Two Brains in One: The Hemispheres

As a result of a series of remarkable surgical experiments in the mid-1960s, neuroscientists discovered an astonishing fact about the brain’s hemispheres: they operate as two separate, independent computers, with two uniquely different ways of processing data. Surgeons Joseph E. Bogen and Philip J.Vogel, working at CalTech, began performing a controversial, last-resort surgical technique on patients suffering from severe epilepsy. They theorized that, by severing most of the corpus callosum, the thick band of nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres, they could prevent epileptic seizures from spreading across the entire brain, or at least limit their severity. Most surgeons had previously believed that such an extreme insult to the brain’s structure would totally incapacitate the patient, or at the least seriously impair his or her general mental functions. But experiments by neuroscientists Roger Sperry and Ronald Myers with cats
and monkeys had indicated no observable impairment. As a result, Bogen and Vogel applied the procedure in a number of cases, with positive results for the epilepsy and no noticeable impairment in mental function. In addition to providing a last-resort treatment for intractable epilepsy, which was eventually rendered unnecessary by more effective drug treatments, the surgical transection of the corpus collosi produced a small population of very unusual human beings. They all had divided brains. Sperry, Myers, and their colleague Michael Gazzaniga performed a wide range of cognitive experiments with these special splitbrain people, over a number of years. Here’s what they discovered. In normal humans (not including the split-brain population), each hemisphere knows what the other hemisphere knows, as a result of the constant swapping of information across the corpus callosum. But each hemisphere “knows” in a different way. The left hemisphere, or “left brain” as pop-psychology fans like to call it, responds much more readily to certain aspects of the data stream than to others. Conversely, the “right brain” responds to its own preferred aspects of the data.Working together they get the job of thinking done, but each makes a different kind of contribution. The left hemisphere—let’s call it “LH”—is more attentive to elements of data—words, phrases, sentences, numbers, repetitive parts of patterns, procedures, sequences, time intervals, and logical “if-then” progressions of ideas. It specializes in noticing, reacting to, and thinking with the “bits and pieces” of information that flow through it. Logic, mathematics, and structure are the home territory of LH thinking. The right hemisphere—the “RH”—is more attentive and more skillful in processing patterns in the data.These include recognizing spatial forms and structures, colors, sound patterns such as musical melodies, and the patterns of intonation of speech.Your RH creates your subjective body image—your sense of your own physical structure, bodily boundaries, and the location and movement of your limbs in space, also known as proprioception. The RH also seems to be much more attentive to the social and emotional meanings of what it’s perceiving. And, of course, we typically associate the term intuition with the RH style of processing. To simplify and sloganize the differences for convenience: the LH specializes in “parts” and the RH specializes in “patterns.” In most normal people, the two hemispheres cooperate so closely that these profound differences are typically concealed. This probably explains why scientists only discovered the phenomenon of hemispheric lateralization in the 1960s when the split-brain surgeries lifted the veil on the brain’s exquisite integration and cerebral synergy. Consider the very ordinary experience of singing a song. Most likely, your RH would conjure up the melody and supply the cues for pitch, intonation, and phrasing, while your LH would retrieve the lyrics (the words). All of this information would flow to your vocal apparatus through the LH speech center, the parietal lobe’s motor center, and probably the cerebellum as well. It’s no wonder that most of us have to practice diligently to learn to sing competently. There’s a lot going on in your head when you sing. Since the discovery of brain lateralization, many scientists and many science popularizers have taken an interest in the implications of the discovery for personal growth and individual effectiveness. Unfortunately, myth and imagination have displaced science in some areas, and various popular myths have sprouted out of wishful thinking. For example,physiological studies indicate certain variations in brain structure and lateralization between males and females and different patterns of learning and competence during childhood. However, the interpretation of this domain of research is so burdened with socio-political controversy that it’s impossible to do it justice within the scope of this book. Consequently, I’ve cravenly elected to limit this discussion and to refer interested readers to the abundant research literature to be found on the Internet.

What Is Our Real Potential?

