Historical changes in everyday human lifestyles and their effects on hemispheric activation: Speculations on McGilchrist's .

Stephen D Christman, Eric C Prichard

Journal: Laterality 2024;29(2):169-183

PMID: 38408188

Abstract

McGilchrist [McGilchrist, I. (2009). . Yale University Press] argued that Western society has undergone a population-level shift from greater right hemisphere influence on cognition to increasingly greater left hemisphere influence over the past few centuries. Four historical lifestyle changes that replaced behaviours associated with right hemisphere activation with behaviours associated with left hemisphere activation may be responsible: (i) shifts from standing to sitting, (ii) from being outdoors to indoors, (iii) from communal to solitary activities, and (iv) from analogue/concrete to holistic/abstract representations.

Address: Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA.; Department of Psychology, University of Arkansas, Monticello, AR, USA.

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