Saturday, November 20, 2010

Brainy stuff

It’s precisely nine minutes past three in the morning, Saturday morning, but since I haven’t slept yet it is still counted as Friday night. Okay so here I am at three in the morning on a Friday night, tired after a long week at work, eyes about to pop off, backache reaching the point of no return, a small headache marching from the back of the head to the eyes and then back, but yet I stay awake. Because it’s Friday night, silly, and you are forgiven for staying up late because the next day is a holiday and you can sleep right through lunch and have your breakfast at four in the afternoon.

Am I the only one, or is there anyone out there who is also afflicted by this Friday night staying up marathon? And nothing important is done in these extra hours. Chat with some friends online, read a few blogs, read the morning newspaper, listen to some old songs, drink an extra cup or two of tea, stand in the balcony and watch the street below, etc.

Today on the way home from work I told a colleague I would forget about the office for the next two days. And that is exactly what I will do, and what I always do, not only on the weekends but during the weekdays too. Maybe I have compartmentalized my brain in such a way that it only processes the events that are happening at that particular moment. When I am at home I don’t even think of the office until I actually reach the place, swipe my access card and step inside the building. And I forget all about my pending bills and landlord visits and blocked drains until I climb the three floors to my apartment and open the door again.

I did a google search on compartmentalizing the brain and the results led me to the differences between male and female brain. I did some more searches and found a lot of scientific explanations and psychological stuff which I'm sure you wouldn’t want to read because I too didn’t read them since they contained big words and scientific terms and three in the morning is no time to wipe the dust off your fat dictionary.

But I found this, it is an easy read, so here goes-

• The male brain is highly specialized, using specific parts of one hemisphere or the other to accomplish specific tasks. The female brain is more diffused and utilizes significant portions of both hemispheres for a variety of tasks.
• Men are able to focus on narrow issues and block out unrelated information and distractions. Women naturally see everyday things from a broader, "big-picture" vantage point.
• Men can narrowly focus their brains on specific tasks or activities for long periods of time without tiring. Women are better equipped to divide their attention among multiple activities or tasks.
• Men are able to separate information, stimulus, emotions, relationships, etc. into separate compartments in their brains, while women tend to link everything together.
• Men see individual issues with parts of their brain, while women look at the holistic or multiple issues with their whole brain (both hemispheres).
• Men have as much as 20 times more testosterone in their systems than do women. This makes men typically more aggressive, dominant and more narrowly focused on the physical aspects of sex.
• In men, the dominant perceptual sense is vision, which is typically not the case with women. All of a woman's senses are, in some respects, more finely tuned than those of a man.
• Pornographers incorporate male/female differences into the design and marketing of their wares. Just because something might not appeal to a man doesn't mean that a woman won't be attracted to it and vice versa.

My further wanderings took me to the left brained – right brained subject. There are again loads of stuff on the subject, plenty of tests available online, a few links below. Let me know your results.





Right Brain Inventory
Left Brain Inventory
Visual, focusing on images, patterns
Verbal, focusing on words, symbols, numbers
Intuitive, led by feelings
Analytical, led by logic
Process ideas simultaneously
Process ideas sequentially, step by step
Mind photos' used to remember things, writing things down or illustrating them helps you remember
Words used to remember things, remember names rather than faces
Make lateral connections from information
Make logical deductions from information
See the whole first, then the details
Work up to the whole step by step, focusing on details, information organized
Organization ends to be lacking
Highly organized
Free association
Like making lists and planning
Like to know why you're doing something or why rules exist (reasons)
Likely to follow rules without questioning them
No sense of time
Good at keeping track of time
May have trouble with spelling and finding words to express yourself
Spelling and mathematical formula easily memorized
Enjoy touching and feeling actual objects (sensory input)
Enjoy observing
Trouble prioritizing, so often late, impulsive
Plan ahead
Unlikely to read instruction manual before trying
Likely read an instruction manual before trying
Listen to how something is being said
Listen to what is being said
Talk with your hands
Rarely use gestures when talking
Likely to think you're naturally creative, but need to apply yourself to develop your potential
Likely to believe you're not creative, need to be willing to try and take risks to develop your potential

By the way, I am left brained.

18 comments:

  1. men are wafers, women are like spaghetti :-)

    apparently i am left brained - 64%..

