Published by Australian Academy of Science
Getting our heads around the brain Box 2 | Functions of the left and right sides of the brain

Much of what is known about the functional differences between the left and right sides of the brain has been derived from studies on patients whose corpus callosum has been severed as a treatment for severe epilepsy.

These studies have shown that the left side of the brain controls most analytic functions, speech and language; the right side controls artistic attributes and the ability to recognise patterns (such as how rooms and corridors, houses and streets, and hills and valleys are related in space). The two halves of the brain communicate with each other – nerve messages are sent between the across a thick band of nerve fibres called the corpus callosum.

Other studies have determined that two areas of the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex govern speech and language. One area is responsible for vocabulary and grammar, while the other governs the physical mechanism of speech.

Related sites

• Consciousness and will in the brain (ABC radio's Ockham's Razor, 10 January 1999)

• Is it true that creativity resides in the right hemisphere of the brain? (Scientific American, Ask the experts)

• Brain plasticity (ABC radio's The Health Report, 26 January 1998)

Other boxes

Box 1. The human nervous system

Box 3. Brain imaging

Box 4. Neurotransmitters and drugs