What is the Difference Between the Left Brain and Right Brain?
Have you ever heard someone talk about how the left and right side of the brain are connected? Most people, even those who aren’t science experts, have heard of this concept at some point in their lives. The left brain vs right brain analogy has been around for a long time and has become somewhat popular due to how it simplifies how the brain works and what functions we can expect from each side of the organ. Let’s take a look at this idea further to find out what the difference between the left brain and right brain is really like.
The difference between the two hemispheres
The right hemisphere includes all of your senses, including hearing, touch, sight, smell and taste. The left side of your brain focuses on logic and reasoning while also helping you deal with numbers. Studies show that people with damage to their left hemispheres find it much more difficult to understand language than those who have damage to their right hemispheres. This means that if you suffer from a stroke or other type of brain injury that causes neurological problems in one side of your brain over another, you may have difficulty communicating or even reading! Use these differences between left-brainers and right-brainers to decide which tasks are best suited for each side of your brain.
The left side of your brain
This side of your brain is more detail-oriented, logical, and analytical than its right-side counterpart. It’s also responsible for language skills—which makes sense because many of us were taught how to read using our left hemisphere. Finally, it controls movement on the right side of your body (hence why you’re likely stronger on that side). The left side represents linear thinking (also called sequential or reductionist), meaning it thinks in a specific order and assigns various objects/ideas numeric values for comparison. For example, if we say 4 + 3 = 7, your left brain will automatically know that 4 + 5 must equal 9—because that’s how numbers work!
The right side of your brain
Some researchers claim that we use only about 10 percent of our brains, but there’s no scientific evidence to support that idea. What’s more likely is that we use both sides of our brain differently. For example, language processing (which is associated with left-brain activity) happens on both sides of your brain simultaneously, but visual recognition (which happens on your right side) only happens on one side at a time. So even though it might seem like you’re not using 100 percent of your brain all at once, you are—just in different ways. While most people think of their left brain as logical, pragmatic, and rational, research suggests those traits are happening on both sides of your brain when they work together. The two halves complement each other to create whole ideas and concepts; they don’t exist independently from each other. In short: We’ve got a whole lot going on up here! And where do you typically process emotions? If you guessed right-side territory then pat yourself on the back for noticing that connections between thinking and feeling live over yonder too! To summarize: Use data when making decisions about what gets put in writing or presented to important stakeholders… But don’t forget to pull from intuition before jumping into spreadsheets and bar charts —that side of your head matters too!
Differences in language, memory, and creativity
Thanks to fMRI technology, researchers have been able to pinpoint where various functions of thought occur in our brains. For example, it’s now widely accepted that left-hemisphere language skills (speaking and writing) are located at Broca’s area in our frontal lobe, while right-hemisphere language skills (listening and reading) are controlled by Wernicke’s area at a more posterior point on our temporal lobe. And though there are significant differences between these two major lobes of brain activity, it turns out that neither one is wholly responsible for language processing; rather, these abilities depend upon neural activity from both hemispheres working together.
Differences in visual perception
Although your left brain and right brain both use visual images to convey information, they differ in how they utilize them. For example, one side might look at a table as a group of legs and a surface; while the other looks at it as a collection of three or four blocks arranged in a square. The parts that make up an object can be interpreted differently by each side of your brain, which can sometimes lead to sensory conflicts between your two hemispheres. Generally speaking, we believe our right brains are more artistic while our left brains are more logical; however, all individuals aren’t created equal, so it’s hard to say if there are any true differences in how each half of your brain perceives things.