Kobus Neethling

  

Roger Sperry and the Brain Profile 

In 1981 Roger Sperry received the Nobel Prize in Physiology “for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres”. Sperry, his student Michael Gazzaniga and the neurosurgeon Joseph Bogen, performed the first ‘split brain operation’, and can be credited with some of the most important insights we have of the physiology of the brain today.  Sperry discovered that each hemisphere of the brain had its own specialized functions, confirming a hypothesis that had existed for a number of years. Sperry himself declared, “Each disconnected hemisphere appears to have a mind of its own”.

Michael Gazzaniga elaborates further on their research: “It became clear that visual information no longer moved between the two sides. If we projected an image to the right visual field - that is, to the left hemisphere, which is where information from the right field is processed - the patients could describe what they saw. But when the same image was displayed to the left visual field, the patients drew a blank: they said they didn’t see anything. Yet if we asked them to point to an object similar to the one being projected, they could do so with ease. The right brain saw the image and could mobilize a nonverbal response. It simply couldn’t talk about what it saw. The same kind of finding proved true for touch, smell and sound.

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Torrance and Neethling 

Between 1988 and 1991 Torrance and Neethling identified 2000 adults (52 percent females and 48 percent males with an age range of between 18 and 80) and 1500 pupils (with an equal distribution between 10 and 19 years of age). A question with four possible responses was posed to each of the subjects, who then had to arrange their personal thinking preferences from the strongest to the lowest. Research on the Torrance Left/Right Brain instruments (with special focus on the SOLAT Test) suggested that each hemisphere hosted two specific thinking processes. Each question selected for this initial research included two left brain thinking processes as well as two right brain processes.

Neethling found that thinking preferences fell equally into four preference-clusters, corresponding to the four quadrants. Both the validity and reliability levels of each of the quadrants were found to be higher than 0.80. (Research Venter, Korf).

The resulting Brain Profile is in essence the synopsis or summary of the person’s thinking preferences at a specific time in his/her life. Because the point of departure is ‘thinking preferences’, it is important to note that there are no bad or wrong profiles. A  Brain Profile is a descriptive, non-judgmental analysis, with no profile being better or worse than another. Instead, the profile gives a description of an individual’s thought preferences, and recommendations are made based on those preferences.

These recommendations could focus on: personal development;  subject or career choices; lifestyle changes; business improvements; personal relationships; improving education and sport achievements; parenting; leadership and management; plotting the future and many other possibilities.

If your child is Left brain dominant, the following behaviour will most probably be observed:

If your child is Right brain dominant, the following behaviour will most probably be observed: