Waking up yesterday morning knowing I could sleep in and not schlep down to Tribeca was a lovely feeling. My prereq is done! I got my nice little “A”, and now I have a month off before registration for round 2 at a more conveniently-located institution.
So last week was the last week of class. During which, we got to talk about the nervous system. We were discussing brain function when the standard questions started popping up: what’s the deal with strokes, capacities for language, concussions, etc etc. I wanted to know more about the link between strokes, handedness and recovery rate. It’s a factoid I only vaguely remembered hearing about: lefties have better success. My uncle is making gains in his own recovery, but they’re ever so small. And he’s a lefty. So am I. This is perhaps relevant to my interests.
Teach didn’t know. She gave it to the class as extra credit.
GOOGLE CAT, WHAT DO YOU SAY???
Based on amateur internet reading, it seems there is no definitive statistic relating handedness to recovery rate. However, the important thing to note about lefthandedness is this: there is a higher chance for cross-lateralization of language function than that of a right-dominant person. While righties’ language centers are predominantly found in the left hemisphere, lefties can share language activity across both hemispheres.
So, when a person suffers a stroke, leaving one hemisphere of the brain traumatized, a person who has some of that hemisphere’s functioning programmed into the other side… well it stands to reason that that particular function would be less impaired. Whether or not it affects true recovery speed is unknown, but effects of the stroke are less severe.
Nutshell. In it. That.
