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?

Resources: Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, IFL Science