Hello and welcome to the forum.
Since you haven't mentioned what type of laptop or much at all about the physical machine other than it is a laptop......
Is it new and..... Did it come with Windows 8 pre-installed?
Many new machines with windows 8 pre-installed support "Track Pad Gestures" ... I really have no idea if yours does or not.
I might suggest at least attempting to target the issue by maybe testing with a simple USB wired mouse as an alternative and see if you have the same or any similar issues.
Regards
Randy