Neck left/right training

Decide whether each person has turned their head to their own left or right. Answer as quickly as you comfortably can.

How to do it

1. Look at the head, compared with the shoulders. Has the person turned their head to their left or their right?
2. Watch out for back and side views. When you see someone from behind, their left is on your left. From the front, their left is on your right.
3. Just judge, don’t copy. You don’t need to turn your own head. Keep still and let your brain do the work.
4. Keep sets short. A set of 20 takes about a minute. Rest between sets if you need to.

This kind of exercise is also called left/right discrimination, laterality training or implicit motor imagery. New to this? Start with no time limit and feedback on. The beginner’s guide explains how to build up slowly and what your scores mean.

Who might find this useful

You don’t need a diagnosis to try this. If your neck, head or jaw has been sore, stiff or “guarded” for three months or more, that counts as long-term (chronic) pain, even if no one has called it that. Researchers have looked at left/right judgements in people with each of the conditions below. In many of these studies, people found the task harder than people without the condition, which suggests the brain’s map of that area may be affected. Few of these conditions have been tested with left/right training, so treat this as a reasonable, low-effort thing to try, not a proven treatment.

• Chronic neck pain, including “non-specific” neck pain with no clear cause. People with chronic neck pain were less accurate at judging head turns,¹ and in one small trial, a session of neck left/right judgements improved neck movement straight afterwards.²
• Neck pain that keeps coming back. People with recurrent neck pain were less accurate than people without it.³
• Whiplash and other neck injuries, such as after a car accident. One study found people with chronic whiplash judged head turns as well as people without pain,⁴ so this one is less certain.
• Migraine and frequent headaches. People with frequent migraine made more mistakes judging neck and face movements, and their results changed with their migraine cycle.⁵
• Jaw pain and TMJ disorders (TMD). People with painful jaw disorders were slower at left/right judgements, including pictures of the head and neck,⁶ and less accurate at judging jaw movements.⁷
• Fibromyalgia and widespread pain. People with fibromyalgia were slower and less accurate at left/right judgements.⁸
• Cervical dystonia (torticollis), where the neck muscles pull the head to one side. One study found people were slower at judging head and body pictures,⁹ while another found no difference,¹⁰ so the evidence is mixed. Check with your neurologist first.
• Dizziness. In a large online study, people who reported dizziness were slower at both neck and hand judgements.¹¹ If head-turn photos make you dizzy, keep Rotate photos off, do short sets, and stop if it gets worse.

If your pain is mainly in your jaw or face, you can also try the jaw exercise. If it is mainly in your lower back, sides, hips or pelvis, try the waist exercise. Tools for the hands, feet and other areas are planned.

About the photos

There are 60 photos of adults of different ages and backgrounds, seen from the front, the side and behind, sitting and standing. With mirrored photos switched on, each photo can also appear flipped, which reverses the answer, so there are 120 possible images. Each set is drawn at random, never shows the same photo twice, and favours photos you haven’t seen recently. Every photo has been checked against its answer.

All photos are AI-generated. They don’t show real people.

Common questions

What counts as a good score?

In a large study of 1,361 adults without pain, people judged neck turns in about 1.6 seconds on average, and half of them got 92.5% or more right.¹² That study used different photos, so treat it as a rough guide. Comparing your own results over time, and your left with your right, is more useful.

Why is one side harder for me?

Many people are a little better at one direction. In the same study, people were more accurate for heads turned to the right.¹² Some research suggests people with chronic neck pain are less accurate overall.¹

Does this work on a phone?

Yes. Tap the Left or Right button under the photo. Each set loads only the photos it needs, about 0.7 MB for 20.

Where are my results stored?

Only in your browser, on this device. Nothing is sent to us. Clearing your browser data removes them.

References

1. Wallwork SB, Leake HB, Peek AL, Moseley GL, Stanton TR. Implicit motor imagery performance is impaired in people with chronic, but not acute, neck pain. PeerJ. 2020;8:e8553. Link
2. León-Hernández JV, Marcos-Lorenzo D, Morales-Tejera D, Cuenca-Martínez F, La Touche R, Suso-Martí L. Effect of laterality discrimination on joint position sense and cervical range of motion in patients with chronic neck pain: a randomized single-blind clinical trial. Somatosensory & Motor Research. 2019;36(2):136–143. Link
3. Elsig S, Luomajoki H, Sattelmayer M, Taeymans J, Tal-Akabi A, Hilfiker R. Sensorimotor tests, such as movement control and laterality judgment accuracy, in persons with recurrent neck pain and controls: a case-control study. Manual Therapy. 2014;19(6):555–561. Link
4. Pedler A, Motlagh H, Sterling M. Laterality judgments are not impaired in patients with chronic whiplash associated disorders. Manual Therapy. 2013;18(1):72–76. Link
5. Luedtke K, et al. Laterality judgements in patients with frequent episodic migraine. Musculoskeletal Science and Practice. 2021;51:102316. Link
6. Uritani D, Nishida T, Sakaguchi N, Kawakami T, Jones LE, Kirita T. Difference in response to a motor imagery task: a comparison between individuals with and without painful temporomandibular disorders. Pain Research and Management. 2018;2018:6810412. Link
7. Diaz-Saez MC, Gil-Martínez A, Iglesias González I, et al. A novel mobile application to determine mandibular and tongue laterality discrimination in women with chronic temporomandibular disorder. Medicina Oral, Patología Oral y Cirugía Bucal. 2020;25(6):e775–e783. Link
8. Martínez E, Guillén V, Buesa I, Azkue JJ. A distorted body schema and susceptibility to experiencing anomalous somatosensory sensations in fibromyalgia syndrome. The Clinical Journal of Pain. 2019;35(11). Link
9. Fiorio M, Tinazzi M, Ionta S, et al. Mental rotation of body parts and non-corporeal objects in patients with idiopathic cervical dystonia. Neuropsychologia. 2007;45(10):2346–2354. Link
10. Conson M, Santangelo G, Impallomeni R, Silvestre F, Peluso S, Esposito M. Spatial and egocentric mental rotation in patients with cervical dystonia. Journal of Neurology. 2020;267(8):2281–2287. Link
11. Wallwork SB, Butler DS, Moseley GL. Dizzy people perform no worse at a motor imagery task requiring whole body mental rotation; a case-control comparison. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2013;7:258. Link
12. Wallwork SB, Butler DS, Fulton I, Stewart H, Darmawan I, Moseley GL. Left/right neck rotation judgments are affected by age, gender, handedness and image rotation. Manual Therapy. 2013;18(3):225–230. Link