Page 40 - Biblical Counseling II

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 is 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.” Few people use each hand
equally; they are “ambidextrous.” Most people also have
a dominant eye and a dominant 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 ambidextrous students, which means
they can use either hand equally.

Control and Damage to the Brain’s Hemisphere
The right side of the brain controls muscles on the left
side of the body, and the left side of the brain controls
muscles on the right side of the body. Also, in general,
sensory information from the left side of the body
crosses over to the right side of the brain, and
information from the right side of the body crosses over
to the left side of the brain. Therefore, damage to one
side of the brain will affect the opposite side of the body
(“Right Brain Damage,” 2020).

If a person were to damage the right hemisphere of
their brain, they would show left-sided neglect. They
may no longer acknowledge the left side of his/her body
or space. These individuals will not brush the left side of
their hair, for example, or eat food on the left side of
their plate, as they do not see or look for them. Reading
is also affected as the individual does not read the words
on the left side of the page, starting only in the middle
(“Right Brain Damage, 2020).

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