At first glance, it seems that both halves of the human brain are mirrored, but this is not so. If you study the issue more closely, you can notice their asymmetry. When measuring the size of the brain, it turns out that the left hemisphere is always a little larger than the right. But this is not the only difference. The right hemisphere contains long nerve fibers connecting distant parts of the brain, and the left has short fibers that form connections in a limited area.
Medical observations
Examining the brain of a patient who suffered from speech loss, Paul Broca, a French doctor, in 1861 drew attention to the fact that in the left hemisphere a portion of the frontal lobe, which is responsible for causing speech, was damaged.
And only very recently, scientists were able to determine what else each hemisphere separately is responsible for. The fact is that during normal functioning, our brain works as a single coherent system, and information is instantly transmitted from the hemisphere to the hemisphere through a wide bundle of nerve fibers connecting them. These fibers are called the corpus callosum.
In epilepsy, this connecting bridge can cause problems and damage the brain. In an effort to prevent such an outcome, neurosurgeons in some cases dissect the corpus callosum.
Such patients live a normal life, and scientists can carefully examine the work of the hemispheres separately. And that was what was determined.
The left hemisphere is able to express itself with speech, perform complex calculations and logical operations. The right hemisphere responds only to simple light speech.
But the right hemisphere is perfectly aware of space and structure, so it is better than the left to create geometric and perspective patterns. The left side of the body controls the right side of the body, and the right side controls the left side.
In case of damage to the right hemisphere in a person, violations occur in recognizing persons or perceiving information, depth and space. Scientists received additional information on the relative specialization of the right hemisphere by observing patients who have speech impairment, but the ability to sing remains. It follows that the right hemisphere is responsible for musical abilities.
Hemisphere Differences
Asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres is mental, sensory, and motor hemisphere .
When studying psychophysiological functions, it was found that the left hemisphere controls the verbal information channel in speech and the non-verbal channel, i.e. voice and intonation, follows the right. Information processing in the left hemisphere is performed analytically, sequentially, by the principle of induction. The right hemisphere processes the received information at the same time, synthesizing it according to the principle of deduction.
The left hemisphere most often represents positive emotions and suppresses the manifestation of weak emotions. The right hemisphere is more “emotional” and represents mostly negative emotions, controlling the manifestations of the strong.
In the sensory sphere, the right and left hemispheres are distinguished by the ability to visual perception. The right hemisphere of the brain perceives a holistic visual image and is easier to cope with the task of distinguishing objects and visualization. The left hemisphere approaches the assessment of the visual image dissected analytically. Consciousness and abstract thinking are associated mainly with it.
Hemispheric motor asymmetry is expressed in right-left-handedness, which is controlled by the motor cortex of the brain of the opposite hemisphere.
Right hemisphere development
To develop intuition, one must learn to activate the right hemisphere. How to achieve this? The simplest and most natural way is to engage in those activities in which the right side of the brain is “turned on”. These are all types of creativity: drawing, singing, dancing, as well as listening to music, smelling, operating with symbols, images.