He's basing his knowledge on Jill Bolte's TED talk. NOOOOOooooo. That TED Talk was full of misinformation when it came out, and obviously still is.
The left brain is NOT a "serial processor", and the right brain is not a "parallel processor". Those are bullshit analogies.
What the main difference is, is the left-brain is usually specialized for fast, categorical processing using a smaller field of information, wheras the right-brain is usually specialized for broader, global processing.
The whole brain uses parallel processing. Also, kids who have huge sections of their left brain removed (due to epilepsy) are still able to develop language abilities in their right brain. Language processing can be done on both sides of the brain.
You can test for hemispherical differences in people by either the left or right part of their visual field. The left hemisphere processes the right visual field, the right hemisphere processes the left visual field. The right side of the brain actually processes language faster\better in some instances, like getting jokes. This is because you need to activate a wider field of connections to pick up that such a grouping of letters (the word) can have multiple semantic meanings.
The difference isn't serial vs. parallel. That's bullshit. The whole brain is parallel everywhere. The difference is in the field of focus. How much data do you look at to draw a conclusion. Left-brain: smaller field of information, "local" processing, can categorize faster. Right-brain: broader dataset, "global" processing, categorize slower.
As a cognitive science student I wanted to clear that up.
Also, intelligence is extremely varied people are not either "left brain" or "right brain", there are lots of different processing heuristics that might be occurring that different emphasize over others.
You are right all brain processing is parallel, but the author doesn't base anything on serial vs parallel processing and in fact never even mentions these. He obviously uses the left/right brain thing as a metaphor for the emotional vs logical mental processes, not as neuroscientific down-to-the-hardware fact.
I watched the Jill Bolte TED talk and was pretty interested in the story of her stroke but I couldn't get past all of the "we're all made of energy" rhetoric. I was interested in her experience but not the conclusions she drew from them.
I was also somewhat surprised the TED crowd stood up at the end. My theory is that they will do that for anyone who tells an emotional tale instead of a cerebral one.
The left brain is NOT a "serial processor", and the right brain is not a "parallel processor". Those are bullshit analogies.
What the main difference is, is the left-brain is usually specialized for fast, categorical processing using a smaller field of information, wheras the right-brain is usually specialized for broader, global processing.
The whole brain uses parallel processing. Also, kids who have huge sections of their left brain removed (due to epilepsy) are still able to develop language abilities in their right brain. Language processing can be done on both sides of the brain.
You can test for hemispherical differences in people by either the left or right part of their visual field. The left hemisphere processes the right visual field, the right hemisphere processes the left visual field. The right side of the brain actually processes language faster\better in some instances, like getting jokes. This is because you need to activate a wider field of connections to pick up that such a grouping of letters (the word) can have multiple semantic meanings.
The difference isn't serial vs. parallel. That's bullshit. The whole brain is parallel everywhere. The difference is in the field of focus. How much data do you look at to draw a conclusion. Left-brain: smaller field of information, "local" processing, can categorize faster. Right-brain: broader dataset, "global" processing, categorize slower.
As a cognitive science student I wanted to clear that up. Also, intelligence is extremely varied people are not either "left brain" or "right brain", there are lots of different processing heuristics that might be occurring that different emphasize over others.