The Right Brain and the Unconscious

SUMMARY The pigeon's use of different visuo-spatial cues was studied under controlled laboratory conditions that simulated analogous aspects of a homing situation. The birds first learned the route to a goal that was not visible from the starting location, but became visible as it was approached. Birds could orientate within a mainly geometric global reference frame, using prominent landmarks within their range, or by `piloting' along local cues. After learning the route, the birds were tested from familiar and unfamiliar release points, and several aspects of the available cues were varied systematically. The study explored the contribution of the left and right brain hemispheres by performing tests with the right or left eye occluded. The results show that pigeons can establish accurate bearings towards a non-visible goal by using a global reference frame only. Furthermore, there was a peak of searching activity at the location predicted by the global reference frame. Search at this location and directedness of the bearings were equally high with both right and left eye, suggesting that both brain hemispheres have the same competence level for these components of the task. A lateralization effect occurred when prominent landmarks were removed or translated. While the right brain hemisphere completely ignored such changes,the left brain hemisphere was distracted by removal of landmarks. After translation of landmarks, the left but not the right brain hemisphere allocated part of the searching activity to the site predicted by the new landmark position. The results show that a mainly geometric global visual reference frame is sufficient to determine exact bearings from familiar and unfamiliar release points. Overall, the results suggest a model of brain lateralization with a well-developed global spatial reference system in either hemisphere and an extra capacity for the processing of object features in the left brain.

Download Full-text

Experience of The Rehabilitation for Sign Language Aphasia due to The Damage of The Right Brain in A Left-handed Deaf Japanese Signer

Higher Brain Function Research ◽

10.2496/hbfr.40.393 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 393-398

Author(s):

Miwa Honda ◽

Yoshihiro Kushihashi ◽

Hirokazu Kawano ◽

Masako Hayashida ◽

Megumi Shimodozono

Keyword(s):

Sign Language ◽

Left Handed ◽

Right Brain ◽

The Right

Download Full-text

Dysregulation of the Right Brain: A Fundamental Mechanism of Traumatic Attachment and the Psychopathogenesis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1046/j.1440-1614.2002.00996.x ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 9-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 242

Author(s):

Allan N Schore

Keyword(s):

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽

Posttraumatic Stress ◽

Stress Disorder ◽

Developmental Trajectory ◽

Stress Disorders ◽

Developmental Stress ◽

Posttraumatic Stress Disorders ◽

Autonomic Nervous ◽

Right Brain ◽

The Right

Objective: This review integrates recent advances in attachment theory, affective neuroscience, developmental stress research, and infant psychiatry in order to delineate the developmental precursors of posttraumatic stress disorder. Method: Existing attachment, stress physiology, trauma, and neuroscience literatures were collected using Index Medicus/Medline and Psychological Abstracts. This converging interdisciplinary data was used as a theoretical base for modelling the effects of early relational trauma on the developing central and autonomic nervous system activities that drive attachment functions. Results: Current trends that integrate neuropsychiatry, infant psychiatry, and clinical psychiatry are generating more powerful models of the early genesis of a predisposition to psychiatric disorders, including PTSD. Data are presented which suggest that traumatic attachments, expressed in episodes of hyperarousal and dissociation, are imprinted into the developing limbic and autonomic nervous systems of the early maturing right brain. These enduring structural changes lead to the inefficient stress coping mechanisms that lie at the core of infant, child, and adult posttraumatic stress disorders. Conclusions: Disorganised-disoriented insecure attachment, a pattern common in infants abused in the first 2 years of life, is psychologically manifest as an inability to generate a coherent strategy for coping with relational stress. Early abuse negatively impacts the developmental trajectory of the right brain, dominant for attachment, affect regulation, and stress modulation, thereby setting a template for the coping deficits of both mind and body that characterise PTSD symptomatology. These data suggest that early intervention programs can significantly alter the intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress disorders.

Download Full-text