Essay on Left vs. Right Brain

One Brain or Two?, Michael Gazzaniga and Roger W. Sperry explore the independent abilities of the two hemispheres in the brain, the left and right, by studying split-brain patients and their responses to certain tests. The tests are designed to examine the mental and perceptual capacities of the split-brain patients. With careful placement of objects or pictures, the first test measures the visual abilities of the patients. The second test measures the tactile cognition abilities of the patients by allowing them to feel an object behind a screen, then asking them to name the object. The third and more challenging test combines the visual test and tactile test to measure the auditory abilities of the patients. Each of these tests shows the different ways that the brain works in split-brain and normal brain humans alike.

The human brain is a wondrous invention that has many scientists and researchers very busy to this very day. There are numerous qualities about the brain humans know about, yet there are still a great number of mysteries to the brain and how it functions left to be discovered and shared. Some facts scientists do know about the brain is that it is divided into to primary sections, called hemispheres. Each person has a left and right hemisphere of the brain. Each hemisphere is in charge of specific abilities, tasks, and functions. This paper will review what each hemisphere is responsible for and describe ways that each hemisphere is predisposed to learn.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor describes her experience of a stroke in her left hemisphere on December 10, 1996 causing her to lost the ability to move or talk, as well as her self awareness. Throughout her presentation, she mentions the basic functions of the two hemispheres of our brain: right and left hemisphere. Taylor argues both sides of the brain functions differently and process various of information. Taylor defines the right hemisphere of the human brain is about the “present moment” or “right here, right now”, it processes with pictures and learn physically based on our movements. She compares the right hemisphere to a “parallel processor”, whereas she compares the left hemisphere as a “serial processor”. Taylor defines the left hemisphere

This trend was also prevalent in the right hemisphere for bilinguals however not seen in monolinguals (x = 56, y = -53, z = 42; Z-score = 3.4; P<0.001). Voxel-based morphometry revealed that overall proficiency correlated negatively with age of acquisition (P<0.01; r=-0.855) and second-language proficiency correlated with grey-matter density in exactly the same left inferior parietal region previously identified by a different study (x = -48, y = -59, z = 46; Z-score = 4.1; P<0.05). (Mechelli, 2004)

In the excerpt “Right Brain Rising”, Daniel Pink tells his experience in depth detail of an intriguing brain scan beneficial both to his curious mind, and the world of science. He then goes on to inform readers of the two distinct halves resting in our skulls; following up with the past inferiority associated with the human right brain, thought to be due to years of evolution. After acknowledging the disproved theory, Pink delves into information pertaining to psychology’s six

Numerous researches and experiments have been done based on whether the human being possess one brain divided into two parts (left and right hemisphere) or whether we have two different brains working together. The psychologist Roger W. Sperry was the first on research this topic with some experiments on animals. Then, he later started working with Michael Gazzaniga. They were able to find split-brain patients. Those patients had their brain split as way of reducing or stopping uncontrollable epilepsy. Many agreed to participate in the experiments. The experiments that they held focused on finding out what kind of limitations would each brain have if they operated independently, how the 5 senses

In which exact placement of an object or word mattered if the image went to right brain or left brain. Tactical stimulation in which the participants were asked to feel the object but could not see it. And testing auditory was the hardest one they said because the sound enters through both of your ears so they are sent to both sides of your brain. But you can minimize to one side of hemisphere as Gazzaniga explained in his methods. After performing all this methods he revealed some fascinating findings about brain functions. With visual ability he said that both sides of your brain are equally skilled for visual perception. But when the lights were flashed on both sides of brain and the patients could only see the ones on the right because the center of speech is located on the left side of brain so in order to say that you saw the light the object have to be seen by the left side of your brain. With the tactile stimulation same thing was done but this time the object was placed in their hands and since the left hemisphere have verbal abilities it was easily identified the object that was placed in right hand but with left

Using a real human brain, Dr. Taylor explained the separation of the brain’s right and left hemispheres. The two cerebral cortices are completely separate from one another, but maintain communication via the corpus callosum. She described the right hemisphere as a parallel processor, thinking in images and learning from body movement. The right hemisphere is responsible for gathering sensory input, in the form of energy, from the environment around us. The left hemisphere, according to Dr. Taylor, is a serial processor, interpreting the sensory information gathered by the right hemisphere. The sensory information is analyzed and categorized by the linear and methodical thinking of the left hemisphere. Dr. Taylor believes the left hemisphere is responsible for interpretation of the past and future, as well as, an individual’s self-awareness. The

In class on 9/18, we discussed the structures of the brain and how each part works. The brain has so many parts that it is almost impossible to remember all the parts and their functions. The brain is very complex, but the most interesting thing that was talked about was the two different hemispheres. We discussed how the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and vise versa I found it very interesting that the left side of the brain controls more of our logic and grammar, and the right side of the brain controls more emotional expressions. When Dr. Yarnell discussed her story of her friend and her friend’s husband getting in a fight I think the way she told her to help resolve it was very interesting. Her response was to move into her left side

Pink’s argument that we are moving out of a left-brain dominance and in to a new era where right brain qualities will be prized is well illustrated in part one the book. According to Pink “the two hemispheres of our brain don’t operate as on-off switches…both halves play a role in nearly everything we do” (2011). Pink suggests that both hemisphere of the brain are equally important. In fact, “a healthy,

The results of this study show us the brain is not in fact symmetrical and the two hemispheres in the brain work in different ways. The left hemisphere is known to play the dominant role, which is in control of all complex behavioural and cognitive processes as for the right hemisphere it only plays a minor role. This report will further analyse how different the two hemisphers is the dominant side of the brain.

The brain assymetry experiment is to investigate on the distinctiveness of the right and left hemisphere in the brain as each hemisphere has certain specializations. The experiment were carried out by initially asking the 25 participant on whether they were left or right handed and they had to choose the chimeric image which appeared younger to them. Laterality quotients were calculated in order to deduce the effect of the right or left hemisphere on visuo-spatiality as the participants had to make judgements on the faces. Right-handed individuals showed leftward perceptual bias compared to left-handed individuals, indicating that the right

For many decades people have been considered to be either right or left side dominant in regards to brain function which came with defined roles such as “creative” or “analytical”. This thinking tends to be over-simplified as most people use their entire brains daily (Jensen, 2010). On the other hand people do use different parts of their brain for different tasks according to how they perceive those tasks.

Left-right brain dominance is about the fact that the distinct hemispheres influence thinking. The left hemisphere is associated with logical, analytical thinking and a linear approach to problem solving. The right hemisphere is associated with creative, intuitive and value-based thought process. It is important to note that everyone uses its both hemispheres, but to varying degrees. Four quadrants of the brain, related to different thinking style, have been identified:

Right brain? Left brain? Both sides are very different and have their own characteristics that help determine what a persons potential strengths and weaknesses will be. “The human brain is split into two halves, each with its own unique abilities. This phenomenon, discovered three decades ago by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Roger Sperry and his associates at the California Institute of Technology, is known as brain lateralization” (Raudsepp, 1992, p. 85). Certain characteristics of a person can go so much deeper then just hobbies that a person enjoys. Brain function can play a major role in how a person perceives their surroundings, such as if someone like to draw or do math. On the other side of that if a person is very analytical and good at subjects in school such as math it could be linked to which side of their brain is dominant.