Have you ever heard that all people are divided into two categories - “artists” and “thinkers”. What does it mean? And the fact is that some people have the best developed right hemisphere of the brain, which provides imaginative thinking, while others have the best developed left hemisphere, which is responsible for logical thinking. Of course, this theory has been subjected to scientific criticism many times, but at the same time in the consciousness modern man The concept is firmly established that the creative and logical beginning of a person directly depends on the predominance of the activity of the right or left hemispheres. Some psychologists and neurophysiologists believe that which hemisphere works better is directly reflected in a person’s abilities and character. Some scientists argue that developed right-hemisphere thinking is of much greater value. Why? You will find the answer in our material.

About the work of two hemispheres

Researcher of the processes of intelligence and creativity Paul Torrence was among the first to pay attention to the peculiarities of the functioning of the hemispheres of the human brain. The scientist conducted an experiment during which 4 types of thinking were established:

• left hemisphere thinking - that which is based on logic and analysis
• right hemisphere thinking - where the thought process is driven by emotions and images
• mixed thinking - where both the right and left hemispheres are equally active, each of which is activated at the right moment
• integrated thinking - when right-hemisphere and left-hemisphere thinking work simultaneously.

Torrance emphasized that among the identified types of thinking there are no good or bad ones: each has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, scientists have recently increasingly attached importance to the development of right-hemisphere thinking.

How do you know which hemisphere is dominant?

You can find out which hemisphere is dominant with the help of special tests. And the easiest way to find out is to listen to yourself. If you rely on intuition when making decisions, trust your feelings and sensations, if you are not particularly keen on managing human resources, if music can evoke emotions in you, and films can evoke strong emotions, then the activity of the right hemisphere predominates in you. If you like to be a leader and organizer, it is not difficult for you to pronounce, you tend to analyze any problem, breaking it down into its components - you have a left-hemisphere type of thinking.

Characteristics of right-hemisphere thinking

A person whose right-hemisphere thinking predominates often uses an intuitive approach to solving life problems and professional tasks. Such a person uses logic in situations of extreme necessity. For a right-brain person, high ideals and moral guidelines are valuable; he is inclined to philosophize. The “artist” does not like it when someone controls him: he prefers to act on his own initiative. For a right-brain person, relationships with others are important. Such a person is capable of generating unique ideas, creating something new and beautiful.

It must be said that the classical education system is designed to develop predominantly left-hemisphere thinking, almost completely ignoring the development of right-hemisphere skills. This is expressed in the fact that children and students are taught only to memorize and reproduce information within the framework of the curriculum, at most to think logically, and pay very little attention to the development of imaginative thinking, fantasy, intuition, and creativity. Unfortunately, right-brain, creative thinking is not cultivated in traditional educational institutions and, as a result, students become ordinary “standard” adults. This approach significantly limits the process of personality development and makes it one-sided.

Why develop right-brain thinking?

Many scientists have emphasized the special value of right-hemisphere thinking. One of the founders of scientific pedagogy, the German researcher Johann Friedrich Herbart noted that a bad teacher presents the truth, while a good teacher teaches to find it. Neuropedagogist Natalia Traugott said that “the educational system needs to be warned against left-hemisphere education, as this produces people who will not be able to carry out real actions in real situations.” Professor T. P. Khrizman lamented that “right-hemisphere people—generators of ideas—are disappearing. The question is serious: we need to save the nation.”

“An experiment in the field of pedagogy and psychology conducted by American, Swiss and Austrian scientists showed that schoolchildren began to excel significantly in all disciplines when the regular school curriculum was reduced by increasing the hours of music lessons.”

Recently, the issue of intensive development of right-hemisphere thinking has become topical. For example, the ability to think imaginatively and comprehensively, and quickly generate ideas are the most important skills of a modern top manager, who often works in conditions of chaos and stress. The largest companies - banks, retailers, manufacturers - do not neglect the development of intuitive-sensory thinking of their employees, including management. Therefore, right-brain thinking should be developed in order to succeed and improve the quality of life.

Exercises to activate the right hemisphere

"Recommendation. Intuition, internal imaginative vision, an integrated approach - all these manifestations of right-hemisphere thinking can be developed. You can do this either independently (with the help of well-known techniques, Michael Mikalko, Julia Cameron, Merilee Zdenek and others), or you can do intensive creativity training in a group at a special training.”

Start training the right hemisphere with simple exercises that are performed in pairs.

