You are flipping through a magazine and come across a quiz designed to help you determine whether you are right-brained or left-brained. The preamble to the quiz states that the human brain exhibits a phenomenon called lateralization where each side, or hemisphere, of the brain becomes dominant in particular types of thinking. According to this hypothesis, people who are right-brained are more creative, intuitive, thoughtful, and better at reading and expressing emotions, because the right side of their brain is dominant. Left-brain dominance yields people who are more analytical, logical, and better at math, reasoning, and critical thinking. With this information at hand, you might be tempted to imagine the following:

Traits like being creative or logical occur when one hemisphere completely dominates the other hemisphere.

Questions

1. Are there structures in one hemisphere that are not in the other hemisphere?
2. How do the two hemispheres of the brain communicate with each other?
3. Brain imaging scans taken while people are solving math problems show that both sides of the brain are active. Does this provide support for the right brain–left brain dominance hypothesis? Why or why not?
4. Evidence from neurobiological studies of people listening to spoken language suggests that the left hemisphere determines which sounds form words while the right hemisphere processes whether the words are meant to convey emotion or stress. How would you describe the relationship between the left and right hemispheres when it comes to language?
5. Consider your answers to questions 1–4 and explain why the statement bolded above sounds right, but isn’t.