1.reflection questions: are you left-brained or right-brained? what does this mean? how do you know?

1. REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

Are you left-brained or right-brained?

What does this mean?

How do you know?

LEFT OR RIGHT-BRAINED?

*Handout: Which one “speaks” to you? Why?

*Are You “Left-Brained” or “Right-Brained”? Inventory

*Wagner Preference Inventory

Are these inventories actually measuring brain-based

differences or stereotypes?

What do we know?

SOME PEOPL

E ARE LE

FT-

BRAINED, O

THERS A

RE

RIGHT-B

RAINED

MY

TH

#4

2. EXAGGERATION OF A KERNEL OF TRUTH

Are some people “left-brained” and others “right-brained?”

Good evidence that two sides of brain differ in their functions.

• Injury

• Brain imaging techniques = differences in activity when doing cognitive tasks

RIGHT HEMISPHERE DAMAGE (IGNORES LEFT)

DEMONSTRAT

ION

* HA

VE

A P

EN

/ PE

NC

I L I

N B

OT

H H

AN

DS

“SPLIT-BRAIN PATIENTS”: RESEARCHERS

Roger Sperry Michael Gazzaniga

5. CORPUS CALLOSUM

LONGITUDINAL FISSURE (LONG)

RESEARCH

Evidence for superiority of one or other hemisphere for performing certain tasks:

“Split brain” patients

6.Epileptic seizures

Sever nerve tracts connecting left/right hemispheres

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS #7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfGwsAdS9Dc

CORPUS CALLOSUM…YOUR INFORMATION HIGHWAY

• 2 hemispheres share information extensively

• Two hemispheres are much more similar than different in their functions

• “Pop-psychology’s” take… too simplistic

10. LEFT IS PROCESSED BY RIGHT. RIGHT IS PROCESSED BY THE LEFT.

11. The Optic Chiasm is the region for cross-over.

12. Visual Cortex – at the back.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

WHAT ABOUT THE SNOWMAN SCENE?

13: MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION

A word “key” is briefly flashed in the left visual field and the word “ring” is briefly flashed to the right visual field of a split-brain patient. The individual will be able to

a. say “key”

b. say “ring”

c. pick out a key from a box using the right hand

d. draw a picture of a key using the right hand

HEMISPHERES IN THE BRAIN (RIGHT HANDED)14.

LEFT

Language

Logic

15.RIGHT

Spatial

Facial recognition

CONCLUSIONS?

16. Left & right hemisphere are RELATIVELY better at different mental activities.

Differ in HOW they process tasks rather WHAT they process.

SPATIAL RIGHT?

Right : better at dealing with a general sense of space

Left : becomes active when the person locates objects in specific places

CONCLUSIONS

18. Example: Language

Left: Better at specifics of speech (grammar and word generation)

Right: Better at intonation and emphasis of speech

LANGUAGE CENTERS

THE BRAIN #6

Language & Speech: Broca’s & Wernicke’s areas

http://www.learner.org/resources/series142.html?pop=yes&pid=1574

Paul Broca Tan’s brain

HEMISPHERECTOMY: CAMERON MOTTBRAIN PLASTICITY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MKNsI5CWoU

RESEARCH ON CREATIVITY & THE BRAIN

Creativity does not involved a single brain region or single side of the brain.

Depending on the stage of the creative process AND what you are trying to create, you use different brain regions.

These brain regions WORK TOGETHER…a TEAM!

CONCLUSIONS…YOU ARE WHOLE-BRAINED!It is not that one hemisphere or the

other can’t perform a given task;

It’s just that one of them can perform it faster and better than the other!

IAIN MCGILCHRISTTED TALK - SUMMARY

http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain