Thanks to the popular psychology, the opinion is that a tendency to creativity or science depends on which hemisphere of the brain is more developed. We decided to figure out whether there are “right -handed” and “left -handed” people.

The idea that the brain of artists and thinkers has been working differently for a long time. For example, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov assumedthat the left hemisphere dominates the thinkers, and the right - among the artists. In the second half of the 20th century, such hypotheses seemed to receive scientific confirmation: in 1973, an article was published in the New York Times "Two surprisingly different people live in our heads". She was dedicated to the works of Roger Spirri, who in the 1960s was engaged in the study of people with a split brain. He watched how the work of the nervous system changes if you cut the corpus channel body connecting the two hemispheres. The results of his research, the journalist of the New York Times, summarized this: “Each of us is capable of two incompatible styles of thinking, two separate training mechanisms.”

Then the belief was assigned that one hemisphere dominates the other, and this affects the choice of the profession and the way to solve certain life problems. Subsequently, the books based on this belief began to appear, the authors of which promised to develop the right or left hemisphere: “Effective brain. Right hemisphere vs left hemisphere ", "Supermozg: we train the right, develop the left hemisphere" and others. On the Internet it is easy to meet Testsallowing you to find out their dominant hemisphere, or Learning methodstaking into account this feature of the brain.

The American neuropsychologist Roger Spirri in the 1950s watched monkeys and cats with a dissected callous body connecting the hemisphere. The scientist noted that in this case the hemispheres separately studied and perceived the information differently. These results were accepted skeptical-partly due to the fact that in the 1940s to treat persistent epilepsy 26 patients They cut a corpus callosal body, and after the operation (it is called commissurotomy), none of them were found neither neurological nor psychological consequences. These and other data led some scientists to the conclusion that the hemispheres are equitic - initially perform almost the same functions.

In the 1960s Spery took up the study brain work in people who have experienced commissurotomy. During the experiments, he and his assistants noticed that the hemispheres have his own Functional specialization: the right allows you to navigate in space, paintto recognize faces, perceive music, to realize social relations, and the left - understand speech, analyze events, conduct mathematical calculations, give explanations and solve logical problems. In 1981, Roger Sperry for his research He received the Nobel Prize In physiology and medicine.

Popular psychologists have embellished existing differences in how the hemispheres process information. Because of this, the left became considered cold, rational, logical, male, and the right-holistic, intuitive, spontaneous, creative, feminine. In such an interpretation, it turned out that the hemispheres unite two different subpersonalities: one (left -handed) - an analyst and an accountant, and the other (right -hemispheric) is a free artist and master of Zen. And depending on which hemisphere dominates, a person manifests either a craving for science or artistic inclinations.

However, the point is not that some hemisphere performs some tasks and does not cope with others, but that it solves some problems faster and therefore takes the initiative for itself. In ordinary people who have not experienced an operation to split the corpus callosum, two hemispheres exchange information during the fulfillment of most tasks. In a person with a split brain, cooperation between hemispheres is broken, so it becomes noticeable Intercessible asymmetry.

In 2013, a group of scientists led by Jared Nielsen Published a study, finally refuting the idea that one of the hemispheres prevails in people. Neurologists conducted an MRI cerebral scan of 1011 people aged 7 to 29 years. The subjects were at rest or read a book, and scientists watched the activity of different zones of the brain. As a result, there were no clear evidence that someone has more developed the neural network of the right hemisphere, and for someone-the left.

To summarize. Modern researchers agree that the two hemispheres differ in how they process problems, and not in exactly what problems they solve. So, in the case of a speech, the left hemisphere better knows the rules of grammar and methods of word formation, while the right hemisphere is better Reads intonation And the emotional component of the statement. Although there are differences between the hemispheres, the healthy brain works in an integrated way.

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