Differences Between the Left and Right Brain
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Differences between the Left and Right Brain
When talking about pecking order, dominant refers to an animal that usually wins in a one-on-one encounter. In talking about the cerebral hemispheres, however, dominant is merely a shortening of the technical term “language-dominant hemisphere.” It is the outcome of a test to find out where language lives in a person’s brain, such as injecting anesthetics into the left and right carotid arteries and seeing when the patient stops talking.
Although a few percent of people have right brains that are language-dominant, about ninety-three percent of us use the left side. A few percent have “mixed dominance” where both sides are used for language (that is injecting anesthetics on either side will interfere with speech).
Language in the human brain is almost totally located in one cerebral hemisphere. For every fourteen people suffering language difficulties after a stroke, only one will have suffered right-hemisphere damage, proving the theory that most of us are not in our “right-minds”.
Our most detailed maps come not from stroke victims but from epileptics who are aware and talking while a neurosurgeon studies their brain. But we never get the chance to study both sides of the brain at the same time in the same patient.
The ratio for l
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Questions for Review
1. Which side of the brain do most of us use for language?
2. How many cerebral hemispheres is language located in the human brain?
3. We do most things pretty equally in the ______ halves of the _______?
Discussion Questions
1. Why do we get more information from epileptics than from stroke victims?
2. What is meant by “mixed dominance”?
3. Why can we never study both sides of the brain at the same time?
anguage is the strongest deviation from the usual vertebrae brain plan of about 1 to 1.
So in conclusion, other than this one area, basically we do most things pretty equally in the two halves of the brain.
Differences between the Left and Right Brain
When talking about pecking order, dominant refers to an animal that usually wins in a one-on-one encounter. In talking about the cerebral hemispheres, however, dominant is merely a shortening of the technical term “language-dominant hemisphere.” It is the outcome of a test to find out where language lives in a person’s brain, such as injecting anesthetics into the left and right carotid arteries and seeing when the patient stops talking.
Although a few percent of people have right brains that are language-dominant, about ninety-three percent of us use the left side. A few percent have “mixed dominance” where both sides are used for language (that is injecting anesthetics on either side will interfere with speech).
Language in the human brain is almost totally located in one cerebral hemisphere. For every fourteen people suffering language difficulties after a stroke, only one will have suffered right-hemisphere damage, proving the theory that most of us are not in our “right-minds”.
Our most detailed maps come not from stroke victims but from epileptics who are aware and talking while a neurosurgeon studies their brain. But we never get the chance to study both sides of the brain at the same time in the same patient.
The ratio for l
Rateliff 2
Questions for Review
1. Which side of the brain do most of us use for language?
2. How many cerebral hemispheres is language located in the human brain?
3. We do most things pretty equally in the ______ halves of the _______?
Discussion Questions
1. Why do we get more information from epileptics than from stroke victims?
2. What is meant by “mixed dominance”?
3. Why can we never study both sides of the brain at the same time?
anguage is the strongest deviation from the usual vertebrae brain plan of about 1 to 1.
So in conclusion, other than this one area, basically we do most things pretty equally in the two halves of the brain.