The right hemisphere, by contrast, is actively watching for discrepancies, more like a devil’s advocate.140 Both approaches are needed, but are mutually contradictory. These differences operate across all realms and apply equally to the verbal as to the visuospatial. For example, the left hemisphere operates focally, suppressing verbal meanings that are not currently relevant, whereas the right Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical hemisphere recruits

wider semantic associations,141-145 and the right posterior superior temporal sulcus may be selectively involved in verbal creativity146 In the “close” situation, by contrast, the left hemisphere actively suppresses the right, to exclude associations which are semantically only distantly related.147,148 Integration versus division In general the left hemisphere is more closely interconnected within itself, and within regions of itself, than the right hemisphere.14,17 By contrast, the right hemisphere Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical has a greater degree of myelination, facilitating swift transfer of FDA-approved Drug Library information between the cortex and centers below the cortex,17 and greater connectivity in general.149 Functionally, its superior integration is evidenced by EEG measures150 and by

the more diffuse but overlapping somatosensory Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical projections and auditory inputs in the right hemisphere.151 At the experiential level it is also better able to integrate perceptual processes, particularly bringing together different kinds of information from different senses.109,154,155 By contrast, the left hemisphere may be ‘inadequate for

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the more rapid complex syntheses achieved by the [right] hemisphere.’156 As mentioned, new stimuli lead to release of noradrenalin in the right hemisphere. Its neurons are relatively resistant to fatigue, so that exploratory attention is held Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical open across a greater expanse of both space and time.21 The range of the right hemisphere is further increased by the fact that it has a longer working memory, and so is able both to access more information and hold it together at any one time for longer.157 It is capable of bearing more information in mind and doing so over longer periods, with greater specificity (which also means less susceptibility to degradation over time by memory).128,157-159 This broader field of attention, open to whatever may be, and coupled with greater integration over time and space, Resminostat is what makes possible the recognition of broad or complex patterns, the perception of the “thing as a whole,” seeing the wood for the trees.160-163 In short, the left hemisphere takes a local short-term view, where the right hemisphere sees the bigger picture. The whole versus the part The link between the right hemisphere and holistic or Gestalt perception is one of the most reliable and durable of the generalizations about hemisphere differences, which follows from the differences in the nature of attention.