1. Exercise "Images". Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Concentrate on your breathing: breathe deeply, becoming more calm with each breath and focusing on your own sensations. Inhale and exhale easily and freely. Feel that you are warm, cozy, comfortable and that you are breathing in clean, fresh and cool air. This way you calm down and get ready for a new type of activity. Now your partner will slowly read out the words that you need to feel, feel as realistically as possible. Focus on the content of the words. Say the words to yourself and imagine what you hear in your imagination.

At the beginning visual images: banana, river, forest, flower, bee, red, game, affectionate, tinker, weave.

Body imagery: stroking fur, melting snowflake, warm steam, walking on a soft carpet, hot water, sharp needle, fish scales, soft fluff.

And in the end - olfactory and tactile images: the aroma of a fresh rose, the smell of hay, the smell of pine, the taste of a freshly cut orange, a slice of chocolate, a canapé with large red caviar.

1. Exercise "Proverbs". Your exercise partner makes a wish for some well-known proverb or saying and tries to explain silently, non-verbally (only with the help of facial expressions and gestures) what he wished for. You're guessing. Then you switch roles.

Good luck in developing right-brain thinking! Your opinion: how is right-hemisphere, intuitive-imaginative thinking related to leadership?

Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck has been studying thinking for more than 20 years. Dweck discovered that there are two types of mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Her latest research has shown that quality of life depends more on attitude than on talent or intelligence. It is an exploration of the power of our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, and how changing even the simplest of them can significantly impact almost every aspect of our lives.

13.03.2019 14:00

Fear of change

How to stop being afraid of everything new?

Fear is a basic human emotion that arises as the body’s response to danger. This has always been the case, since the times when man hunted to survive, and predators hunted him. Why do we continue to experience fear even when our lives are not in danger? For example, before changing place of residence or work, divorce, moving to another country, and so on. I will talk about the mechanisms that trigger this emotion and give techniques that will help you cope with it.

According to the traditional findings of neurophysiology, in adults (in the vast majority of cases - right-handed people) it is considered dominant - the main one. It controls the movements of the main - right - hand and speech (as will be seen from the further presentation, some important functions associated with speech are performed by the other hemispheres; in this sense, the term “dominant” is somewhat arbitrary). The functions of the right hemisphere, which controls the left hand in right-handed people, up to recent years remained unclear, although a surprising guess about them for that time, now confirmed, was expressed by the English neurologist H. Jackson 100 years ago. Jackson believed that the right hemisphere is primarily occupied with visual perception of the external world - in contrast to the left hemisphere, which primarily controls speech and related processes. As for auditory speech, the right hemisphere, according to Jackson, can only produce verbal formulas that do not seem to be divided into parts, but as a whole serve as an automatically pronounced designation for the whole situation: “Hello!”, “Please!”, “Excuse me!” . Testing and clarification of this hypothesis became possible only recently thanks to the material accumulated during neurosurgical operations on the brain, in particular during dissection of the two hemispheres of the brain.

1 - corpus callosum,
2 - intermediate mass,
3 - anterior commissure,
4 - optic chiasm (chiasma),
5 - posterior commissure

The left (“dominant” - in traditional terminology) hemisphere is connected to the right by several connecting pathways (Figure 4). The main one is the corpus callosum, consisting of fibers that connect the cortex of the two hemispheres. In addition to the corpus callosum, there are other connecting tracts - commissures (anterior commissure, posterior commissure, optic chiasm). The study of these connecting connections and their location can be of significant interest from the point of view of general cybernetic theory.

Connections between automata (neurons) on the surface;
– – – internal connections

The geometric structure of the brain, as suggested about 20 years ago by academician. A N Kolmogorov is approaching such an ideal type, which can be theoretically calculated for any complex of automata. Such automata, exchanging information with each other, should be located on the surface of the ball, while the middle of the ball should be occupied by connecting connections between them. The location of neurons and their complexes in The cerebral cortex corresponds to some approximation to this ideal model (Figure 5).

MD - men's house;
1 - highest marriage class within the clan;
2 - average marriage class within the clan;
3 - lowest marriage class within the clan

These thoughts of Corbusier are also close to those ideas of mathematicians about the ideal geometry of a collective of automata, which are consistent with the structure of the human brain. Understanding by bionics that area related to cybernetics (if not included in cybernetics) modern knowledge, which seeks in living systems a model for technical solutions, one could say that, in the spirit of bionics, the human brain turns out to be a model for the supercities of the future.

