Hemisphere Orientation Research Articles

Psychosocial and Neurological Predictors of Creative Imagination of Artists: The Mediating Role of Social Adaptation

The present study aimed to assess the role of hemispheric orientation, emotional sensitivity, cognitive imagination and their correlation with the well-being of fine artist students, as well as to evaluate the mediating role of social adaptation. A correlational research design was used, and a sample of 200 artists or people from art communities (100 males and 100 females aged 18 to 30) was selected using purposive sampling. The data collection was done through an open hemispheric brain dominance scale, the Creativity scale created by Kaufman (2012) (K-DOCS), an Emotional sensitivity self-assessment scale, the Mental Health Continuum-short form, and scales for Social adaptation. Data analysis was done through Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Independent Sample t-test, Multiple Regression Analysis, ANOVA and Mediation Analysis test. The results indicated that hemispheric orientation had a statistically significant association with creative imagination, emotional sensitivity, psychological well-being and social adaptation. Moreover, social adaptation significantly mediated the association between hemispheric orientation and creative imagination. The study adds to our understanding of the role of hemispheric orientation, social adaptation and emotional sensitivity in predicting the well-being and creative imagination of artists.

Palaeoenvironments and elemental geochemistry across the marine Permo‐Triassic boundary section, Guryul Ravine (Kashmir, India) and a comparison with other North Indian passive margin sections

AbstractThe Guryul Permian–Triassic sediments were deposited on a passive margin in a partially enclosed basin, at a latitude of about 45°S along the southern margin of the Neotethys Ocean. The closest modern analogy is the Japan Sea rotated into a southern hemisphere orientation. Guryul element variations are subdued, mostly lithological, and take place across the change from the dominantly sandy shallow‐water Permian Zewan Formation into the dominantly shaly deeper‐water latest Permian–Triassic Khunamuh Formation, and not at the palaeontological Permian–Triassic boundary. The overall geochemistry of the Guryul sediments is very similar to that of the Ulleung Basin in the Japan Sea, where the sediments are 40%–60% eolian from loess and redeposited loess in the North China Basin. The overall Guryul geochemistry indicates that the sediments were derived from dominantly silica‐rich continental rather than silica‐poor sources although with some more silica‐poor inputs at times. Element ratios suggest increasing aridity and wind abrasion across the Permian–Triassic boundary. Various geochemical redox proxies suggest mainly oxic depositional conditions, with episodes of anoxia, but with little systematic variation across the extinction boundary. Productivity proxies suggest a slight decrease across the Permian–Triassic boundary, and at least one more decreased interval in the Early Triassic. The similar geochemistry of other localities indicate that the Guryul geochemical changes are regional in extent and representative of the North Indian Permian–Triassic passive margin. The lack of consistent element geochemical changes across the boundary accompanied by significant C, S, and other isotopic changes suggests that atmospheric and oceanic chemistry rather than physical changes, such as provenance, climate and sea‐level changes, drove the Permian–Triassic environmental changes and extinctions at least on the mid‐latitude Tethyan shelf of northern India.

Right/Left Hemispheric Orientation in Japan, China, and the United States

This study explores the right-brain/left-brain orientation of students in the People's Republic of China, Japan and United States. The results show that Japanese students are more right-brain oriented than American students. Of major significance is the finding that the Chinese students are more left-brain oriented than the American students. All three culture show some mixed results in hemispheric orientation.

The Interfering Effects of Music with Imagery

The effect of music on imagery was examined by having 164 subjects rate the vividness of suggested images presented with matching music, mismatched music, or no music. Mismatched music led to less vivid images, but there was no overall difference between the matching-music and no-music groups. In comparing subjects on the basis of cognitive style (hemisphere orientation), however, it was found that subjects with a right hemisphere orientation reported less vivid images with matching music than with no music. The same effect occurred with a free image developed with and without music. The results can be interpreted within a hemisphere-sharing interference model, and clearly illustrate individual differences in responses to music and imagery.

