Right Brain and Left Brain
Difference between right and left brain. The left brain deals with short term memory, problem formulation & theoretical planning, contains logical memories. The right brain deals with creativity.
Right brain or left brain: what are the differences?
The brain has two hemispheres, the right brain and the left brain. Is there a big difference in how these two parts of the brain work? In fact, the idea that some people use one cerebral hemisphere more than the other is rather a myth.
Are you more left-brained or right-brained? You may have already taken the test in a magazine or on a site dedicated to psychology… This question refers to the idea that one cerebral hemisphere takes over the other, which would explain the personality of people. Initially, in the study of the brain, researchers were able to show a specialization of brain areas. Thus in the 19th century, Paul Broca and Karl Wernicke described areas of the left hemisphere involved in language: Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area. These findings began to inspire the idea of asymmetry in the brain. Face recognition is instead controlled by an area of the right hemisphere of the brain.
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Sensory and motor functions are carried by the two cerebral hemispheres. The muscles in the left part of the body are controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa, which can make the two hemispheres appear to be working independently of each other. But in fact they communicate to accomplish complex tasks.
Functions, Differences, Left and Right Brain Thinking
Most individuals have different preferences for one of these thinking styles. The concept of right and left brain thinking developed from research in the late 1960s by American psychobiologist Roger W Sperry. He discovered that the human brain has two very different ways of thinking.
The left hemisphere would be the place of the creation of language, speech, writing, numbers, logic and analysis. Rather, it would produce a sequential thought, unfolding in time, linking a word, a number, a concept after another, as one builds a sentence word by word, a stone wall, a reasoning step by step.
The right hemisphere would be the place where the brain perceives the notion of space, thought without language, dreams, imagination, colors, intuition, synthesis. It could combine several concepts simultaneously, and rather proceed by association of disparate elements.
In a somewhat caricatured way, we often come to classify people into two categories according to whether they have an intelligence rather dominated by their left brain or their right brain!
A well-anchored myth in psychology
The left brain is often presented as associated with logical and rational reasoning, with the right brain being rather intuitive and emotional. There would thus be personalities rather “left brain” or “right brain”, who would use more one side of the brain than the other. This conception even more often attributes the left brain to men and the right to women, known to be more intuitive… Similarly, artists, more focused on creation, would use their right brain more!
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But this is indeed a myth that is not based on proven scientific knowledge: it is not possible to define personalities by a specialization of one cerebral hemisphere which would take the ascendancy over the other. We use our two brain hemispheres well, whatever our personality.
Lateralization of brain function
Laterality (or: hemispheric specialization) indicates differences in specialization of the two hemispheres of the brain. This mainly refers to differences in sensory, motor, cognitive and emotive functions.
The neuroanatomy is a science that the structure of the nervous system studied.
The two hemispheres of the brain (also called hemispheres) show a strong anatomical symmetry. In addition, they are connected to each other via several nerve bundles, including the brain bar or the corpus callosum . The right and left halves of the body project to the contralateral (opposite side) regions of the brain. This is the somatosensory cortex for tactile stimuli and the motor cortex for controlling movements . The right and left parts of the retina project to the ipsilateral parts of the visual cortex. However, there are also asymmetries in brain anatomy. Geschwind and Levitsky showed that the planum temporale , an area in the upper part of the temporal lobe, was slightly larger in the left than right hemisphere in 65% of people. In 24% there was no difference, and in 11% the area on the right was larger than the left.
The left brain is the most used in our daily life. School children go to school to learn, and the knowledge taught is mainly to train the left brain, such as language, mathematics, science, etc., so the left brain is also called the “modern brain”.
Art, music, creativity, invention, etc. are the main functions of the right brain. Music may effectively promote the development of the right brain and its concentration. Compared with the left brain, the right brain can use image and harmony to quickly remember.
Sources: PinterPandai, Web MD, Health Line, Very Well Mind, NCBI
Photo credit: Pixabay