Using these architectural comparisons, we can say that the closest analogy to the human brain (like a slice of its model on a plane) is represented by the villages of primitive tribes: in them (like the Bororo Indians in Brazil) the circle formed by huts on the periphery is divided in half between two halves of the tribe, while in the center there is a meeting place for members of both halves (Fig. 7). In the human brain, the role of such a meeting place is played by connecting pathways between the two hemispheres, such as the corpus callosum.

If we return to the analogy with a two-machine complex and use the terminology of the theory of computer systems, then we can say that the brain normally represents an inseparable system of two functionally heterogeneous “machines” - the hemispheres. The separation of these hemispheres, which is extremely important for identifying the functions of each of them, turned out to be possible during operations when the connecting tracts between the hemispheres were cut to treat epilepsy (Fig. 8).

At the same time, an astonishing fact was discovered: the two hemispheres began to behave as two systems independent of each other, or as “two brains” according to the formulation of Gazanigi, one of the largest researchers who carried out these operations.

This was revealed most clearly in one patient, who began to shake his wife with his left hand, and right hand(who literally did not know what the left hand was doing and why) helped his wife pacify her own left hand.

Most patients who have undergone surgery to dissect the corpus callosum and other connecting tracts (commissures) behave like normal people. Moreover, it has been discovered that some people are born with separated hemispheres, which does not interfere with their lives. The study of such patients allowed the German neurologist H. Lipmann, even before the First World War, to identify some characteristic features of each hemisphere. At that time, due attention was not paid to these works. Only much later was it again established that the separation of the hemispheres makes it possible to carry out experiments that clarify the functions of each of the two hemispheres.

The experiments are based on the fact that normally the right half is projected to the left hemisphere of the brain, and the left half is projected to the right hemisphere. If the patient has a cut in the optic chiasm, where the visual fibers leading from the eyes to the brain meet, then the right hemisphere will be connected only to the left eye and receive information only from it, while the left hemisphere will receive information only from the right eye (Fig. 9) . When the image of a spoon flashes on the screen for the left eye (for the right hemisphere), the patient must find the spoon among other objects behind the screen, which he can do with his left hand, controlled by the right hemisphere. He solves this problem easily. But he cannot call a spoon a “spoon,” because naming objects is a function of the left hemisphere.

1 - corpus callosum;
2 - anterior commissure,
3 - commissure

Recently, a large series of experiments of the same type was carried out on people with non-split hemispheres, which generally gave similar results and led to the conclusion that the normal language capabilities of the right hemisphere are even weaker. Clinical data on the functions of each of the two hemispheres are also obtained from observations of patients with traumatic lesions of one of the hemispheres. This has long made it possible to determine the connection of the dominant hemisphere with speech with the further division of the functions of different sections of the cortex of the dominant hemisphere: some sections are responsible for the analysis of speech sounds, others for their synthesis. The connection of the left hemisphere with speech analysis, and the right hemisphere with solving spatial problems in normal people(right-handed) is also confirmed through electroencephalographic data (with several electrodes installed on the surface of each hemisphere) and recording eye movements. The same results have been confirmed by short-term switching off of one of the hemispheres (using electroconvulsive shock), in particular in the treatment of mental illnesses.

In a normal adult (with unsplit hemispheres), the right hemisphere (or “right brain”) can be considered almost completely mute: it can only produce inarticulate sounds like roars and squeals. The right hemisphere, to a very small extent, can understand speech addressed only to it - mainly only individual nouns and phrases and the simplest sentences (not divided into elements, like “Thank you”). But at the same time, it is the right hemisphere that stores such information that allows one to interpret the meaning of words: it understands that a glass is a “vessel for liquid”, and “matches” are “used to light a fire.”
If we use the distinction in words—signs of natural language—accepted in semiotics (about signs, sign systems and texts) of their “signifying side” (sound) and “signified side” (meaning), then we can say that the right hemisphere is predominantly occupied by the signified side signs (Fig. 10).

