The right hemisphere allows for the sense of spatial depth, whereas the left understands depth categorically, i.e. above, below
The equivalent of time in the visual realm could be thought of as spatial depth: indeed since Einstein we have come to understand that time and space are aspects of one entity—thus space-time. As it is the right hemisphere that gives ‘depth’ to our sense of time (The right hemisphere is responsible for our sense of time as continuous and unified), in the visual realm it is the right hemisphere that gives us the means of appreciating depth in space, the way in which we stand in relation to others, rather than by categorization. The right hemisphere has a tendency to deal with spatial relations in terms of the degree of distance, which it can discriminate easily, in contrast with the strategy of the left hemisphere, which tends to be more categorical: ‘above’, ‘below’, and so on.
There is a parallel here with the sense of time: duration belongs to the right hemisphere, while sequencing (‘before’, ‘after’ = ‘above’, ‘below’) belongs to the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere’s organisation of space depends more on depth, whether things are nearer or further ‘from me’. The right hemisphere is even biased towards what lies further ‘from me’, an aspect of its broader, wider and deeper attention (The right hemisphere has broad, global, and flexible attention, while the left has narrow attention). The left hemisphere, by comparison, has difficulty with processing depth: as a result, it may get the size of things wrong, sometimes dramatically.
References
- Mcgilchrist, Iain. (2010). The Master and His Emissary Chapter 2 What Do the Hemispheres Do (p. 158). London, UK: Yale University Press.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Neuropsychology Status:☀️