One aspect of the human biocomputer that seems to fascinate us all is theexistence of a small number of people with abnormally competent brains, many of whom are simultaneously beset by underdeveloped brain functions. Throughout medical history, scientists have studied these unusual people, often with great curiosity but with little practical result. Often referred to as idiot savants (from the French for “wise idiot”), or sometimes just as savants, they demonstrate a combination of remarkable information processing capabilities with impaired primary faculties. One such person, Kim Peek, is a savant with a “photographic” or eidetic memory, combined with severe developmental disabilities. Born with an enlarged head, an encephalocele (a protrusion of brain tissue through a fissure in the skull), an impaired cerebellum, and no corpus callosum, he nevertheless displayed remarkable skills in memory and information processing before the age of five. Although he reportedly tests well below average on standardized IQ tests and has difficulty interpreting abstract concepts such as proverbs and metaphors, he far surpasses most “normal” humans on data-processing tasks. Affectionately known by his friends as “Kimputer,” he has reportedly read over seven thousand books—typically finishing a book in about an hour—and can quote extensively from them. He rattles off baseball scores, geographic information, highway maps, Zip codes, calendars, particulars of popular movies, books, historical events, current news events, and the details of classical music. Peek was the inspiration for the movie Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman. He holds down a clerical job that enables him to use his mental calculating abilities, and he also travels and speaks about disabilities as he demonstrates his own unusual abilities. As far as I have been able to determine, neuroscientists and psychologists have learned little or nothing from studying these remarkable savants that might be used to help the rest of us “normal” people to use our biocomputers more effectively. The ironic paradox of a person possessed of phenomenal mental skills that we’d all like to have, combined with severe impairments that none of us want, offers a poignant counterpoint to our concept of ordinary “intelligence.” But we can continue to hope, and to strive to understand. In Chapter 10 we’ll explore a number of practical applications of this knowledge of our biocomputer’s operation, particularly hemispheric lateralization, including the concept of thinking styles, which shape the way we perceive, react, listen, learn, decide, and communicate.

BRAINCYCLES, BRAINWAVES, BRAINSTATES, AND THE DAILY TRANCE

We know so much about the human biocomputer, and yet we know so little.And we make use of very little of what we do know.Although we don’t need to know as much as neuroscientists, maybe we should know at least as much about our brains as we know about our cars and our computers. And this simple knowledge can translate directly into greater personal effectiveness,career success, and greater contributions to our organizations. Let’s start with a better understanding of the patterns of mental process. In the following discussion, when we refer to the brain, let’s keep in mind that we’re usually referring to the entire biocomputer, of which the brain is the central processor.

