{"id":127765,"date":"2024-08-02T16:49:12","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T20:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=127765"},"modified":"2026-04-27T15:35:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:35:50","slug":"what-does-the-left-brain-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-the-left-brain-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does the Left Brain Do? How It Creates the Self"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What does the left brain do? How does it shape our perception of reality<\/a> and ourselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In No Self, No Problem<\/em>, Chris Niebauer explores the fascinating role of the left brain in creating our sense of self. He delves into how this hemisphere constructs narratives from our experiences, using language and pattern recognition to make sense of the world around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to discover what the left brain does and how it influences your daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Left Brain Creates the Self by Building Stories From Our Experiences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What does the left brain do? The left brain works to make sense of the world. Niebauer explains that it creates a continuous story to explain what we experience<\/strong>, how we behave, and who we are. This story creates our sense of self. Telling a story involves building sequences and categories of events and information. So the left brain is often thinking about what happened in the past and what might occur in the future, rather than living in the present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Philosopher Daniel Dennett agrees with Niebauer that we create our sense of self<\/a> by telling stories. To explain, he uses the metaphor of an object\u2019s center of gravity<\/a>: the imaginary point where all of the weight of the object is concentrated. The center of gravity is useful for calculations, like if you want to figure out how easy an object would be to knock over or how it might fall if you dropped it. But the center of gravity isn\u2019t a real, concrete location that you\u2019d be able to identify in a real object like a book or an umbrella or a sock. Dennett says in the same way, we use the self as a \u201ccenter of narrative gravity\u201d to make everything we know about our experiences, plans, and preferences cohere around a point. But that point itself isn\u2019t real.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Niebauer explains that, to fit everything we know about ourselves and our lives into a comprehensive narrative, the left brain constantly works to explain what\u2019s going on, what we\u2019re doing, and what we\u2019re thinking<\/strong>. The left brain comes up with a story to explain what it observes, even when it has absolutely no idea why things are the way they are. Niebauer explains that it\u2019s also completely convinced the explanations it comes up with are correct, even when they aren\u2019t based on reality and in fact often do a bad job of explaining what we observe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: While Niebauer contends the left brain takes the lead in helping us make sense of the world, psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist argues in The Master and His Emissary<\/em><\/a> <\/em>that the right brain is crucial in helping us understand our experiences. McGilchrist notes that the losses to a person\u2019s ability to understand the world are much more profound<\/a> after a stroke to the right hemisphere than to the left. He explains that because the left brain sees the world as individual events and objects, and the right brain sees things in their context, the right brain is better equipped to understand the meaning<\/a> of what we experience. He contends the left brain doesn\u2019t know much of anything\u2014but it\u2019s very confident that it knows everything, as Niebauer notes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Niebauer, the left brain has the odd tendency to fluently explain our actions even when it has no idea why we\u2019re behaving as we are<\/strong>. To demonstrate how this works, he cites the example of people called \u201csplit-brain patients,\u201d who have had their corpus callosum severed to treat severe epilepsy and reduce the intensity of the debilitating seizures it causes. When the right brain of a split-brain patient follows instructions the left brain can\u2019t access, the left brain doesn\u2019t admit it doesn\u2019t know why the person is completing an action<\/strong>. Instead, it invents (and believes) a story to explain the behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, imagine you show a split-brain patient two different words: You show the word \u201ccat\u201d to his right visual field (the area to the right of his nose) and the word \u201cdog\u201d to his left visual field. The brain is cross-wired, so the right side of the brain controls and receives information from the left side of the body, and vice versa. That means you\u2019ve shown \u201ccat\u201d to the patient\u2019s left brain and \u201cdog\u201d to his right brain. So if you ask him to use his left <\/em>hand\u2014which is controlled by his right brain\u2014to draw the word he just saw, he\u2019d draw a dog, because that\u2019s what his right brain saw. His left brain wouldn\u2019t know why, since it saw the word \u201ccat.\u201d The patient might explain by saying dogs and cats are both common pets, and a dog is easier to draw. In other words, his left brain makes up an explanation to make sense of what it doesn\u2019t understand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Very few patients<\/a> have ever undergone the surgical procedure to sever the corpus callosum, and only 10 of them have undergone extensive tests<\/a> to see how the two sides of the brain behave when they can\u2019t communicate directly. However, patients who have had the surgery say their sense of consciousness doesn\u2019t feel split. In fact, they say they don\u2019t feel any different after the procedure than they did before. Michael S. Gazzaniga\u2014one scientist whose work with split-brain patients Niebauer cites in the book\u2014explains this is because the left brain doesn\u2019t miss its access to the right brain. It just carries on generating explanations for actions initiated by the right brain\u2014even if those explanations seem a little bizarre.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Niebauer explains that the left brain uses two tools to create the narratives and sense of self that shape how we perceive our world: language and pattern recognition. <\/strong>We\u2019ll look at the details of each of these next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The left brain is the dominant side of the brain for the use of language. It produces the internal monologue<\/a> many people hear in their heads.