SLICE
le Brain
Midd
Left Brain Right Brain
By Farhan Shah
You’ve probably heard of
the left and right brain
characteristics but have you
heard of the middle brain?
We break down these three
parts of the brain in your
children and explain what
they actually do in the grand
scheme of thoughts.
• Controls the muscles on the
left side of the body
• Analyses the space in front, to
the side and behind you, which
helps with parking!
• Helps you to recognise faces
• Responsible for processing
music
• Also does mathematical
calculations, but only for
rough estimations and
comparisons
• Comprehends visual imagery and
makes sense of what you see
• Plays a role in analysing the
deeper meaning, tone and
nuances behind words and
even body!
• Controls the muscles on the
right side of the body
• Processes what you hear and
handles speaking duties
• Responsible for grammar,
vocabulary and literal meanings
• The part responsible for making
logical connections
• Does heavy-duty mathematical
computations
• Trying to recall a memory? The
left is your man!
• Perceives order and pattern
In scientific circles, the middle brain is a part of the organ that plays a part in vision, hearing,
motor control, alertness and temperature regulation. Its name – mesencephalon, which literally
translates from Greek to middle brain. According to the folks at Mental Literacy Training Pte Ltd,
an academy that focuses on activating the middle brain, children are able to fully realise their
potential by simultaneously activating both sides of the brain.
How does this work?
Well, Li Xiaoru, one-half of the team at MLT, gently explains that the left side of our brain
is the one most commonly tapped on in school. Activating and training the middle brain helps
the child to fully utilise both brain hemispheres by strengthening the “bridge”, or the middle
brain, that connects the two. Thus, the child will be able to better retain knowledge, gain selfconfidence, become more expressive, demonstrate a wider sense of creativity, and more!
THE MYTH OF DOMINANT BRAIN PERSONALITIES
At some point in the past, we’ve been told by magazine articles,
researchers and well-meaning friends about the role of your right and left
brains in your personality – “I’m just a more creative, right-brained person”
versus “I’m analytical. That means I’m more left-brained, right?”
According to new, comprehensive research from the neuroscientists at
University of Utah though, the theory of your brain being more dominant on one
side is, well, hare-brained. In the two-year study, the brain specialists scanned
the brains of more than 1,000 people between the ages of seven and 29 while
they were doing different tasks, be it reading or solving math problems. While
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Family & Life • Jun 2014
they discovered that certain functions did utilise more of one side of the brain
than the other, they found no evidence indicating that the participants had a
stronger left- or right-sided brain network.
“It’s absolutely true that some brain functions occur in one or the other side
of the brain – language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right,”
says neuroradiology professor Jeff Anderson. “[However], the…community
has never accepted the idea of ‘left-dominant’ or ‘right-dominant’ personality
types. The truth is that it would be highly inefficient for one half of the brain to
be consistently more active than the other.”