A Study of Gustatory Dominance
A Brief Introduction to our Project
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Dominance occurs when one body side is favoured over the other, and thus is used more. It is caused by cells in the brain which force other brain cells to slow down. This is called inhibitory action. Inhibitory action causes the brain to favour one (usually the right) side of the body. Dominance can be found, to some extent, in the hands, feet, eyes and ears. (Lezak, 1995) Most people show dominance in at least some of these systems. We found no research, however, on gustatory dominance. Our hypothesis was that subjects would have a dominant side to their tongue. In most body systems the connections to the brain cross over from one side of the body to the opposite side of the brain. As the majority (86%) of people are right-handed, (Lezak, 1995) and likewise right-footed and right-eyed, this means that they are left-brained. The tongue, however, does not follow these rules. (Castellucci, 1985) Instead of crossing over the tongue sends its messages directly to the same side of the brain. Therefore a right-handed person should theoretically be left-tongued, and vice versa. As an extension to our original hypothesis we expected tongue dominance to be directly related to dominance in other parts of the body. |