Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
The notion that the brain’s right hemisphere is responsible for emotion and its left hemisphere is responsible for reason has been debunked. But the two hemispheres are indeed distinct, albeit in much more complex ways than we once thought. Animated by Cognitive Media with audio excerpted from a lecture given at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) by the British psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, The Divided Brain takes a deep dive into the real differences between our two brain hemispheres.
This video is published under the RSA open-access licence. For more information, visit the RSA website’s disclaimer and policies page.
Producer: Abi Stephenson
Video by the RSA
video
Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
video
Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
video
Bioethics
What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’
6 minutes
video
Neuroscience
This intricate map of a fruit fly brain could signal a revolution in neuroscience
2 minutes
video
Evolution
How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution
60 minutes
video
Neuroscience
Dog vision is a trendy topic, but what can we really know about how they see?
11 minutes
video
Cities
A lush, whirlwind tribute to the diversity of life in a northern English county
3 minutes
video
Cognition and intelligence
What’s this buzz about bees having culture? Inside a groundbreaking experiment
8 minutes
video
Values and beliefs
A Zen Buddhist priest voices the deep matters he usually ponders in silence
5 minutes