PHOTO: Ikon Images/REX Shutterstock.You've seen the hundreds of personality quizzes asking, "Which side of your brain is more dominant — the left or the right?" But according to scientists, being left- or right-brained is just a big myth.
Here's the old theory: If the left side of your brain is dominant, you're more logical and good with mathematics and language. If you're a right brainer, you're supposed to be more creative and artistic.
But Jeffrey Anderson, a leading scientist from the University of Utah, has conducted research on over a thousand peoples' brains, comparing how the different sides operate. Anderson recently told BBC Trending that his research confirmed that the left vs. right brain theory is actually a myth.
"It is certainly the case that some people have more methodological, logical cognitive styles, and others more uninhibited, spontaneous styles. [However], this has nothing to do on any level with the different functions of the [brain’s] left and right hemispheres," Anderson told the BBC.
Anderson isn't the first scientist to call the left-logic, right-creative brain theory bogus.
In 2013, a cognitive neuroscientist partnered with an author to write an article in Time magazine saying that the right-brain, left-brain divide was simply untrue. Several other members of the scientific community have also pointed out that the dichotomy doesn't make sense.
The roots of the left-right story come from a series of operations in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s by doctors working with Roger W. Sperry, a Nobel laureate neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology, and the renowned cognitive neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga.
Both men discovered that the two halves of the brain act like independent entities, with contrasting processing styles. These findings were adapted by pop culture for books and quizzes.
But recently, even Gazzinga cautioned that the right-brain, left-brain theory we know and love isn't accurate, just a simplified explanation of his findings. He told Los Angeles Magazine, "The simple dynamics of ‘the left brain does this, the right brain does that’ are way overdone."
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