Braincycles

Scientists have long known about “braincycles,” but few people in the general public seem to understand them or make good use of that knowledge, except perhaps intuitively or inadvertently. Braincycles are variations in the brain’s focus of attention, ranging through a period that averages roughly ninety minutes. In one part of the cycle, your brain pays close attention to the outside world, that is, the incoming “data” from the senses. During this phase, you’re consciously involved in interacting with our environment, such as when reading or listening attentively to what someone is saying. During the other phase of the braincycle, your brain withdraws its attention from the sensory data stream and turns inward, processing its own stored images, sensations, reveries, thoughts, and musings. In everyday language, we say that your mind is “wandering.” This brainstate is usually easily observed in another person by watching his or her eye movement, facial expression, and diminished motor activity. One can immediately think of practical applications for just this one simple but important aspect of brain function. For example, you may observe that your boss seems to be distant and detached from the conversation, indicating that his or her brain is temporarily “off line” (to use an Internet analogy).You might decide to wait until another time to bring up a complex or critically important issue that requires his or her full concentration—your raise, for example—a time when the brain is back “on line.” As another example, consider that there are certain times when you seem to be in the mood for work that requires close attention and concentration, and at other times you find it more difficult to focus on details.To the extent that you can choose, you can tackle certain tasks when your brain cycle is in the right phase for the job. We can directly apply findings like these to human performance management. How many data-entry errors, short-changed customers, industrial accidents, car crashes, surgical blunders, and maybe even plane crashes might be associated with braincycles? Can we provide job aids and skill training to reduce these effects?1 This attention cycle—the shifting of attention between on-line and off-line phases, is just one of many cyclic patterns exhibited by the biocomputer. When we consider the number and variety of other cycles, we can see that the system is like a collection of oscillators, or perhaps like a collection of musical instruments, each playing its own melody. Scientists refer to daily cyclic patterns as circadian rhythms—from the Latin root, which means “about a day.” Perhaps the most obvious circadian pattern is the cycle of sleep and wakefulness. Researchers also identify ultradian cycles, or patterns that repeat several times within a day, and infradian cycles, which span across multiple days. Among the ultradian patterns we have the obvious but taken-forgranted cycles of heartbeat and respiration. Somewhere in the biocomputer, or perhaps at various points, we have oscillators that keep our vital processes going. Our body temperature tends to rise and fall throughout the twenty-four-hour period.The chemical composition of our blood and various other bodily fluids tends to cycle throughout the day. Appetite and digestion follow their own cycles. Sexual arousal and release follows its own cycle. The attention cycle, described above, is also a primary ultradian pattern. A particularly curious ultradian pattern is the so-called nasal cycle, which seems to vary over a period of about ninety minutes. At various times over the cycle, one nostril or the other will be more dilated, with a freer flow of air—provided your nasal passages aren’t congested— and the other will be less open. Sometimes during the cycle they’ll both be about the same.To test this, press one nostril closed with your fingertip and notice the volume of air as you inhale through the other nostril.Then switch to the other side and compare the flow rates. Some researchers have speculated that this nasal cycle is linked to a cycle of cerebral activity in which either the left cerebral hemisphere or the right one is more active, although there seems to be some controversy about this connection. One of the most noticeable infradian patterns is the female menstrual cycle of about 25 days. Over a much longer span, the gestation period for human females is about 280 days. In between, there seem to be human cycles of adaptation based on changes in seasons, the weather, and the amount of daylight. We have many other cycles built into our biocomputers. Consider various rhythmic physical activities such as walking, which are controlled by the cerebellum. Keeping time to music, singing, dancing, and marching all involve built-in oscillators. Even commonplace motor activities such as knocking on a door, brushing your teeth, and washing your hands involve rhythmic patterns.The compelling rhythm of sexual intercourse responds to oscillators programmed deeply into the biocomputer. Consider also the cadence of ordinary speech. The native users of any particular language all tend to follow a distinctive rhythm, or alternating pattern of emphasis. Read the following passage from a poem by A.E. Housman and sense the rhythmic pattern of the language, marked off by the rhyming syllables: And how am I to face the odds of man’s bedevilment, and God’s? I, a stranger and afraid in a world I never made.

