Eye exercise improves memory in right handed people

Strange, but cool. [Link]

Several studies have confirmed this bizarre proposition: If you're taking a test of rote memorization, like words from a list, move your eyes from side to side for about 30 seconds before you start. Really.

Researchers have found, with relative consistency, that if you saccade from left to right and back several times before a test of simple recall, you're likely to do better. Why? It may be that this quick activity helps facilitate interaction between the brain hemispheres. Since split-brain patients have more difficulty recalling words than people with normal brains, any activity that encourages communication between the hemispheres is likely to increase recall.

If improving communication between the brain's hemispheres is at the root of this seemingly bizarre effect, then a team led by Keith Lyle reasoned that people who have poorer interactions between the hemispheres should benefit more than others. Who has less interactions between hemispheres? People who are strongly right-handed. Handedness is actually not binary: Many people eat with the left hand, for example, but do everything else right-handed. A simple test can give you a sense of how dominant one hand or the other is. You can try an online version of the test here. Go ahead, give it a shot.

On the handedness test, I am extremely left handed.