Behind the Scenes of The Brain Show

by Zeev Nitsan

  Reflection of the Hemispheric Mix in our Mental Sphere

  It seems that there is no stage in which one of the hemispheres controls our reality perception exclusively. There is always a changing mix of right reality perception and left reality perception, and at any given time one of the hemispheres, and the reality perception it produces, holds the reins, though not exclusively.

  Since there is a difference in the rules according to which information is organized and processed in each of the hemispheres, we, in fact, get, at any given moment, two different reality reflections. These reality reflections might sometimes be very different from one another. It seems that our different view of a similar situation, even within short periods of time, is caused by a change in the mix of reality perception in the power game between the two hemispheres. The right hemisphere tends toward a more reliable reality reflection, which is often more pessimistic, and serves as a greenhouse for doubts (often healthy doubts). The left hemisphere weaves an iota (sometimes more) of fiction into the reality reflection and tends toward a more comforting view of the world.

  Personal Cognitive Style as a Reflection of a Unique Left-Right Mix

  We all tend toward an information processing style that relies on both hemispheres in different mixes. The right hemisphere is more dominant among some people, whereas the left hemisphere is more dominant among others. The relative mix of the usage of both hemispheres is the element that creates the personal cognitive style. As years pile up, it seems that the general tendency tilts more toward the left hemisphere, but even with this general tendency in the background, the unique thinking style is retained and affects the pace of the inter-hemispheric mix changing in the aspect of information processing.

  In general, though generalizations are far from being perfect, we might say that the ones who are more prone to taking the right-brain view tend to see the differences, while those who are more prone to taking the left-brain view tend to see the similarities.

  There is no doubt that each of the two hemispheres contributes some unique insights, and that they reflect the various faces of reality. The combination between them enriches and deepens world insights.

  Areas of Happiness and Sadness—Emotions “Take Sides”

  There is a common supposition among brain researchers according to which the left frontal lobe is the main source of the formation of positive emotions, while the right frontal lobe is the main source of the formation of negative emotions along with continuous interaction with the amygdala structures at both sides.

  A person who suffers from damage to the left frontal areas is more prone to depression and to a decrease in initiation and inner motivation. This probably derives from the fact that the right frontal hemisphere, which is where the gloomy knight lives, becomes the main generator of this person’s emotions. Damage at the right frontal area promotes a tendency to be in a good mood, which might go as far as mania.

  This is also the source of the strange expression “happy stroke,” which refers to damage to the brain tissue of the right frontal lobe, mostly due to ischemia (damage caused by a reduction in blood supply to the tissue, followed by a lack of sufficient amount of oxygen and glucose). The term “happy stroke,” which sounds oxymoronic in this context, derives from the fact that the person who suffered the damage often underestimates the severity of the consequences of the stroke and seems relatively calm.

  On the other hand, “sad stroke” refers to ischemic damage in the brain tissue of the left frontal lobe. The word “sad,” in this context, refers to the mental expressions of such a stroke, such as depression and lack of hope and purpose with regard to the consequences of the stroke and the chances of recuperation and improvement.

  Support for this common hypothesis can be found in the “Wada test,” which is a neuropsychological test named after neurologist John Wada, who invented it.

  This is a reversible pharmacological process that is used for functional evaluation prior to brain surgery, mostly for those who suffer from epilepsy with seizures that are refractory to medical treatment. During this procedure, one-half of the brain is “deactivated” by anesthesia through means of selective injection of a short-term anesthetic substance (sodium amytal). This substance is channeled through the carotid artery on each side to the target hemisphere, and, later, once the anesthesia fades away on one side, the other half is deactivated. The active half of the brain (the right and the left alternately) is required to perform verbal tasks, mostly in order to assess its compensation potential in case the other hemisphere is operated on and becomes damaged. During the procedure, the patient becomes the owner of a single active hemisphere, a different hemisphere alternately.

  When observing the patients who underwent this procedure, it was found that the person in the right-brain version, when the left brain was deactivated, had extreme speech difficulties, to the point of muteness, and his mental state was painted in dark shades. On the other hand, the person in the left-brain version, when the right brain was deactivated, tended to be talkative and reflected a vernal and cheerful inner emotional climate.

  Additional support can be found in magnetic stimulation through TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation). When this method is used to trigger activity at the left frontal lobe, it improves the mood of depressed patients; on the other hand, triggering activity at the right frontal lobe affects the mood of these patients in a negative way.

  According to common assumptions, the activity of the left frontal lobe is the main generator of the sense of “feeling good.” This feeling is induced by flooding the brain with the nectar of gods—a cocktail that mainly contains the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and a touch of endorphins.

  A step in the shoes of the right hemisphere echoes as a requiem, contrary to a step in the shoes of the left hemisphere, which echoes as a jolly march.

