Although most of us have grown with the mistaken view that the left hemisphere of the brain is “logical” and the right is “creative”, there is a background of truth in it. The brain not only divides the perception of visual space, but uses this mechanism to process information more efficiently.
In a new review of studies, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)in the United States, they present what neuroscience has learned about this division of tasks, the integrative efforts it involves, and the strategies that the brain itself adopts to overcome it.
Despite all myths on left and right brain, or people on the right side are opposite to those on the left side, the truth is that “You think with your entire brain”explains in a statement co -author Earl K. Miller of the MIT’s CERBAL AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES Department.
In the case of visual information, hemispheric separation raises some questions: How do we maintain perceptual continuity when objects cross our field of view? Does information simply disappear from one hemisphere and resurfaces in the other during eye or object movements?
“It’s for a good reason,” says Miller. In the review,, in partnership with the scientist researcher at the Picower Institute, Scott Play, the two explain that the brain develops separate neural resources for each side of the visual field as an adaptive strategy.
Hemispheric division optimizes our limited perceptual capacity. “If your capacity is fully tied on the right side of the look, you may lose a threat that approaches the left. Dividing resources between the two sides helps to avoid dangerous perceptive blind spots,” says Miller.
The information does not mix in the prefrontal cortex
According to Miller, he learned in his postgraduate degree that visual perception was divided between hemispheres until reaching the prefrontal cortex, where he was mixed. However, two decades of research refined this understanding, ..
Studies have shown that even in the prefrontal cortex, the brain continues to process visual information with a preference for the contralateral hemisphere, ie opposite the visual field where the object appears. This suggests that the hemispheres operate with some independence, even in high -level cognitive functions.
Brain waves show two types of evidence of this hemispheric specialization. The first is neurophysiological: Gamma (rapid electrical activities of the brain) are more powerful in front hemispheres when they process visual information on the opposite side of the visual field.
The second evidence is behavioral: since 1971, research has shown that both humans and animals memorize more when information is divided among hemispheres, a phenomenon known as “bilateral advantage.”
Although the brain takes advantage of the visual division among hemispheres, this strategy has limits. This is because people better track an object on each side of the visual field than when we try to keep up with multiple objects distributed on both sides.
It is important to highlight that this hemispheric division, according to Miller and Play’s studies, applies only to spatial information (location). Other characteristics, such as color and shape, are processed by the two hemispheres.
Implications of research on cerebral hemispheres
Despite the hemispheric division in visual processing, we are not confused when objects cross our field of view. For Miller, “We experience a perfect world,” because the brain integrates the information so efficiently that continuity is preserved.
This uninterrupted and coherent visual perception of the world remains because the brain performs a kind of information transfer from one hemisphere to another, similar to the signal passage between cellular towers. Research conducted in 2014 and 2021 documented the phenomenon.
“As a tracked target approaches the visual middle line, the hemisphere about to receive the target shows an increase in activity well before the crossing time, as if anticipating the target,” the authors say.
Surprisingly, the hemisphere that was processing the information keeps your activity high even after “passing the bat”creating a double processing window that can last about a second. This redundancy ensures that no information is lost in the transition.
Failures identified by researchers in this passage of neural rod appear in neurological and psychiatric disorder such as Alzheimer’s, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, OCD and autism.
The authors expect to serve as a starting point for more effective treatments, capable of correcting failures in neural networks that connect different regions of the brain.
