Left brained Versus Right brained Personality - Reality or Myth?
Introduction
There are lot of personality tests both on the internet and traditional books that tell you basically what you are good at. The tests suggest which half of your brain is predominant.
If the result of your quiz suggests you are right-brained, then you will be regarded as creative, art inclined and all sort. Or you are logical, mathematics and science inclined if your quiz result categorized you as a left brained personality.
And rightly so, as we were taught in elementary science the right half of the brain handles the creative activities
But the truth is you are neither right brained nor left brained. Psychologists using this 'theory' are simply categorizing humans into two different personalities, which is oversimplifying humans and exaggerating information about the brain.
Where it started from
The origin of the theory or myth that certain people utilize predominantly a certain hemisphere of their brains started far back in the 19th century. The doctors then discovered that the two halves of the brain may not be the same from their observations of their patients, who injured a side of the head and resulted certain abnormalities in some their processes like languages and emotions. These effects was more pronounced on some people more than the others.
In 1981, a neurobiologist and Nobel prize winner Roger Wolcott Sperry alongside with a graduate student Michael Gazzaniga performed researches that would shine the light on the brain. However Sperry accidentally created a myth that would not go away many decades after. He discovered that cutting corpus callosum, which interconnects the two hemisphere of the brain, eliminates seizures in epileptic patients.
Communcation Within The Brain
Removal of Corpus Callosum resulted in the right hand side of the brain not communicating with the left side
Other Psychology enthusiasts hijacked Sperry's idea and took it to a new exaggerated level. They created a misconception that human attributes and personalities are determined by which brain's hemisphere is dominant over the other. In his study, Sperry however discovered the two sides of the brain act independently. He discovered his patient having an object in his left hand was made aware of it by the right side of the brain, the artistic or creative side. The left side of the brain could not communicate the object to the patient.
Every Part works together
It will be extremely difficult for any artist or scientist to perform his profession without proper communication from the brain. An artist for example will lack expression if any side of the brain is not functioning optimally. An artist will need both side of his brain to be functioning to be called an artist.
A two-year study conducted at the university of Utah, in which Dr. Jeff Anderson analyzed the brain over 1000 participants using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The age of the participants ranges from 7 to 29. He found that there is no specific preference in how people utilize either of the side of their brains. It all depends on the particular tasks they are engaging in at a particular time.
Why are people more artistic or deductive than others
Been better in some tasks than others does not translate to your brain been dominant in one part but as a result of it been developed in performing those tasks. As said earlier, different network of activities happens in different region of the brain. It is normal for the more connected and constantly used part of someone's brain to be more developed than that of someone that don't use that part too often. Science does not support the left brain versus right brained theory or personality. It is a myth that has been busted.
Thanks for reading.
Images are copyright free from Pixabay 1, 2, 3, 4,
5
Reference
Debunk Myth of "Right-brain" and "Left-brain"Personality Traits
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