19.09.2012My Left and my Right Self: How our two halves of the brain contribute to the development of the concept of self

PD Dr. Martina Manns, Biopsychology, Institute for Cognitive Neurosciences, Faculty of Psychology

When we think about ourselves, we tend to see ourselves as a person: our being, our “self” does not seem divided to us. This, however, is not a given; we do indeed have two halves of the brain, which differ in structure and function and therefore process and evaluate information in different manners. “Folk psychology” likes to discuss our rational left and our emotional right hemispheres of the brain. What if both hemispheres had their own concept of self? With the help of current research from the cognitive neurosciences, the talk by Martina Manns will examine the question of where our two halves of the brain differ and how this differentiation contributes to the development of a concept of self. A series of fascinating, bizarre phenomena and disorders illustrate that the picture we have of our “self” is an interpretation of the brain, a process in which various networks of both halves of the brain are involved in.