When the left hemisphere of the brain suffers in a deaf-mute person, the right hemisphere retains figurative sign language (each of which conveys a special meaning as a separate word), and the ability to use the finger alphabet (in which each sign corresponds to a letter in the written language) and spoken language, which the deaf-mute is taught, is lost. From this it is clear that in the right hemisphere the meaning of words (“the signified side” of signs or their meaning) is stored in a form that does not depend on their sound envelope. This conclusion is confirmed by the results of damage to the left hemisphere in the Japanese. Literate Japanese use both hieroglyphs - conceptual verbal writing, in which each meaning is conveyed by a special hieroglyph, and syllabic alphabet, which records the sound of words, but not their meaning. When the left hemisphere is damaged, the Japanese suffer from syllabic writing (hiragana and katakana), but not hieroglyphics (Fig. 10, 11).

The fact that the right hemisphere is concerned with the meanings of words, and not their sounds in natural language, is in good agreement with data on its other functions. Patients with disorders of the normal functioning of the right hemisphere cannot arrange pictures in such a way as to get a coherent story (that is, do exactly what what is necessary to use hieroglyphs!).

Damage to the right hemisphere makes it impossible (as if “for future use”) to draw meaningless drawings and unfamiliar faces and to recognize familiar faces, even members of one’s own family.

This visual imagery disorder is mainly associated with damage to the right hemisphere lobe. When an active field associated with an epileptic seizure occurs in the same area of ​​this hemisphere, the patient sees visual hallucinations. They can also be caused by stimulating the patient’s brain in the same area of ​​the right hemisphere with electrodes.

The corresponding areas of the left hemisphere are specialized specifically for processing speech sounds. This hemisphere is also involved in distinguishing other, non-speech sounds, but in a rather complex way: when perceiving sounds that differ in pitch, in right-handed people the perception of a high tone is associated with the right ear, i.e., with the left (dominant - speech) hemisphere, and the perception of a low tone tones - with the right (non-speech) hemisphere. The fact that this in a certain way depends on the dominance of the hemisphere is evident from experiments, judging by which, in left-handed people the situation is the opposite; studies of these musical illusions appear to reveal more complex classification functions of the left hemisphere that differ from simple frequency analysis. It is assumed that the perception of high tones is correlated with the hemisphere that processes natural language audio signals.

It is possible that specialized devices in the left hemisphere of the brain are used simultaneously for both the frequency analysis of speech sounds and the analysis of a certain type of non-speech sounds (high tones). As for complex non-speech sounds, their perception in right-handers is predominantly carried out by the right (non-speech) hemisphere, which also controls intonation (the pitch-melodic side) oral speech. It is also mainly responsible for higher creative musical abilities, because amusia (loss of these abilities) is observed when the right (non-speech) hemisphere is damaged.

The structure of the language “processor” is revealed in lesions of different parts of the cortex of the left (dominant) hemisphere. These lesions lead either to “motor aphasia” - a disruption of speech synthesis processes associated with Broca’s area (Fig. 13), with further divisions into departments that cause different subtypes of motor aphasia, or to “sensory aphasia” - a disruption of speech analysis processes associated with Wernicke's zone (Fig. 13).

If the processes of speech synthesis are disrupted, the meaning of the word may not be destroyed, while if the processes of speech analysis are disrupted, severe disorders of the meanings of words are detected, although the speech remains grammatically correct. These facts, discovered in the last century (Broca in 1865 and Wernicke in 1874), but refined by research in the next century, show that the speech hemisphere within itself has sufficient complex system specialized devices for input (analysis, Wernicke's area) and output (synthesis, Broca's area) of speech information.

Disorders caused by lesions of input systems have features in common with disorders of the right (non-speech) hemisphere, which can be explained in the general case by a violation of the ways of obtaining information necessary to combine the signified and signifying sides of the sign (cf. Fig. 10). In both cases, it is difficult to enter data into the left hemisphere: with damage to Wernicke's area, the input of words in their sound form is impaired; with damage to the right hemisphere, it is difficult to enter data necessary for understanding the meanings of words. Therefore, violations of the meanings of words with damage to Wernicke’s area, which is mainly concerned with the analysis of the signifying side, are partly similar to those violations of meanings that are caused by the lack of information from the right hemisphere, where data about the signified side of signs is stored. This shows that different mechanisms can lead to apparently similar consequences.

The study of aphasia has long led to an observation that is of exceptional importance for understanding the relationship between the functions of the left and right hemispheres. Vygotsky presented this conclusion with his characteristic brilliance: “At the Frankfurt Institute, cases were first described in which a patient who suffered from right-sided paralysis, but retained the ability to repeat the words spoken in front of him, understand speech and write, was unable to repeat the phrase: “I can do it well.” write with my right hand,” but always replaced the word “right” with the word “left” in this phrase, because in reality he now only knew how to write with his left hand, but could not write with his right. It was impossible for him to repeat a phrase that contained something inappropriate for his condition.”