Brainwaves

Nowhere do we see the rhythmic, cyclic pattern of the biocomputer’s activity so compellingly illustrated as in the electric signals coming from the brain. In about 1920, German physiologist Hans Berger demonstrated that electrodes attached to the scalp could detect the minute voltage differences between different areas of the brain and could monitor the voltage oscillations caused by the simultaneous firing of millions of neurons. He referred to his device as the electro- encephalograph. Researchers and physicians now use these “brainwaves” to study the brain’s operation and to diagnose and treat a wide range of neurological disorders. Neuroscientists have divided up the range of brainwave frequencies into a series of bands, much like musical notes on a scale. By adjusting their equipment to select only certain ranges of frequencies, they can see the relative proportion of energy that goes into each range. If one band of frequencies is getting much more energy than the others, researchers say that this particular band—or brainwave—is predominant at the moment, and they are able to associate the individual’s reported mental
state with the brainwave that’s most prominent. Although there is no precise agreement on the exact frequency ranges. the most commonly identified brainwave frequency bands (in cycles per second, or Hertz, abbreviated “Hz.”) are:
• Beta Waves. The range of frequencies from about 12 to 16 Hz. upward is usually associated with active, conscious thinking, concentration, problem solving, and forming ideas in preparation for talking.The beta zone is the “alert” state of mental activity, possibly the “standard” state we use most often. If you become anxious, highly vigilant, or expectant, your beta activity will usually increase.
• Alpha Waves. The range of frequencies from about 8 Hz. to about 12 to 16 Hz. is usually associated with a relaxed, alert state of consciousness.When you close your eyes, your alpha activity usually increases.The mental process in the alpha state is usually less purposeful, somewhat detached, possibly somewhat of a reverie, but not necessarily “tuned out.” Alpha activity diminishes with the onset of sleep, opening the eyes, and physical movement, or the intention to move.
• Theta Waves. The range of frequencies from about 4 Hz. to about 8 Hz. is usually associated with drowsiness, reverie, and various states such as trances, hypnosis, deep daydreams, lucid dreaming and light sleep, and the preconscious state just upon waking and just before falling asleep.Theta activity tends to be higher in young children, diminishing into young adulthood.
Curiously, the theta pattern can sometimes be increased significantly by hyperventilation.
• Delta Waves. The range of frequencies from 0.5 Hz. up to about 4 Hz. is usually associated with deep sleep, deep trance states achieved by experienced meditators, and sometimes by drugs,
medication, or neurological dysfunctions.Very young children tend to exhibit higher proportions of delta activity than older children or adults. In addition to these four primary zones of brainwave activity, scientists study other patterns for evidence of abnormal brain activity.
Brainwave energies also shift due to the effects of drugs, dementia, general anesthesia, and brain lesions.2 As we’ll see in a later discussion, variations in these brainwaves— particularly their frequency of oscillation—are associated with particular kinds of mental activity, ranging from conscious purposeful thinking to emotional arousal, to meditation, to reverie, to drowsiness, and to sleep. And the more important reason for knowing about these brainwaves and brainstates, or mindzones, is to realize that we can choose the state we want to be in at a particular moment.We can use this knowledge of brainstates to reduce stress, improve our concentration, increase our creative ideation, and solve problems more effectively. For example, here’s a simple method for going into the alpha state, which can help you relax, de-stress, and become more centered in
yourself: Sit still, stop moving, close your eyes, suspend all intention, and begin listening. Imagine that you’re listening for a particular sound—say the tinkle of a tiny bell—and that, paradoxically, you know it will not happen. Imagine what the bell would sound like if it did tinkle, but at the same time imagine that it has not, does not, and will not. In a sense, you’re meditating on the idea of the bell. As you perform this simple mental procedure, your biocomputer will shift toward the alpha state, the alpha frequencies of your cerebral cortex will increase, and your state of consciousness will change. A few minutes spent in this state every day can help you
become more calm, more centered, and less reactive to any stress or conflict going on around you.

