Monday, February 22, 2010

There is a reason...


Hang around with a librarian and you get fun factoids on the fly...like this one:

Imagine you are holding a new baby in the crook of your arm.
Got the picture in your head?
OK.
In which arm is the precious little head being cradled? Your right arm or left arm?

Next: You are holding a baby over your shoulder, steadying the baby's head with your hand and patting the baby's back with the other hand.

Which shoulder is the baby resting on? Your right shoulder or left shoulder?

Record your arm preference in the Poll at the top of my side bar!

Now for the factoid:

As you probably already know, the human brain is divided into two spheres. The right brain is the more creative or emotional hemisphere and the left brain is the analytical and judgmental hemisphere.

But...the way that the spheres receive information is switched: The left ear/left side of a face informs the right side of the brain emotional information that is needed for bonding and caring, while the right ear/right side of the face delivers information to the left side of the brain, which is concerned with analyzing and evaluating things.

The optimum way for a human to tune into the needs of speechless infant is to observe subtle cues. The left side ear/eyes are best suited to register those cues and deliver them to the right side of the brain, where it bonding and caring occurs.

Interesting, eh? There actually is a good reason behind the inclination to hold infants over a left shoulder!

This information was from a study reported in this month's Psychology Today magazine.
How the brain works facinates me. The brain really is the last frontier in my opinion. Only now do we have the tools to "watch" brains process information. The more studies that I read about brain studies, the more amazed I become.

Who knew that the instinctive left hold on babies had a specific reason?
Not only does the holder have better access to the emotional needs of the baby, but the baby's left ear is held open when held on the holder's left side, enabling the baby to readily process signals with his/her right brain that looks for emotional content. Cool!

The study lead to a suggestion: When speaking messages of emotional content, speak them into the left ear for more impact.

When speaking messages that need analytical processing (such as should we do this or that? or "I've put the mail to go out on the table" for instance..) try speaking the message to the right ear.

Hmmm....this information may be useful on many levels of routine family life!



PS:
Happy Washington's Birthday! Anyone baking a cherry pie out there today?

7 comments:

Islandsparrow said...

oh you've gotta love those librarian ladies!!

Left side. Of course I had to look at my rings and have a "momentary think" and actually cradle the imaginary baby to figure out which side - I'm slightly dyslexic and left and right are a great puzzlement.

I'll be interested in the poll results.

Anonymous said...

No cherry pie baking here! I am suprised to read all that. I was under the assumption that babies are held depending on the dominance of the hand of the holder. I hold all my friends kids on the left to free up my dominant right hand. Interesting!~L

Lovella ♥ said...

I had cherry jam from our own trees on my toast this morning. .and thought about Washington the whole time. .okay a little fib there.
I recorded my left side on your poll. I found that so interesting and I was a little worried that I would have been the one wierd person in the group ..but alas my brain is working as it is supposed to . .phew. I always thought it was to do with being right handed. . . and now we know the rest of the story.

Anneliese said...

Interesting. I think I may need to turn my left ear to people more often.

Judy said...

What I really want to know is...on which arm did George Washington cradle babies? Smile. You really come up with the most interesting stuff.

I baked an 'all-American' apple pie on the weekend...in honour of George's b'day and my dad's request.

ellen b. said...

Bummer my husband's left ear has gone deaf. We do have half a cherry pie in the fridge and that just might have to be dinner tonight :0)
I hold babies and burp them on my left side/shoulder...

Vicki said...

That's so interesting! I'm glad that I'm in the average - or is that normal? - category with most other people. I'm sure little Aiden benefits from the few moments I've been able to cuddle him. :(

I'm especially glad to know which of Doc's ears to use at which time...of course, he tunes me out most of the time if there's a game on TV or a book in his hands or if he's sitting at the computer...

Cherry pie...sorry, George. I don't like them.