MEDICAL MYTH BURSTER MONDAY!
MYTH: WE'RE EITHER LEFT-BRAINED OR RIGHT-BRAINED
Image designed by me on canva
Yep just like the way individuals can be left-handed or right-handed, it is also a quite widespread and upheld belief that some personality/skill types are constrained to either the left or right hemisphere of the brain.
It is believed that the right half of the brain is the creative half( arts) and the left half is the analytical half (Logic) and that our individual traits are determined by which half is dominant.
The myth of right-brained and left-brained people is rooted in a bit of actual science. The theory is based on the fact that the brain’s two hemispheres function differently. This first came to light in the 1960s, thanks to the research of psychobiologist and Nobel Prize winner Roger W. Sperry.
But the newsplash is that the real division of labor is much more complex than creativity on the right and logic on the left. There is no such thing as a left-brain or right-brain personality/skill type.
We are not left-brained or right-brained; we are all “whole-brained.” If there's a word like that.
In a 2013 research by a team of neuroscientists, they found no proof that this theory is correct. Magnetic resonance imaging of 1,000 people revealed that the human brain doesn’t actually favor one side over the other. The networks on one side aren’t generally stronger than the networks on the other side.
Bundles of nerve fibers tie the two hemispheres together, creating an information highway.
So the two sides may function differently, but they work together and complement each other. You don’t use only one side of your brain at a time.
In fact, if you performed a CT scan, MRI scan, on the brain of an inventor and compared it to that of an artist there'll be no clear difference in the structure of information network.
So the bottomline is this;
Whether you work out a mathematical equation or drawing a caricature, both sides of your brain are actively involved and provide input.
No one is truly left-brained or right-brained, but you can play to your strengths and continue broadening your mental horizons.
REFERENCES:
Right brain/left brain, right?
March 24, 2022
By Robert H. Shmerling, MD,
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/right-brainleft-brain-right-2017082512222
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Are There Really Right-Brained and Left-Brained People?.
https://www.britannica.com/story/are-there-really-right-brained-and-left-brained-people
Left Brain vs. Right Brain: What Does This Mean for Me?
Medically reviewed by Nancy Hammond, M.D. — Written by Ann Pietrangelo — Updated on May 9, 2022
https://www.healthline.com/health/left-brain-vs-right-brain#left-brain-vs-right-brain-myth