• demlet@lemmy.world
    15·
    1 year ago

    The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body. It also controls language. There’s a theory that that’s why the words for the left hand (and left in general) are usually associated with evil (“sinister” in Latin means “left”, for example), while words for the right are associated with good (“dextrous” comes from the Latin “dexter”, meaning “right side”). The left side of the brain might be literally disparaging the side of the body it doesn’t control, while praising the one it does.

    Anyway, I vote for sphincter.

    • prole
      21·
      1 year ago

      Isn’t that left brain/right brain stuff pseudoscience?

      • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
        3·
        1 year ago

        Yes and no: different parts of the brain DO have different functionality and the language center IS in the left half, but you’d need your whole brain to demonize body parts since a lot more than just language would be involved in the reasoning, the decision, the planning and the execution…

        • Zozano@aussie.zone
          2·
          1 year ago

          Minor correction. Features like the language center are shared between both hemispheres, it’s just that typically the left side is more developed.

          Though, with the plasticity of the brain, it isn’t necessarily always the case. Brains are very capable of rewiring themselves. If it’s easier to (re)develop language on the right side, due to left side trauma, that’s entirely possible.

      • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        1 year ago

        The left hemisphere features the Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, which are mainly responsible for finding words (Wernicke) and stringing them together to form a sentence (Broca). That’s why they are 2 general types of aphasia if the brain gets damaged.

        Patients with Wernicke or receptive aphasia speak gibberish because they cannot find the correct words or make up new ones. Expressive or Broca aphasia patients present with what sounds like a severe stutter.

        Depending on the damage and the location, it is possible that either of the patients has little to no trouble understanding language. It’s not known, how exactly language is processed in the brain, as far as I know. We just know where the hotspots are.

      • demlet@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        In general the left brain does language. It’s been proven by observing people who had their hemispheres separated. The whole story about the left brain calling the left side of the body names is pretty speculative though.

        It’s also true that we tend to exaggerate the whole left/right brain thing in popular culture. The idea of left or right-brained personalities is one example of a pretty inaccurate characterization of how the brain works. But there are very real differences between the hemispheres.

        All of that is just based mostly on recent interviews with brain scientists I’ve listened to, I’m not an expert!

  • Lightning66@lemmy.world
    4·
    1 year ago

    There’s a few who thought the urethra is the best.

    Gotta hand it to them. Guess they went through something… making them feel like this

  • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Losing most of them would kill me

    Losing my brain would keep me from knowing

    Heart that would suck quick and be over

    Skin would be slow and painful…

  • FMT99@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    An old Emo Philips joke… At least that’s the first place I heard it back in the 80s.