The connection between imagination and speech, discovered in these observations by Bleuler and his school and confirmed by the analysis of child psychology, is important primarily because it clearly reveals the difference between the left speech hemisphere, not attached to a specific situation, and the right hemisphere, which always operates only in real time. For the right hemisphere, all of its statements must be true; only statements from the left hemisphere can be false.

This conclusion is extremely important for understanding the relationships between the left hemisphere and, in particular, the two-valued one, based on the distinction between true and false statements. Logical systems make it possible, based on certain rules, to determine whether the resulting statement (from true or false) is true or false. There is no doubt that such rules (as well as the categorical distinction between truth and lies) can be correlated specifically with the left hemisphere. The logical criterion of truth - falsity has nothing to do with the adequacy of some real situations, which constitutes characteristic feature the right hemisphere as a whole, unable to detach itself from the specific specifics of a given situation.

Therefore, the cybernetic model of the brain that M. Arbib recently proposed can hardly be considered successful. Criticizing the approach in which the information entered into the machine is necessarily given in linguistic form. Arbib proposed a non-verbal model that operates directly with signals from the environment. But Arbib's machine is as far from the human brain as those wise men from Laputa in Swift's Gulliver's Travels, who decided not to use words, but to show the thing in question every time, are far from the behavior of an ordinary person.

If the model is to reproduce the essential features of the general structure of the brain, then it is necessary to achieve the connection of the non-verbal “executive” subsystem, which works in real time and in this respect is similar to the right hemisphere, with the planning “legislative” subsystem, which is largely occupied with the construction of language ( and logical) statements. The functions of such a subsystem would be to a certain extent similar to the role of the left hemisphere.

Who are left-brain and right-brain people and what is their difference? The awareness of each hemisphere is strictly limited to the half of the body subordinate to it (the left hemisphere controls right side body, and the right - left). The right hemisphere is an excellent designer. The ability to extrapolate a whole image based on part of a picture is a function of the right hemisphere. The right hemisphere confidently detects absolutely identical patterns. The left hemisphere, on the contrary, is more easily given tasks to find differences. It processes information in parts, observing a strict order of analysis of parts. Right-hemisphere people have excellent spatial orientation, sense of body, and high coordination of movements. Left-hemisphere people have a sense of time and are muscularly resilient. Right-brained people are more successful at learning geometry due to its spatial nature. Algebra requires logic and sequential thinking, which is an advantage for left-brained students. The right hemisphere does not understand the signs “subtract”, “multiply”, “divide” and is not able to perform these actions. It can only cope with addition, and only if the tasks are the easiest, like 1 + 2 or 2 + 3. It copes well with various tasks of generalization and systematization. Capturing a holistic image of an image instead of its step-by-step discrete analysis prevents the right hemisphere from mastering reading, which explains the failures in learning to read using left-hemisphere methods. If a child has a left dominant eye (which is a sign of right hemisphere), he may not immediately learn how to navigate on a sheet of paper. Vision is designed in such a way that a left-handed person’s eye involuntarily falls on the right side of a book or notebook. That's why he reads the word from the end. He sees that it is nonsense and does not dare to say it out loud. Parents or the teacher do not understand why the child reads with pauses, they rush him, traumatize him, when the child needs help.

The ability to actively reproduce speech in the right hemisphere is much less pronounced than to understand words. Children with right hemisphere dominance do not control the correctness of their speech. Activities that require constant self-control are performed poorly by them. In oral speech, problems with grammar and word choice may arise. Semantic omissions are possible, especially if the right-hemisphere student is also impulsive. Children with left hemisphere dominance control their speech. The right hemisphere has absolutely no grammar. But the most literate students are those with equal hemispheres. That's how different they are! B. Bely said well about their differences: “Right-hemisphere people do not see individual trees behind the forest, and left-hemisphere people do not see the forest behind individual trees.” The right hemisphere matures at a faster rate than the left, and therefore, in the early period of development, its contribution to psychological functioning exceeds the contribution of the left hemisphere. It is even stated that until the age of 9-10 years, a child is a right-hemisphere creature. According to some data, significant changes in interhemispheric interaction are observed by the age of 6-7 years, that is, by the beginning schooling. The impetus for the activation of the left hemisphere is considered to be the emergence of self-consciousness in a child; this occurs at the age of two. At the same time, stubbornness is most expressed.

