Free Online Course on Are You Using Both Halves
of Your Brain - The Brain Bridge
Strangely enough, it is this
dichotomy that shapes our personality. The story of these cranial twins began in
the 1960s following the world's first ""com-misurrotomy", an operation that
demolished the bridge of nerve fibre, the Corpus callosum.
A breakthrough surgery was
performed on a World War II veteran whose brain injury had been causing him
agonizing seizures. The operation blocked the seizures originating in one side
from crossing over to the other. Scientists then found that, normally, both
halves worked together, helped by the
Corpus callosum.
The most well publicized brain
surgery - lobotomy-a surgical removal of a portion of the brain, was given
notoriety by the film One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest and by Sidney Sheldon's captivating novel “Master of the Game”. Although it came
into being in this century, its true nature was revealed only with
"hemispherectomy", the entire excision of a diseased or damaged half.
Left to themselves, the two halves
are civilized neighbors, constantly gossiping across the fence. A poet, who is
supposed to be highly lateralised, first gets a bolt of inspiration from his
right brain. Second, he organizes these thoughts and puts them down on paper or
hard disk by scooting to the left half. Third, to add finesse to the final
product, back to the right half. Fourth, for badgering a publisher, back to the
left half. Fifth, to weep copiously at the unkindness of critics, back to the
right half. Sixth, to plan and exact vengeance - the left half. And so on.
