as if I opening against more resistance but somehow more 'correct'.  There is a cooperation in the muscles and structures.  

I do not know what other people do but I imagine there is a wide spectrum of movement 'images'.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Left eye head dominance

Playing with the left eye and what I believe to be the left tongue I am getting a different feel of the use of my head. The left eye position feels to be different than my habitual. I think I tend to let the left eye drift out to the left and now somehow it seems more centered when it appears to take over my heads postural musculature. There is a tightness that spreads over the left side of the face, neck,throat and tongue with a different activation of the muscles related to the left clavicle and shoulder blade.

It is easier for the left eye to achieve the above when I close my right eye but it is far more involved than just closing the right eye. I don't feel like I have it completely 'left' yet.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The amount of information

Watching the talking heads on the tube and shifting back and forth between the left and right half of people I am viewing, I get much more information from the right side of their heads than the left.  My habitual is to see the right side as the side that is talking to me.  My right eye crosses my midline easily to make the connection with their right eye. When I make the conscious shift to put my attention in my left eye and cross my midline and shift it to their left eye my tendency is to check back to their right eye to gain more clues.

Putting my attention in my left eye and letting it cross my midline feels to give an immediate subtle difference in the musculature engaged in head posture.  I am trying consciously to accentuate that feel. On occasion it feels like I am switching from right side musculature dominated mode to a left side dominated use of my head.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Give a man a remote

Functional illusion

I grew up with a TV. In order to change the channels one had to get up and turn the prominent knobs below the tube.  My dad often sat three feet away from the TV to be able to change the channel frequently.  As remotes have evolved the sets have changed appearance. I no longer have to leave the couch to change the channel unless I can not find the remote.  The TV knobs no longer exist.  Disappeared by their functional irrelevance.

Functional Illusion


It was more functional for me to perceive just one tongue instead of two tongues.  Not being that intelligent it has taken me a long time to come to this conclusion. In order to feel the left tongue I first had to differentiate the left tongue from the right tongue.
Try this

I was at the time just trying to find the cause of  why there was a discrepancy in the way my head rolled to the left than the right. It is difficult to learn on how to use the left tongue,throat,eye,face and lips in the task of speech but they each have a contribution. Why would have I needed to learn the same tasks twice in life?

However it is still an illusion that the right side needs to dominate with the left subordinate. The left side can be the originator of the muscular pattern of my speech.

Why do elephants have trunks?

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Unconditional Love

Unconditional Love

Some connections but nothing on suggesting left right division.  Earlier link to Harlow

Your left eye

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Proximal distal rehash

In physical rehab therapy often a discussion centers around proximal and distal neuromuscular function. In my attempts to eat with the left hand using a fork the difficult part for me is when I get the fork near my mouth. It is not the left hand that is the problem.  The way I habitually use my shoulder girdle is reversed. The closer I get to my mouth with the food the more I do the opposite of what I intend. In order to get the fork to my mouth with the left I need retract the right scapular to a more stabilized position and protract (extend) the left scapular. That is the opposite of what I do habitually.

hyoid tongue musculature

It feels more and more that the hyoid moves the deep musculature for the tongue. The sensation of that area lies at the origin of the airway in my throat.  It's not that I am relearning the distal movements of the left tongue so much as the proximal origins.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Time Article There is no brain divison.

there is no right brain left brain divide

Stepping back a minute if one has a stroke one can clearly see divisions in the brain based on deficits presented. Often when a person has a stroke they are often unable to use an effected limb based on the contralateral brain injury. It seems more pertinent to me to say there is a dominant subordinate relationship that is expressed as one functionally.

In throwing a ball with my non dominant left arm what I have found it is not so much what the left arm needs to do to coordinate the throw but what the right arm needs to give up. Both sides work together to throw with the right arm but the final distal element of wrist hand fingers have a fine motor control role that is not comparable with the left hand. In throwing with the left arm I have to reverse the stabilization of my left shoulder to my right side allowing more freedom of scapular movement on the left. The fine motor control seems comparatively easier to achieve than the giving up of the habitual.

To use my left tongue musculature proximal to the hyoid bone I first have differentiate it  from the muscles on the right. Playing with them now I do not feel there is a comparable fine motor control on the left and right side, I think the left side can at least partially gain the fine motor control that will be expressed in speech with the left tongue.

It  feels to me that I never made left eye to left eye contact but would use the right eye to establish contact with another's right eye (Easy test -close your right eye and use your left eye to see another's left eye. Switch back and forth between your eyes taking time to feel what you do normally as you converse. On a simpler level interlock your fingers in a folded position then switch so the opposing index finger is on the outside. Which is more familiar? Can you feel a connection to your shoulders' position?) Where I think I used my left eye normally was in an unfocused way to the right side of a person's head. Now using my left eye to connect with someone else's left eye often gives me another perspective on that person. It is again harder to give up the habitual than it would seem. It feels almost if I am blind to a certain extent of seeing that person expressed on the left side of their head. I have to work hard at maintaining eye contact and even harder to understand what I see.

I am not saying lefties or righties are more creative or analytic but that there is a difference in perspective on how my I use my left and right side. I suspect that my discrepancy lies within a broad spectrum as compared to others.




Left tongue too recap

I learned to use my head growing up in a right sided dominant way. My impression of the left side is that it took a subordinate passive role. I am unclear if it learned to be that way to support the right side dominance or just never developed. Might be a combination of both. Like a elephant's trunk lateralization the complex task of communication which is much more than words was dominated by the right side. This includes the ability to see, read and mimic the facial musculature control of others. I feel this was so dominant in me the left side ability did not develop to recognize the cues of communication and adopted the subordinate role to the right. After being introduced to the The Feldenkrais Method I pursued the discrepancy of my left and right sides and came up with the conclusion that my right tongue dominates my perception so much that I do not perceive the left tongue as existing. Instead my learned understanding up to recently was that I have one tongue with two sides as opposed to two tongues with a shared middle side. I feel the lack of my ability to perceive and read the left side of others faces is the main contributing factor of the right side of face/head/tongue/neck/eye dominance which has a great influence on the rest of the right side body dominance.

I believe my left tongue/ face/ throat/ head can develop but it is a case of first differentiating the left and right sides and also the ability to perceive that I see a persona on other's left side to communicate to.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

re link

http://mylefttonguetoo.blogspot.com/2012/12/differentiating-head-and-jaw.html

The musculature on the left side of my head is acquiring a different feel. Possibly the ability to relax. Inhibition of not needed contraction is often a higher state of learning than always engaged musculature. To be able turn on and off when needed defines coordination. It is obvious that my left side as a whole is not coordinated as my right. I always assumed that I controlled and coordinated the left side of my head. It is becoming more apparent that my assumption was not right. I may never equalize the two but I may be able to improve on what I am already doing.

Monday, December 2, 2013