the hemispheres of the brain
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The Hemispheres of the Brain
Some facts about those Hemispheres
O The right brain controls the left part of the body.
O The left brain controls the right part of the body.
O They are separated by a groove called the “medial longitudinal fissure”.
O They are connected by a structure called the “corpus callosum”.
Don’t worry, this is just sheep brain. No humans were harmedin the taking of this picture.
The Left Brain-Right Brain Theory
O Each side of the brain controls different types of thinking.
O Left-Brain thinkers are said to be more logical, analytical, and objective.
O While Right-Brain thinkers are said to be more intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective.
O In Psychology, this is known as the “lateralization of brain function”.
However…O The theory isn’t COMPLETELY true.O Although some functions do occur on just
one side, creativity and logic aren’t one of them.
O In fact, both hemispheres contribute to these processes.
O It’s just that, one hemisphere may contribute more than the other in a particular process.
O It’s more of a specialty sort of thing.
Handedness
O It is said that right-brained people are left-handed and vice versa.
O Although 95% of right-handed people have left-hemisphere dominance for language,
O only 18.8% of left-handed people have right-hemisphere dominance for language.
O For over 150 years, many researchers have been trying to figure out this correlation between handedness and brain lateralization. They are still trying.
The left brain specializes in?O Language
(remember names, words, talking)
O LogicO RationalityO More on the
grammar part of language.
The right?O Non language
(remember faces, experience sounds)
O Metaphor (intuitive thought to solve problems)
O EmotionalO More on the
intonation and stress part of language.
“It’s absolutely true that some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain. Language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right. But people don’t tend to have a stronger left- or right-sided brain network. It seems to be determined more connection by connection.” - Dr. Jeff Anderson
How was this ‘lateralization’ proved?
O Pierre Paul Broca, a French Physician, studied a patient nicknamed ‘Tan’ who was only able to say a selective set of words including the word “Tan”, hence the nickname.
O After Tan died, it was discovered that he had a severe problem in the left part of his brain. It was soon found out that that portion was taking care of speech production. This is now known as “Broca’s area”.