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Week 39/2009: Mind over myth

“Brain research in recent decades has produced a lot of information about cerebral functions. As a by-product, myths have been created, as those refining the information have cut some corners,” says Kimmo Alho, professor of psychology.

The characteristics of the right and left cerebral hemisphere is a prime example of this. The left hemisphere is more important for language processing, but the conclusions based on this are often outrageous. “It is a myth that the left cerebral hemisphere would be rational, and the right hemisphere creative. In fact, a person uses both hemispheres at the same time.”

The train of thought goes even more off the track when the size of the corpos callosum, combining the hemispheres, is argued to explain the different behaviour of men and women, or gender differences in the brain. “A study result, according to which women's corpos callosum would be thicker, has not been reliably repeated.”

“There surely are functional differences between the brain of men and women, but they cannot be used for explaining the behaviour of individuals.”

Alho, appointed to lead the Cicero Learningnetwork for researchers of learning and competence, also wants to correct a common misconception related to learning. “It is often argued that in the developmental stages of the brain, there would be critical periods during which certain things must be learned. This is false.”

Instead of critical periods, Alho would rather refer to sensitive periods. “A small child learns languages faster than an adult, but learning can occur at any given age. This can be seen from the rehabilitation of brain damage patients, for example.”

www.cicero.fi
www.psyko.helsinki.fi/psyko/Psykolog.nsf/Personnel/AlhoKimmo

Text: Juha Merimaa
Photo: Veikko Somerpuro

www.helsinki.fi/digitalcommunications
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