The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

by Norman Doidge

The right hemisphere generally processes nonverbal communication; it allows us to recognize faces and read facial expressions, and it connects us to other people. It thus processes the nonverbal visual cues exchanged between a mother and her baby. It also processes the musical component of speech, or tone, by which we convey emotion. During the right hemisphere’s growth spurt, from birth until the second year, these functions undergo critical periods. The left hemisphere generally processes the verbal-linguistic elements of speech, as opposed to the emotional-musical ones, and analyzes problems using conscious processing. Babies have a larger right hemisphere, up to the end of the second year, and because the left hemisphere is only beginning its growth spurt, our right hemisphere dominates the brain for the first three years of our lives.