I got thinking about this this morning after responding to the Mind-mapping topic.

I am dominantly right handed, according to the above quiz, I am left brained. now, my hypothesis (is that the correct word?) is this (switch terms right and left as nessecary) right handed people use their right hands most from birth. I can't remember ever deciding "I think I'll use my right hand" (at least one other poster is right handed, and left brained.) it is common knowledge now a days that the left side of the brain controls the right side of the bodies motor skills, and vice verse. is it possible that the reason left brain style of think (logical, mathmetical etc...) is so pervasive is that about 90% of the world is right handed? could what hand we use most have an effect on which side of our brain is most developed?

Fascinating topic, could really be in the Science area I think. Back in my college days I took quite a few courses in Neurophysiology where we studied brain function. Back in those days brain mapping was really a hot topic and there was quite a bit of investigation going on. Twenty odd years later when my daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy, I dusted off those old books and notes and was pretty amazed at how far the science had gone since that time. There have been identified certain "centers" of the brain that control different functions in a "normally developed" person, but even those centers don't seem to control the entire function and it is indeed possible to "train" other parts of the brain to perform certain duties. It is for example, possible for a right-handed person to "train" the right side of their brain by forcing the use of the left hand in fine motor tasks like drawing and writing. The really interesting part of that is that the younger the person, the easier it is to train the other side of the brain. Lots of studies where a right-handed inclined child has been encouraged to use their left hand and they've grown up ambidextrious or nearly so. But one thing during my daughter's medical problems (which are resolved completely) was finding out that it is actually possible to remove an entire hemi-sphere of the brain from a young child and for them to lead a reasonably normal life! There is actually a procedure for this that's used to cure a specific form of epilepsy and I know a child that has had that done. Through therapy, brain functions that normally develop in one side are transfered to the other side and develop there. This actually works believe it or not. The explanation I got from the doctors at UCLA who do this sort of thing was that in a young child there are far more synapses or connections in the brain than in an older person. As a person grows and matures, unused connections atrophy and go away. But, as long as those pathways are used and exercised, they remain, so with proper therapy, a person can actually develop nearly-fully even with half of their brain removed. There are some physical problems off course, and empty space needs to be filled with an appropriate material and a shunt is implanted to help the drainage of the fluids, but brain function remains at or near normal. Pretty amazing stuff!