Left Brain, Right Brain, Whole Brain?

Evaluating and Identifying Online Resources

The article left brain, right brain, whole brain was very interesting to me because I have read information on the uses of the left and right brain before; however; this article provided more information on the topic. The model of the human brain consists of many parts:

1.     Brain stem, hind brain, mid brain and cerebellum – the most ancient parts, connected to the spine, controls movement, breathing and heartbeats.

2.     Limbie system – consisting of many specialist organs including the Hypothalamus, hippocampus – developed in mammals. Some memory functions and generation of emotional responses.

3.     Cerebral cortex – the distinguishing feature of human brains.

The cortex is divided into two hemispheres, left and right connected by a thick layer of cells called the corpus callosum. I agree based upon the various biology course that I have taken over the past several years.

According to the article, the two hemispheres --left and right brain work similar to the schematic listed below.

	Right Hemisphere	Left Hemisphere
Specialties’	Copying of designs, Discrimination of shapes e.g. picking out a camouflaged object, Understanding geometric properties, Reading faces, Music, Global holistic processing, Understanding of metaphors, Expressing emotions, Reading emotions.	Language skills, Skilled movement, Analytical time sequence processing.
Shared	Sensations on both side of face, Sound perceived by both ears, Pain, Hunger, Position.
Emotions	Negative emotions (fearful mournful feelings),	Positive emotions
neurotransmitters	Higher levels of norepinephrine	Higher levels of dopamine
Grey Matter White Matter ratio	More white-matter (longer axons) on right	More grey-matter (cell bodies) on the left.

This information is valauble to me because it has enriched my knowledge to the point that I am now able to think and speak as well as react to situation according to how my brian preceed the situation.  And, it will also enhance learning styles and personality.

http://www.singsurf.org/brain/rightbrain.php

Week 2 - Application #2