Brainstates

We all recognize, at least occasionally, that our “state of mind”—the momentary configuration of mood, ideation, attention, intention, and expectation—can take various forms. Our mental activity can range all the way from deep sleep through light sleep; drowsiness; reverie; detached attention; concentrated attention; reactive attention; proactive attention; engagement; excitement; agitation and stress; fear and apprehension; and even hysteria. Each of these brainstates—more accurately thought of as a state of the whole biocomputer—has its own unique arrangement of programs in the biocomputer. Researcher Charles T.Tart, one of the pioneers in the study of consciousness, identifies a wide variety of brainstates, each with subtle differences. His book States of Consciousness became a foundation work for the study of consciousness, and what some practitioners refer to as “altered states of consciousness.” For example, Tart contrasts the state associated with going into sleep, which he labels the hypnogogic state, from the state associated with emerging from sleep, which he calls the hypnopompic state. “Micro-dreams,” those momentary images—like video clips or excerpts of dreams—that arise during the state of “half-sleep,” can be very vivid but often make no apparent sense as one returns from them.3 I often find that new ideas, fragments of ideas, strange verbal expressions, and half-formed concepts come to me during dreams or while going into or out of sleep.This is one reason why I keep a stack of index cards and a pen on the night table next to my bed. Brainstates such as apprehension, fear, strong intention, anger, intense concentration, amazement, amusement, disappointment, suspicion, guilt, shame, elation, and many others have scientific interest to researchers.To us ordinary civilians, they’re significant because they’re all part of our mental software. Harvard professor, psychologist, and researcher Herbert Benson, an authority on the subject of meditation and its biocognitive effects, traveled to remote Tibetan monasteries in the Himalayan mountains to study the monks who lived there. The monks, who practiced a method known as g Tum-mo meditation, could raise the temperature of their fingers and toes by as much as 17 Fahrenheit degrees above their average body temperature. Similar measurements on advanced meditators in Sikkim, India, found that the monks there could reduce their metabolism by as much as 64 percent.To understand the significance of that finding, consider that metabolism, or oxygen consumption, typically drops by about 10 to 15 percent during sleep, and slightly more than that during simpler states of meditation. These practitioners could reduce their metabolic functioning to levels below what researchers had previously considered necessary for survival. Benson and his researchers caught the attention of the popular culture by making a video of nearly nude monks in states of deep meditation, drying cold, wet sheets with body heat, in temperature-controlled rooms at 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to an account in the Harvard Gazette:
“In a monastery in northern India, thinly clad Tibetan monks sat quietly in a room where the temperature was a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a yoga technique known as g Tum-mo, they entered a state of deep meditation. Other monks soaked 3-by-6- foot sheets in cold water (49 degrees) and placed them over the meditators’ shoulders. For untrained people, such frigid wrappings would produce uncontrolled shivering.
“If body temperatures continue to drop under these conditions, death can result. But it was not long before steam began rising from the sheets. As a result of body heat produced by the monks during meditation, the sheets dried in about an hour.
“Attendants removed the sheets, then covered the meditators with a second chilled, wet wrapping. Each monkwas required to dry three sheets over a period of several hours.”4 Benson and his colleagues also videotaped monks sleeping through a winter night without shelter, at an altitude of 15,000 feet in the Himalayas.The event took place in February on the night of the winter full moon, with temperatures dropping to 0 degrees Fahrenheit. The video documentary showed no indication of symptoms of hyperthermia, or even normal shivering. Accounts of super normal human capabilities associated with special states of consciousness are so well documented and verified that we can reasonably take them as proven. The question we now seek to ask is: Can these advanced methods ever be accessible to “normal” human beings who don’t spend their lives studying and meditating? Is it possible that all of us have the possibility of increasing our mental functions to much higher levels than we’ve previously dreamed of? Maybe we won’t be able to find a magic pill that does it, but there is the hope that, by learning more about the human biocomputer and its software, we may be able to transform ourselves and our lives in ways heretofore unimagined.

