Half-Baked Brain

I have a condition and didn't know it. Well I knew it, but didn't know it was a real thing. Here it is.  When I’m supposed to turn left, I sometimes turn right. When I want to close something, I open it. 

This thing, I believe, explains why I’m directionally challenged.

I found it on the Internet, and this is a real thing.  In simplified terms it’s called right-left confusion. I even found one beer peer reviewed research paper, on this very thing. And like most everything in life, this delicate condition (if I may call it that) GETS WORSE WITH AGE. Sorry for raising my voice.

This condition can be dangerous. Think:

*Turning onto a one-way highway
*A surgeon cutting off the wrong extremity
*Someone using heavy equipment 
*Pushing the gas pedal when you meant to push the brake
*Opening a water line when you meant to close it (I may have done this.)

When people get it right it's because they have the “cognitive ability”  (i.e., know their left from right, hear and understand, express what they’ve seen and heard, have spatial ability, etc.). After evidence is loaded into the brain, then it is decision time.  In simplified Teresa terms: Will the brain perceive the data input then place the info in the correct order (mental rotation stages--not Teresa terms)?

Good question. For me it isn’t always so. So where is the breakdown for me?  

My theory is this, my deficit lies not in reporting the decision, but in reporting the decision before a proper comparison of the “stimuli” is fully baked in my brain.

My brain is not fully baking its information. Does that mean my ideas are half-baked? Probably, but I have other redeemable qualities.

Can you imagine your MC having this issue? The story could be humorous or...not. Lot’s of character possibilities.

The brain is so awesome.  If I only had a brain….

Do you have this condition? Have any of your characters had this problem?






Comments

shelly said…
I have the same problem. So in certain situations I slow down and remember I write with my right hand. I caused a car accident because of this issue.
Gets worse with age - that's something you didn't want to hear. I guess the best thing you can do is really stop and think before doing anything.
Hi Teresa ... we all do it so often don't we ... sad but true - at least I'm not a surgeon and get the wrong leg off ... my hip surgeon came into my room with permanent marker in hand ... said good morning, it's this side isn't it - put a huge arrow up my thigh and departed! He did do a very good job - but I do laugh at the Saturday morning hello ... I'll be cutting into you shortly ... the nurses then spent the next few days telling me ... that arrow (Prisoner like) will fade!

When I flew solo for the first time as a glider pilot - I went left instead of right and didn't actually have much height ... aged 16 corrected myself ...and was glad to get down having completed the correct circuit!

Cheers - I'm sure I do crazy things now ... so I'll join you .. but as you say good for story lines .. Hilary
Gail said…
Surgeries have been botched in so many hospitals. Now they mark, hopefully, the correct spot and initial it. No one can do that but the surgeon.

You'll be fine if the drivers around all have the same problem.
As a child I had huge difficulties with left and right. My ever so helpful father told me that my left hand was the one with the thumb on the right. Which was a huge help. Not.
These days I am mostly fine with it. Which is dangerous. Think receiving directions from someone who is mostly reliable and sometimes has a complete failure.
Pat Hatt said…
haha on a main character with that would be quite fun. Have to stop and think I guess with it.
JoJo said…
I have suffered from the left/right issue since I was a kid. I even joined colour guard in high school because I'd hoped the commands for left and right face would help me. Sadly, it did not. Whenever I'm driving somewhere new I have to consciously think which is left and right. And friends have often been known to say, 'take a driver, take a passenger' in lieu of left/right. Or as my husband will also say, 'YOU'RE OTHER LEFT!' lol
Hart Johnson said…
I was once told I was the smartest person my friend knew who didn't know left from right. I have always had trouble with it on my person, though strangely no trouble when driving because I can keep the "left cuts across traffic" think in my head firmly. Looking at a page I have to say "left to right" (the way we read) before I can figure who is meant by "on my right". So I have a little of this...
Arlee Bird said…
I'm not familiar with that condition, but I certainly don't doubt it. I do get of sense of things growing worse with age. I see it happening to me.

Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Tossing It Out
My kitten has the same problem: only half a brain and all ready to go with it!! I had a hard time all my life with remembering which direction to turn the handle to turn on and off the water for the hose -- at least that's what I told my step-father when I drenched him with the backyard hose
Fundy Blue said…
I have the same type of problem, although mine is more a case of impulsivity ~ leaping before leaping. LOL Have a good one, Teresa!
I knew someone who has this issue, and I have a similar one where I randomly drop whatever I'm holding, as if my brain suddenly forgets that it is holding something. Good thing I didn't go into chemistry. :)
Stephanie Faris said…
I'd never heard of this! That could definitely be dangerous. It also explains why sometimes people come to a dead stop in the grocery store, as if they can't decide which way to go next.
Jemi Fraser said…
That could be scary - and hilarious at the same time!! My brain has a ton of glitches, but I'm mostly good on that one :)

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