What Does the Right Side of Your Brain Do?

Popular opinion says the right side of your brain is responsible for your emotions and creativity. This is due to the right hemisphere's unique way of interpreting the information being fed to the brain.

Creativity

The right side of your brain makes unique connections. It assesses the world without logic, making it the creative side of the brain.

Spatial Skills

The right brain is also responsible for your spatial awareness--for instance, understanding how your body moves through space.

Identifying

The right side of your brain identifies objects by their appearance rather than their function. It might make a connection between a pumpkin and a hat due to their similar appearance, even though they have nothing to do with each other.

Speech

When analyzing speech, the right side of the brain focuses on prosody--that is, the intonation of speech and how the words are expressed.

Fun Fact

The left hemisphere of Albert Einstein's brain suffered delayed development, allowing the right hemisphere to become highly specialized. This accounts for his spatial skills--an important component in his scientific computations--which made him a creative and scientific genius.

References

• New Scientist; 'Right Brain' or 'Left Brain' - Myth or Reality:; John McCrone; 2000
• Spatial Abilities; Michael E. McCarty; 2009
• BBC News: Health; How the brain processes emotions; January 13, 2003