As research shows, the brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and right. The brain is hemispherically lateralized, meaning that each hemisphere has their own set of specialized functions, making them differ greatly regardless of their similar makeup. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, spoken and written language, mathematical calculations, logical thought, and the analysis of detail. The right hemisphere instead controls the left side of the body, visual-spatial perception, music and artistic processing, emotional thought, and processes the whole (Carlson, 2014). In terms of processing visual information, the brain is organized contra laterally, meaning that visual information is received in the opposite hemisphere
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A study conducted by the Cincinnati MR Imaging of Neurodevelopment (CMIND) Authorship Consortium on 23 healthy, right-handed children, ranging from ages 7-9, calculated the relationship between reading comprehension (right hemisphere) and language comprehension (left hemisphere). With the use of Diffusion Tensor Imaging and fMRI, the researchers were able to measure brain activity during a Sentence Picture Matching task. The researchers found that around 10-15% of elementary school children showed poor comprehension skills despite their normal levels of reading fluency, and also found that those with damage to the right hemisphere have more difficulty understanding nonliteral and indirect language (Horowitz-Kraus, T et al., 2015). These results show that while the left hemisphere of the brain is dominant for language based tasks, the right hemisphere of the brain shows specialization in reading comprehension, which develops from adolescence into early adulthood (Horowitz-Kraus, T et al., …show more content…
They then chose the “Hemispheric Specialization” activity. All participants were then instructed to read the “Introduction” of the lab, which explained a detailed background that may help them understand why this study is important. They were asked to give their gender, unless they prefer otherwise, age, within the range of 11 years and 75 years old, and lastly, their handedness. Within the lab, information was presented to both the right and left visual field of the participant to test the language abilities of the two hemispheres of the brain, considering that visual fields become lateralized. Participants would look at a red dot in the middle of a black screen and were informed that after the dot flashed 3 times, a string of letters would appear on either the left or right side of the dot. The string of letters either made up a real word, or what was referred to as a “nonsense” word, and they flashed on the screen for a split second. The participants were then told to place their index fingers on the “R” and “U” keys on the keyboard, with their thumb on the space bar. They were directed to press the “R” key if the word presented was real, and the “U” key if the word presented was “nonsense”, followed by the space bar. The space bar was used to change the screen to the next flashing dot, which would then present a new letter
A study conducted by the Cincinnati MR Imaging of Neurodevelopment (CMIND) Authorship Consortium on 23 healthy, right-handed children, ranging from ages 7-9, calculated the relationship between reading comprehension (right hemisphere) and language comprehension (left hemisphere). With the use of Diffusion Tensor Imaging and fMRI, the researchers were able to measure brain activity during a Sentence Picture Matching task. The researchers found that around 10-15% of elementary school children showed poor comprehension skills despite their normal levels of reading fluency, and also found that those with damage to the right hemisphere have more difficulty understanding nonliteral and indirect language (Horowitz-Kraus, T et al., 2015). These results show that while the left hemisphere of the brain is dominant for language based tasks, the right hemisphere of the brain shows specialization in reading comprehension, which develops from adolescence into early adulthood (Horowitz-Kraus, T et al., …show more content…
They then chose the “Hemispheric Specialization” activity. All participants were then instructed to read the “Introduction” of the lab, which explained a detailed background that may help them understand why this study is important. They were asked to give their gender, unless they prefer otherwise, age, within the range of 11 years and 75 years old, and lastly, their handedness. Within the lab, information was presented to both the right and left visual field of the participant to test the language abilities of the two hemispheres of the brain, considering that visual fields become lateralized. Participants would look at a red dot in the middle of a black screen and were informed that after the dot flashed 3 times, a string of letters would appear on either the left or right side of the dot. The string of letters either made up a real word, or what was referred to as a “nonsense” word, and they flashed on the screen for a split second. The participants were then told to place their index fingers on the “R” and “U” keys on the keyboard, with their thumb on the space bar. They were directed to press the “R” key if the word presented was real, and the “U” key if the word presented was “nonsense”, followed by the space bar. The space bar was used to change the screen to the next flashing dot, which would then present a new letter