Neurologist is challenging Sir Isaac Newton's theory

Charleston neurologist Iraj Derakhshan has published a number of articles in medical journals about what he calls his “non-Newtonian” theory of the human brain. Derakhshan believes one side of the brain is dominant and controls movement for the whole body. He says his theory could change the way patients are treated for seizures and Parkinson’s Disease. Dr. Iraj Derakhshan has a tough fight ahead of him.

He's taking on Sir Isaac Newton.

Derakhshan, who calls himself the author of a new non-Newtonian model of the human brain, is a neurologist with offices in Charleston and Beckley.

Several of his articles on how the brain's hemispheres function in relation to the body's movement, vision and thought have recently been or soon will be published in some high-profile medical journals.

Derakhshan is hoping his work will now have a practical use treating patients in West Virginia and maybe soon, around the world.

"This is such a revolutionary point of view that at first I had rejection after rejection," Derakhshan said of his controversial theories. "It's going to take probably two decades before it's really accepted, but it has such important therapeutic ramifications right now."

Derakhshan argues that what Newton believed about the human brain -- that each hemisphere controls and represents the opposite side of the human body -- is inaccurate.

"That has been a point of common knowledge since 1704, and the fact is he was wrong," Derakhshan insists. "It has caused a chaos in the history of neurology for hundreds of years. But that is what Newton thought, and that is what I'm up against."

Derakhshan thinks, instead, that only one side of a person's brain is dominant and that hemisphere controls the movement of the entire body.

For most people, the dominant hemisphere is the one opposite the dominant hand. For instance, in a person who favors his or her right hand, the left hemisphere of the brain is actually dominant. But that's not always the case.

Sometimes people who are biologically hard-wired to be left-handed wind up favoring their right hand, or vice-versa.

"Nature tries to persuade you to assume your handedness according to what nature wants," Derakhshan said. "Since we are in control, however, a child might just decide instead to imitate someone they love or they might just be stubborn and decide to resist nature and use their other hand."

Derakhshan has developed a simple typing test that helps identify the biologically dominant hand and in turn, the dominant hemisphere in each person's brain.

This test, he says, could replace the need for intrusive surgical procedures used to determine the source of seizures and tremors. It also could minimize the use of seizure-control medications to treat some brain injuries and affect how patients with Parkinson's Disease and other maladies are treated.

For instance, a recent case at Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital involved a man who had a large tumor in the right side of his brain.

Doctors believed the tumor would eventually lead to seizures and immediately put the patient on a regimen of seizure precautions.

Derakhshan urged physicians to stop the restrictive routines because the tumor, being on the non-dominant side of his brain, could never lead to such problems, he said.

Operating on Newton's theory that both sides of the brain play a part in motor and sensory control leads to confusion for doctors who are trying to identify the source of seizures in some patients, Derakhshan said.

Derakhshan's theory is that the source of the seizure always is in the dominant side of the brain, narrowing down the size of the potential problem area by 50 percent.

"Just a very simple test is going to replace procedures that make you shiver even thinking about them," Derakhshan said.

He describes in detail the process one must go through in an invasive encephalography, when surgeons must pick up portions of the skull and put tiny electrodes all over the brain.

"People have to go through these God-awful procedures," Derakshan said. "They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on surgery, and 30 percent of the time they have the wrong hemisphere."
Derakhshan's theories build on observations made by musicologists for centuries.

Composers and music teachers have always understood that, with piano players for instance, one hand always moves faster than the other.

The speed differential only is possible if Derakhshan's theory is right, he said.

The difference in time between when a person's right and left fingers hit a key is the time it takes for the dominant side of the brain to send a signal to the non-dominant hand. That hand, therefore, moves just a fraction of a second more slowly.

It's a phenomenon also witnessed by drummers, referred to as "flam," Derakhshan said.

"One hand is always ahead of the other," he notes. "You watch them bring down their sticks, and it's never at the same time."

Derakhshan began thinking about the implications of his idea in the early 1980s, but he didn't publish his first report until 2001.

He wanted to be sure he was right, and he waited until he thought he had enough data that people would listen to him.

His approach might be working.

He has lectured on the topic at the Cleveland Clinic, and his work has been published, largely unedited, in 10 medical journals during the past three years.

He also has articles in about as many non-medical journals, especially those focused on the robotic implications of his theories.

He's using the typing test and software he has developed when it comes to treating his patients, and he's hoping other physicians and surgeons will consider his theory when working with their own.

"It's really earth shattering," Derakhshan said. "You, as a person, live in your major hemisphere. This is where humanity lies."

Derakhshan's body of work can be found on the National Library of Medicine's Web site, www.pubmed.com, and more information about his theories is available at www.mimickingman.com.