Right brain/Left brain theory

[Galaxy]

Do you believe that there is some truth to the right brain/left brain theory, or is it just a myth?

[JonInMiddleGA]

I don't know if anyone who has worked with "creatives" can really doubt that there's truth to the theory.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Total truth to it.

[Galaxy]

I don't know if anyone who has worked with "creatives" can really doubt that there's truth to the theory.

Define creative.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Define creative.

In my case, art directors/voice talent/musicians/actors etc etc.

[britrock88]

Truth, yes, but it's a conceptual, rather than literal, description of predominating trains of thought in people, and it's also a continuum rather than a dichotomy.

[Sun Tzu]

You're starting a thread by bringing up a topic without specifically stating your own opinion on the topic?

OMG IT IS TEH TROLLZ.

[Izulde]

Truth, yes, but it's a conceptual, rather than literal, description of predominating trains of thought in people, and it's also a continuum rather than a dichotomy.

This.

[Suicane75]

Do you believe that there is some truth to the right brain/left brain theory, or is it just a myth?

You calling me gay?

[Galaxy]

You calling me gay?

It's hard for any straight man to resist Pumpy. :D

[Galaxy]

You're starting a thread by bringing up a topic without specifically stating your own opinion on the topic?

OMG IT IS TEH TROLLZ.

:D

[Passacaglia]

What exactly is "the theory"?

[Fonzie]

This is a very complex topic, and the post below is long. I apologize, particularly to those of you who have already read about this stuff, but I think some unpacking needs to be done to address the original question.

If the left/right theory mentioned in the original post is referring to personality styles/styles of thinking (e.g., left = logical and right = emotional), the evidence of that being based solely on cerebral hemispheric differences is, at best, modest. There's no denying that personality differences exist, but the evidence to support attribution of those differences to cerebral hemisphere lateralization is not terribly solid. Lateralization of function studies have found some interesting things, but they must be understood with certain limitations in mind.

In the early days of the study of lateralization of cerebral hemispheric (i.e., Right vs. Left) functioning, it was fairly common to ascribe particular functions to one or the other hemisphere in a binary fashion, or to say that one hemisphere was "dominant" for that function. These findings were based heavily on research with split-brain patients, and to a limited extent those findings hold true - there are many studies showing that the left hemisphere is "better" at reading, writing, arithmetic, language sounds, and certain types of memories. Likewise there are many studies showing that the right hemisphere is "better" at recognizing faces, facial expressions of emotion, emotional content of most any kind, spatial and geometric patterns, movement in space, assessing direction and distance of objects, and music. It was upon these findings that the right/left brain theory was based and became popularized.

The devil, as always, is in the details.

In recent years neuroscientists have begun to think about functional concepts things with a bit more sophistication, breaking each of these broad "functions" down into subcomponent processes. For example, one topic receiving this attention has to do with speech. What do we mean by speech? What cognitive abilities are required to generate speech? Are those abilities all located within a particular hemisphere, or are they more distributed? These questions arise when we see that it becomes very difficult for folks with right hemispheric damage (whose left-hemisphere dominant speech "center" is intact) to speak about things such as maps, geometric shapes, or emotions. So, even though their speech circuits are intact, their speech is still affected by right hemispheric activities (or lack thereof). This may seem like a minor distinction, one between process and content, but this issue is seen over and over again when examining these lateralized functions. The upshot of the bulk of the recent research is that while there is some degree of cerebral localization of function, a better understanding of the functions themselves reveals that both hemispheres are involved in nearly every function imaginable.

Perhaps the closest we can get to addressing at least one element of the original question can be found in the research on electrophysiological asymmetries in frontal lobe functioning. These asymmetries have been pretty clearly shown to be related to trait-like emotional responsiveness/temperament (in a global sense). That is, studies have shown that from a very early age our temperaments are strongly related to how much electrical activity is observed in our right vs. left frontal lobes when we are at rest. Those with relatively greater left hemispheric EEG activity tend to be more approach-oriented and score higher on sociability scales, while those with greater right hemispheric EEG activity tend to be more avoidance-oriented, shy, and, at least in one study, were found to have lower levels of social competence. So, there's that.

In sum, the story regarding cerebral asymmetries and cognitive abilities/personality traits is much more complex than is typically presented by the commonly understood R/L brain theory, and is still evolving as we learn more about the subcomponents of these functions and how they interact. In a way, this admittedly frustrating state of our knowledge about the brain and human behavior shouldn't be too surprising. We are, after all, talking about understanding a glob of goo inside our heads that features 100 billion neurons making 100 trillion synaptic circuits, which just happens to make it the (arguably) most complex structure in the known universe. Developing a full understanding of this structure is a tall order, which begs the Big Question facing all branches of neuroscience: is our brain smart enough to figure itself out?

[Kodos]

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me...