Something Sinister about the Left

[akirlu]

"Boy," Hal said, "That's a great sentence out of context:"

Chicks prefer to use their left eye to search for food and right eye to watch for predators overhead.

"Actual chickens, I assume they mean," I said.

Yep. Actual chickens. It turns out that a bunch of different research is finding that animal brains have a left/right bias for fight or flight responses (left brain), versus comfort and nourishment responses (right brain), but not only that, the differentiation in function is actually reflected in bodily gestures and responses. Such as dogs tails being biased to wag to the right when they are happy, and to the left, when they are fearful. And left-handed chimpanzees are apparently less confident and more fearful than right-handed chimpanzees.

I find all this fascinating because it suggests that all the disparate human biases against things left-handed may, at bottom, have a neurological basis. (Which is not, I hasten to point out, the same thing as being justified.)

You can read more about it here at the New York Times, if you hurry before it goes behind the subscription firewall. Though if I understand the wiring of brains and sight correctly, I think the writer must have got the chick's eyes switched.

Also, can anybody remind me who on my FL posted a link to the article by a parent with an adoptive daughter, writing about orphanage experience and attachment disorder? It was somebody who also has an adoptive daughter from China, but on my FL, that isn't much of a narrowing criterion. Anyway, I wanted to bookmark the article, if I can find it again...

Comments

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I think my dog must be left-handed, because, according to that, he wags the opposite of the way most dogs wag.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Of course, if the dog is facing you, the happy dog's wag would be biased to your left, if the right "handedness" mapped.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

The Maltese carries his tail curled over *his* left flank, and when he's happy and not undulating his *entire* body, it tends to wag from center to extreme left (or at least it did yesterday when he was greeting someone he loves) and when he became anxious (when he followed me and the other person onto the scarey elevator) it abruptly shifted sides, wagging from center to extreme right. I'll have to watch our beagle tonight to see what his tail does.

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

Also, can anybody remind me who on my FL posted a link to the article by a parent with an adoptive daughter, writing about orphanage experience and attachment disorder? It was somebody who also has an adoptive daughter from China, but on my FL, that isn't much of a narrowing criterion.

I think that might be the link from Jim's Occasional Journal.

Yeah, that was a very interesting story. (As is the one you've led with.)

Crazy(had not really thought about implications of attachment issues...but the world's just gotten a bit broader)Soph

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's the one. Thanks! Yes, it's a totally fascinating article, *and* I can use it in a story. Twofer!

find habeas ACLU ad and wagging the dog

[farmgirl1146.livejournal.com]

Just by the link to the article on dog tail wagging is an ad by the ACLU. Click on it, and it takes you to http://www.findhabeas.com/

I urge you to read and sign the petition.

Thanks Ulrika for both.