Those with impairments in the right frontolimbic regions have trouble with stopping whatever they’re currently doing
A connection can also be made with the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and a rather fundamental difference between the hemispheres. The left hemisphere’s ‘stickiness’, its tendency to recur to what it is familiar with (the left hemisphere prioritizes things that it already knows and expects), also tends to reinforce whatever it is already doing. The right hemisphere by contrast, seeing more of the picture (The right hemisphere has broad, global, and flexible attention, while the left has narrow attention), and taking a broader perspective that characteristically includes both its own and the left hemisphere’s (the right hemisphere is able to use the left hemispheres style of cognition, but the left cannot use the rights), is more reciprocally inclined, and more likely to espouse another point of view.
One way of thinking of this is in terms of feedback systems. Most biological systems seek homeostasis: if they move too far in one direction, they stabilize themselves by self-correction. This is ‘negative feedback’, the most familiar example of which is the operation of a thermostat: if the temperature constantly tends to drop, the thermostat triggers a heating system that will act to bring the temperature back to the desired level. However, systems can become unstable and enter a situation in which ‘positive feedback’ obtains—in other words, a move in one direction, rather than producing a move in the opposite direction, serves to promote further moves in the same direction, and a snowballing effect occurs.
The right hemisphere, then, is capable of freeing us through negative feedback. The left hemisphere tends toward positive feedback, and we can become stuck. This is not unlike the difference between the normal drinker and the addict. After a certain point, the normal drinker begins to feel less like having another drink. What makes an addict is the lack of an ‘off switch’—another drink only makes the next, and the next, more likely. And, interestingly enough, lesions of the frontolimbic systems, mainly in the right hemisphere, are associated with addictive behavior. Pathological gamblers, for example, have frontal deficits which are mainly right-sided; by contrast, in cocaine addicts, for example, stimulating the right prefrontal cortex reduces craving for cocaine. And denial, a left hemisphere specialty (The left hemisphere is prone to over-optimistic denial), is typical of addiction.
References
- Mcgilchrist, Iain. (2010). The Master and His Emissary Chapter 2 What Do the Hemispheres Do (p. 174). London, UK: Yale University Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Neuropsychology Status:☀️