<\/strong> Through this monologue\u2014which sounds like \u201cyou\u201d talking to yourself within your mind\u2014your left brain gives a voice to your observations, thoughts, and judgments. These are all, by nature, subjective, and often wrong. But because the left brain puts them into language, they feel real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Not everyone has an internal monologue<\/a> to shape their sense of self or reality. Psychologist Russell Hurlburt estimates that between 30% and 50% of people<\/a> frequently have an inner monologue. In this monologue they hear themselves thinking in their mind, often talking themselves through a task or figuring out how to solve a problem. Hurlburt says most people who experience an inner monologue don\u2019t hear it all the time and go through much of their day without hearing it at all. People who don\u2019t hear an inner monologue think in different ways: For example, scientist Temple Grandin explains in Visual Thinking<\/em><\/a> that people with autism may think by visualizing images<\/a>, seeing patterns<\/a>, or putting things into words\u2014or in a mix of these<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because language makes them feel real, you usually don\u2019t question the left brain\u2019s explanations<\/strong>, whether in your inner monologue or in your thoughts and judgments. Niebauer argues this leads to negative experiences, like when your left brain convinces you your best friend is upset at you or talks you into believing you failed an exam, even though it doesn\u2019t have compelling evidence for either story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Your left brain\u2019s storytelling ability is great when the story your brain tells you corresponds with reality<\/a>\u2014but things can go wrong when the narrative diverges from the truth. This happens in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)\u2014a person\u2019s brain invents a story that convinces them something terrible will happen<\/a> if they don\u2019t do a very specific thing to prevent it<\/a>. Or, in schizophrenia, people often hear hallucinated voices<\/a> that originate in the left brain<\/a> and its mechanisms for internal monologue<\/a>. These seemingly external voices speak to them and often tell them what to do. The Collected Schizophrenias<\/em><\/a> author Esm\u00e9 Weijun Wang explains these hallucinations \u201ckidnap the senses<\/a>,\u201d telling a convincing and often harmful story that isn\u2019t true.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way the left brain\u2019s facility with language leads us astray is by convincing us the categories and labels it comes up with are real<\/strong>. Niebauer explains the left brain is so invested in the reality of the language it uses to describe the world that it sometimes thinks the abstractions and arbitrary categories it dreams up are real or definitive\u2014but they aren\u2019t. For instance, your brain might label the people in your life as \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad\u201d and assume they\u2019ll always act accordingly. But in reality, everyone\u2019s behavior and moral character is nuanced\u2014and most people believe that doing one good or bad thing doesn\u2019t make someone a good or bad person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: As Niebauer notes, language makes things feel real, and it shapes perception in surprising ways. For example, the human eye can see millions of different colors, and we use language to put them in categories<\/a>, like \u201cred,\u201d \u201corange,\u201d or \u201cyellow.\u201d If you know names for more shades of a color\u2014red ochre, quinacridone red, vermillion, or madder\u2014you can distinguish shades others might not. Knowledge of this effect seems to have led to a strange myth that the ancient Greeks couldn\u2019t see the color blue because they didn\u2019t have a word for \u201cblue.\u201d<\/a> So when Homer describes the \u201cwine-dark sea,\u201d some readers assume the blue of the ocean didn\u2019t register to the ancient Greek eye\u2014overestimating language\u2019s role in influencing how we see color<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pattern Recognition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Intrinsic to the left brain\u2019s ability to produce language and construct categories is another key function of this half of the brain: its tendency to search for patterns<\/a>. Niebauer notes that we see patterns everywhere, even where none actually exist<\/strong>. That\u2019s what causes the left brain to separate things into categories, make judgments, and apply labels, often erroneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Scientists call the tendency to see patterns in random events apophenia<\/em>. Apophenia may arise from an overactive right brain, and it makes unrelated things seem connected<\/a>. It helps us see images in Rorschach blots and create insightful metaphors\u2014or makes us see ghosts<\/a> and fall for conspiracy theories. Vladimir Nabokov explores apophenia<\/a> in \u201cSymbols and Signs<\/a>.\u201d The story follows the elderly parents of a man who\u2019s institutionalized for seeing messages in everything, a real symptom of psychosis. Much of what happens in the story goes unexplained, which sends the reader scrambling to connect the dots\u2014an unsettling experience that leaves some readers engaging their own apophenia to try to make sense of it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Niebauer says the tendency to search for patterns\u2014and to find them, whether they\u2019re real or not\u2014contributes to our belief in the self.<\/strong> When the left brain looks at our thoughts, memories, and preferences, it looks for connections in these enormous sets of information. The pattern that emerges is the self. The self is wildly convincing to the left brain, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Some experts say your brain uses patterns not only in the information it\u2019s gathered about your thoughts\u2014as Niebauer explains\u2014but also patterns in its information about the outside world to construct your sense of self. In The Self Illusion<\/em><\/a>, psychologist Bruce Hood says your sense of self is a little like the kind of optical illusion called an \u201cillusory contour\u201d\u2014like the Kanizsa triangle<\/a>. In this illusion, you see a bright white triangle even though there aren\u2019t any lines outlining one because your brain \u201challucinates\u201d the triangle from the surrounding lines and shapes. Hood contends that similarly, your brain spins your sense of self out of negative space in the information about what you perceive to create a self-portrait of the perceiver: you.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does the left brain do? How does it shape our perception of reality and ourselves? In No Self, No Problem, Chris Niebauer explores the fascinating role of the left brain in creating our sense of self. He delves into how this hemisphere constructs narratives from our experiences, using language and pattern recognition to make sense of the world around us. Continue reading to discover what the left brain does and how it influences your daily life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":127773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,160],"tags":[1559],"class_list":["post-127765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-science","tag-no-self-no-problem","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Does the Left Brain Do? 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