Brain - Left Or Right ?

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. - Robert Frost

And of course, the brain is not responsible for any of the sensations at all. The correct view is that the seat and source of sensation is the region of the heart. - Aristotle

Well we have two different great views for our brain. Brain is senior part of our body that controls our other organs as well us.

David H. Hubel argued, "The brain is a tissue. It is a complicated, intricately woven tissue, like nothing else we know of in the universe, but it is composed of cells, as any tissue is. They are, to be sure, highly specialized cells, but they function according to the laws that govern any other cells. Their electrical and chemical signals can be detected, recorded and interpreted and their chemicals can be identified; the connections that constitute the brain's woven feltwork can be mapped. In short, the brain can be studied, just as the kidney can."

Brain is divided into two hemispheres. The research of Sperry and Onstein showed that we have two hemispheres in our brain, which have different characteristics or functions.

The left side of the brain generally deals with language (speech, writing, etc.)

The right side of the brain generally deals with more spatial activities (music, math, art, etc.)

People who are right-brained are thought to be more creative than left-brained people.

Left-brained People

Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. ('What else could it be?') I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer. - John R. Searle

1. Left-brained people more focused on logic and structured activities.
2. People like this love to make lists, perform well in middle management, are highly logical and analytical and usually very reliable.
3. They tend to store information in names and words.
4. They think in order (first, next, etc.) They would rather be told how to do something than have it demonstrated.
5. They thrive in the classroom that involves a lot of listening.
6. They enjoy talking and writing things down.
7. They prefer discussing in-group projects. They like making and following structured rules.
8. They don’t like when their routine is interrupted.

Right-brained People

Emotions give a more activated and chemically stimulated brain, which helps us recall things better. - Cahil

1. The more intuitive and random in processing information and the more apt you are to store information primarily in pictures.
2. When asked to recall an event or a person, the right-brained person will flash instantly on an image.
3. A right-brained person is more likely to remember a face and a left-brained person would remember the name.
4. Although this person has a strong visual memory, he/she tends not to have the ability to perform logical, linguistic tasks.
5. Right-brained people tend to view and respond to the word with pictures and physically; unfortunately the world (especially schools) tends to view and respond with words.

Comparing Left and Right Brain

Left brain	Right brain
Logic	Rhythm, Creative, Abstract
Lists	Color
Linear	Imagination
Words	Day dreaming
Numbers	Intuition
Sequence	Spatial awareness
Analysis	Music
How	Why
Maths	Drawing
Structured	Unlimited
Reasonable	Not always
Practical	Wild and crazy
Believe in present	Believe in future
Incremental fixes	Quantum leaps
Continual improvement	Break through
From experience	Far reaching
Based on acquired skills	Based on desire

Tony Buzan who developed Mind Maps technique are showing that we need not be totally left brained or right brained but that by using both sides of our brain in our activities we become more ‘whole-brained’.

Whole-brained People

1. These souls, in some respects, have the best of both worlds.
2. They have the wonderful ability to shift tasks to the hemisphere of the brain that’s best equipped to tackle them.
3. When it comes to reading directions or doing a logical exercise, these people are efficient and able to sequence enough to complete the project.
4. They also enjoy creative abilities and can paint, create music, and use their intuition. They make good CEO’s because they can solve larger problems and pay attention to detail to apply to a situation.
5. The whole brained individual can see the forest and the trees. But, he/she may lack the organizational strengths of a left brained person and the creative brilliance of a right-brained person.

Whatever any man does he first must do in his mind, whose machinery is the brain. The mind can do only what the brain is equipped to do, and so man must find out what kind of brain he has before he can understand his own behavior. - Gay Gaer Luce and Julius Segal

There will be always differentiation among heart, mind and brain. Kall said, "The brain gives the heart its sight. The heart gives the brain its vision." Again we had seen different functionalities between left-brain and right brain where one is practical and another is imaginary.

Leaving left and right hemisphere to understand brain, lets follow what Lyall Watson said, "If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't."