The left brain vs. right brain myth - Elizabeth Waters

The human brain is visibly split into a left and right side. This structure has inspired one of the most pervasive ideas about the brain: that the left side controls logic and the right side controls creativity. And yet, this is a myth, unsupported by scientific evidence. So how did this idea come about, and what does it get wrong? Elizabeth Waters looks into this long held misconception.

Lesson by Elizabeth Waters, directed by Daniel Gray.

[DinoIAmNoHoster]

I'm an artist and every single one of my drawings has a very logic design, each line and color has/needs a "why". I also work as a senior tester that needs to know about different languages of programming to be able to automatize different platforms, its not about brain sides. It is about how much interest do you give to get the knowledge you want..

[christopherrohn]

I spent an entire year in a high school psychology class learning completely false things... great. Thanks public education

[richarddavargas]

I love the way the yellow man walks at 1:48.

[bigpoopster]

I wish I knew this before. I would of roasted my science teacher.

[SyrisDarkness]

There is a great book touching this subject "Drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. As the title suggests, it is mostly about the development of drawing skills, but aside from that it dwells on the idea of right-brain-centralized perception vs. left-brain-centralized verbal functions. She presents various exercises which objective is to activate the right hemisphere and to calm down the dominant left hemisphere in order to develop the proper type of perception needed for artists (spatial relation between objects instead of recognizing objects by their names, which activates the left hemisphere, responsible for verbal functions). Betty Edwards describes with details what processes occur during those exercises, which I have never seen in any how-to-draw book, or any other book to be honest. I can highly recommend this book to anyone, not only aspiring (or professional) artists, but virtually any person interested in the way our brain works and copes with different tasks.

[zacharyhizon]

I really don't like the idea of separating logic and creativity, good thing this video tapped on that.

I get annoyed when people dichotomize it. And since we are living in a time when romanticism is much more appreciated, people tend to look down on "logical" people. But really, I think logical people aren't really different from creative people.

And I'd be honest, I really get annoyed when there are people who post "I am a creative person." And say things that pretend to be "deep". I'm no psychologist, but I think that's actually a sign of non-creativity since they are conforming to the generalized notion of creativity.

[obscurity]

That sounds about RIGHT




I'm sorry I LEFT you on that pun.




I'm not taking SIDES.

[hexagon]

WOW! I don't know that for years now. I read that misconception in so many books and saw that in so many educational videos on YT. And I agree with the last idea: When I do math and have to prove something, it is the creativity to get good ideas and move things and stack them together or so.

[Flynnbot]

Bo Burnham taught me about the left and right brain

[MusiCaninesTheMusicalDogs]

Thank you for taking both sides of my brain out of ignorance. I thought this was true.

[ryanlafleur]

I had to take a mandatory class recently where the curriculum required us to take personality tests, aptitude tests and a left brain/right brain test in order to help us decide our career path. Our teacher kept reciting how all these tests were "proven right by scientists". Luckily, it was only a half credit, but it was still a waste of time.

[stevegoodson]

I suffered a large amount of damage to my left hemisphere and was expected to lose the ability to speak or understand speech - in fact my speech is fine, and I'm far more verbose than I was before the damage. My ability to maintain attention has suffered badly, suggesting to me that the split is more to do with dominant vs non-dominant rather than left vs right. I'm very much left-handed so this seems to make sense in my case. I also suffered complete loss of right visual field in both eyes, but my remaining vision seems to work fine, apart from occasional hallucinations just to the right of my central vision.

[STarmagic]

I actually did my science fair project on this exact topic. I found that there was a slight correlation to right handlers being more logical and left handers being more creative, but it varied person to person

[JoshuaOtusanya]

You inspired me to start YouTube and I'm only at 2, 800 subs but I'm loving making videos so much. Thank you TedTalks for being so inspirational!

[davidalbro]

As a psychology major 10+ years ago, I've long known and believed this. However, after coming into an understanding of oneness, I wonder that if, in fact, their original hypothesis that each side is greatly individualized is correct.

The problem with understanding this accurately arose from using external application when measuring brain activity. Yes, doing mathematics requires both hemispheres, but the right hemisphere is used in creativity and estimation while the left hemisphere is used in calculation. Very different.

Same with language. Both sides of the brain is used in language. The Left brain is used in diction and syntax while the right brain is used in body language and subtext. Very different.

I'm not even saying that there is a strict division in both sides of the brain. I'm saying scientists need to come up with better experiments to test for hemisphere specialization. This starts with a better understanding of intuition versus analysis. It's easy to see why scientists might have a misunderstanding of which testing states require more or pure intuition.

[Lifestarterpack]

Let's be objective here and choose the right side

[cup_check_official]

why is it always about right and left brain? why isnt it ever about right and left testicles?

[mrniceguy]

SPEAKING OF CREATIVITY... give the TED-ed animators a prize already!

[d_g]

Maaaan we're complex. Give glory to God for His awesomeness.

[eocalive]

Really good one. Try it.

While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Now, while doing this, draw the number six in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction and there is nothing you can do about it.