Brain scan: Right brain activity?

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The Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?


If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.


LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking
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I can see it switch directions

I've thought of myself as highly creative (right brained), yet I tested quite high in math logic. When I am deep into right-brain mode, it can be difficult for me to switch into left-brain mode (and vice versa). The dancer turns both left and right for me. All I have to do is blink or look away for a moment.

I personally think I might experience something called "interhemispheric transfer deficit." This means that the connections between the brain's hemispheres have some sort of limit - so the electrical impulses don't transfer efficiently between them (through the structure called the corpus callosum). Emotional stress can block electrical impulses. Interhemispheric transfer deficit is one of the explanations for alexithymia, or the difficulty of having emotional awareness of yourself or others.

I'd kind of like to get a brain scan for that.

Z

The right hemisphere of my brain is stronger, and I'm also left-handed, as well.

Hemispheric lateralization is definitely more complicated than most people realize. Plus, some of us (particularly lefties and relatives of lefties like you mentioned) appear to have somewhat atypical lateralization of function. I have a lot of lefties in my family (I'm right-handed), and although NLDers usually exhibit worse symptoms on the left side of the body, my symptoms are not so strictly lateralized. I have left-sided weakness and left side visual inattention, but much poorer visual-motor coordination on the right side of my body.

Plus, I worked with man who had a stroke so terrible that the entire left side of his brain had to be removed (I assume to control hemorrhaging). No left hemisphere at all. Yet, he could still speak (telegraphically), still read a little bit, and even write (he could often write words he couldn't say). Clearly his language function was not completely isolated to the left hemisphere. There are definitely some generalizations that you can make about left/right side brain function, but it's not as simple as people usually make it seem.