ACTIVITY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
(COGNITIVE BRAIN RESEARCH)
Research into the human brain has been revolutionised by three “events” in chronological order: firstly by increasingly intensive studies on people who have suffered brain injuries (1), secondly by studies on brain operations carried out in recent decades, in particular in connection with the so-called “split brain” procedure which separates the two hemispheres of the human brain from one another by cutting through the corpus callosum (2), then following this, by the discovery that the cerebral hemispheres can be anaesthetised separately (3).
1) In connection with patients who have suffered brain injury, even in ancient times it was observed that injuries to different parts of the brain involve losses of differing intellectual capabilities. The most recent studies, however, have also managed to map out which areas of our brains are responsible for which mental function (for instance, speech sound recognition, spatial perception, mood, etc.). In the meantime it has also become clear, that the human brain is not symmetrical, in contrast to those of animals, including apes. A significant number of researchers believe that in the history of humanity, it was the development of asymmetry in the brain, and of right-handedness, together with the associated ability to speak, which was the change that signified the beginning of becoming human.248
2) Studies on patients who have undergone corpus callostomy249have clarified that for the overwhelming majority of people, the speech centre is in the left hemisphere, whilst our right hemisphere is “mute”250, although it does influence hearing comprehension, and can even take it over.
3) Whilst with some animals, chiefly aquatic mammals (for instance, dolphins), which live a 24 hour life, the hemispheres sleep alternately, in men, both hemispheres sleep at the same time. Artificially, however, it can be achieved that just one hemisphere is put to sleep at one time, and so it is easy to research what the one or other of our hemispheres “can do”.
The results obtained with the methods outlined here are summarised very roughly in the following table:251
248Hámori 2005. p. 29-38, as well as p. 85-89.
249The corpus callosum ensures exchange of information between the two hemispheres of our brain. (Gy. K.)
250Ibid. p. 41.
251The table has been produced based on the works of Kopp-Berhammer 2003 p. 88, Hámori 123
LEFT HEMISPHERE RIGHT HEMISPHERE
comprehends speech, uses language “mute”, grasps imagery and space performs intellectual tasks recognises and defines emotions
not a good “musician” good “musician”
realistic impulsive
intellectual instinctive
no sense of humour has sense of humour
thinks in abstract concepts thinks concretely (objectively)
logical pictorial, metaphorical
rational “irrational”
deductive intuitive, creative
concentrates on parts sees the whole (holistic, analogous)
analytic synthetic
convergent divergent
sequential processing synchronous processing
algebraic geometric
plentiful connections with nearby areas many connections with distant areas (i.e. vertical organisation) (horizontal organisation)
focused attention tasks persistent attention tasks
- comparison of forms
sense of time timeless
2005 p. 127.
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“The emotional reactions of the right hemisphere are (therefore) generally more powerful than those of the left hemisphere. The later prefers drier, more pragmatic, logical approach methods – the right hemisphere is more subjective, more altruistic, but more honest at the same time. It is interesting that the sense of humour is only in the right hemisphere.
The right hemisphere prefers to deal with new hypotheses never heard before – the left hemisphere, on the other hand, is more interested in problems and hypotheses which have been encountered before, or at least, similar ones. This also explains why the right hemisphere is generally more creative than the left” – writes József Hámori in his outline summary, then somewhat later he adds,252that whilst the left hemisphere creates abstract concepts253, thinks logically, the right is incapable of this, although it does have a way of thinking, if not in abstract concepts, but rather pictorially. Whilst the left hemisphere is able to identify both nouns and verbs, the right hemisphere can only grasp pictorial phenomena, i.e. just nouns. Whilst abstract-logical thinking which concentrates on tiny details is characteristic of our left hemisphere, the right side is typified by holisticism, concentration on large entireties and creativity.
When examining split-brain patients, it also turned out that the two types of consciousness can also imply two kinds of will, and the corpus callosum between the two hemispheres plays a great role in determining which is dominant at a given moment in life, or which is dominant in a given culture: “That is, the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres has a decisive role in the creation of human culture” – states Hámori in his work “The asymmetries of the human brain”.254
Our findings on the mentality of the Uralic languages, for which the starting point was almost exclusively the observation of the cultures of these peoples, as well as the comparisons of these phenomena with the Indo-European languages, appear to be verified almost word for word and also unwittingly by the results of cognitive brain research in our age.255Of the Uralic mentality, we have determined that it prefers imagery, unfolding and correlating these images with one another and with the whole in time and space, timeless, divergent in its coordination, whilst the Indo-Germanic mentality contrasted with it is abstracting, aspiring to abstract concepts, logical, concentrating on parts, convergent, finite in time. We can therefore see that the left hemisphere of the brain is more dominant in Indo-European thinking, whereas in the mentality of Uralic language speakers it is the operation of the right hemisphere.
