Brain Sides
The human brain is a miraculous organ. It regulates thought, memory,
judgment,
personal identity, and other aspects of what is commonly called
mind. It also
regulates aspects of the body including body temperature, blood
pressure, and
the activity of internal organs to help the body respond to its
environment and
to maintain the body's health. In fact, the brain is
considered so central to
human well-being and survival that the death of the
brain is considered in many
parts of the world to be equal legally to the
death of the person. In the past
fifteen years or so there has been a lot of
talk of left brain and right brain
people. Clearly their are misconceptions
and truths about how our brain
hemispheres operate. First of all the myth of
the left brain and right brain
theory. This states that generally people see
the left hemisphere of the brain
controlling logic and language and the
right, creativity and intuition. In
addition people differ in their styles of
thought, depending on which half of
the brain is dominant. Some people
believe that most of what these notions state
is farce. Next the article
explores the history of this fascination of the left
and right hemispheres of
the brain.. It wasn't until 1962 when Roger W. Sperry
began experimenting on
certain aspects of the brain that contribute to the truth
of the left and
right brain theory. Sperry studied people who had undergone
surgical division
of the corpus callosum, the bridge between the two
hemispheres. His studies
showed that, "an object placed in the right hand
(left hemisphere) could be
named readily, but one placed in the left hand
(nonverbal right hemisphere)
could be neither named nor described. Doreen
Kimura. Kimura developed
behavioral methods which involved presenting visual
stimuli rapidly to either
the left or right visual fields. Another important
method developed was
"dichotic listening" which centered around the
use of sound to study the
hemispheres. Through these tests and the continual
study the theory that the
left brain controlled ended. Instead a new theory was
born known as the
two-brain theory. This said that at different times one of the
two
hemispheres would be operating. An example of this is that the
right
hemisphere is in control when an artist paints but the left hemisphere
was in
control when a novelist wrote a book. This theory failed because of
one physical
studies showed that people with hemispheres surgically
disconnected could
operate in everyday life. Also, research demonstrated that
each hemisphere had
its own functional expertise, and that the two halves
were complementary. There
are five pionts two each hemisphere. 1. The two
hemispheres are so similar that
when they are disconnected by split-brain
surgery, each can function remarkably
well, although quite imperfectly 2.
Although they are remarkably similar they
are also different. The differences
are seen in contrasting contributions. Each
hemisphere contributes something
to every action a person takes. 3. Logic is not
confined to the left
hemisphere. Although dominant in the left logic is present
in the right
hemisphere. 4. There is no evidence that either creativity or
intuition is an
exclusive property of the right hemisphere. 5. Since the two
hemispheres do
not function independently, and since each hemisphere contributes
its special
capacities to all cognitive activities, it is quite impossible to
educate one
hemisphere at a time in a normal brain. Through my research I came
to the
conclusion that people are not purely left or right brained. There is
a
continuum in which the hemispheres work together in harmony. Often the left
or
right hemisphere is more active in some people but it is never the
sole
operator. "We have a single brain that generates a single
mental
self." , but merely somewhere on the scale between left and right
brain.
Some of us are extreme left, few extreme right and most in the
middle leaning
left a bit (this is where I fell).