Yikes, I've got two brains!

 
 Did you know that we all have two brains? Actually we have two brains in one. Our brains have two sides each doing its own job to create our experience of being conscious, aware, and alive. The information I present here comes from the book The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist.

 

The human brain is divided into two hemispheres: right and left. Although they look symmetrical Each brain hemisphere has its own structure and function.  How do we know which side does what? Scientists study cases where one side of a brain has been disabled through, injury, anesthesia, or surgery. Then they notice which mental functions go missing.

 

Let’s look at the right side of our brain and see what it does. The right hemisphere makes sense of our immediate experience.  At each moment of our waking lives we are bombarded with sense perceptions. The right hemisphere integrates these perceptions into recognizable things by pattern recognition. We see a recognizable pattern and bingo, it’s a face. We don’t have to think about it. It constantly notices what is around us and is on the lookout new things. It remembers what distinguishes one thing from another.  It prefers the real world rather than ideas and is constantly seeing connections between things.  It is the right hemisphere that helps us to understand what is being said in context, what is implicit rather that explicit. It is what allows us to understand metaphor and humor.

 

The right hemisphere makes us aware of our emotions and bodily sensations. It creates and sustains our social bonds. It interprets the meaning of facial expression, vocal intonation and gesture. It specializes in non-verbal communication. It is responsible for our ability to remember faces. It helps us to have empathy, and emotional understanding, the capacity to put ourselves in someone else's shoes.

 

What happens if the left side goes offline and only the right hemisphere is operating? A person can become depressed, feel guilty, ashamed, or overly responsible. They can suffer from a loss of ability to enjoy things. However, they retain their capacity for empathy. They can lose of their ability to speak, though they often retain the ability to read and play music.  A left hemisphere stroke can actually increase creativity.

 

Now let’s look at the left side of our brains. The job of the left hemisphere is to size up the world quickly and choose appropriate actions according to what it already understands. It makes internal models of how the world works so we can act efficiently. It concentrates on specific tasks, doing one thing at a time and excluding everything else so as not get lost in ambiguities or multiple options.

 

 The left hemisphere gives us our ability to speak. It translates our experiences into words and concepts to map the world so we can understand how things work. It groups things into categories and analyses their parts. It makes generalizations. It is where our intellect comes from. It inhibits strong emotional reactions. It likes things in the abstract is interested in the impersonal. It likes to with deal mechanical, non-living things.

 

What happens if because of disease or injury only the left hemisphere is working?  People operating solely on their left hemisphere can lose their capacity for empathy sometimes becoming psychopathic. It has also been linked to schizophrenia. They can experience a lack of meaning and doubt the reality of what they see. They can also become overly, optimistic, positive and certain of their beliefs. They can become manic, euphoric, and even jovial. They can develop anosognosia, and deny the fact that they are ill.

 

In a normal people the two hemispheres work well together, however they are so different that sometimes they are at odds with one another.  So they take turns. It works like this: The right hemisphere notices something and designates it as “important”. The issue is sent to the left hemisphere for analyses and then returned right hemisphere where the results are used to see the bigger picture.

 

Most brain researchers, including McGilcrest, say that in normal brains the two sides work so closely together that there is no untangling them.  But it stands to reason that individuals can have a preference for one side or the other and would benefit from having a more balanced brain.

 

There are free tests you can take to see if you favor your right or left brain.  Here is one: https://www.idrlabs.com/left-brained-right-brained/test.php.  And there are mental exercises you can do to stimulate one of side of your brain or the other. Working with language and math stimulates your left brain. Working with music and art stimulates your right brain. You can find many suggestions about how to do this in books and on the internet. So take the test, find out which side of your brain is flabby and start your mental exercise program today.