Item from House M.D. by David Shore
The red and gray ball House throws against his office wall when he's thinking — a sensory metronome for a brain that works best when the body is occupied with something rhythmic and pointless.
House throws the ball against the wall. Catch. Throw. Catch. Throw. His team has learned that when the ball is bouncing, House is processing. Don't interrupt. The ball is a fidget tool before fidget tools existed — it gives his hands something to do while his brain runs through the differential in the background. The rhythm is the diagnostic process made physical: hypothesis, test, reject, repeat.
A red and gray oversized tennis ball — not a standard tennis ball but slightly larger, easy to catch one-handed. Scuffed from years of being thrown against the same office wall.
Also known as: The Ball, Thinking Ball