THE RIGHT BRAIN

What is the meaning of the words, 'You are a brainy chap' that are usually used for a university topper? Does your scoring high marks in examinations mean you are really BRAINY. Scan the following lines, till you can sufficiently scan into yourself, to know about your brain. Yes, my probe in the next very many lines is into that little known thing - the right brain contrasted with the left.

Man has tried to split everything into the world, in his brain. No doubt then, that his study, simplified, split his brain too. His brain is divided into two hemispheres - left and right - connected together by fine wires called nerves. However, the latin names for these jumbles are too tongue-twisting and we would do well from peeping into this topic.

Why should man have two brains, when one seems too much of a problem? The answer is that, just as man has two eyes, two nostrils, two hands and two legs, he has two parts of the grey matter too. However, crooked as his mind is, his left hemisphere controls the right half of his body and the right one his left half. This fact has been proved in split brain patients (patients whose nerves connecting the two hemispheres were removed). Because of isolation of the two hemispheres, they could not co-ordinate the movements of the two halves of their body.

A typically interesting point concerns the functions of these two hemispheres. Whatever tasks we perform can be split into two parts - logical and non-logical. We shall refrain  from the term illogical because as we shall see very soon, what might seem to be a non logical process ends in a logical result. The left brain is concerned with logical methods of deduction whereas the right brain seems to give what seems as illogical or more specifically intiutory methods. The mathematical solutions that you get to some problems are due to those logical steps (just like computer steps through the instructions gradually in a program). The 'intuitive' answer with the explanation to its derivation as 'just-gut-feel' is due to your right brain. In short, your right brain deals with spatial solutions while your left brain deals with line-to-line solutions.

Your right brain is the author of creativity. Any of your artistic talents are credited to this little genius. Obviously, then, that since your right brain controls your left half of the body, your left eyes, hands and legs can contribute better to such talents. That does not discredit your right half because, thankfully, the information to your right half for such functions come from the right brain again, but through the left brain - seemingly a little less efficient process. Your argument that your right hand is more dexterous can be countered with the fact that your dexterity is accredited more to your muscles, which has been given constant practice, and relatively less to your brain. Thus if you had practised with your left hand right through childhood, you would be definitely more adroit with it.

What are the various capacities in which your right brain function? A person who runs on the ground and accurately succeeds in catching the ball in the air uses his right brain. He might not have studied the laws of physics and detailed mathematical analysis of the projectile of the body in free air and the angle of throw and time required for him to reach the ball, but he can more definitely and efficiently catch it than a Doctor in Physics or an expert mathematician. Almost always, these scholars, assuming they use their calculations in this respect, would miserably flop. In fact, a person who sings, writes poems or composes music uses his right brain.No doubt then that our education makes us use less of the right  (pun intended) brain. More interestingly go the facts that telepathy, extra sensory perceptions and other awe inspiring  mumbo-jumbos associate with this self.

On the other hand your left brain is more concerned with tedious tasks as logical derivations and step-by-step solutions to mathematical problems and more specifically with speech and words (in fact persons with distorted speech are found to utilize their brain to a lesser extent). Your left brain consists of dictionary of words and you refer to it whenever you speak of something. Secondly, it also applies various methods to problems, more usually based on past experiences (again the storage function props in), till the right solution props up. Stated simply, another nomenclature for your left hemisphere is 'Mr. Tediousness' for it is the epitome of all tedious functions.

Unfortunately, our present educational system works the left brain more because we are not required to put all our knowledge into words. Scope must be given in examinations to test the right brain using spatial comprehension tests etc. Else, the learned graduate will earn his degree at the cost of the right brain. True, because, leave alone your right brain, anything in nature that is not used or used rarely wanes into oblivion. This is a well tried and tested law of nature. Truly, all the knowledge cannot be put into words. As an illustrative example, what will you reply to the blind man's question : "What is the sky?". Even when you put all the words into his ear, he will just helplessly wander away from the fact, not near it. For, whatever pictures and objects you observe are stored and processed in your right brain and he hasn't seen any of it. That's also why even when you seem to have forgotten a person, his personal picture works up memories of past experiences, because pictorial messages are made available from the right brain. A university topper flops in disco dancing because he uses his left brain most, rarely using his right one.

So, if you are a book worm, here is an earnest request to you to jump up from those mass of papers and drink deep the beauty of this world by switching on more often to your right brain. Don't just idle your time in useless jumbles of words that you do without moving a bone. Go ahead and move your bones on the dance floor and take that painting brush and splash some colors on the canvas. 

See the beauty of using the brain, Aha - the right one..!