What are functions that use both side of the brain?

The brain is a lot like an orchestra; you can listen to the sound of each musician indepedently, but you won't get the full effect. To really understand the brain we have to understand how it functions as a whole. We'll look at some functions that require the left and right hemispheres of the brain to work together.

Opening a Locker
If you have lockers at your school, you know that the first time you try to open your locker it can be a little difficult. Here are the steps opening your locker entails.

  • Information about what number the locker is on recieved through your eyes and processed in the visual cortex.
  • The memory of what number the locker dial needs to be turned to is called up.
  • A message is sent to your motor cortex to make the hand rotate the locker dial.
  • Your left brain, which deals with numbers, alerts the motor cortex to stop moving once the dial is on the right number.
  • The steps are repeated for each other number.
Reading a Book (and taking notes)
  • Information is recieved through the visual cortex about what is on the page.
  • Letters are seen as symbols by the right hemisphere, translated into letters and the information is sent to the left brain.
  • Those letters are translated into words by the left hemisphere of the brain.
  • The words are strung into sentences by the left hemisphere.
  • The left brain decides which part of the information is the most important and what will be written down.
  • The left brain sends the message of what letters to write to the right brain.
  • If you are right handed, information will be sent to the motor cortex in the left hemisphere about how to write the notes. The opposite will occur for lefties.

As you can see, the brain requires many complicated processes to do even simple jobs.

How does the human brain create language?
What are functions that use both side of the brain?
How are memories created?

Related Info

Roger W. Sperry won a Nobel prize for discovering the functions of the left and right brain by researching people who had damage to the corpus callosum, the part of the brain that connects the two hemispheres.