ANCING AND GEOMETRIC SPACE

Neuroscientists and neurologists know that the ability to control and direct fine motor skills is under the auspicious of the motor cortex and the left half of the brain in the majority of the population. This is also demonstrated via hand preference as in the right hand being controlled by the left half of the brain.

In contrast, the right brain exerts controlling guidance over the trunk and lower extremities so that successful movement of the whole body in space is made possible. For example, the capacity to guide movements in space and to take into consideration factors such as gravity, distance, depth, and so on, so that one does not trip and fall, is dominated by the right half of the cerebrum. This includes the perception of direction, shape, orientation, position, perspective, and figure-ground, the detection of complex and hidden figures, route finding, maze learning, as well as locating targets in space 29. The determination of the directional orientation of the body as well as the positional relationships of different body parts is also under the dominant domain of the right half of the brain.

It is the right hemisphere which enables us to find our way in space without getting lost, to walk and run without tripping and falling, to throw and catch a football with accuracy, to drive a car without bumping into things, to draw conclusions based on partial information, and to see the forest when looking at the trees. If not for a right brain, a dancer could not dance as it is this half of the cerebrum which makes it possible for us to run, skip, jump, leap, throw, hit, and to catch a football tossed long and wide via the analysis of body-visual-spatial relations 30. If the right half of the brain were injured, distance and depth perception would be altered, half of the body image may be erased, and our ability to maneuver our body about in space would be compromised. There would be no more dancing.

Among humans, it may well be the right half of the brain, coupled with limbic influences and that of the basal ganglia which provides and extracts emotional meaning from movement. However, over the course of human evolution, neuronal organization has become more complex and new brain structures have evolved that have made possible the translation of movement into meaningful gestures and then finally, into complex human speech. In fact, it appears that the development of complex gesturing was a precursor to the development of spoken language, and that, conversely, spoken language required that movement be modified and imposed on sounds. However, before the first word, there was the sign, and the sign still accompanies and gives meaning to the spoken word, even when nothing has been said.

Karagoiliyeva Draikha

ID 20112755

Date 2.08.12

Foundation 4

From: The Naked Neuron

by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D.

(Plenum Press, New York, 1993)

Dual entery diary.

Karagoiliyeva Draikha

ID 20112755

Date 2.08.12

Foundation 4

From: The Naked Neuron

by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D.

(Plenum Press, New York, 1993)

Graphic organaizer.

Dancing: The Languages of the Body in Motion

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 1063