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1.3.7 Lateralization In Language and Music
Lateralization of brain function refers to the location of neuronal circuitry for specific skills and behaviours in either the left or the right hemisphere of the brain. Handedness reveals brain lateralization, or lack of it, in a clear way. In most species, handedness—favouring the right or left hand, hoof, wing, paw—is non-committal. For example, you’ll find left- and right-handedness equally distributed in chimpanzees and other apes. A few animals other than humans have pronounced handedness, such as the walrus, of all creatures.
Humans manifest extremely specialized right-handedness, reflecting the importance of left-brain sequencing and left-brain language adaptations. Humans probably communicated symbolically with hand gestures before, and during the process of, converting to symbolic spoken language.
Brain lateralization in humans may have resulted from growing numbers and complexities of modular specializations competing for space as the brain swelled in size in response to selective pressure to cope with larger and more complex human social organization. Something related to the social nature of humans drove the huge expansion of the brain. It could well have been either music or language.
The left hemisphere tries to solve problems and processes sequential patterns, including language and, musically, rhythm. It’s also active in positive emotional processing.
The right hemisphere has modules for, among other things, spatial cognition and the interpretation of harmony in music.