{"id":8922,"date":"2016-08-23T17:44:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T12:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/?p=8922"},"modified":"2016-08-23T17:44:49","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T12:14:49","slug":"left-brain-right-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/left-brain-right-brain.html","title":{"rendered":"Left-Brained vs Right-Brained: Can we control it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How many times have you heard, \u201cOh! She is so good at painting, such a right-brained person!\u201d or \u201cLook at you with all your math skills! Such a left-brained thinker you are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With all the growing market for training in \u2018right-brain\u2019 activity, we are rapidly moving towards becoming more creative or right-brain focused and less logic or left-brain focused problem solving. But is it so? Do we have a brain that has such a high level of lateralization or complete division of work to left or right sides? Are the extremely complex processes our mind performs compartmentalized? Let us debunk this left v\/s right brain myth.<\/p>\n<p>Let us first understand how the brain generally works. So you have two sides of the walnut shaped brain &#8211; these two sides are connected by a thin structure called <em>corpus callosum<\/em>. This structure&#8217;s primary function is that of a mediator.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Here is a situation where one is Reading a Text<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The reader will take the paragraph and the brain will now start processing it. The signals will travel to what is called <strong><em>Broca\u2019s area<\/em><\/strong> on the left hemisphere, and the language processing takes place. The <strong>sound of the words<\/strong>; the <strong>meaning of the words<\/strong> and <strong>sentences<\/strong> are drawn here.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong><em>corpus callosum<\/em><\/strong> simultaneously communicates to the <em>Broca\u2019s area<\/em> on the right hemisphere. This side will now make sense of the sentences; that is, <strong>the intonation: whether it is a question, it is sarcasm, the rhythm, and the timing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The result being a complete language comprehension of the text read. Now take away any of the aspects, and the process will be rendered incomplete.<\/p>\n<h3>Does this mean that no activity is completely lateralized?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes, It&#8217;s Not!\u00a0The brain is the perfect delegator. Each activity is carefully and yet incompletely delegated to specific yet diffused areas. Popular psychology still has been promoting the left-right theory, with the increasing self-help tools adding to it.<\/p>\n<p>However, recent studies and the current growth in neuroscience has shown that this is in fact, not true. Though, each hemisphere does have a degree of specialization. Just like in the example above about language processing, left hemisphere takes care of the syntax, semantics, and phonology; and the right hemisphere takes care of the prosody (the rhythm and feel). Everything combined would only make language comprehension complete.<\/p>\n<h3>Why are some people Left-handed while others Right handed?<\/h3>\n<p>Probably the most confusing concept that contributes to this hemispherical theory is that of handedness.\u00a0Handedness is still a relatively less understood subject. However, the left brain-right brain theory does help in some areas. It can help one identify what aspect one lacks in.\u00a0Due to a cross-wiring in the brain, the right brain controls the left side of the body and vice-versa. This is one of the reasons lateralization was such a popular concept. During older days when neuro-imaging tools were not available, this concept was what helped determine the language center of a person for a neurosurgeon.<\/p>\n<p>Although neuroimaging studies have shown that complex subjects like maths are processed best when both the sides work together<strong>, one can improve their memory by writing and doing maths physically (left-centered) rather than verbally (right centered). <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For everything else, it\u2019s a balancing act! And truthfully, the brain has done a better job at figuring out how to process than we ever can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many times have you heard, \u201cOh! She is so good at painting, such a right-brained person!\u201d or \u201cLook at you with all your math skills! Such a left-brained thinker you are.\u201d With all the growing market for training in \u2018right-brain\u2019 activity, we are rapidly moving towards becoming more creative or right-brain focused and less [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus-and-concentration","category-self-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}