Are you a right- or left-brain thinker?
THE human brain is probably the last organ we bother to learn about. A car owner, for example, may know more about his vehicle than his brain. Even doctors don't bother much about how a patient uses his brain that may be contributing to his health problems.
Before the pioneering experiments by biologist Roger Sperry, scientists always considered the brain to be a single, integrated organ with different locations for different sensations and memory. Sperry proved this was not so.
After years of painstaking and meticulous research and experimentation, Sperry came up with the startling conclusion over 30 years ago that we had, in effect, two brains—the left neo-cortex and the right, each thinking in entirely different, even opposite, ways.
The left side of the brain, he discovered, was responsible for verbal, analytical and logical thinking. It was dominant or active when we were solving mathematical problems, engaged in technical writing or quantitative reasoning. It also thought in abstract symbols. The right half of the brain was responsible for non-verbal thinking, such as intuition, creative, problem solving, imagination. It was responsible for synthesizing or seeing things as a whole and determining depth and perspective. We are right-brain dominant when we make up stories imaginatively, or creatively, when we daydream or when we decide things intuitively.
Discovery
How Sperry discovered the different functions of the two hemispheres of the human brain reads like a detective story worthy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame. Sperry was working on hopeless cases of epilepsy where drugs no longer had any effect. He hit upon the idea of making an incision in the corpus callosum, a part of the brain consisting of about 300 million brain cells and connecting the left with the right part of the neo-cortex. One of the functions of the corpus callosum is to act as a communication link between the two hemispheres of the brain.
When he made an incision in the corpus callosum, the epileptic patient recovered completely. Epileptic attacks or seizures ceased and, for all practical purposes, s/he was cured. The patient appeared to be normal and socially functional. But Sperry noticed some changes in the personality of the so-called "split-brain" patients. For one thing, they could not express emotion verbally and they lost coordination of right and left hand movements.
After years of research, he discovered that the left half of the brain thought differently from the right half. For his accomplishment, Sperry received the Nobel Prize for Medicine, although he was not a physician but a biologist.
His discovery paved the way for a better understanding of how people thought and learned. It also explained the behavior patterns of people under different conditions. Why, for example, are women, in general, better at details and people tasks compared to men who, in general, are better at abstract and analytical reasoning? He found it had something to do with how their brains were naturally wired and had nothing to do with race or genetics.
The popularity of Sperry's discovery also inspired many jokes about what eventually became popularly known as "the split-brain" theory. One joke goes like this: "Two men sitting at a park. One reads a newspaper that says the left half of the brain is dominant in right-handed people, and the right half is dominant in left-handed people. That's why left-handed people are the only ones in their right minds."
Left brain-dominant people learn better if things are presented to them in a systematic, logical and orderly manner, preferably in writing. Right brain-dominant people learn better if things are demonstrated to them personally, where they can interact with the other person and ask questions.
Knowing the client
Sales and marketing people can improve their work and close more deals if they know the brain dominance of their prospective clients. In selling a car to a left-brain person, the sales pitch should focus on the technical and scientific aspects of the car. If the client is right brain-dominant the salesman should emphasize how he looks in the car and how his friends will admire him. The appeal should be more to the emotions and imagination rather than to the abstract intellect.
There are many more practical applications of the split-brain theory than was at first realized by Sperry and his associates.
http://money.inq7.net/topstories/printable_topstories.php?yyyy=2006&mon=07&dd=04&file=122
Before the pioneering experiments by biologist Roger Sperry, scientists always considered the brain to be a single, integrated organ with different locations for different sensations and memory. Sperry proved this was not so.
After years of painstaking and meticulous research and experimentation, Sperry came up with the startling conclusion over 30 years ago that we had, in effect, two brains—the left neo-cortex and the right, each thinking in entirely different, even opposite, ways.
The left side of the brain, he discovered, was responsible for verbal, analytical and logical thinking. It was dominant or active when we were solving mathematical problems, engaged in technical writing or quantitative reasoning. It also thought in abstract symbols. The right half of the brain was responsible for non-verbal thinking, such as intuition, creative, problem solving, imagination. It was responsible for synthesizing or seeing things as a whole and determining depth and perspective. We are right-brain dominant when we make up stories imaginatively, or creatively, when we daydream or when we decide things intuitively.
Discovery
How Sperry discovered the different functions of the two hemispheres of the human brain reads like a detective story worthy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame. Sperry was working on hopeless cases of epilepsy where drugs no longer had any effect. He hit upon the idea of making an incision in the corpus callosum, a part of the brain consisting of about 300 million brain cells and connecting the left with the right part of the neo-cortex. One of the functions of the corpus callosum is to act as a communication link between the two hemispheres of the brain.
When he made an incision in the corpus callosum, the epileptic patient recovered completely. Epileptic attacks or seizures ceased and, for all practical purposes, s/he was cured. The patient appeared to be normal and socially functional. But Sperry noticed some changes in the personality of the so-called "split-brain" patients. For one thing, they could not express emotion verbally and they lost coordination of right and left hand movements.
After years of research, he discovered that the left half of the brain thought differently from the right half. For his accomplishment, Sperry received the Nobel Prize for Medicine, although he was not a physician but a biologist.
His discovery paved the way for a better understanding of how people thought and learned. It also explained the behavior patterns of people under different conditions. Why, for example, are women, in general, better at details and people tasks compared to men who, in general, are better at abstract and analytical reasoning? He found it had something to do with how their brains were naturally wired and had nothing to do with race or genetics.
The popularity of Sperry's discovery also inspired many jokes about what eventually became popularly known as "the split-brain" theory. One joke goes like this: "Two men sitting at a park. One reads a newspaper that says the left half of the brain is dominant in right-handed people, and the right half is dominant in left-handed people. That's why left-handed people are the only ones in their right minds."
Left brain-dominant people learn better if things are presented to them in a systematic, logical and orderly manner, preferably in writing. Right brain-dominant people learn better if things are demonstrated to them personally, where they can interact with the other person and ask questions.
Knowing the client
Sales and marketing people can improve their work and close more deals if they know the brain dominance of their prospective clients. In selling a car to a left-brain person, the sales pitch should focus on the technical and scientific aspects of the car. If the client is right brain-dominant the salesman should emphasize how he looks in the car and how his friends will admire him. The appeal should be more to the emotions and imagination rather than to the abstract intellect.
There are many more practical applications of the split-brain theory than was at first realized by Sperry and his associates.
http://money.inq7.net/topstories/printable_topstories.php?yyyy=2006&mon=07&dd=04&file=122
posted by Misteryo Philippines Network (MPN) at 12:12 AM
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