The Left-brain/Right-brain Dominance Factor

Here's where the subject gets real interesting.

By now you should have a fairly good understanding of the differences exhibited by the left versus the right brain and some of the human traits that result. As mentioned in the previous blog, most people use one half of their brain more than the other and the side most used is called the "dominant" brain. Those who use each side of their brain equally are in deed gifted.

I'll talk about my own brain dominance first. I'm very left-brain dominant. 
Tests show I'm 70% left-brain dominant. This is not too surprising as I was an aerospace electronic equipment engineer. You need to be left-brain dominant to do that type of work. Probably most engineers, mathematicians and scientist are left-brain dominant. But my younger brother is right-brain dominant. He's an artist who paints pictures and designs furniture, etc. 

There's an interesting true story about my brother and I. When I was in high school I joined the Chess Club and started learning how to play the game. Once a number of us learned all the moves, etc., we started playing each other. After a while I was winning about as many as I lost. School was over for the summer and one day my brother and I were wondering what to do. I asked him if he'd like to learn to play chess, he said "Yes". I had a chess set at home so I started getting him acquainted with the rules and the different moves for each piece. Once he had a good sense of how to play the game, we started practice games. He caught on fairly fast, so we started to play against each other. He learned quickly and before long he was winning 3 out 4 games. I couldn't figure out why he was so good at it.

It wasn't until recently that I realized why he was able to beat me so quickly.
Because my brother is right-brain dominant, he could look at the entire board to determine what his next move should be. Me and my left brain had to look at each piece and figure out which one to move and to where. He was looking at the over all board while I was concentrating on the individual pieces. That was a real life demonstration on how a left-brain person and a right-brain person tried to solve the same problem using their respective dominant brain.  

Here's an example of Implicit versus Explicit . This is an actual event between a right-brain Wife (W:) and a left-brain Husband (H:).

W: "I'm leaving now". H: "Where are you going?". W: "I'm going on some errands". H: "When will you be back?". W: "Oh, I won't be long". 

H: "I'm leaving now to do some shopping". W: "Where are you going?" H: "I'm going to Home Depot and Sears to look for some tools". W: "When will you be back?". H: "I should be home by about 3:30".

I'll talk some more about brain dominance in my next blog.
Hope you're having a great week. Regards Dick

Human Traits Resulting from Left-brain/Right-brain Differences

Before I start, I hear some people can't make comments to my blog site. 
If you want, you can e-mail your comments to me at my Blogger address (the.explicitblogger@gmail.com).

In my last post I talked about Left-brain Vs. Right-brain attributes. There I listed
the corresponding differences of the two sides. Now I will cover the traits exhibited by people depending on which side of the brain is in use at the time. Actually they are numerous, but I'll cover some of the more significant ones here. Again, I will show the opposites in two columns.

                        Left-brain                               Right-brain
                  (The door to reality)       (The window on imagination)          

                       Calculates                               Estimates
                       Measures                                Guesses
                       Is explicit                                 Is implicit
                       Keeps track of time                Pays little attention to time
                       Deals in details                       Deals in generalities 
                       How well does it work?          How well does it look?
                      Good at solving math              Good at painting pictures
                      Looks at the different parts    Looks at the whole scene 
                      Conservative                            Liberal  
                      Plays it safe                              Takes chances
                      Processes in sequence          Processes randomly 
                      Is logical                                     Is intuitive
                      Deals in reality                          Deals in fantasies 
                      Processes ideas linearly         Processes ideas holistically
                      Decisive                                     Indecisive 
                      Makes decisions                        Procrastinates    

You're thinking "This looks a lot like the columns in the last blog" and you're right.
The difference is the earlier lists had to do with the brain. The above lists are about how people tend to act depending on which half of the brain they're using.

My next blog posting will deal with Left-brain/Right-brain Dominance. Most people tend to use one half of their brain more than the other. I'll site some real life
occurrences as examples. 

Best regards to all, Dick
                           

 

Left-brain Vesus Right-brain Attributes

First, some general characteristic differences between the left half and right half of the brain. The left brain is considered the logical brain that deals in details and reality. The right brain is thought of as the imaginative brain, dealing in generalities and artistic endeavors. Some types of people who use the left brain extensively are engineers, mathematicians and scientist. While those people that predominately use their right brain include artists, poets and philosophers. 

Here's a 2-column list of some of the Left-brain versus the Right-brain attributes:

                    Left-brain Functions                    Right-brain Functions

                    Uses logic                                     Uses feelings
                    Detail oriented                            "Big picture" oriented
                    Facts rule                                      Imagination rules
                    Words and language                   Symbols and images
                    Present and past                          Present and future
                    Math and science                         Philosophy and religion
                    Can comprehend                         Can kinda "get it" (i.e. meaning)
                    Knows                                            Believes
                    Reality based                                Fantasy based        
                    Forms strategies                          Presents possibilities
                    Practical                                        Impetuous
                    Safe                                               Risk taking 

These differences in brain functions affects on how we think and act, also how we view the world around us. Individuals exhibit traits associated with which side of the brain they primarily use. This leads to any number of interesting differences between how people act and process information. These contrasts will be covered at length in my next posting "Human Traits Left-brain Versus Right-brain".

Regards, Dick           


                   

Left-brain/Right-brain Basics

One of the earliest discoveries of the Left-brain/Right-brain phenomenon was made by a French doctor way back in 1860. He had a patient with a diseased left brain. The man could speak only a few words, one of them was "Tan" (believed to be the first few letters in his actual name). Some of the doctor's original notes shed some light on how this man was able to function as a result of his left brain condition.

Before I go any further, I need to say that there's a lot of controversy over how compartmentalized the behaviors discussed here are. Some say the phenomenon and the resulting characteristics are not  exclusively found in just one side of the brain or the other. What may be happening is one side is dominant while the other side plays a supporting roll, depending on the situation at the time. Others characterize the phenomenon as a metaphor used in an attempt to simplify the understanding of the results.

So now let's get down to basics. The left brain is said to be the logical brain, dealing in reality and details. The right brain is the artistic brain, the brain half where imagination rules and views the over all big picture. Here's a metaphor that tries to show the differences between the two brain halves: The left brain is like someone standing in the middle of a forest clearing where all the individual trees can be seen in detail. But that half of the brain can't see the overall forest canopy. The right brain is like someone stand on a hill overlooking the forest. Here it can see the canopy, but not the individual trees.

Next blog I'll cover a list of the different characteristics of the Left-brain versus the Right-brain. PS; it helps to scroll down to see my overall statement at the top.

The Left-brain/Right-brain Phenomenon

Introduction: As I stated in my last Blog (which also was my first Blog), the first subject I would write about was "The Left-brain/Right-brain Phenomenon". I've studied the phenomenon for over 15 years and came across it quite by accident. I was reading a book titled "The Psychology of Music". The author was a researcher as well as a singer. 

Along with many other things he covered in the book was an experiment he arranged to have performed on himself. In the experiment he had the right side of his brain put to sleep (anesthetized). Once it took effect, he found that he could talk, but he couldn't sing. A few days later, when the anesthetic wore of, he had the left side of his brain anesthetized. Now he could sing, but couldn't talk.

The point of this experiment was to show that speech originates in the left side of the brain and the ability to sing comes from the right side of the brain.

Hey, before I go any further I should point out what many of you already know; the top of the human brain is divided into two hemispheres, the right and the left. The phenomenon I'll be discussing is that each of the two halves function quite a bit different from each other.

Back to the author's experiment. A well known country singer, Mel Tillis, stutters badly when he tries to talk. But when he sings, he doesn't stutter at all. There's a story about Mel being in a building when a fire started. He couldn't call out Fire! Fire! so he sang it out as loud as he could.

Next Blog I'll talk about the Basics of the phenomenon  and some of the attributes of each half of the brain (Left-brain versus Right-brain).