Very interesting, but now I have to wonder about mouth-breathers!?!?

>> ^ponceleon:
Very interesting, but now I have to wonder about mouth-breathers!?!?


I suppose they don't think much at all.

Uuughhhhh....I'd really like to see that study. Pretty hard to believe.

Oh God. Does anyone else feel they're going to be paying attention to this from now on?

What is really interesting about this, the thing that really bugs me, the question that will haunt my dreams tonight, is: why in the name of Beelzebubs swollen arse did they need to put tissues up thier left nostrils before receiving this information?!?

THE TISSUES; THEY DO NOTHING!

Wow that's ve-.... *SNEEZES* ...cripes, what was I gonna say..?

This is very interesting! It could suggest that the brain works the same way, alternating dominance between the two halves. There could indeed be an idea in arranging your work accordingly if this is true. Fascinating.

Ya gwiz, it gives a whole new meaning to mind games as well.

>> ^gwiz665:
This is very interesting! It could suggest that the brain works the same way, alternating dominance between the two halves. There could indeed be an idea in arranging your work accordingly if this is true. Fascinating.


The brain doesn't alternate dominance between the two halves or else you'd wake up one day left-handed and another day right handed. As Raaagh said, it'd be nice to see the study as this sounds like another case of the media and journalists coming up with false conclusions by mis-interpreting scientific data.

I suppose you're right, if right/left handed is contingent on brain halved of course. It's interesting none-the-less.

>> ^mentality:
>> ^gwiz665:
This is very interesting! It could suggest that the brain works the same way, alternating dominance between the two halves. There could indeed be an idea in arranging your work accordingly if this is true. Fascinating.

The brain doesn't alternate dominance between the two halves or else you'd wake up one day left-handed and another day right handed. As Raaagh said, it'd be nice to see the study as this sounds like another case of the media and journalists coming up with false conclusions by mis-interpreting scientific data.

>> ^mentality:
The brain doesn't alternate dominance between the two halves or else you'd wake up one day left-handed and another day right handed. As Raaagh said, it'd be nice to see the study as this sounds like another case of the media and journalists coming up with false conclusions by mis-interpreting scientific data.

mentality, that's a baseless assumption that's completely wrong.

From: Asymmetrical Hemispheric Activation and Emotion - The Effects of Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing
"Changes in nostril breathing efficiency, known as the nasal cycle, were first described by Kayser (1895) and have been well documented since (Keuning, 1968). The relative engorgement of nasal mucosa in each nostril changes over a period ranging from 25 to more than 200 min, resulting in a rhythmic shift of nasal dominance from left to right. Werntz et al. (1983) demonstrated a lateralized rhythm of cerebral hemispheric activation that is associated with the nasal cycle. The relative EEG activity in the left and right hemispheres shifts back and forth with a periodicity comparable to the nasal cycle. The phases of the cerebral and nasal rhythms are tightly coupled and there is a correlation of the dominant nostril with increased EEG activity in the contralateral hemisphere. In two-thirds of the subjects, the cerebral rhythm was an actual shift in dominance between the hemispheres. In the rest of the subjects, the relative changes were comparable but one hemisphere remained dominant throughout."

Also:
"Werntz, Bickford, and Shannahoff-Khalsa (1987) showed that this relationshop between increased air flow in one nostril and actication in the contralateral hemisphere is maintained during unilateral forced nostril breathing (UFNB). When either nostril was blocked so that subjects were forced to breath through the other, there was a shift toward relatively greater EEG activity in the hemisphere contralateral to the open nostril. When forced breathing was changed to the other nostril, the relative EEG activity between the hemispheres shifted as well."

which is why they used the tissues in QI.

Finally
"When the right nostril was dominant, subject performed relatively better on verbal tasks for which the left hemisphere is specialized and during left nostril dominance subjects performed relatively better on spatial tasks for which the right hemisphere is specialized."

I'll have to try that on my next exam

@cybrbeast:

I think you're mixing up the meaning of dominance. The paper you quoted use dominance in the context of which side of the brain has more activity as measured by EEG. Whereas in the vast majority of cases in neuroscience dominance refers to which side of the brain contains the language centers: Wernicke's and Broca's areas in the case of language dominance, and of course motor dominance in terms of handidness.

Anyways, thanks for the link. I have to say though, the paper you provided had a pretty poor experiment design. Ie: It had a small sample size, no control group, and some significant confounding factors (some of which are mentioned in the discussion) which is probably why the paper was published in s small journal like "Brain and Cognition". Seriously, biased experimenters asking all the questions WTF. In any case, it's interesting to see some evidence even if the evidence (in the paper you linked) is rather weak and quite old. It'd be nice to see a recent systematic review on the topic. Also, EEG readings are quite crude and it'd be interesting if someone can do some fmri studies and see exactly what parts of the brain are activated instead of the incredibly vague localisation to each hemisphere.

>> ^cybrbeast:
>> ^mentality:
The brain doesn't alternate dominance between the two halves or else you'd wake up one day left-handed and another day right handed. As Raaagh said, it'd be nice to see the study as this sounds like another case of the media and journalists coming up with false conclusions by mis-interpreting scientific data.
mentality, that's a baseless assumption that's completely wrong.
From: Asymmetrical Hemispheric Activation and Emotion - The Effects of Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing
"Changes in nostril breathing efficiency, known as the nasal cycle, were first described by Kayser (1895) and have been well documented since (Keuning, 1968). The relative engorgement of nasal mucosa in each nostril changes over a period ranging from 25 to more than 200 min, resulting in a rhythmic shift of nasal dominance from left to right. Werntz et al. (1983) demonstrated a lateralized rhythm of cerebral hemispheric activation that is associated with the nasal cycle. The relative EEG activity in the left and right hemispheres shifts back and forth with a periodicity comparable to the nasal cycle. The phases of the cerebral and nasal rhythms are tightly coupled and there is a correlation of the dominant nostril with increased EEG activity in the contralateral hemisphere. In two-thirds of the subjects, the cerebral rhythm was an actual shift in dominance between the hemispheres. In the rest of the subjects, the relative changes were comparable but one hemisphere remained dominant throughout."
Also:
"Werntz, Bickford, and Shannahoff-Khalsa (1987) showed that this relationshop between increased air flow in one nostril and actication in the contralateral hemisphere is maintained during unilateral forced nostril breathing (UFNB). When either nostril was blocked so that subjects were forced to breath through the other, there was a shift toward relatively greater EEG activity in the hemisphere contralateral to the open nostril. When forced breathing was changed to the other nostril, the relative EEG activity between the hemispheres shifted as well."
which is why they used the tissues in QI.
Finally
"When the right nostril was dominant, subject performed relatively better on verbal tasks for which the left hemisphere is specialized and during left nostril dominance subjects performed relatively better on spatial tasks for which the right hemisphere is specialized."
I'll have to try that on my next exam