  Processing of nonverbal information, mostly in a social context, usually takes place in the right hemisphere. For instance, prosody, the tone that accompanies words (the melody which it sounds the words are said to), is processed at the right hemisphere. Damage to the right hemisphere might lead to impaired social behavior that does not distinguish between nuances, or a tendency to be clumsy and inattentive to shades of emotions. Such behavior is characterized by a lack of social sensitivity (which is also referred to as “social awkwardness”).

  The right amygdala is in charge of adding intense somber shades to the picture of the soul. It resembles a fountain of grumpiness. Soul doctors as cartoon characters would certainly diagnose Grumpy—the grumpy dwarf in Snow White—as suffering from hyperactivity of the right amygdala. This area is like a generator that induces grumpiness and gloom, which cast their long shadow over the inner world of each and every one of us (and, just as in the sleep spell in Snow White, a kiss might erase their depressive effect here as well).

  On the other hand, the melodies of minor-scale, sorrowful tunes are the emotional soundtracks produced by the harp of the left amygdala.

  People who suffer from depression tend to lie less (to themselves and to others). It seems that this reflects the intense activity of the right frontal hemisphere in their brain, which induces sadness but also (over) realism and tends to perceive things as they really are.

  Often the reality-as-is potion is too bitter for the ego, and a certain dose of self-deception (induced by the left frontal hemisphere) constitutes an essential sweetening that enables us to sip the potion of reality.

  Pouring into the Glass of the Soul

  The emotional disposition of the hemispheres also derives from the different mental worlds they create.

  It can be assumed that there is a connection between the cognitive-operation profile that characterizes a person and his “emotional personality”—i.e., the manner in which he expresses emotions.

  A person’s temperament probably derives from different operation patterns of brain areas. The left hemisphere pours sweetness into the glass of the soul, while the right one adds bitter
ness. Those who are naturally prone to feeling “joie de vivre” are blessed with more intense activity of the left frontal lobe, whereas the ones who are prone to feeling glumness suffer from intense activity of the right frontal lobe. Our “collection of moods” is the mix of the activity in both hemispheres, which results in the “bitter-sweet” taste of life.

  The U-Curve of Happiness[45]

  In a telephonic survey that was conducted in 2008, thousands of men and women between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five were asked about their feelings regarding different aspects of life.

  It was found that a sense of sadness increased in a gradual pattern, from a low level at the age of eighteen to a peak at the age of fifty, then decreased consistently from the age of fifty to about the age of seventy-five, on average, and then increased again, a little more moderately, until the age of eighty-five.

  The sense of gratification and happiness was reported as being high at the age of eighteen and, from this point on, decreased consistently and moderately until it reached its lowest point at about the age of fifty. From this point on, the trend changed for the next twenty-five years (until about the age of seventy-five), and the participants reported gratification levels that increased consistently and that, at a certain point, started to decrease again in a moderate manner.

  Another study, in which two million people in eighty countries were surveyed, shows a similar pattern that does not depend on gender or geography: we are at the lowest point with regard to satisfaction from life in our midforties, and the levels of gratification are highest close to both edges of life—during adolescence and old age.

  It is possible that the U-curve of human happiness, with respect to age, has a universal pattern that is not culture dependent. Nevertheless, of course, it does not mean that this pattern is necessarily true at the individual level. It is a statistical statement whose validity is questioned by some “happiologists” (mental-welfare researchers), who stress that different life circumstances of people prevent us from considering the mere chronological age as the dominant marker of the internal emotional climate.

  Taking all reservations into consideration, is it possible that during the fifth decade of our life, the right frontal hemisphere sings its swan song in our emotional lake and then, gradually, the more illuminated shades of the left frontal hemisphere are reflected in our emotional lake as a mental compensation mechanism that is intended to help us cope with the hardships and ailments of old age?

  Interaction Between the Hemispheres—Unity of Contradiction

  The lasting duet between the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere creates the song of our life. Sometimes there is constant averaging of the two voices of the brain, while at other times one voice surpasses the other. This duet often includes a thread of critical dialogue.

  There is considerable similarity between the two hemispheres of our brain, but, still, the different processes of information processing that takes place in each one of them turns brain unity, as a result of the close collaboration between the two hemispheres, into a unity of contradictions. A constant and critical dialogue is conducted between the two hemispheres through axons that transfer information between the hemispheres, mainly through the cluster of axons in the brain core, which is called the corpus callosum, as well as through the anterior commissure tracks and the posterior commissure tracks.

  The duopoly of the left and right hemispheres exists in a liquid status quo.

  The mutual relations between the two halves of our brain take place as a critical dialogue. The left brain is the generator of theories and one that preserves the “brain constitution,” which was written based on familiarity with the world manifestations. The right brain acts as a fighting opposition, which often questions the validity of the “basic laws” embedded in our brain.