Society overestimates the role of the left hemisphere and logical thinking in the development of a child’s mental activity. School teaching methods train and develop mainly the left hemisphere, ignoring at least half of the child’s capabilities. I. Saunière (France) argued: “By training the left hemisphere, you are training only the left hemisphere. By training the right hemisphere, you are training the whole brain.” It is known that the right hemisphere is associated with the development of creative thinking and intuition. The main type of thinking of a junior schoolchild is visual-figurative, closely related to emotional sphere. This suggests the involvement of the right hemisphere in learning. Thus, the shift in interhemispheric asymmetry towards the absolute dominance of the left-hemispheric thinking strategy is not only a biological function of maturation, but also the result of cultural traditions, social influences and learning. Such dominance can only be achieved through great efforts of the teacher, parents and student. But are these efforts always justified? The German teacher Gerbard also wrote that a bad teacher presents the truth, but a good teacher teaches to find it. A leading expert in the field of neuropedagogy, for example, Professor N.N. Traugott, says: “We must warn schools against left-hemisphere education. This educates people who are not capable of real action in a real situation.” Professor T.P. Khrizman also warns: “Right-brain people - generators of ideas - are disappearing. The question is serious: we need to save the nation.” Professor D.V. Kolesov agrees with them: “True thinking is imaginative, complex, when it is important not only to define it with a concept, but also to understand it comprehensively.” Evidence of the positive impact of the development of the right hemisphere on the general intellectual development of the individual is provided by recent studies by American, Swiss and Austrian scientists who conducted experiments among children from five to fifteen years old. The control group studied according to the standard school curriculum, and in the experimental program the number of music lessons was increased by reducing the hours of mathematics and languages ​​classes. Over three years, the children not only did not lag behind their peers in the control group, but even showed better results, especially in learning foreign languages ​​(verbal-analytical thinking).

Already at birth, there are prerequisites for functional asymmetry of the brain. But studies have confirmed that the development of one or another hemisphere, despite the genetic predestination to dominance, is associated with characteristics of education and development. That is, congenital prerequisites are only initial conditions, and asymmetry itself is formed in the process of individual development under the influence of social contacts, primarily family ones. That is why education should be built taking into account the imaginative thinking that prevails in children. And the most progressive and expedient development of both hemispheres of the brain. So candidate of psychological sciences, leading researcher Psychological Institute RAO Victoria Yurkevich believes that a non-rigid division of hemispheric functions promotes creativity (creative thinking), while a rigid division reduces it. In the book by A. L. Sirotyuk “Teaching children with different types thinking" says that The more efforts are made in the process of education towards the dominance of logical-sign thinking (left-hemisphere education), the more efforts will be required in the future to overcome its limitations. In other words, in order to liberate imaginative thinking and free up creative forces, we need to start remaking what was laid down in childhood. And, as you know, re-educating is more difficult than educating. The author claims that with neuroses and psychosomatic diseases, a partial withdrawal of the right hemisphere contribution occurs, as a result, the ability to make non-standard decisions decreases. In other words, if a child often gets sick due to constant overload and stress, then his imaginative, that is, creative thinking does not develop well. And since the ability to imagine is childhood is a prerequisite for the thinking of an adult, then the child does not receive proper development. But the adult thinks that if the child is ahead of his peers in knowledge and skill, then his thinking is better developed. What happens when such a child graduates from school, and then from a higher educational institution and comes to work? Unfortunately, more and more often, managers in various fields note that modern young specialists with higher education less creative and independent in their decisions than their previous generation.

