Knowing about human brain is really an exciting experience. I still remember the startling experience of my childhood when our science teacher showed us the model of the brain for the first time ever and on our way back home we were all discussing about the similarity between apricots and brain. Even today, whenever I eat an apricot, it reminds me of the incident.
One brain or two brains? – Brain, also known as cerebrum, is basically made up of two hemispheres known as Cerebral hemispheres which are connected by corpus callosum, a band of tissues to coordinate the activities between the two hemispheres. These hemispheres are known as left Cerebral hemisphere on the left side and right Cerebral hemisphere on the right side respectively. The Cerebral hemisphere takes care of muscle functions, thoughts, speech, reading, writing, emotions and imaginations.
Left-right; Right-left: Interestingly, the left Cerebral hemisphere controls the movements of the right hand side portion of the human body and the right Cerebral hemisphere takes care of the left hand side of the human body. Thus, if any problem occurs in say left Cerebral hemisphere, it will lead to a dysfunction in the motor skills of right hand side portion of the body.
What keeps my brain together? – Even though our brain is divided into two hemispheres, it does not mean that they have nothing in common. The good thing is that the nerves are spread across the entire brain like a huge network of information technology and connect both the hemisphere together while performing any task. This means that even though our brain is divided into two portions, it always works together and the two parts always complement each other.
Which is your dominant side? – As you know that each part of our brain is controlling different portions of our body, we can also find out the dominant Cerebral hemisphere in our brain by taking a left-right brain test. This test is usually available with the psychologists and comprises of eight simple questions that you need to answer. While left Cerebral hemisphere takes cares of your problem solving skills, logical abilities and mathematical skills, the right Cerebral hemisphere makes you more creative and imaginative in your work processes. You might have noticed mostly people use their right hand for writing and eating purposes whereas some use their left hands for the same. Do you know, some people are capable of using both their hands equally while writing, eating and playing? This is known as ambidexterity.
Parts of Cerebral hemisphere- Each Cerebral hemisphere is further made up of four lobes namely Frontal lobe, Parietal lobe, Temporal lobe and Occipital lobe. The frontal lobe is the foremost portion of the brain and deals in high order cognitive functions like reasoning and judgment. It also takes care of the muscles involved in the body functions like swallowing and production of speech. The Parietal lobe is mainly involved with sensation, perception and vibration apart from the skills of writing and reading to some extent. The Temporal lobe is involved in auditory processing and the occipital lobe takes care of the visual aspects in the brain. Well, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more you can explore about the small but important unit you have above your shoulders.
