LEFT BRAIN-RIGHT BRAIN

Left brain-Right brain

The Value of Left brain-Right brain Thinking

Introduction

The theory of the functions and structures of the mind suggest that two different modes of thinking are controlled by two different sides of the brain, and it further suggests that each one of us prefer one mode of thinking over the other. Various experimentations have also shown that the two different hemispheres or sides of the brain are basically responsible for the different manner of thinking. Most of the individuals have a very distinct preference for one of these styles of thinking, but some however are equally adept towards both sides, otherwise known as whole brained (Meltzoff & Prinz 2002). 

In cognitive neuroscience, the brain asymmetry refers to the unequal involvement of the two hemispheres of the brain in different mental functions. In their anatomy, the two hemispheres are very similar but there are a number of finer features that distinguish one from the other. The link between these structural differences and functional differences remain poorly understood.

The asymmetry of brain function has been demonstrated both by studying the effects of brain damage on accidental impaired cognitive and also, more recently, through the techniques of brain imaging which shows asymmetric activations followed by mental operations that a person performs which are recorded in the brain activity indices. Despite significant progress on this issue, there are still many points of debate: the relationship between these asymmetries and hemispheric dominance, the mechanisms neurodevelopment that lead to asymmetries or the influence of environment or genes (Barmeier, 1996). 

The observation of asymmetries in the functioning of the brain was taken very early as an argument in favor of the theory of brain areas with different functions, against that of a diffuse and global functioning, otherwise known as the holism brain . And in 1865, Paul Broca observed that lesions of the frontal lobe on the left (and more specifically, what will be called later the Broca's area) have more dramatic consequences than the right frontal lobe on the production of oral language. For its part, Carl Wernicke highlights in 1873 another area related to language, the Wernicke's area, also more lateralized in the left hemisphere. The asymmetry of the hemispheres is highlighted by the identification of these specific areas of the left brain, but it is not directly a subject of study.

During the 20th century, the neurologist Roger Wolcott Sperry devoted a large part of his research to brain asymmetry and interhemispheric connectivity, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1981 (Annett, 1985). 

Thereafter significant progress has come from the advent of neuroimaging, particularly the functional MRI in the early 1990s, a method whose spatial resolution is more than all other existing techniques. Many works shows asymmetries in brain information processing as the number and quantity of face perception, mental rotation of three-dimensional objects.

Literature Review

Some researchers propose to link these functional asymmetries with other behavioral manifestations. Thus neurologists Norman Geschwind and Albert Galaburda hypothesized that asymmetries are related to the presence of sex ...