Music Appreciation and Hemisphere Orientation: Visual versus Verbal Involvement

Music appreciation teachers are continuously seeking methods for increasing student involvement with music. In this study, three different music-involvement techniques were compared: visual representation, verbal description, and a control condition. In the visual condition, subjects drew an illustration of the musical activity of a short music selection. In the verbal condition, subjects wrote a paragraph describing the music. In the control condition, subjects listened to the music and mentally followed its movement. All subjects then answered a questionnaire measuring several aspects of responsiveness, such as enjoyment, attention, and understanding. Results were also analyzed on the basis of the subjects' right-hemisphere or left-hemisphere orientation. Overall, there were no differences among the three conditions. There were significant interactions, however, between activity and hemisphere orientation. Right-oriented subjects had the highest appreciation scores in the visual condition, while left-oriented subjects had the highest scores in the verbal condition. The visual condition interfered with mental imagery in left-oriented subjects. Right-hemisphere subjects drew more accurate visual representations than did lefts.

Late auditory magnetic sources may differ in the left hemisphere of schizophrenic patients. A preliminary report.

We recorded magnetoencephalographic auditory evoked fields from the left and right hemispheres of six medicated, paranoid schizophrenic subjects and six normal controls. The magnetic field data were used in estimating the location, orientation, and depth of the source generating the 100-millisecond latency evoked field component (M100). The M100 latencies were slightly shorter than simultaneously recorded vertex electroencephalographic evoked potential N100 latencies, suggesting that magnetoencephalographic and electroencephalographic recordings were examining slightly different aspects of the source(s). The M100 sources demonstrated substantial interhemispheric asymmetry in normal controls, and were located more posteriorly, with more nearly vertical orientations, over the left hemisphere. The M100 sources in schizophrenics did not exhibit the same interhemispheric asymmetry. Left hemisphere source orientation differed significantly between normal controls and schizophrenics. Discriminant function analysis correctly classified normal controls and schizophrenics at 100% using the conservative jackknife procedure on the basis of left hemisphere orientation alone. Our findings, while preliminary, support altered left hemisphere function, or possibly structure, in this group of schizophrenic subjects, and suggest that magnetoencephalographic recordings may be a useful research method in this major mental illness.

Hypnotic susceptibility: A lateral predisposition and altered cerebral asymmetry under hypnosis

Psychophysiological and behavioural evidence is reported of altered cerebral asymmetry under hypnosis in favour of the right hemisphere. This occurred in Susceptible as distinct from Unsusceptible subjects. Measures included bilateral electrodermal responses to tones and bimanual processing times for sorting letters and numbers with eyes closed. Subjects listened to a tape recording of a procedure for inducing relaxation under hypnosis. Susceptible subjects, unlike Unsusceptibles, showed lateral asymmetries in baseline conditions in favour of the left hemisphere. Electrodermal responses were larger on the left than the right hand and haptic processing times were faster with the right than the left hand. Under hypnosis there was a reduction in electrodermal orienting responses coupled with faster habituation and a reversal in lateral asymmetries. Haptic processing revealed a slowing in right hand processing times whereas left hand times were reduced as was the case with bilateral processing times in both Unsusceptible subjects and controls who experienced no hypnosis. Unlike earlier reports left hemisphere dynamic processes were fundamental to the induction of hypnosis. A neuropsychological model is proposed whereby susceptibility is associated both with a left bias prior to hypnosis and left hemisphere inhibition under hypnosis. Unsusceptibles retain a right hemisphere orientation without undergoing left hemisphere inhibition. Thus hypnosis involves an inhibition of left-sided processes which permits the ascendancy of the right hemisphere through the attenuation of left hemisphere control.

Psychological sexual identity and hemispheric orientation.

The study examines gender and psychological sexual identity as alternative bases for the development of hemispheric orientation. Hypotheses anticipated that females place greater reliance upon right hemisphere functions, such as imagery and emotion, whereas males place more emphasis upon left hemisphere functions, such as logical reasoning. This was extended to an examination of the roles of masculinity and femininity within genders upon hemispheric orientation. With a sample of 219 male and 221 female adults, it was found that the male-left hemisphere orientation/female-right hemisphere orientation dichotomy was supported in part. However, this relationship appears to be moderated by a second dimension: females appear more internally oriented, males more externally oriented.