![]() In reality, just how many cognitive functions are actually lateralised and how a complete map of functional specialisation in the human brain actually looks like, was unknown until this recent study. For example, “left-dominant” people would be more analytical, verbal and good at mathematics, while those who are “right-dominant” would be creative, holistic and emotional. ![]() Since then, the concept of functional specialisation of the two hemispheres has become popular and is used to explain differences between people. Sperry showed that the two hemispheres contribute to different functions: the left hemisphere contributes more to verbal functions (for example verbal comprehension and reading) while the right one more to spatial functions (such as orientation and attention). The theory that the left hemisphere was the dominant one remained in fashion until the studies carried out by Roger Sperry, who won the Nobel Prize in 1981 for his “discoveries on the functional specialisation of the cerebral hemispheres”. Broca suggested that the left hemisphere was dominant, because it controlled not only language but also the right hand, that is the dominant hand in the majority of people. In Paris, in 1865, Paul Broca, a French surgeon and anthropologist, discovered that lesions to the front part of the brain to the left produced a specific spoken language disorder. The authors have succeeded in producing the first functional map of the lateralisation of cognitive functions in the human brain. What area of the brain do mathematical geniuses use? Do artists and creatives use the right or the left hemisphere? Do we really have some “lateralised” functions, namely those that reside primarily in one of the two hemispheres? A study conducted on the subject by Slava Karolis, Maurizio Corbetta and Michel Thiebaut de Schotten at the National Centre for Scientific Research of Paris and at the University of Padova, has been recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. ![]()
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