Conclusion

To summarize everything described above in the “Unconscious Communication” section, we can say the following. Silent dialogue, through the instinctive language of silent communication, accompanies verbal communication from beginning to end, but is not realized, only its result is realized, since people’s behavior changes accordingly. This can be explained by the presence of two consciousnesses.
In the 70s of the last century, after brain operations separating the hemispheres from each other, it was discovered that a person has two consciousnesses that think and behave differently. After the division of the brain, the patient's left consciousness (which has speech and logical thinking) always tried to explain out loud the actions of her right consciousness (which is mute, but understands speech). And he did it wrong, because he did not know about the motivating reasons for these actions, he did not have the information that the right consciousness had. Since the experimenter did not ask the patient about this, obviously, in this way her brain was trying to partially restore the lost connection between the hemispheres. Speech consciousness is called dominant; people do not feel or realize the work of silent consciousness. The patient with separated hemispheres also did not feel that she had two consciousnesses.
Roger Sperry, who first performed brain division surgery in 1974, wrote that “each hemisphere... has its own... separate sensations, perceptions, thoughts and ideas, completely separate from the corresponding internal experiences of the other hemisphere. Each hemisphere - left and right - has its own separate chain of memories and learned knowledge that is inaccessible to the other. In many respects, each of them has, as it were, a separate mind of its own” (emphasis mine).
Through self-analysis it is easy to notice that there is conscious sequential logical thinking, which is guided by the dominant verbal consciousness, and unconscious brain work, the result of which the dominant consciousness receives in the form of “intuitive” knowledge or feeling.
During conscious thinking, speech consciousness asks its brain a question in the form of a thought expressed in words, numbers or a concept. This consciousness always receives the answer to the task in the form of a semantic concept (a code common to all peoples), which the brain immediately or after some time puts into words (in the appropriate language), numbers, formulas, etc.
Human unconscious thinking is probably similar to that of animals with developed brains, but naturally more high level. The role of the dominant consciousness is only the feeling of the DESIRE to achieve the goal. Everything that is needed is calculated by the brain at the request of this consciousness, but without its participation. The brain communicates its conclusion to him in the form of “intuitive” advice (without logical explanation), sensation, or emotion (02/22/2009, publication certificate No. 1902220412).
By carefully observing people, you can notice that conscious and unconscious communication does not occur simultaneously, but alternately, replacing each other. It is obvious that the processing of information received during this communication also occurs alternately, through conscious and unconscious thinking. Outside of communication, this happens in different ways.
Examples of unconscious thinking.
Let me give you a case when I automatically, without the participation of consciousness, descended from a cliff. At first, conscious perception and thinking worked for me. Consciously, I saw small ledges, and experience showed that they were too small for my legs to stay on them. And conscious thinking assessed the shallow ledges as unsuitable for descent. Conclusion: the descent is not life-threatening, but I won’t be able to go down. And I decided to return. But I was very tired, I didn’t have the strength to go back up the steep climb. I was very upset, tears appeared in my eyes. A minute later, the tears disappeared, and for about five minutes I looked at the rock WITHOUT THOUGHTS, not seeing anything new on it. After which I had a FEELING OF CONFIDENCE that I could go down. I descended easily and without tension, feeling that my movements were controlled by something against my will, but as if with my consent.
I must think that when contemplating the rock again, I had an unconscious perception, during which my brain studied the small ledges, measuring them with my foot, and found among them suitable for descending - not sloping, slightly larger than the rest (10-15 cm) , - and created an automatic action program for me. My unconscious perception and thinking turned on after the conscious one, IN RESPONSE TO FEELINGS of fatigue and severe grief, bordering on despair, in order to find a way out for me that was more acceptable than the one found by conscious thinking (going back). And the unconscious thinking communicated its conclusion to me, my dominant consciousness, ALSO IN THE FORM OF A FEELING of confidence that I could descend.
Here's another example. After a long climb up the mountain and a subsequent long descent, I was very tired. I stopped at a large rock that I wanted to go down and assessed the descent as life-threatening, but possible. There was no other way, and I decided to take a risk. It was conscious perception and conscious thinking. I wanted to go forward, but my legs took two steps back. I wanted to go forward again, but my legs again took two steps back. Apparently, while I was consciously reasoning, my unconscious mind was analyzing the same information (plus information that was inaccessible to me and information that I had forgotten about), and assessed the risk as unjustified. And when trying to do the wrong thing, the brain turned on the instinct of self-preservation (I observed similar behavior in an animal in a life-threatening situation). After that, I suddenly remembered that I had seen another road, a safe one, which I had forgotten about, but my brain remembered about it. Later I found out that there was no way down from that cliff. This time, unconscious thinking perceived and analyzed information simultaneously with conscious thinking, and, apparently, taking into account its conclusions. Here, too, there were experiences of feelings of extreme fatigue, grief and justified fear, a desire for a certain action, not for the sake of fun (pleasure), but as a necessity. Only this time the brain responded to them not with advice in the form of intuitive knowledge, but with decisive actions, committing violence against the dominant consciousness.
