Which Side of Your Brain is Dominant - Does It Have Any Significance?

The brain in humans, or rather the Neocortex in the brain, is split into two parts; the left and the right brain. Many people rely more on one side of the brain than the other and are said to be left or right brain dominant. There is no wrong or right or good and bad side; each one has its own merits.

1. Creativity
2. Expresses emotion easily
3. Philosophical
4. Dreamer
5. Intuitive
6. Good at sport
7. Works better with pictures than written instructions
8. Ability to memorise music
9. Good at remembering faces
10. Work well with colour (matching, sorting, interior decorating)

1. Critical Reasoning
2. Works well with numbers
3. Analytical
4. Language skills
5. Writer
6. Focused
7. Eloquent Speech
8. Logical
9. Thinker
10. Reader

Ability to shift tasks from one side to the other of the brain

Can generally problem solve very efficiently due to being able to see both sides of the problem

Is logical and creative at the same time

Is balanced and does not work with extremes of one thing or another

There is evidence to show that adolescents and children over 5 years who have problems working out which hand is their dominant hand (understand also that brain dominance determines hand dominance) may be suffering from a Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder or ADHD.

There are some theories which state that to be a completely well rounded character you must be whole brained rather than being one sided brain dominant. Most men are apparently left brain dominant, whilst most women are right side dominant.

Another theory is that lesbian women and heterosexual men are left sided dominant and gay men and heterosexual women are right side dominant. This was discovered by James Olsen – Author, during the writing of his book “The Whole-Brain Path to Peace” and would correspond to the previous theory since there are obviously some people who don’t conform to the men being left dominant and women right dominant rule. These must be the gay men and lesbian women Olsen talks about. I feel I must add here that I do know from my own research that there are exceptions to the rule.

There are lots of brain dominance tests to be found on the internet. The one that I used is here and my result was that I am 49% Right brained and 51% Left Brained so I guess I must be Left Brain Dominant although only slightly.

I obviously can’t break the confidence of the other people I know who did the same test as me but in my own case I can state with complete honesty that I am not a lesbian so I think Mr Olsen’s sweeping statement may be slightly inaccurate when he states that his theory can predict with 95% accuracy the sexual orientation of a person. I must be in the 5% since I don’t fit into any other model such as pansexual, bisexual or non-binary that are alleged to use both sides of their brain on a more regular basis, which is what I presume I do according to my score.

If what he says is true then anyone who strives to be a ‘whole brain person’ is also likely to become someone with non binary sexuality. I would take this with a grain of salt!

Some schools are starting to teach using the ‘Whole Brain Teaching’ method which is based on active learning. Whole brain learning uses imaging as a learning tool. Visualization, meditation, drama, music and drawing are all used to encourage new and wider ideas and to make it easier for the students to recall these ideas.

For more mature students there are whole brain lessons for adults at http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/ where free downloads and videos can be found.

© Susan Bailey 9th May 2013 All Rights Reserved