IndexOrigin of the myth and supporting evidenceEvidence against the mythReferencesThe idea that people can be left-brained and right-brained is ubiquitous: there are 200 million results on Google, the best -book by Daniel Pink, a BuzzFeed quiz, Oprah also describes herself as a "right-brained" person. However, there is actually no such thing as left or right hemisphere dominance. The human brain is divided into two hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum. Depending on the task, there are only localizations in which more of one hemisphere is activated than another. Each of these hemispheres is assigned tasks that control movement and receive stimuli from the opposite side of our body. In other words, the left hemisphere controls the right side of our body and also receives sensory input from the right side of our body. Our brain is highly interactive and the exchange is much more complicated than the myth suggests. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In a study conducted in 2016, 78.5% of student teachers who participated accepted the validity of hemispheric dominance even when there have been other recent studies showing that brain functions require the use of both hemispheres (Dundar & Gunduz, 2016). There is currently no evidence linking hemispheric dominance to learning; however, it is the second most believed neuromyth, only after learning styles (Dundar & Gunduz, 2016). Furthermore, brain-based learning has influenced how curriculum is developed (Society for Neuroscience, 2009), and teachers may unknowingly incorporate many other neuromyths into their pedagogy. The lack of neuroscientific expertise in many educational institutions can lead to the adoption of “brain-based” learning methods, all without realizing their pseudoscientific nature. In fact, people are more likely to believe claims that contain marketing buzzwords like “brain” and “neuroscience” (Lindell & Kidd, 2011). The prevalence of this myth, especially in the education sector, poses dangers. For one thing, students may be taught material with methods that are not actually effective. Since “right-brain/left-brain” teaching methods have not been validated, nor do they have supporting evidence (Bruer, 2002), it would be completely wrong to adopt “right-brain/left-brain” teaching. Consuming this belief can be restrictive and limiting in thinking that people's abilities and personalities are predicted from a split-brain perspective. The internalization of this neuromyth could impact people's sense of self-efficacy and could even be the cause of self-fulfilling prophecies (Bandura, 1994). Origin of the Myth and Supporting Evidence In the 1800s, pioneers Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke demonstrated that speech production and comprehension are governed by two distinct regions of the brain, which became known as Broca's area and Wernicke's area. Broca and Wernicke's study suggested that language is controlled by the left side of the brain. This discovery became the basis of the book “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in 1886. He explored the duality of human nature in his work by introducing the idea of ​​a logical left brain in the character of Dr. Jekyll competing with an emotional right brain in the character of Mr. Hyde (Waters, 2017) . As the twentieth century dawned, the whole left-brain right-brain obsession remained relatively quiet until the 1960s thanks to Roger Sperry's split-brain experiments that gave himthey earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1981. The original study that supported this myth was invented on participants whose brain functions were not at all typical: the intended purpose was to find out more about epilepsy (Lienhard, 2017). Much of the original work of Sperry, who discovered the differences in functioning between the left and right hemispheres, remain valid, but have been extrapolated: the conclusions are taken to the extreme, creating misunderstandings in a thought not supported by literature and spread by the media popular: The New York Times Sunday Magazine published an article in 1973 titled “We Are Left-Brained or Right-Brained” and the Harvard Business Review published an article in 1976 titled “Left-Side Planning and Right-Side Management.” When reputable agencies spread this myth under the guise of self-improvement, a new psychological theory emerges that ultimately buries the truth in misconceptions. Relatedly, the "interpreter phenomenon" is a concept introduced by Sperry's student, Michael Gazzaniga. While performing his initial experiments, Gazzaniga and his colleagues observed patients when the left and right hemispheres could no longer communicate. They were shown an image within the right visual field that corresponds to the left cerebral hemisphere and were able to provide an explanation. However, when the image was presented in the left visual field, patients were only able to point to objects similar to the image. Gazzaniga interpreted this by hypothesizing that, even though the right brain could see the image, it needed the left brain to generate a verbal response, thus characterizing the left hemisphere as “inventive and interpretive,” compared to the “truthful and literal right brain.” (Gazzaniga, 2015). This statement, without a proper understanding