The left hemisphere inhibits the right more than the right inhibits the left
Chicks use either eye for different purposes and different views of the world, but chicks using both eyes, however, do not do the splits: they approximate more to the right hemisphere view. This would align with the fact that the global attention of the right hemisphere precedes the narrow attention of the left hemisphere. But it may also have to do with the fact that at this stage their hemispheres are relatively independent. For we know that the corpus callosum permits the left hemisphere to have an greater inhibitory effect on the right hemisphere than the right hemisphere has on the left. In doing so they actually succeed in reversing the natural asymmetry: they impose the left hemisphere view of the world. Only when interhemispheric communication is rendered impossible by severing of the corpus callosum does one see, once again, the natural asymmetry in favor of the right hemisphere’s view of the world appear.
References
- Mcgilchrist, Iain. (2010). The Master and His Emissary Chapter 2 What Do the Hemispheres Do (96). London, UK: Yale University Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Neuropsychology Status:☀️