Switching Cars Confuses the Brain

The brain is truly a wonderful thing. I'm always amazed by the fact that I can remember my university ID number, but can't remember a colleague's name who introduced herself to me one minute ago. (So embarrassing having to ask her name again as she was about to go.) Then we've heard of stories about people losing half their brain, but they still retain all their memories, language and motor abilities, which proves (at least to me) that the human brain is truly underutilized, and that the brain can reconfigure itself on the fly.

Another case in point. We had to go to someplace for something. (See how bad my memory is?) Since it's just a short trip, we decided to take my sister's Corolla instead of the seven-seater Zafira. The Zafira, being a European model, has the wiper controls on the right and the turning lamp controls on the left. The control placement on the Corolla is reversed. Driving the Corolla for the first time, I made a couple of mistakes - activating the wipers instead of the turning lamps. By the time we got back, my brain is already accustomed to the controls. I was even feeling happy that I (my brain) was able to adapt quite quickly. Then, I have to drive the Zafira right afterwards. That became a problem because I got the controls mixed up again. Not only that - I can't even find the controls for the headlights. Suddenly my mind drew a blank. I don't even know which stick to try. I had to stop and look around, and eventually found a knob on the right side of the dashboard. I knew about that knob control ever since we had the Zafira, but it just didn't register after I drove the Corolla. Freaky, isn't it?