Feb 12, 2022 20:00:00

Why does my tongue stick out when my child concentrates?

Many people who have experience raising children or who have small children close to them should have seen children who are enthusiastic about drawing and playing with toys sticking out their tongues. .. In addition, some adults say, 'When I am doing delicate work, I try to press my tongue against my upper jaw.' In this way, experts explained why there is a connection between manual work and tongue movement.

Why do we stick out our tongues when we're concentrating? | Live Science

https://www.livescience.com/why-stick-out-tongues-concentration

According to Jillian Forrester, a professor of comparative cognitive science at the University of London at Birkbeck, the phenomenon of tongue sticking depends more on 'what you are doing' than on whether you are focused or not. matter. 'It has been confirmed in experiments that people's tongues come out when they make delicate movements that control the fine movements of their hands,' he told the science news site Live Science. I commented.

According to one theory, the reason why the tongue comes out when doing detailed work is the phenomenon of 'exercise overflow'. According to a

2019 study that investigated the relationship between the use of tools and language ability, the area of the brain that controls language and the area that controls detailed work and the use of tools overlap. In other words, 'motor overflow' means that the stimulation of neurons related to manual work overflows to the neurons related to speech, and as a result, the mouth and tongue may move while doing manual work. It's a mechanism.

There are other powerful studies showing that the hands and mouth are linked. According to a 2001 study in which subjects were asked to grab an object with their mouth open, the mouth was wide open when grasping a large object, and conversely, the mouth was small when grasping a small object. That. A 2015 study led by Professor Forrester also found that when a 4-year-old child was forced to do delicate work, the child had his tongue sticking out of his mouth and moving his tongue to the right side of his mouth. .. Professor Forester and his colleagues speculate that the tongue often moves to the right because the common dominant hand, the right hand, is controlled by the left half of the brain. The language center that controls words is often located in the left brain.

The tongue sticking out of the mouth is a phenomenon mainly seen in children, but this is because 'adults learned not to stick out their tongue every time they work'.

There is also a theory that the interlocking of hands and tongue is related to the process by which human beings developed language. According to Professor Forester, apes communicate mainly by hand movements. Similarly, early humans communicated primarily by hand, but it is believed that as a result of having tools and blocking their hands, they began to communicate aloud with their mouth and tongue. increase.

Professor Forester said, 'Maybe it's because we have a lot of gestures when we talk, and because our vision is the main sensory organ, because our communication has moved from hand to mouth. But concentration. Our research on the mechanism by which the tongue pops out while doing is still in the theoretical stage. It's hard to say whether it's a relic of evolution or because the stimulus overflows in the brain. Hmm. '