Chapter 12 from the book: 'Behind the Scenes of the Brain Show' by Dr. Zeev Nitzan. Part One
The development of the hemispheres
The right hemisphere develops faster in infancy. It experiences a period of accelerated growth from birth to approximately two years of age and allows the brain to establish perception skills for its first meeting with the world. The left hemisphere develops at a slower rate and changes - even long after birth. Some argue that as the brain matures, the influence of the left hemisphere on its linguistic and conceptual abilities intensifies and it intensifies its inhibiting influence on the skills of the right hemisphere.
Cases are known in the medical literature where an entire cerebral hemisphere was damaged and the injured person continued his life with only half of his brain functioning. For example, the case of a patient who, due to a disturbance in the flow of the left carotid artery, which is a central pathway for the blood supply to the brain hemisphere, did not develop in her fetal life almost at all the left hemisphere and was born with only a functioning right brain hemisphere.
With the help of self-training, this patient reached impressive achievements in memory for details, but had great difficulty with abstract thought, such as interpreting proverbs. She also suffered from a permanent deficiency in the right field of vision and the weakness of the right torso.
Other examples are also known from the cases of patients who underwent a 'hemisparectomy' - an extensive and rare operation in which the entire hemisphere (right or left) is removed. In the very rare cases of people functioning with one hemisphere of the brain, questions arise, such as what functions survive when the brain's living space is reduced to half. Will complex abilities such as richness of verbal expression, discernment of emotional subtleties and more survive (as a dependency, of course, even in those areas will be affected) and "how much brain" is necessary for a person to "be a person"?
Structural and functional characterizations of the hemispheres
The range of structural and functional differences between the two hemispheres is wide and extends from the micro to the macro level.
A central structural difference between the two brain hemispheres, which also has functional consequences, lies in the different connectivity pattern between the different regions within the hemispheres: the neural pathways in the right hemisphere are more likely to connect distant brain regions, while in the left hemisphere they are more likely to connect adjacent brain regions.
Another important difference stems from the information processing processes in the two hemispheres: the right tends to "multi-channel" information processing and the left side tends to "single-channel" processing. The right hemisphere prefers processing in the areas of the multi-sensory associative cortex ("multi-channel"), the one that merges perception impressions from several senses into a single capturing experience. In the left hemisphere, priority is given to processing in cortical areas dedicated to unisensory input, that is, the information mediated by one sense organ, such as the auditory cortex to which the auditory input from the ears is routed.
It is possible that the tendency of the right hemisphere for multi-channel processing gives it an advantage in dealing with new information and being the preferred home port for voyages to the imagination.
In the service of signal traffic that maintains the interhemispheric dialogue, there are "transverse roads" consisting of bundles of nerve fibers. These mediate the transfer of information between the two hemispheres, such as the pathways called the corpus callosum and the anterior and posterior commissure.
Among about two-thirds of right-handed people, the profile of hemispheric specialization is similar to that among right-handed people. Among about a third of the Itaris, it seems that the hemispheric specialization profile is reversed, i.e., like a mirror image.
The thinking skills that characterize the hemispheres
The numbers are two and the hypotheses about them are numerous:
From the mid-70s of the 20th century, the division of the brain according to the characteristics of hemispheric specialization into right and left. The left half of the brain is traditionally associated with the skills of symbolic and abstract activity such as language and arithmetic. The right half in the "traditional" view is the abode of non-verbal skills, orientation in space and imagination. The left hemisphere was characterized as intellectual, logical, fond of verbal conceptualization, on the other hand - the right hemisphere was characterized as processing information in a holistic pattern, attentive to the sounds of emotion and processing spatial information.
It is also widely accepted that the right brain excels in parallel processing, that is, processing pieces of information simultaneously and fused to capture insight. It is common to attribute serial processing to the left brain. It seems that each of the hemispheres has the ability to process information in a serial or parallel pattern, but there is a difference in their tendency.
Another profit characterization sees the left as the main contributor to self-identification and the generator of self-awareness and the right as the main contributor to the recognition of the other.
There is evidence that when processing an experience, the left prefrontal lobe is responsible for storing the various details, while the right one is responsible for extracting the core ideas from the totality of the experience (separating the main part of the therapist) and understanding the "point".
Brain imaging studies have shown that visual information with interesting or very positive content stimulates activity mainly in the left amygdala.
The left hemisphere is more oriented towards the creation of harmony between the impressions of perception and the patterns (memes) stored in it, and not infrequently "Baron Munchausen" awakens in its vicinity, which betrays "evidence" in order to create the hoped-for harmony.
It seems that the left brain plays a central role in sewing the patchwork of our being into a uniform blanket, into a cohesive being.
The right prefrontal cortex is the core of the cerebral crystal ball, or womb from which our foresight emerges. This area produces a continuous view of possible future scenarios. People who suffer from a defect in the functioning of the right prefrontal lobe lack, among other things, their ability to predict.
The separate self of the two hemispheres has a tendency to hope - on the left, or a tendency to paint reality in a gloomy shade - on the right.
Cynics will say that hope is not a strategy, but its importance in driving mental processes and mental endurance is great. The truth itself is sometimes a bitter medicine when not mixed with hope. In the cup of the soul of the human beings is drawn a present interpretation of reality alongside hope in a changing mix depending on circumstances. The infusion of hope into the perception of reality cocktail is essential more than once to create a lasting inner mental drive. The hopeful hemisphere - the left hemisphere, often moderates the tendency for a strict interpretation of reality, which is reflected in the eyes of the right hemisphere. Our reality checker is ultimately derived from this interhemispheric dialogue.
The reflection of the hemispheric mix in our mental book
It seems that there is never a situation where one of the hemispheres exclusively controls the perception of reality. At any time it is a relatively changing mix of right perception of reality and left perception of reality, and at any one point in time the hemisphere and the perception of reality it produces dominates the dome, but not exclusively.
Since there is a difference in the rules according to which information is organized and processed throughout the hemisphere, we actually receive two different reflections of reality at any given moment. These reflections of reality may sometimes even be very different from each other. It seems that our sometimes different view of a similar situation, even in short intervals of time, is caused by a change in the mix of the perception of reality in the play of forces between the two hemispheres - the right tends to a more reliable and often more pessimistic reflection of reality and often serves as a hotbed for skepticism (mostly healthy), the left weaves a dash ( or more...) of fiction into the reflection of reality and tends to a more comforting view of the world.
Personal cognitive style as an expression of a unique left-right mix
Everyone tends to an information processing style that relies in different doses on both hemispheres, for some the right is dominant and for others - the left. It is the relative mix of the use of both hemispheres that creates the individual cognitive style. As the years pile up, it seems that the general tendency is more towards "left hemisphere thinking", but even against the background of this general directionality, the unique style of thinking is preserved, which also has an effect on the rate of change of the interhemispheric mix in the aspect of information processing.
As a generalization, for her multitude of sins, it can be said that hentai with a right brain view tend to see the difference, while hentai with a left brain view tend to see the commonality.
It must be said that each of the two hemispheres contributes unique insights and both reflect the different faces of reality, their combination enriches and deepens the insights of the world.
The chapter continues in three more parts - later this week
To the page for purchasing the book on the book junction website
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Beautifully written!