We all know that the activation of the autonomic nervous system that produces anxiety is manifested in our non-verbal and gestural language: when we are anxious it is practically impossible to stay still, we tend to exaggerate gestures or tics, to frown or frown. hands. But a work published in Cognition magazine adds an unexpected signal. Because it seems that anxious people have a tendency to drift to the left side when walking. As explained by the coordinator of the work, Dr. Mario Weick, from the University of Kent, in England, the cause is that the restlessness affects the activity of the brain, which puts the right hemisphere in a state of overexcitation, the one in charge of the movements on the opposite side of our body. The experiment consisted of blindfolding several volunteers and asking them to move across a room to a target they had seen before. Well, those who previously had nervous agitation, as the experts had recorded through various tests, tended to end their journey to the left of the finish line.
And it is that the two hemispheres of the brain are associated with different states and motivational systems. This is the first time that researchers have established a clear relationship between a state of inhibition and anxiety and the activation of the right side of the brain.
The finding could help, for example, in the treatment of unilateral neglect syndrome , which consists of a lack of awareness of one side of space. That is, the affected person stops attending to the left side of their body and the space that surrounds it. Although they can still perceive sensations in the left part of their body, they do not pay attention to them. It is accompanied by cognitive and communication dysfunctions, memory, attention and reasoning problems.