The Daily Trance

Have you ever found yourself standing in some room in your house and you couldn’t remember why you went there? It’s as if you’ve come back to consciousness after having passed through some mental nevernever-land.You struggle to re-orient yourself.You’ve lost continuity—the normal sense of the connectedness and progression of experiences from one to another. Although substance abusers and people with cognitive impairment experience this state of mind fairly often, mentally healthy people also do. It’s a normal feature of the way your biocomputer operates. The simplest description of your experience is that you went into a trance. Unfortunately, the word “trance” tends to conjure up ideas and images of strange and supernatural experiences. Folk myths about hypnosis, often perpetuated by the popular media and the antics of stage hypnotists, tend to color the meaning of the term. The simple fact is that we all slip into and out of trance states many times in a typical day. So, if trances are merely one particular kind of normal mind-state, we can learn to understand and demystify them. We all have a general sense of what a trance, or a trance-like state, is. Yet psychologists and neuroscientists cannot seem to agree on a working definition.There seem to be a variety of trance states, ranging from the specialized state of hypnosis to the kinds of religious and ritualistic trances experienced by various native cultures, to various meditative experiences that are different from “normal”waking consciousness. Aside from the normal “daily trance,” as we might label it, trance states can be caused by a number of experiences. Hypnosis, of course, is the deliberate induction of a trance state by means of hyper-focused concentration. Meditation and prayer can also induce trance-like states. People in some cultures chant, sing, and dance to put themselves into trance states. But accidental, momentary trances are also quite common. A magic trick, or almost any similar astonishing experience, will cause most minds to go into a fixated state, at least for a matter of seconds. Sudden fear, extreme anxiety, and other pathological states can also cause trance. A more mundane example of the daily trance is the experience of watching television. After about five minutes, a person watching TV typically slips into a light trance state. One key characteristic of virtually all trance states, including the normal daily trance, is a condition psychologists refer to as dissociation. In our normal waking mental processes, our mind—or minds—are continually weaving our perceptions and our thoughts into coherent patterns.These associative patterns are what we store away in our memories, and they’re what we recall when we access any element of an experience. In a condition of dissociation, however, the associating process temporarily stops. The brain no longer waves the elements of perception together. The effect of dissociation could explain to some extent the repressed memory syndrome, in which victims of trauma cannot access certain parts of the experience that caused the trauma.The conventional psychological explanation is “ego defense,” the notion that one of our minds is protecting us from the unbearable experience of recalling the unpleasant material. But another explanation, based on dissociation, is that the information became dis-integrated, or unpatterned, and the memory elements have lost their associative connections. Typically, a trained therapist can help a person retrieve these lost memories by a process of guided recall, in which they are brought to consciousness and then properly reassociated, after which they can indeed be remembered. The daily trances we slip into and out of many times in a typical day seem to be a normal and necessary part of the biocomputer’s operation. Neuroscientists aren’t sure why they happen, or exactly what their function is. It’s conceivable, although by no means proven, that we could learn to manage our mental energies and emerge from the typical microtrance by a conscious procedure. Presuming that the biocomputer What Is Practical Intelligence? typically gets as much trance time as it needs over the course of a day or so, can we recapture our attention and redirect it toward the mental activities we prefer and the things we want to accomplish? Here’s a method you can use to bring your mind back to a conscious state and focus your attention more clearly. It involves three steps or attentional “scans”:
• The Body Scan.When you become aware that your mind has been wandering—which implies that it has stopped wandering for a moment—bring your attention to your body. Close your eyes if you like, and tune in to as many signals as you can detect that are coming from your body. Feel the sensation of your clothes on your skin. Does anything itch or tickle? Can you feel any activity in your stomach or digestive tract? What’s your overall energy level? Can you feel the pressure of the chair, couch, bed, floor, or whatever you’re sitting or lying on? Rub your fingertips against your thumbs and feel the sensation. Move your head around and feel the sensation of movement. Get messages from as many parts of your body as you can.
• The “Bubble” Scan. Next, extend your attention to your immediate physical environment—the imaginary bubble that extends about three to five feet outward from your body.What’s there? Is anyone close enough to you to make physical contact? What are the movements, colors,textures, and patterns you can sense? What do you hear? What are you doing with your hands? What are you holding, if anything? What are the various things around you: a pen and some index cards; your computer keyboard, mouse, or display; papers and other items on your desk; if you’re in a car, the arrangement of the compartment you’re sitting in; if you’re on a plane, the people, seats, and other items around you.Tune in as intently as possible as you scan your close-in environment.
• The “Field” Scan. Next, extend your attention outward to the larger environment around you.Who and what do you see? What are people doing? What sounds do you hear, and where are they coming from? If you’re outdoors, how far can you see and what do you see? Can you feel and smell a breeze? What does the sky look like? Can you feel the sun? What colors and patterns do you become aware of? If you’re indoors, study the arrangement of the room or the space you’re in. How is it designed? How do people move around in it? What materials, textures, and patterns do you see? Tune in to the “meaning” of what’s going on in the extended space around you. With this simple three-step scan, all you’ve done, basically, is to activate your sensory system.You’ve coaxed your biocomputer out of its dissociated, trance-like reverie state and given it a job to do. If you make a habit of this three-scan method, using it occasionally during a day, you may find that you feel more focused, more present, more mentally clear, and more connected to what you’re doing. You can use it in any number of situations.While you’re waiting for someone; sitting in your car waiting for a traffic light to change; while shopping or taking care of routine errands; you can do a quick “triplescan” and bring your mind back to consciousness. Of course, it’s probably not advisable to try to avoid the daily micro-trances altogether, even if we could. Most likely, your biocomputer will find the trance time it requires, and you can make use of the rest as you see fit.