No Speed Bumps

Right- and Left-Brained Modes of Thinking

The human brain is composed of two hemispheres joined by the corpus callosum. In popular science, each hemisphere has been associated with distinctly different functions.



Things are not so clear-cut, though there is a certain division of mental processing functions, or ways of thinking, across hemispheres.

Left Brain Functions	Right Brain Functions
sequential	simultaneous
analytical	holistic
verbal	imagistic
logical	intuitive
linear algorithmic processing	holistic algorithmic processing
mathematics: perception of counting/measurement	mathematics: perception of shapes/motions
present and past	present and future
language: grammar/words, pattern perception, literal	language: intonation/emphasis, prosody, pragmatic, contextual

Integrative functions however (such as intuitive arithmetic, binaural sound localization, emotions, etc) appear more bilaterally controlled.

In the late 1960s, the American psychobiologist Roger W Sperry proposed there were two very different ways of thinking. One involving the right brain which is visual where information is processed in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The other involving the left brain is verbal where information is processed in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at parts and then integrating them as a whole.

As such, people could be described as left- or right-brained, depending on their mode of thinking.

So which are you?

One indicator is handedness, earedness or eyedness. If you predominantly use your left hand, ear or eye, then you are right-brained. And the reverse.

Another indicator is which way you see the woman below turn - clockwise suggests you are left-brained and anti-clockwise that you are right-brained.

For me, she mostly spins clockwise. But sometimes the other way. And I seem to be able to make her change direction.

Not quite sure if I'm pleased about this or not!

POSTSCRIPT - This morning the dancer was mainly clockwising, but now she won't do other than the reverse! So I use different modes of thinking at different times of day?! How's she going for you?