Are People Really Left-Brained or Right-Brained?

Flashcard 1

  • Front: What is the corpus callosum?

  • Back: The bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. Allows them to communicate with each other.

Flashcard 2

  • Front: What is brain lateralization?

  • Back: The concept that each hemisphere of the brain controls different processes.

Flashcard 3

  • Front: What was Roger Wolcott Sperry known for?

  • Back: Sperry is known for his research on the brain’s two hemispheres. He performed studies on patients with severe epilepsy who had a commissurotomy.

Flashcard 4

  • Front: What was the conclusion of the 2013 study analyzing over a thousand brain scans using fMRI?

  • Back: The researchers did not find evidence of people having more strongly connected right hemispheres than left, or vice versa.

Flashcard 5

  • Front: What is fMRI?

  • Back: Functional magnetic resonance imaging, a type of brain scan that shows the parts of the brain that are active by tracking the flow of oxygenated blood through different regions.

Flashcard 6

  • Front: What is the left brain typically associated with?

  • Back: logical and analytical (language and calculation) aspects

Flashcard 7

  • Front: What is the right brain typically associated with?

  • Back: Spatial reasoning and creativity aspects

Flashcard 8

  • Front: What is the flaw in the whole left-brain/right-brain concept?

  • Back: Different sides of the brain are responsible for different tasks. However, simplifying is not a great idea when it comes to a “left or right side” of the brain.

Flashcard 9

  • Front: Who is Michael Gazzaniga?

  • Back: A graduate student who worked with Roger Sperry.

Flashcard 10

  • Front: What is a commissurotomy?

  • Back: A surgical procedure involving severing the corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. (Typically used on people with epilepsy)

Flashcard 11

  • Front: What is brain traffic jam?

  • Back: The corpus callosum is an information bottleneck, which means that the brain has to be selective about what information it sends back and forth between hemispheres

Flashcard 12

  • Front: What is the meaning of resting state in the context of the 2013 fMRI study?

  • Back: A state where subjects aren’t asked to perform any particular task, but there’s still brain activity because they’re not dead