Two Hemispheres of Brain: The Marvelous Collaboration of Cognitive Forces
So far, we know that our brain is made up of tiny special cells called neurons. Memory is stored in Cortex, and we have two hemispheres of cortex responsible for different functions and thinking styles. Left brain is responsible for logical thinking and right brain is responsible for creative thinking. The true marvel of brain’s capability is revealed in the teamwork of the two hemispheres of the brain working together. Seamlessly blending logic and imagination to produce a unique concoction of our personalities and thinking patterns. Just imagine that we are over 8 billion people living on the planet, yet due to the trillions of neural connections and different thinking styles. We all have different personalities and thinking styles. Just like we all have unique fingerprints our brains are also arranged differently. Let us explore our brain further with the following topics.
Topics of Discussion
1. Harmony of Hemispheres: A Beautiful Cognitive Dance
2. The Unified Brain: Teamwork for Creative Thinking
3. Innovative Fusion: The Best of Both Worlds
4. Cognitive Superpower: Unleashing Innovative Thought
5. Resources for Further Exploration
1. Harmony of Hemispheres: A Beautiful Cognitive Dance
I would like to break a common myth about our brain. That left brain is logical and right brain is creative. But I have stated the same myth many times in my previous articles! Am I contradicting myself? Well, here is the truth.
Due to the advent of modern technologies like MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), DOLI (Diffuse Optical Localization Imaging), PET (Positron Emission Tomography) etc. Researchers are able to peak inside the human brain without surgically opening the brain. An advantage of these technologies is that we can understand how a human brain works as it is operational. Technologies like EEG (Electroencephalography) and FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) are exceptionally good at these jobs. So, when researchers performed some experiments with FMRI, they observed that as we think creatively, there is more activity on the right side of the brain and while performing math and logical operations left side of the brain shows more activity. But this means that the myth is true. Well, it is partly true.
In some cases paralysis cause half of the brain to stop working. But the patients still exhibit both characteristics of creative and logical thinking. This means that there is no distinction between the two halves of the brain. It’s just that the workload is divided between the two hemispheres. Hence, we are also able to seamlessly integrate logical and creative ideas to get a holistic view.
2. The Unified Brain: Teamwork for Creative Thinking
Logical Thinking is taught everywhere in schools and colleges. Hence, I like to talk more about creative thinking. Let’s breakdown the creative thinking process inside our brain. The first thing that we should understand is that there is no fixed pattern for creative thinking. As explained earlier, all human brains are designed and operate differently. We all find different things important and relate to information differently in our brain. However, an experiment conducted by scientists with the help of FMRI revealed that there are several key brain networks that always activate when creative people think.
These three networks are DMN (Default Mode Network), Salience Network, and Executive Attention Network. I would love to explain each one in detail. But if you are here still reading this article, this shows you are also interested. So, do some research, it will be a fun activity. So, scientists discovered that the people who came up with unique ideas had a strong connectivity between these three networks.
3. innovative Fusion: The Best of Both Worlds
When it comes to real-world applicability, only creative and only logical ideas are not enough. We need an amalgamation of these two. Let us take an example of Just, he was an exceptionally good student and always thought logically and with zero creative abilities. Suppose he wants to start a business. When it comes to ideas for his business, he can only see retail shops and distribution of already developed products. He lacks imagination and hence tied to the existing techniques and procedures that the industry has set. Taking a decision for him is easy.
Now, suppose Just was a creative person with zero logical skills. He did not score high grades in school but had high aspirations for his future business ventures. He could see a lot more opportunities and manifest elaborate ideas. But he lacks the capability to think logically, how will the business work? Where are the funds? Where are the customers? How to set up the organization? Legal formalities, Etc. There are many problems that will hinder his capability to execute his creative ideas.
Hence, we need an amalgamation of both worlds. We must think creatively to see the opportunities and needs of the customers. Simultaneously, we must also think logically about the business.
4. Cognitive Superpower: Unleashing Innovative Thoughts
When we organize our logical and creative thoughts, we get a holistic understanding of the problem. A weird fact about combining logical and creative ideas is that their sum is greater than its parts. This strange phenomenon happens as we combine our ideas. We tend to generate new connections in our brain due to the random firings of the neurons. These newly generated thoughts are stored in our subconscious mind and the cycle of organizing our ideas begins again. This is a continuous process and happens seamlessly without us knowing. We all have experienced it sometime in our lives that we suddenly come up with out of the box ideas. That idea was an amalgamation of some past thought and newly generated thoughts in our brain. As soon as the thoughts are formed, they come across our conscious mind where we can evaluate them to be logical or creative ideas.
5. Resources for Further Exploration
- Gazzaniga, M. S. (2018). “The Consciousness Instinct: Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Sperry, R. W. (1982). “Some Effects of Disconnecting the Cerebral Hemispheres.” Science, 217(4566), 1223-1226.
- Hellige, J. B. (1993). “Hemispheric Asymmetry: What’s Right and What’s Left.” Harvard University Press.
- Corballis, M. C. (2014). “The Evolution of Lateral Asymmetries, Language, Tool Use, and Intellect.” Academic Press.
Conclusion
It’s really interesting how our brain works, right? We used to think that the left brain is all about logic and the right brain is all about creativity. But turns out, it’s not that simple! Thanks to cool technologies like MRI and PET scans, researchers can peek inside our brains and see how they work. They found that when we’re being creative, the right side of our brain gets more active, and when we’re doing math or logical stuff, the left side gets more active. So, the myth kind of holds true, but it’s not the whole story. Our brain hemispheres actually work together in a beautiful cognitive dance, blending logic and imagination to make us who we are. Isn’t that amazing?