Can A Person Actually Be 'Left-Brained' Or 'Right-Brained'?
— FACT OR FAKE?
By Sadho Ram — 21 Jun 2015, 03:17 PM
From self-help books to job applications and smartphone apps, the theory that the different halves of our brain govern different skills and personality traits is a popular one. Like, this infographic, reproduced at Lifehack, claims to explain "why we act the way we do" by revealing "which side of our brain we tend to use more."
So if you happen believe that humanity is divided into two great camps: the left-brain and the right-brain thinkers, you won't be the only one believing that. For years, an industry of books, tests and videos has flourished on this concept. It seems to be natural law.
According to the left-brain vs. right-brain theory, a "right-brained" person is creative, artistic, and an open-minded thinker who perceives things in subjective terms. While a "left-brained" person is analytical, good at tasks who requires attention to detail, and is more logically minded.
And at some point in your life, you've probably been labeled a "right-brain thinker" (you're so creative!) or a "left-brain thinker" (you're so logical). Maybe this has shaped the way you see yourself or view the world.
Too bad it's not true! It's the foundation of myriad personality assessment tests, self-motivation books and team-building exercises – and it's all bogus, says Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a University College London professor of cognitive science, in this episode of the Freakonomics Radio Podcast.
"This is an idea that makes no physiological sense," she says.
Blakemore believes that the concept of "logical, analytical, and accurate" thinkers favoring their left hemisphere and "creative, intuitive, and emotional" thinkers favoring their right hemisphere is the misinterpretation of valuable science. She thinks it entered pop culture because it makes for snappy self-help books. And of course people love categorizing themselves.
"I mean, there are huge individual differences in cognitive strengths," Blakemore says. "Some people are more creative; others are more analytical than others. But the idea that this has something to do with being left-brained or right-brained is completely untrue and needs to be retired."
businessinsider.in
While there's something deeply compelling about the clear-cut, right-brain versus left-brain classification, scientists have long known that the popular theory doesn't hold water. Here's why:
First, the sweeping characterizations of the two halves of the brain miss the mark: one is not logical and the other intuitive, one analytical and the other creative. The left and right halves of the brain do function in some different ways, but these differences are more subtle than is popularly believed.
(For example, the left side processes small details of things you see, the right processes the overall shape.)
Second, the halves of the brain don’t work in isolation; rather, they always work together as a system. Your head is not an arena for some never-ending competition, the brain’s “strong” side tussling with its “weak.” Finally, people don’t preferentially use one side or the other.
time.com
Furthermore, according to a study published in the journal Plos One, summarised at The Guardian, failed to find evidence that individuals tend to have stronger left- or right-sided brain networks
Scientists at the University of Utah have debunked the myth with an analysis of more than 1,000 brains. They found no evidence that people preferentially use their left or right brain. All of the study participants — and no doubt the scientists — were using their entire brain equally, throughout the course of the experiment.
livescience.com
Jeff Anderson, the study's lead author and a professor of neuroradiology at the University of Utah says: It's absolutely true that some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain, language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right.
But the brain isn't as clear-cut as the myth makes it out to be. For example, the right hemisphere is involved in processing some aspects of language, such as intonation and emphasis.
theguardian.com
How, then, did the left-brained/right-brained theory take root?
The roots of the left/right story lie in a small series of operations in the 1960s and 1970s by doctors working with Roger W. Sperry, a Nobel-laureate neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology. Seeking treatment for severe epilepsy, 16 patients agreed to let the doctors cut the corpus callosum, the main nerve bundle that joins the two halves of the brain. They found some relief from these dramatic visits to the OR — and when they left the hospital, they allowed Sperry and his team to study their cognitive functioning.
Laboratory findings do not always make their way into the popular culture, but these did, which provided an unfortunate opportunity for misinterpretation of what was, in essence, a limited set of experiments. In 1973, the New York Times Magazine published an article titled, “We Are Left-Brained or Right-Brained,” which began: “Two very different persons inhabit our heads … One of them is verbal, analytic, dominant. The other is artistic …” TIME featured the left/right story two years later. Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today jumped in. Never mind that Sperry himself cautioned that “experimentally observed polarity in right-left cognitive style is an idea in general with which it is very easy to run wild.” A myth spread.
Myths, of course, are a timeless way to make sense of experience. In the search for meaning, people may create simplified narratives. This is a reasonable strategy, but the right brain/left brain narrative introduced misconceptions.
time.com