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  2. Some brainy stuff this. When we were kids, they used to tell us eating chicken brain was good for the brain.It really worked,I'm chicken brained!!

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  3. I am so right brained :P

    What do you think zombies are by the way? :D

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  4. I got 16-16 on the first test, on the second I got 51-Left and 49-Right, and the last one was a whooping 76-Left and 22-Right.. So am I Androgynous? :P
    The thing about online tests is that they don't have an online test to test if you really believe in online tests or not, whats up with that?

    @illu: Zombies are BrainDead! HA!

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  5. I am a very strong right brainer. I wouldn't mind a sweet 50-50 split though but I guess I can live with it :)

    @Kim - zombies are left brained for sure. Right? :P

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  6. Varte - hahaha i like! Women are like spaghetti, reaching out to everyone, Men are like wafers, tough in appearance but really soft when you get to know them.

    daniel - Ah yes the chicken brain myth. It also worked for us, so much so that as kids we would fight over who would get to eat the chicken head. And don't tell me you are chicken brained, I don't believe it one bit!

    Kim - Why zombies are right brained (pls see the table above) - let me highlight a few points:
    - Visual rather than verbal (ever seen any zombie speaking intelligently, if they speak at all?)
    - Organization tends to be lacking (Zombie unions, anyone?)
    - Trouble prioritizing (ever hear any zombie making decisionslike.. hmm.. this person looks juicier than his friend, so I will eat him first..)
    - Unlikely to read instruction manual before trying (How to Eat hUmans Properly - a no-seller in the zombie world)

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  7. blackestred - Hey our scores are almost similar. I got equal scores on the first one too, and on the other two I leaned towards the left, but not as much as you did. But you would have noticed many of the questions are similar.

    Jerusha - That's surprising. It seems you ad people are right-brained. Well, still better than being no-brained :)

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  8. Evidently, it appears that I am left brain dominated, which suggest that I'm a verbal learner and take pleasure in analyzing things! But I'm not naturally creative! ha ha! Aduh, I really enjoyed taking the tests online!

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  9. This reminds me of my high school chemistry teacher. She would be drawing diagrams on the blackboard while at the same time explaining what covalent bonds are!

    Yes, the teacher was a she.

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  10. Maisek - Online tests are fun. For that matter, all quizzes of this nature are fun. Before we have Internet (back in the 90s) I used to do all the quizzes in magazines (Cosmo, Femina etc) and there was a time when I'd spend hours doing online quizzes. But thankfully I don't have the time and the interest anymore.

    Tetea - Covalent bonds!! Hahah haven't heard that word in ages. Miss Gracy taught us covalent bonds and covalency and whatnot. She was one fine teacher.

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  11. It would appear as if I am more Left-Brained (?) :D

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  12. 16% Left brain, 16% Right brain. Where's the remaining 68%???

    I usually do not sleep on Friday Night!! :-)

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  13. Andy - it would appear?? Do you mean you didn't take the tests and are guessing from the table above? Do take the tests, they are fun.

    Alejendro - The remaining 68% is water.

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  14. An old saying: "If women are so goddamn good at multi-tasking, why can't they have a headache and sex at the same time?"

    :D

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  15. Me like me like what's written above me :-P

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  16. According to the first test, I am perfectly balanced, a 16-point score for both the left and right. That bit about men compartmentalizing everything.... I think that's where a lot of issues crop up in relationships. Coz men put us into a box and then forget all about us until the next time they want to be petted! :p

    PS: In all my years of blogging, I have never discovered how to put a link in the text and then just write 'here' for the link :( Tell, tell!!

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  17. You lost your sleep over all this brainy stuff, no wonder. I don't quite fit in either of the list, may be i have neither right nor left brain.

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  18. Kims & Alej - no comment on your comments :P

    DDB - What about the other two tests? I like your theory about men putting us in a box and coming to us only when they want something.Very very true.And if they see some interesting box on the way, then they get sidetracked and all we do is gather dust in our corner.

    Oh, I was about to give you a step by step explanation of how to make a link, complete with pictures, but I read your latest blog post and saw that clever you have already figured it out.

    mesjay - I think you must be a wonderful combination of both the lists, all the good points defining you.

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