What is Hemispheric Dominance?
We only have one brain, but the idea of being left or right brained has become popularized by TV shows, movies, online psychological tests, and even classroom settings where teaching styles vary based off brain hemispheric dominance. Moreover, many articles on the Internet are designed to help you self-diagnose hemispheric dominance such as the basic tests shown below.
Folded hands test.
Motor function is controlled by the brain contralaterally. In other words, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa. Hence, if you place the left thumb above the right when clasping your hands, you are said to be right brained. Likewise, you are said to be left brained if you naturally place your right thumb above your left.
If you sleep with the same person frequently, the side of the bed you sleep on indicates which side of your brain is dominant:
The idea of hemispheric dominance derives from the fact that the cerebral hemisphere is divided into right and left hemispheres. The two hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum, a thick band of nerve fibers. Research says that each hemisphere of the brain is dominant for different tasks. For example, the left hemisphere is dominant for language, math, and logic, while the right hemisphere is dominant for spatial abilities, facial recognition, music, and visual imagery.
So do you think you’re left brained or right brained? Unsure? Take a peek at this buzzfeed video to see which “left brained” girl or “right brained” girl you identify with, or take the Hemispheric Dominance Inventory Test to see which side of your brain is dominant.
http://www.web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm
According to Buzzfeed’s video, left brained individuals like to meticulously document things, are oblivious to others’ feelings, are good at math, have a superb memory, and tend to approach things logically – be it a new relationship or getting dressed in the morning. Buzzfeed humorously contrasts the “left brained” individual with a “right brained” individual. The “right brained” individual has a terrible memory, can’t remember where she parked the car, is in-tune to the emotions of her friends, and lives her life by following her gut feelings. So obviously, if you can identify more with one girl than the other, that side of your brain is dominant. Right? Wrong.
While this dramatized video pokes fun at the stigmas surrounding left vs right brain dominance, it further enforces the wrongly upheld understanding of how the brain works. Put simply, this video is pseudoscience.
The Actual Sciemce Behind Hemispheric Dominance
Although the idea of hemispheric dominance has established itself in pop culture and pseudoscience, hemispheric dominance stems from actual research and the examination of epilepsy patients, particularly those that have undergone split-brain surgery. In the 1960s, Roger Sperry and his colleagues performed several studies to determine which side of a split brain performed certain tasks related to vision, drawing, math, and other cognitive processes. Not only were the results staggering, but psychology enthusiasts took these results and ran with them, giving us the idea of hemispheric dominance that we have today. However, current research has generated new, more valuable information that disagrees with the idea of hemispheric dominance that we see in pop culture.
Dr. Jeff Anderson, director of the fMRI Neurosurgical Mapping Service at the University of Utah, along with his colleagues have studied the idea of hemispheric dominance. They prefer to use the term lateralization, which describes how the brain tends to use one hemisphere over the other for certain functions, the most well known being language. However, although most right-handed individuals understand and use language with their left brain, this does not mean that one hemisphere is “dominant” over the other or that all tasks and personality characteristics can be traced back to one half of our brain. In fact, Anderson’s team performed resting brain scans on over 7,000 brain regions in patients from ages 7-29 and found that both sides of the brain displayed, on average, an equal amount of networking and connectivity. Going forward, science is not looking to attribute certain functions to one side of the brain, but is instead seeking knowledge regarding the connectivity within and between both hemispheres. This connectivity is what might help explain conscious behavior.
http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html
Although it is interesting to think of yourself as an expert on particular tasks simply because you believe you are left or right brained, this should not be a factor that affects one’s behavior or decision making skills. Society has taken brain dominance to a more serious level then it should be. For example, someone from Apple attempting to recruit employees would ask questions during job interviews that would help them determine which applicants were left or right brained. The intent was to hire those who demonstrated a “balanced” personality. Now, doesn’t that sound a bit silly? An average brain has two hemispheres that work together and share information. They are connected by the corpus callosum and are both used equally while doing creative or analytical tasks. So the next time you take a brain dominance test, don’t let the results hinder your life choices, big or small. Your personality and other characteristics are not determined by whether you are “left” or “right brained.”