I always thought it was so if an organism takes head damage on one side, the limbs facing the danger will have a better chance to still work, giving it a better chance to fend whatever off and survive.

▲

Sharlin 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

That would be an incredibly unlikely adaptation anyway, but this change occurred in vertebrates before they even had limbs.

▲

topaz0 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That has the smell of an evolutionary just so story

▲

monkeycantype 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

no there is a very specific reason, related to mapping the 2d surface of your body to a 2d mapping on your brain that allows the areas of your brain that process sensory input from your skin to be adjacent to the processing of the areas that are adjacent on the skin that only works with a flip, I can remember what that is, I only remember the tingle of understanding it at the time

▲

jacobsimon 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Curious, let me know if you find anything about it! That does sort of explain why the brain areas would be locally flipped, but maybe doesn’t explain the global flip (right body -> left brain) that the original article is talking about.

	▲	monkeycantype 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I think it's the theory in the article linked just above by renewiltord

▲

dboreham 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Sort of like an optical projection? (objects projected through a convex lens onto a screen are reversed).