But all the chordates have “contralateral” control: right brain controls left body and left brain controls right body. What could have led to the rewiring? Here is Kinsbourne’s idea. Imagine that you are a creature with the left-brain-left-body arrangement. Now turn your head around to look behind you, a full 180 degrees back, like an owl. (Stop at 180 degrees; don’t go around and around like the girl in The Exorcist.) Now imagine that your head is stuck in that position. Your nerve cables have been given a half-twist, so the left brain would control your right body and vice versa.