  The right hemisphere performs constant reality testing and challenges the suppositions of the left hemisphere in cases in which they do not match its perception of reality.

  Some might claim that the constant dialectic process, which is at the basis of science and which claims lasting tattooed attempts of the “wall of theory” by means of new hypotheses that wish to be closer to the truth of reality, is a creation of the right hemisphere.

  The pattern of intimate relationship between the right brain and the left brain is usually similar to an open marriage. The hemispheres live under one roof, and there is constant interaction between them, but, at the same time, each one of them flirts with reality manifestations in its own unique style.

  Sometimes the relationship between the hemispheres suffers from a crisis, in a pattern that might remind us of Jonathan Swift’s book Gulliver’s Travels. This book describes a hybrid brain that was made of two brains of two people in an attempt to resolve a political dispute. One-half of the brain supports a certain political party, while the other half supports a rival party.

  A similar idea might be a reciprocal switching of a single hemisphere between two brains of two human beings, so that the skull of each of them hosts half of the original being and half of the “foreign” being, and the two halves try to integrate in the mental sphere within the skull—a sort of mental heterogeneousness that creates a chimeric consciousness. We can also imagine, in our mind’s eye, how the creatures of a brain that is composed of Einstein’s left hemisphere and van Gogh’s right hemisphere would look—and, alternately, the left hemisphere of Marie Curie paired with the right hemisphere of Helen Keller or, in a case of intergender heterogeneousness, the left hemisphere of Agatha Christie with the right hemisphere of Salvador Dali.

  The Night Edition of Brain Hemispheres

  It seems that during night sleep, the balance of power between the hemispheres changes alternately, which results in changes in the balance of power between their typical realities perceptions.

  When we are able to identify the “times of left and right” in our own brain, we have the advantage of understanding the structural bias of our reality perception at a certain moment.

  While dolphins sleep, their brain hemispheres take shifts of alternate sleep and wakefulness. Thus, at any given time, one of the hemispheres is awake while the other is asleep, due to the constant need to supervise breathing, which is done by rising above the water surface.

  It seems that during the various stages of night sleep, there is an asymmetrical pattern of hemispheric activity in which the hemispheres take turns holding the wand of affecting brain activity (this hypothesis is based on self-observation). There is no such thing as complete shutdown or full activation of the hemispheres, as is the case of the dolphins’ hemispheres, but, at each of the stages of sleep, a different pattern of hemispheric control is formed. In other words, at each of the stages there is a different pattern of information processing that tends more toward the right school or the left school alternately, when one of the hemispheres is more active than the other. The switch between the hemispheres, with regard to the firm grip on the wheel of information processing, is based on shifts and timings that are typical of the specific person. Certain hours are characterized by right dominance, while others are characterized by left dominance. I have learned from personal experience that when I wake up, or when I am half asleep at about three a.m., my thoughts are painted in dark shades, which can be defined as hyper-realism that lacks comforting shades, and the contents of my thoughts are autumnal/wintery (an emotional and cognitive climate that is typical of right-hemisphere dominance in which the right amygdala has a central role). Two hours later, my personal mental space is filled with comforting light, and my thoughts are characterized by more positive contents (though often not more “realistic”). The mental spring blossoms in a pattern that matches left-hemisphere dominance.

  Thus, I tend to think (in the spirit of induction) that the seasons of the soul exist 24/7, during night or day, in a cycle whose exact timings are probably unique to every person, but it may also be connected to a universal, human pattern.

  The Familiar to the Left, th
e Unfamiliar to the Right Hypothesis

  An innovative hypothesis explains the duality in the roles of the hemispheres by assuming that the right hemisphere is more prone to processing new information and the left one is more prone to storing the archive of insights that were already processed and acquired. The right hemisphere tends to serve as the “insights producer,” whereas the left one tends to serve as the residence in which the treasures of memories and insights we have collected throughout our lives are stored. In other words, the right hemisphere prefers to process unfamiliar information, whereas the left hemisphere prefers to manage familiar information. This generalization is true for most types of information processed by our brain. This hypothesis was supported by observations that were made among people who suffer from damage in the right hemisphere who demonstrated a desire to avoid new experiences.

  The right lobe is the main generator of insights. The left lobe is the chief curator of insights. New reality insights (memes) tend to be created in the right hemisphere. It might be due to its ability to pattern new information into its material infrastructure as “structure of knowledge”—in the shape of a three-dimensional “cloud” pattern of interconnected neurons. On the other hand, the left hemisphere, according to this supposition, is “less fluid” and tends to preserve its “structures of information” and create new structures of information less frequently, compared to the right hemisphere.