Dominant Hemispheres of the Brain

Dominant Hemispheres of the Brain

There is considerable evidence that each brain hemisphere has specialized abilities, however an individual should not assume that he or she has two brains or functions with only half of a brain (Right pp). Yet, each side has its own unique and special abilities, the right side being intuitive, while the left side is logical (Right pp).

According to research, the majority of people have a dominant side of the brain, individuals who are more verbal, analytical and problem solvers are predominately left sided, while those who are artistic, visual, and good with math are predominately right sided (Right pp). It is believed that when thinking becomes increasingly more complex, dominance goes into affect, however although, each hemisphere has its own set of functions in information processing and thinking, research suggests that these functions are not exclusive to one hemisphere (Right pp).

There are a few myths associated with hemispheric dominance include, such as the correlation between hemispheric dominance and being right vs. left handed (Right pp). Another is that females tend to be more left hemispheric dominant and males are more right hemispheric dominant (Right pp). Moreover, there is no evidence to support any correlation to intelligence or that dominance is hereditary (Right pp).

Right hemispheric functions include: connected to left side of the body, integrates many inputs at once, processes information more diffusely and simultaneously, deals with space, responsible for gestures, facial movements, and body language, responsible for relational and mathematical operations, specializes in recognizing places, faces, objects, and music, does intuitive and holistic thinking, the seat of passion and dreams, and is the crucial side for artists, craftsmanship, and musicians (Right pp). The left hemisphere is connected to the right side of the body and deals with inputs one at a time, processes information in a linear and sequential manner, deals with time, is responsible for verbal expression and language and for invariable and arithmetic operations, specializes in recognizing words and numbers, does logical and analytical thinking, is the seat of reason, and is the crucial side for wordsmiths and engineers (Right pp).

Since I am very organized, detail-oriented and an extreme perfectionist, I believe that I am left sided dominant. The left side processes information in a linear manner, from part to whole, by taking pieces, lining them up and arranging them in a logical order, then drawing a conclusion (Left pp). Moreover, the left brain processes in sequence, thus these individuals are list makers, and enjoy making master schedules and daily planning (Left pp). As left sided dominant individuals complete a task, they take great pleasure in checking them off the list when the tasks have been accomplished (Left pp). And because these individuals learn in sequence, most of them are good spellers, and are good at math (Left pp). The left brain processes symbols easily, and since many academic pursuits deal with symbols, such as letter, words, and mathematical notations, left brained people tend to be comfortable with linguistic and mathematical endeavors, and have no trouble memorizing vocabulary words or math formulas (Left pp).