In <378b89b8.2361712 at news.btinternet.com> drdoom at doom.com (Little
Steve) writes:
>>>I have just been told by a friend that aparently men only use one side
>of their brain whilst women use both.
>
This is nonsense. There is, however, a rather complicated body of
studies relating to possible sex differences in communication between
hemispheres (via corpus callosum) during performance of specific
tasks--either to pool information from both hemispheres OR to "choose"
which hemisphere's approach should be used for a given task. Sandra
Witelson has done some such studies; Beth Casey has looked at
sex-related cognitive styles in problem solving; etc.
It is almost a dogma that women's brains are less "lateralized" then
men's, i.e. the distinction between left hemisphere and right
hemisphere competence in a given area (e.g. language) being less sharp
in women; but I suspect that this may be at least partly an artifact of
lumping together data from women tested all across the menstrual cycle.
Some of my own research suggests that for at least some tasks, women
are not "less" lateralized than men, but are "differently"
lateralized--i.e., are using their left hemispheres for something men
use the right hemisphere, and vice versa.
>I was wondering if this was accurate as I have also been told that
>each side of the brain controls the opposite side of your body?
So you doubt the assertion about sex differences in brain utilizatioon
because you have also been told something which seems to you utterly
absurd? SURPRISE: this is TRUE, and has been known for a LONG, LONG
time. Yes, left hemisphere controls right side of body, right
hemisphere coontrols left side of body. QUALIFICATION: there is some
degree of ipsilateral control (i.e. SOME control by right hemisphere of
right side, and vice versa); for example, there is some evidence that
left hemisphere may be somewhat involved in fine motor control of
skilled acts by the left hand, as well as by (the most obvious case))
the right hand.
>>Which of these is correct or if neither is correct can anyone tell me
>just what each area of the brain is responsible for?
Beyond the lateralization issue, the role of different areas WITHIN
each hemisphere is another whole story (long, complicated, far from
completely understood)--e.g. areas important for language, for depth
perception, for different aspects of memory, etc., etc.
F. Frank LeFever, Ph.D.
New York Neuropsychology Group
