Brain hemispheres work together – 05/15/2023 – Equilibrium

Like the rest of the body, the brain is made up of billions of cells. Each type of cell has a specific function, but they are all perfectly synchronized and connected.

It is possible to compare the brain to one of those ancient clocks with hundreds of gears of all kinds, working in unison to give the correct time.

Our brain is made up of two halves – the cerebral hemispheres. But, contrary to what it may seem, these are not two isolated and independent structures.

The two hemispheres are extraordinarily connected by a kind of “wiring” that communicates between them. We are talking about the corpus callosum, formed by more than 200 million nerve fibers that carry information from one hemisphere to the other.

This organization makes it possible to carry out and coordinate all the functions – many of them very complex – of the nervous system. And for that, the hemispheres divide their work.

interconnected offices

Think of a large office building owned by the same company. In it, we will find different floors, with different departments, different divisions and different people working in each of these areas.

Each section has a function, but they are all interconnected. And, more than that, they maintain close communication with each other, since the correct operation of one depends on what the others do.

The cerebral hemispheres work in a similar way. They share the work to be done.

That is, although the two halves intervene in a specific function, one of them may be more related to that task than the other.

This process works the same way as the billing of that big company.

The billing department is in charge of the operation, but other sections must do their share of the work to complete the process. Like the dispatch sector, for example, which will deliver the invoice to its recipient.

The hemispheres are not a destination

It is at this point that the myth that the brain is divided into two halves begins and, depending on which side we use the most, we will have this or that ability. It’s called the “dominant hemisphere” theory.

She argues that if you’re good at math, language, or logic, it’s because your left hemisphere is dominant. And, if you are an artistic person, with a vocation for painting or music, the dominant hemisphere is the right.

This theory helps to misclassify people into two types: objective, rational, and analytical, on the one hand; or passionate, dreamy and creative, on the other.

Nothing is further from reality. There is no dominant hemisphere.

This myth probably has its origins in the meeting of the Anthropological Society in Paris, France, in 1865.

The culprit may have been, albeit unintentionally, the French physician Paul Broca. He assured that “we speak with the left hemisphere”, in reference to the brain regions with more influence on language function, which are found on that side of the brain.

The fact that most of a particular function falls to one hemisphere, as with language and the left half of the brain, does not mean that that hemisphere is dominant in people with greater language ability.

When a singer memorizes the lyrics and melody of a song, for example, the functions related to the verbalization of the lyrics are on his left side, but he will use the right hemisphere to express the musicality of the song. In other words, it’s a team effort.

Evidence to refute the myth

There are numerous studies in this field of science. Some of them even examined magnetic resonance images of the brains of more than a thousand people.

His results make it clear that we all use both hemispheres equally, although the activity recorded in each will depend on “what we’re doing.”

It has also been shown that the side of the brain used for a given activity may not be the same for everyone. Analyzes show that there are variations between individuals as to which area or half of the brain is employed for a specific action.

The dominant hemisphere myth is still very much alive today. Partly because there are so many unknown aspects of how the human brain works. And the more we research, the more we realize its complexity.

Therefore, when the arguments are presented to try to explain this complex functioning, simplistic interpretations continue to emerge, such as that the functions are scrupulously segregated in areas and cerebral hemispheres.

If that were the case, an injury to one of these highly specialized areas would make that functional zone no longer useful for the affected person. But that’s not exactly how it happens. Our nervous system has a certain plasticity.

It has already been found that, in people who lose one of the senses (such as vision), the area of ​​the brain in charge of processing it, without receiving visual information, sometimes adapts to improve the perception of other senses, such as touch. This phenomenon improves the learning of tactile reading of the Braille alphabet, for example.

sellers of illusions

From this scientific and social lack of knowledge about the total functioning of the brain, as always happens, profiteers emerge.

They are those people who, using pseudoscientific language, present explanations and solutions for everything, trying to take advantage of the uncertainty of the most vulnerable.

They make people believe, for example, that we can decide which hemisphere we should use to modulate our abilities, capacities and personality, or the way in which we face the vicissitudes of life.

Furthermore, as with other sectors such as human health, neuroscience has not been able to get rid of the spread of myths and rumors through social networks.

But, although there are still uncertainties about some aspects of the functioning of the human brain, we are sure that people’s talent and personality are not determined by the dominance of one hemisphere over the other.

And it should always be emphasized, to avoid anthropocentric attitudes, that we are not the only animal with compartmentalized brain functions.

Classification of students

Supporting the myth of cerebral hemisphere dominance is dangerous in many ways – especially in the field of education, as it limits students’ opportunities for learning and development.

If we mistakenly believe that there are “right brain” (much more creative) or “left brain” (more analytical) students, we are classifying students into two categories.

And this classification limits their learning opportunities, restricting their interests and preventing them from developing in other subjects. All this reduces their future professional trajectories.

In summary, there is no cerebral hemisphere more important than the other and the two function as a unit. And actually, brain activity is not symmetrical and varies from one person to another.

* José A. Morales García is a scientific researcher on neurodegenerative diseases and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.

Conchi Lillo is a researcher of visual pathologies and professor at the Faculty of Biology at the University of Salamanca, Spain.

This article was originally published here