Left Brain, Right Brain?

uestion: What would it mean to be left-brained or rightbrained? The notion is that the hemispheres of the brain
are involved in very different kinds of intellectual and emotional functions and responses. According to this view, left-brained
people would be primarily logical and intellectual. Right-brained
people would be intuitive, creative, and emotional. Those of us
who are fortunate enough to have our brains in balance would
presumably have the best of itthe capacity for logic combined
with emotional richness.

Like so many other popular ideas, the left-brain-right-brain notion

is at best exaggerated. Research does suggest that in right-handed individuals, the left hemisphere is relatively more involved in intellectual
undertakings that require logical analysis and problem solving, language, and mathematical computation (Gazzaniga, 1995). The other
hemisphere (usually the right hemisphere) is usually superior in visualspatial functions (its better at putting puzzles together), recognition
of faces, discrimination of colors, aesthetic and emotional responses,
understanding metaphors, and creative mathematical reasoning.
Despite these differences, it would be erroneous to think that the
hemispheres of the brain act independentlythat some people are
truly left-brained and others right-brained (Gazzaniga, 1995). The
functions of the left and right hemispheres overlap to some degree,
and the hemispheres tend to respond simultaneously as we focus
our attention on one thing or another. The hemispheres are aided in
their cooperation by the corpus callosum, the bundle of 200 million
axons that connects them.
Now let us consider another issue involving sidedness: left-handedness. People who are left-handed are different from people who are
right-handed in terms of the way they write, throw a ball, and so
on. But there are interesting questions as to whether people who are
left-handed are psychologically different from righties.
What do Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, and Steve
Young all have in common? No, they are not all artists. Only one is a
football player. But they are all left-handed.
8% to 10% of us are lefties. Left-handedness is more common in
boys than girls (Rosenbaum, 2000). We are usually labeled righthanded or left-handed on the basis of our handwriting preferences,
yet some people write with one hand and pass a football with the
other. Some people even swing a tennis racket and pitch a baseball
with different hands. President Ronald Reagan wrote and ate with
his right hand, but shot pistols and waved with his left hand (Rosenbaum, 2000).

Being left-handed may not be gauche or sinister, but it may matter in

that it appears to be connected with language problems such as dyslexia and stuttering and health problems such as migraine headaches
and allergies (Geschwind & Galaburda, 1987). Left-handedness is also
apparently connected with psychological disorders like schizophrenia
(Rosenbaum, 2000). On the other hand, there may be advantages to
being left-handed. According to a British study, left-handed people
are twice as likely as right-handed people to be numbered among the
ranks of artists, musicians, and mathematicians (Kilshaw & Annett,
1983).
The origins of handedness are likely to have a genetic component.
Left-handedness runs in families. In the English royal family, the
Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and Princes Charles and William
are all left-handed (Rosenbaum, 2000). If both of your parents are
right-handed, your chances of being right-handed are about 92 %. If
one of your parents is left-handed, your chances of being right-handed drop to about 80%. And if both of your parents are left-handed,
your chances of also being left-handed are about 1 in 2 (Rosenbaum,
2000). In any event, handedness comes early. A study employing
ultrasound found that about 95% of fetuses suck their right thumbs
rather than their left (Hepper et al., 1990). Geneticist Amar J. S. Klar
believes that about 80% of people have a dominant gene that makes
them right-handed. The other 20% lack this gene and have a 50-50
chance of becoming right-handed or left-handed. This view explains
why about 10% of us are left-handed, and why about 18% of identical twins have different handedness (Rosenbaum, 2000).

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