Thus, in an undivided brain, each type of thinking analyzes independently, constantly exchanging the conclusions it receives. Conscious thinking uses information from the five senses, personal experience and knowledge gained during training. Unconscious thinking, judging by its results, uses all the information available to the brain, including the ready-made conclusions of conscious logical thinking. But with both types of thinking, conscious and unconscious, the whole brain, both of its hemispheres, works. This can be noticed without special research. For example, the brain carries out long-term work to solve a problem that conscious thinking could not solve immediately. The Brain does this both day and night, when both consciousnesses turn off. For a person really needs to solve this problem, he experiences a passionate desire to find an answer, or a feeling of strong apprehension (fear), caused by the troubles that threaten him if he does not find a solution. Or he was simply interested in solving it, he wanted to, but it didn’t work out quickly, and he put it off for a while, or, upset, abandoned his intention. The person is already busy with something else, or is resting, but the brain (“unconscious thinking”), stimulated by these feelings, continues to look for a solution. Or the work set by the dominant consciousness takes place to extract from memory long-forgotten moments that suddenly turned out to be very important for a person’s life. And unexpectedly, either the solution to the deferred task or the desired memory comes to him. (“Consciousness and thinking.” © Copyright: Larisa Viktorovna Svetlichnaya, 2009. Certificate of publication No. 2911200555). Apparently it was the unconscious mind that did the work.
Many everyday issues are resolved at the level of unconscious thinking. One might say, everything that does not require conscious thinking, because solving everything at the level of conscious thinking is difficult, time-consuming and irrational. The dominant consciousness receives a ready-made assessment or an “intuitive” recommendation for action.
The brain instantly switches channels for controlling communication and behavior: from verbal consciousness to silent consciousness, from conscious control to instinctive control and back. Obviously, for this there must be a special structure that is connected to all parts of the brain and owns all the information, an “internal operator.” It is logical to assume that this structure should converge all the pathways and contain clusters of neurons that process information and transmit it to the cortex for further analysis, from where the finished solution is again sent to the internal operator. It is known that the thalamus works like a complex relay. It is connected to the entire brain, to the cortex of both hemispheres and to the subcortex, and contains several large clusters of neurons (“nuclei”). Perhaps it is the thalamus that is the “internal operator”?
There are ways of unconscious communication that do not depend on the will of consciousness, either verbal or silent. This is unconscious reflexive communication through brain radiation and others (see “Unconscious communication”). Many human reactions have a double origin: conditioned by rational consciousness, and conditioned by instinct, unconscious. A person, feeling this or that instinctive feeling, does not realize that it arose in a reflex way, and explains it to himself from the position of conscious perception of the world. For example, the instinctive joy of victory is a reflexive reaction to the feeling of defeat of the enemy in a mental struggle, and the joy of victory of the thinking consciousness arises from achieving one’s goal. With reason, people respect each other for intelligence, knowledge, skills, honesty, courage, generosity and other virtues. And they reflexively despise or respect only for defeat or victory in an instinctive mental battle, without realizing it.
Conscious behavior is guided by the dominant consciousness, which has command of speech and logical thinking. All instinctive behavior is based on conscious, but not conscious, communication. This may mean that during instinctive social behavior the dominant consciousness is switched off, and the mute consciousness continues to communicate on an unconscious level, through the instinctive language of mute communication and instinctive behavior programs. These programs consist of many unconditioned reflexes, in the intervals between which the dominant consciousness is activated, and the person is confident that all his social behavior is conscious.
In the social instinct, according to two types of consciousness and thinking, there are two different leadership management programs. One of them controls only the instinctive behavior of members of a social group, the second is intended to control both conscious and instinctive behavior. Probably, each of them is located in its own hemisphere, in one of the tonsils. Since from the experience of removing both tonsils from a rhesus monkey, it is known that the programs of gregarious behavior are located precisely in the tonsils (“Brain, Mind and Behavior.” F. Bloom, A. Leiserson, L. Hofstadter, Moscow, “Mir”, 1988) .
There is mutual influence between all types of behavior management. The dominant consciousness can stop instinctive actions by force of will or disobey the prompt of unconscious thinking (“intuition”). Complex instincts influence the dominant consciousness, instilling in it an attraction to a certain goal and directing its behavior with emotions. And the simple instinct of self-preservation commits violence against the dominant consciousness. However, after its effect ends, humans and animals with a developed brain can act as they see fit.