Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Functions of the Right and Left Brain

Talents in the Left Brain

The Left "Human" brain
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Talents in the Right Brain Right side of brain

Our brains control every aspect of our movement, speech, etc. until we die, Below I am comparing my own condition to that of a stroke patient.

My primary diagnosis is spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Above you can see images of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. There are numerous categories of cerebral palsy. At the time when I was born, infants with a lack of oxygen to the brain were put under the umbrella of cerebral palsy. Above you see images of the left and right brain.



Just think of an adult with a stroke. Adults have strokes on the right and the left sides of the body. When the adult does have a stroke, they have brain damage on the left or the right side of the brain. The left brain controls the right side of your body and your right brain controls the left side of your body. My diagnosis was at 13 months when I was unable to sit up. My left brain is damaged. In an adult, damage to the left brain might impair gross motor abilities and the capacity for speech. When we are very young, our brains are immature. My right brain compensated for my speech. This is only one aspect of my condition.


Now that I'm aging, to articulate for my caregivers or for people in general, I have to close my eyes. I do not know if this is a direct effect of the speech area of the left brain and my right brain compensation. It could just be a coincidence of aging in general. In addition I am losing my ability to find the words that I want to use. In all instances, to get someone's attention I know the person's name but it is difficult to get the name out. Sometimes even when one of my caregivers is working for me, it takes me about thirty seconds to remember their name if I need to call them from another room.

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