Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
I had a theory this morning.
I've been reading Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain, which was recommended (again) by someone on the list. I haven't finished it, but so far it's been quite enlightening in the sense of a Right-brain mode and a Left-mode, which came to me that I actually have been using my R-mode more than I actually realized.
You know there are times when you have this melody or this song that's running around your head and totally distracts you from doing anything else? Or, thinking so deeply, so mired in your own thoughts (not in a self-talk), that suddenly if someone picks up a conversation with you you find yourself answering in trailing half-sentences and a strange inability to form words and speak them out?
Maybe it's just me, and my corpus callosum may perhaps be degenerated or underdeveloped, but to me that's tangible examples of the R-mode.
Anyway my theory is just that I somehow cannot concentrate on both the lyrics and the song at the same time. It's just, if I take note of the music, noting the accompaniment, melody, counters, whatever, I'd lose track of the lyrics and start treating the voice as another instrument in the whole thing. Which leads to my disability in identifying words in songs. On the other hand, if I were to try really hard (ie. exert myself) to identify the words in the song, I'd end up only with a poem and understanding the words only, without taking conscious notice of the song.
To me I think that's a conflict between the 2 modes of my brain, and while it's not something that's good, it's at least something that helps me point to the R-mode easier. Apparently music is so distracting to me because it shifts me away to the R-mode where I can't process any words or logical functions. Especially while in jc, where I took triple science and maths.
Anyway here's a short anecdote of the test scientists did to prove the existence of different functions of both halves. Totally cracked me up. =D
The left brain controls the right side of the body, the right brain the left. The corpus callosum mediates between the two halves so there's no conflict. However, the patients here are split-brain, meaning the corpus callosum is cut and the 2 halves cannot communicate with each other.
In one test, two different pictures were flashed for an instant on a screen, with a split-brain patient's eyes fixed on a midpoint so that scanning both images was prevented. Each hemisphere, then, received different pictures. A picture of a spoon on the left side of the screen went to the right brain; a picture of a knife on the right side of the screen went to the verbal left brain. When questioned, the patient gave different responses. If asked to name what had been flashed on the screen, the confidently articulate left hemisphere caused the patient to say, "knife". Then the patient was asked to reach behind a curtain with his left hand (right hemisphere) and pick out what had been flashed on the screen. The patient then picked out a spoon from a group of objects that included a spoon and a knife. If the experimenter asked the patient to identify what he held in his hand behind the curtain, the patient might look confused for a moment and then say, "A knife." The right hemisphere, knowing that the answer was wrong but not having sufficient words to correct the articulate left hemisphere, continued the dialogue by causing the patient to mutely shake his head. At that, the verbal left hemisphere wondered aloud, "Why am I shaking my head?"
I've been reading Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain, which was recommended (again) by someone on the list. I haven't finished it, but so far it's been quite enlightening in the sense of a Right-brain mode and a Left-mode, which came to me that I actually have been using my R-mode more than I actually realized.
You know there are times when you have this melody or this song that's running around your head and totally distracts you from doing anything else? Or, thinking so deeply, so mired in your own thoughts (not in a self-talk), that suddenly if someone picks up a conversation with you you find yourself answering in trailing half-sentences and a strange inability to form words and speak them out?
Maybe it's just me, and my corpus callosum may perhaps be degenerated or underdeveloped, but to me that's tangible examples of the R-mode.
Anyway my theory is just that I somehow cannot concentrate on both the lyrics and the song at the same time. It's just, if I take note of the music, noting the accompaniment, melody, counters, whatever, I'd lose track of the lyrics and start treating the voice as another instrument in the whole thing. Which leads to my disability in identifying words in songs. On the other hand, if I were to try really hard (ie. exert myself) to identify the words in the song, I'd end up only with a poem and understanding the words only, without taking conscious notice of the song.
To me I think that's a conflict between the 2 modes of my brain, and while it's not something that's good, it's at least something that helps me point to the R-mode easier. Apparently music is so distracting to me because it shifts me away to the R-mode where I can't process any words or logical functions. Especially while in jc, where I took triple science and maths.
Anyway here's a short anecdote of the test scientists did to prove the existence of different functions of both halves. Totally cracked me up. =D
The left brain controls the right side of the body, the right brain the left. The corpus callosum mediates between the two halves so there's no conflict. However, the patients here are split-brain, meaning the corpus callosum is cut and the 2 halves cannot communicate with each other.
In one test, two different pictures were flashed for an instant on a screen, with a split-brain patient's eyes fixed on a midpoint so that scanning both images was prevented. Each hemisphere, then, received different pictures. A picture of a spoon on the left side of the screen went to the right brain; a picture of a knife on the right side of the screen went to the verbal left brain. When questioned, the patient gave different responses. If asked to name what had been flashed on the screen, the confidently articulate left hemisphere caused the patient to say, "knife". Then the patient was asked to reach behind a curtain with his left hand (right hemisphere) and pick out what had been flashed on the screen. The patient then picked out a spoon from a group of objects that included a spoon and a knife. If the experimenter asked the patient to identify what he held in his hand behind the curtain, the patient might look confused for a moment and then say, "A knife." The right hemisphere, knowing that the answer was wrong but not having sufficient words to correct the articulate left hemisphere, continued the dialogue by causing the patient to mutely shake his head. At that, the verbal left hemisphere wondered aloud, "Why am I shaking my head?"
posted by Endolori | 2:20 PM
1 Comments:
Good for people to know.
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