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What happened to our two brains?
In the 1960’s and 1970’s neuroscientists spoke of our “two brains” and traits, skills and even aspects of personality were assigned to a person being either “Right brained” or “Left brained”; creative or logical-art or science. Are we a Dr. Spock or a Leonardo DaVinci? Since then we have learned more about shared functions and connections which have taken away the focus on the split brain theory and being either left or right brained. Studies of the brain’s evolution over time show that corpus callosum, a tract of neural fibers connecting the hemispheres, has thickened through evolution and brain has become more asymmetrical with a broadening towards the back of the left hemisphere. That specialization of the brain may be continuing and may lead to changes in attention and focus.
In a delightful cartoon video I found on Aeon magazine, British psychiatrist, Iain McGilchrist, takes the viewer on a tour of the hemispheres and their evolution over time. He demonstrates how each hemisphere and its specialization affects our experience and poses an interesting question: “Is the left hemisphere winning out over the right?” Are we functioning more in closed system, like a “virtual world”, where the traditional view of the left hemisphere would apply? And, how do our right brained functions which maintain inter-connectivity and our functioning in an “open system”? Dr. McGilchrist even includes the role of frontal lobes in mediating social behavior in this delightful cartoon video.
Key words: Iain McGilchrist, brain hemispheres, left hemisphere, right hemisphere, frontal lobe functions, attention and focus, corpus callosum, left brained, right brained, brain evolution, brain asymmetry, brain specialization
