Dec 12, 2022 10:00 pmThe Cortex Machina project has its origins in a deeply rooted fascination with neurobiology in general, and the biological origins of consciousness in particular. Unfortunately, it can often be very challenging to discuss and share these fascinating concepts, simply because they generally require a lot of prior knowledge which is, to say the least, quite unfamiliar to most people. That’s why we have started this series of short columns: to kindle interest in the fields of neuroscience and neurobiology and to provide my readers with enough general knowledge on the human brain and cognition to start exploring and sharing these fascinating concepts themselves. We will start with a series of articles on brain anatomy, to provide the reader with an understanding of brain architecture and nomenclature, which will be helpful later on when we discuss other topics. So without further ado, let’s enter into your Lateralized brain functions!
Lateralized brain functions
Although on the macro-level the two cortical hemispheres are approximately symmetrical in shape, and on the micro-level both are based on a neuronal architecture, they don’t share all cognitive functions. In essence this means that in some parts of the hemispheres, the way the neuronal networks are interconnected is different from one hemisphere to the other. They are basically “wired differently”. We call this the “lateralization of brain functions”, which is defined as the tendency of some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one hemisphere or the other.
We could make an analogy with the various chips in a computer: although they look the same from the outside and are all based on the same types of circuitry channeling electrons around, each chip is wired differently and thus performs a different task / function.
We’re going to briefly overview three lateralized functions of the human brain:
Figure 1: Lateralization of visual signal processing in the hemispheres.
The left hemisphere controls functions like language, writing, and is the seat of our self-awareness, or more correctly, our self-interpretation. The right hemisphere controls creativity, spatial ability, artistic, and musical skills.
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