AS with dominant Right Brain??

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AS is called by many people a severe form of left-brainedness. I believe it was Hans Asperger himself who said this. Simon Baren-Cohen, a leading expert in the field, supports this view. This is backed up by his research.

But what if someone with AS was indicated to have a dominant right brain?

I did the 'spinning dancer' test and im not sure how accurate it is but i sat there and i just could not make her spin the other way, and it told me that i was right brain dominant. But i said wait thats impossible. but Im part left handed which would indicate right brain. I always get 'balanced' from the EQ/SQ test. Once when i took the test in a bad mood i got mildly E, which would be more rare as a male let alone one with AS. This all points to being right brain dominant (even if slightly) or at least that it may not be as defective as it should be.

Then again ive read studies linking left-handedness to higher chance of ASD. Studies show left handers as having a higher average IQ than righties. How does this fit into things? Shouldnt ASDs be mostly be right handed cos of the left brain dominance?

Could this be why i dont remember ever having any problems reading people? Is this just a left brained AS trait? Is anyone here right brain dominant? Id be interested to see. What would be some differences between the left and right brain version of AS? (if such a thing exists)

I've wondered this since I am mostly right brained myself and also left handed. I heard that people with autism are usually right brained where as the aspies are left brained, but I've got AS not autism.
The thing is I have the traits of a left brained aspie like not reading people very well and being repetitive, but there are so many parts of my personality that is right brained, I'm artistic and imaginative, I'm not that good at subjects like maths or physics and things like that.
And I have found a trend with auties/aspies being left handed or most eccentric/artsy types. I don't get though how a group who's supposed to be predominantly left brained yet have so many lefties in it.

Because I'm very creative, an artist, and poor at math I've always considered myself to be more a right-brained thinker. I am right-handed though.

I am left-handed/right brained...a terminal artsy type...so is my mom..who is also likely on the spectrum.

Actually, there are right-brained autistics out there, especially those who are highly visual. They tend to be more likely to be classic autism than Asperger's, because if your brain is very specialized (i.e., autistic) and you don't learn speech easily, it tends to be specialized in the right brain (speech is in the left).

Question: Did you have a speech delay, unusual speech, or difficulty accessing speech sometimes? If you didn't, is it because you spoke on time when someone with your IQ should have spoken early? What happens when you take an IQ test--do you get verbal>performance, or performance>verbal?

Anyway, I honestly am not very enamored of the "extreme left brain" theory. I'm pretty sure autism is a global condition, not something that just makes you more left-brained. If it weren't, wouldn't people who have congenital or acquired right-brain injuries become more autistic-like?

I dont thing the spinning dancer test is valid for brain dominance. I can only see her spinning clockwise which is supposed to be right-brain dominant. But Im the "typical" left-brained non-artistic geeky type.

I don't know whether or not I had a speech delay. I do know that a lot of the way I learned speech was centralized around singing. I was told that I sorta skipped the babbling and went straight on to sentences...I have always been way better at English than Math (I am pretty sure I have dyscalculea)....I could read at a higher level much earlier than my peers...am hypergraphic as well....I am not sure what is meant by performance vs. verbal
I functioned in math by drawing pictures most of the time in order to figure out problems....am a visual/musical/associative thinker..My visual memory works the best...but it is not super duper...I have auditory processing difficulty and "face blindness" and all that...

My vision is severely damaged in my left eye...I wonder what sort of effect that has had on the way I intake/process information...There is definitely an imbalance.

I have also, for much of my life, pondered the possibility that I had head trauma when I was young...and this is in addition to having family members on the spectrum...


Could it be that rather than an issue of "extreme left brain" or extreme right brain", it is more of an issue of extreme dominance of one hemisphere?

Be careful to not mix two very different things:

- rigth/left brain in scientifical sense (where left brain is more verbal and right brain is more visual-spatial)

and

- right/left brain in popular culture (where "left brain" means "mathematical/logical/hard sciences" and "right-brain" means "artistical/soft sciences"

Probably many engineers are "right brain" in the scientifical sense but "left-brain" in the popular sense; and the opposite for many writers, salesperson, lawyers, etc.

Yeah the left brain theory doesnt sound right to me either. But if we cant trust the leading expert in the field then who CAN we trust!

Head injury can cause all kinds of problems for people usually depends on the specific part they lose. If you knocked out a certain part of the brain then yes someone normal could show autistic symptoms, i have no doubt about it.

I had no speech delay either. Performance IQ is higher than my verbal IQ but there isnt much in it and the doctor said me having APD can affect verbal IQ. And my left handedness may not mean much since i am cross-dominant (i use different hands for different things). Maybe i could have been right handed under different circumstances. Since being lefty is sometimes written as being linked to AS Im always quick to tell people "Im not really a lefty, Im cross dominant!!"

I personally don't believe in the left/right brain distinction the way that many people do. We really don't understand very much about the brain, and there isn't that much evidence to suggest there is the kind of distinction in function as is implied in discussing "left and right brain function."

Left handed and right brained would include me!

I am neither-side-dominant. Instead, I have extreme variations in both typical "left-brain" and "right-brain" abilities, and a combination of very good and very poor interhemispheric connection. I spoke early, yet today still have difficulty organising thoughts into words most of the time, although I can write fairly well once I attain order of thoughts.

Overall, my left brain seems a touch stronger. Handednesswise, I am cross-dominant, with strong tendencies to use a certain hand/arm/leg for some activities but an equally strong tendency to use the other side for different things. Nominally, I am right-handed, as I write with that hand exclusively. Of course, in the 21st century, it may be more important that I "mouse" with my left hand (but with right-handed button settings).

I am effective at software design by combining the visual/artistic side with my strong systemising tendency. I can very effectively merge the two sides. In contrast, I am very noticeably dyspraxic, and have tremendous difficulty with any type of bilateral physical coordination.

I guess I have what can be considered "equal opportunity autism" - it significantly affects both sides of my brain, and enhances some abilities far beyond the normal range while impairing others to a comparable degree.

I'm a lefty/artist, too. I've always loved writing stories and poetry. I drew all the time as a kid. Today, I do photography and digital art.

On the flip side, I'm very logic-minded. So I guess I'm whole-brained.

The answer is NO.
Baren-Cohen stated that Aspie are MALE-brained not left-brained. Left brain is used for language (female) and analysis (male) and right brain for feeling (female) and structures (male). You can lack a proper understanding of feeling but be very good in linking different ideas, making abstract thinking and solving sofisticated problem, you'll be right brained but with a "male" structure.

Just look at here for more example:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt109702.html

I had the same doubt some times ago

Lemme see here, Im very good at math, right-handed, tactile/visual learning, but I also use my left hand quite a bit (if im interlocking my hands, the left is dominant, and some other processes that require using one hand or the other). But, im fairly good with speech, and puns are my favorite method of word play, but i do tend to stumble/mumble when i speak (the idea is there, but the word i need will escape me). Not sure if my speech was delayed, supposedly someone would talk to me, i would register it (like if i was told to do something, id do it), but i wouldnt always verbally acknowledge.

I'm right-handed, saw the "spinning dancer" spinning clockwise, but I can change its direction mentally (this is not really a test). I consider myself to have both hemispheres equally developed, because I'm programmer, I like science, but also I like composing music, painting and tend to understand things using mental visualizations. When I read physics book I don't focus on the formulas, but I like to visualize and mentally feel the phenomenons to better understand them. I'm doing a real simulation in my head.