of brain processes, can easily be misunderstood and oversimplified. Sperry (1984) himself warned the public: “…the polarity observed experimentally in the right-left cognitive style is a general idea with which it is very easy to run wild…it is important to remember that the two hemispheres in the normal intact brain regularly tend to function closely together as a unit. others. Oversimplification of a complex neuroscientific process may just be the result of our human instinct to understand things we don't, characterizing ideas, and embracing simplified narratives despite warnings. There is no perpetual tug of war within the brain: the hemispheres are systems and should be viewed as such. Evidence against the myth Brain scans show no evidence of laterality, instead there was actually activity on both sides of the brain, depending on the task (Nielsen, Zielinski, Ferguson, Lainhart, & Anderson, 2013). This study looked at 3D images of the brains of more than 1,000 people and measured the activity of the left and right hemispheres, using an MRI scanner. The results showed that both hemispheres of the brain are engaged in cognitive processes, supporting the lack of selective simulation in the brain (Lindell, 2011). One of the most widespread beliefs within the left-brain versus right-brain myth is that creativity is -brain.” Further perpetuated and one of the most popular ideas is that the right brain is the center of imagination and that “right brain” people are more creative than their left brain counterparts. This has been refuted since both hemispheres of the brain are involved in tasks that require creativity (Runco, 2004, p. 665). The “interpreter phenomenon,” as discussed above, shows that it is naive to portray the left hemisphere as incapable ofcreativity, especially when logical tasks require creativity and creativity can also be rooted in logical reasoning even when people in creative careers show greater interaction in both sides. of the brain compared to those engaged in non-creative professions (Gibson, Folley, & Park, 2009). Cerebral lateralization is a multifaceted and continuous process by which different brain regions “specialize” the functioning of specific behaviors and cognitive abilities. Indeed, the brain has two hemispheres, but they always have a complex working relationship with other areas of the brain (Noggle & Hall, 2011). It is important to note that laterization has no connection to personality traits. Thus, no one is completely right or left brained (Sperry, 1961). Laterized functions of the healthy brain, such as language, can also be rewired in the other hemisphere, especially if the patient is very young. Increased lateralization and plasticity is observed both before a child develops activity and also after function has begun to develop (Ressel, Wilke, Lidzba, Lutzenberger, & Krägeloh-Mann, 2008) and may continue to live a lifetime normal. Children with left hemisphere brain damage are able to continue language development and the damage is no longer detectable by age 7, suggesting that even when one side is not functioning properly, the other will "take over" tasks to accomplish cognitive processes as a unified system (Lindell, 2011; Reilly, Bellugi, & Wulfeck, 2004). Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The simplicity of tasks being dominated by one side of the brain is a notion not supported by science: even the study that was the basis of this popular lore did not necessarily apply to the normal functioning of the brain. There are two hemispheres each of which plays a critical role in performing tasks; one side of the brain is no more creative, no more logical, no more analytical: some of these functions may be localized in one hemisphere, but their overall function does not depend exclusively on one hemisphere because the hemispheres are not isolated from each other other . The classification of brain functions into simple, oversimplified dichotomies (“left brain vs. right brain”) is the reason this myth exists, which largely ignores the intimate working relationship of a system that is the human brain. References Bandura, A. ( 1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (Vol. 4, pp. 71-81). New York: Academic Press. (Reprinted in H. Friedman [Ed.], Encyclopedia of Mental Health. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998.) Bruer, J. T. (2002). Avoiding the pediatrician's mistake: How neuroscientists can help educators (and themselves). Nature Neuroscience (Supplement), 5, 1031–1033. Dündar, S. and Gündüz, N. (2016), Misconceptions about the brain: Pre-service teachers' neuromyths. Mind, Brain and Education, 10: 212-232. doi:10.1111/mbe.12119Gazzaniga, M. S. (2015). Tales from both hemispheres of the brain: a life in neuroscience (1st ed.). New York, NY: Ecco.Gibson, C., Folley, B.S., & Park, S. (2009). Enhanced divergent thinking and creativity in musicians: A behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopy study. Brain and Cognition, 69, 162–169. Lienhard, D. A. (2017, December 27). Split-brain experiments by Roger Sperry (1959-1968). Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/13035.Lindell, A. K. (2006). In your right mind: Right hemisphere contributions to human language processing and production. Neuropsychology Review, 16, 131–148. Nielsen JA,