Discuss the differential roles of the left and the right hemispheres Essay

Discuss the differential roles of the left and the right hemispheres and individual differences in functional lateralisation - Essay Example Therefore men are more lateralized and women are considered to utilize both the hemispheres to a larger extent while performing various tasks. It is claimed that certain skills like spatial and mathematical capability improves with lateralization while women enjoy advantage for verbal test because they use both the hemispheres equally (Lee 2005 p.138). Despite gender differences, lateralisation also involves individual differences due to the difference in the composition of the brain cells. Hemispheric specialization is a classic dichotomy that suggests that the right hemisphere concerns visuo-spatial abilities and the left hemisphere is associated with linguistic abilities. However, this does not mean that the distribution of hemispheric functions does not make the right hemisphere irrelevant to language or the left hemisphere ignorant of processing non-linguistic data. Novelty-routinisation continuum is an approach that explains hemispheric specialization of functions that argues the basic reasons for the lateralisation of cerebral responsibilities. The theory proposes that the left hemisphere is crucial for the processing of routinised cognitive decisions and pre-existing representations and the right hemisphere is crucial for the processing of new cognitive situations that has no pre-existing strategies or codes. The traditional assumption thus becomes an extraordinary case of this basic principle (Malloy & Duffy 2001 p.83) The novelty routinisation approach gives emphasis to individual differences with the theory that the cognitive novelty of one may be a familiar concept to another that can be explained through a dynamic approach instead of a static theory that details hemispheric specialization or laterlisation. Hemispheric specialization tends to vary with individuals at varying stages of skill development. The dominance of left hemisphere is not uniformly strong for all factors of