SHARP vs CREATIVE – The Let’s Talk About The Brain!

Which is stronger in you – your logical, calculative brain, or your spontaneous, creative one?

We all have these sides, and all of us have differing levels of which side we feel has prominence.

As a child, those around me (myself included) viewed the two sides of our brain almost as differing entities. There was the cold, logic side (which really just meant you were good at math) and the messy, creative side (which meant you could paint better than the other kids!). Growing up we’ve realized slowly that there’s much more to these two sides of our brains – and, perhaps more shockingly: the two go together seamlessly.

We’ve Got To Understand The Myth Of The “Right And Left Brain”

What most of us understand as the right (creative) and left (logical) sides of our brains is very much incorrect.

A theory conducted in the 1960s originated the concept, which gained popularity in the 1970s.

The man who created the theory was named Roger W. Sperry, a Nobel Prize winner. After discovering that by severing the corpus callosum, the left brain was largely responsible for language. But at the cost of the patient everything. They were not being able to answer or remember certain things that normally would’ve been processed on the right side of the brain. This led to the theory of the two different sides of the brain being focused on particular cognitive functions.

Like many psychological theories, once this one took on popularity it got out of hand. Over the decades, further study has discredited the vast majority of the theory.

In reality, the two halves of our brains, though indeed each carrying more specific information, help each other in almost every action to perform all the functions we ask them to. They’re partners, both working together for the main goal: functions.

What… Why?

Explaining To The Best Of My Ability The Internal Sharp Vs. Creative Brain Dynamic

A study at Drexel University studied the brain function of a jazz musician as they played. The conclusions were that the parts of the brain that lit up during moments of creativity – these came from the right side of the brain predominantly. Does this go against the aforementioned section above? Maybe – but maybe not.

Even though both sides of the brain work together to perform all manner of tasks, this does not imply that one region of the brain commonly performs some functions more than others.

A study by the NIH says:

“we now know that creative thinking involves the interplay of the brain’s default and executive control networks, and that these connections allow us to spontaneously generate ideas and critically evaluate them, respectively.”

And also:

For logic, we know where in the brain this part of our thinking comes from – the frontal temporal lobe.

But my question was why?

The Cerebellum

The cerebellum is like this mini-brain behind and below your big brain. It’s so densely packed with neurons that it actually contains around 80% of your head’s neurons!

That’s pretty wild, in my opinion!

This part works in conjunction with the other two halves, with it’s main function being to control movement.

At the same time, our bodies (nerves in the skin mostly) have been trained by our neurons to react before the brain can. It’s really cool how this works, and if you want to know more about it, I’ve got a link here for more information.