Very similar results were obtained by Ornstein, who compared Asian cultures of the Far East, likewise with the Indo-Europeans. According to him, the dominance of the left hemisphere is overly powerful in western culture, which results in it easily
252Hámori 2005. p. 61 and 123.
253The expression named “symbols” by Hámori is equivalent to the “abstract concept” in our work.
254Ibid. p. 119, as well as Péter 1984. p. 159. (See footnote 77)
255We can only regret that science in Hungary has concealed and kept secret from others the life’s work of its own greatest philosopher, Karácsony, and his pupils, who have being saying all this of the Hungarian culture for more or less 70 years. (See the historical introduction to our work.)
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losing itself in the details, and then it only rarely comes (back) to an understanding of the whole. In contrast to this, in Asian cultures, for instance Japanese, a greater role is played by intuition, aiming at the whole, meditative and mystic thinking (in contrast to rationality and technological thinking).256
Based on this brief, sketchy comparison of the cultures of Uralic and Indo-European language speakers, we consider it highly probable that in reality there may exist differences between the various human cultures in the world which may also be demonstrated by the dominance of our cerebral hemispheres. Presumably we can consider that how dominant which hemisphere of the brain is in individual cultures is a function of the given culture. We can definitely be certain, however, that the differing operation of the two hemispheres has fundamental significance in our becoming human, and in that the cultures of humanity can be diverse.
* * *
In the last and 9th chapter of his work entitled “The asymmetries of the human EUDLQ´TXRWHGDERYH-]VHI+iPRULDVNVWKHTXHVWLRQ³7KHWZRKHPLVSKHUHV 3?” In the knowledge of Uralic culture, we can answer that the sum of two (identical) qualities which supplement one another: half + half = one whole. We think that with this we have also given an answer as to if a question about the hemispheres can even be asked, whether from the point of view of our human nature or the cultures of humanity the greater or lesser domination of one or other of the hemispheres is better, more important, or perhaps even of a higher order.
* * *
Coming to the end of our work, seeing the despondency of western Indo-European philosophy of the modern and postmodern age, the question is bound to arise: will the same thing happen in the history of European philosophy as already happened once in music at the beginning of the 20thcentury, when the discovery of Central and Eastern European musical languages and musical thinking, in the works of Béla Bartók and other Central-Eastern European composers, saved the European music which at that time had lost its way?
256Ornstein 1977 and 1997
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X.
EPILOGUE
We are fully aware of the fact that, mainly for Finnish, Estonian, and especially for urban Hungarian readers, the above argumentation may seem remote. The Finnish and Estonian peoples have been touched by very powerful Baltic and Germanic influences in the course of their history, and so it is natural, as I have mentioned in my paper, that even if these did not completely change the development of their linguistic thinking, approach to life and philosophy, they certainly had an effect on them. The residents of Hungarian cities have also been in a similar situation, having been subject to powerful germanisation, even deliberately imposed over the centuries. In order for these latter to gain understanding of the reality of our work, therefore, greater patience, appreciation and even love for our culture and its historical past is required.
We could also add to all this, that in the age of the omnipotence of today’s Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialism, the whole issue, just as it is, can appear obsolete. After all, we live in a time when capital requires (featureless) people, and their performance, and not the assets of the members of a human community with a definite image. In this cultural environment we could easily think that the significance of the research by Strømnes and his colleagues is dispensable in this age, in this time of huge mass migrations. But we can take the risk that it may be the case, that a role may be played in the Finnish-Hungarian suicide statistics, in the “vanguard” in Europe, and in the drastic shrinkage of the Hungarian nation today, by such reasons as may be traced to the mentality, life-customs and mindset of the Finno-Ugric peoples. To the fact that it may be a problem for us to live in accordance with the Indo-German abstract, subjective and subordinating legal system, mentality, lifestyle and ethos of today’s Europe which is forced upon these peoples.257If this could be clarified by further research results, then far-reaching conclusions should be drawn, not only by the politicians wishing to extend western (European) law, culture and science to the whole world, but also by Hungarian politics and sophocracy who feel responsibility for the Hungarian people.
From the point of view of brain research, on the other hand, perhaps it is just a matter of whether the symmetry of the cerebral hemispheres can be restored in the biological history of mankind. Hardly.
Vaasa-*|G|OO-2007
257Of many, many literary expressions of this, just two Finnish examples: Arto Paasilinna’s novel: Jäniksen vuosi (= The year of the Hare) (1975), Tapio Piirainen’s film: Siivoton juttu (=
Unclarified affair) (1997).
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