Ways of Attending: How Our Divided Brain Constructs the World

The right side develops early and is the realm of imagery, holistic thinking, nonverbal language, autobiographical memory, and a host of other processes. Our left brain develops later in life and is responsible for logic, spoken and written language, linearity, lists, and literal thinking. If the linkage between the sides is blocked, one side may d

Your ability to screen and select your experience, create order from chaos, and delight in fascination are attention’s great benefits, but they exact a price. That little piece of reality that you tune in on is literally and figuratively far sketchier and more subjective than you assume. This underappreciated discovery has particularly important im

outer and higher cortex—we could call this “vertical integration.” The brain is also divided into two halves, left and right, so neural integration must also involve linking the functions of the two sides of the brain. This could be called “horizontal” or “bilateral integration.”