Page 47 - Biblical Counseling II-Textbook

response to damage. Under the surface of our awareness, the brain is constantly changing, building new
pathways as it adjusts to little mishaps and new experiences.

Plasticity may also occur after serious damage, especially in young children. If a slow-growing tumor
disrupts language, the right hemisphere may compensate. If a finger is lost, the sensory cortex that
received its input will begin to pick up signals from the neighboring fingers, which then become more
sensitive (Myers, 2009).

Although the brain often attempts self-repair by reorganizing existing tissue, it sometimes attempts to
mend itself by producing new neurons. Evidence of this process, known as neurogenesis, has been found
in adult mice and humans. These baby neurons originate deep in the brain. They may then migrate
elsewhere and form connections with neighboring neurons (Myers, 2009).

Left Brain – Right Brain
How many brains do you have – one or two? You
only have one brain, but the cerebral hemispheres
are divided right down the middle into a right
hemisphere and a left hemisphere. Each
hemisphere appears to be specialized for some
behaviors. The hemispheres communicate with
each other through a thick band of 200-250 million
nerve fibers called the corpus callosum (Myers,
2009).

Handedness
Are you right-handed or left-handed? As you
probably know, 90% of the population are right-
handed. They prefer to use their right hand to
write, eat and throw a ball. Another way to refer to
people who use their right hand is to say that they
are dominant. It follows that most of the other
10% of the population is left-handed or “left hand
dominant.” There are few people who use each hand equally; they are “ambidextrous.” Most people
also have a dominate eye and a dominate ear. Exactly why people are right-handed or left-handed is
somewhat of a mystery (“One Brain or Two,” 2020).

On a piece of paper, write your name below with your right hand, then with your left. Then draw a
simple house with your right hand and then with your left hand. What do you notice? When we’ve done
this activity in class there was much laughter at our own drawings and also at classmates whose
drawings were truly awful. This easy experiment shows how our dominant hand is much stronger than
the other because of being used so much more. In my years of teaching, I’ve only had two students who
are ambidextrous, which means they can use either hand equally.

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