Introduction
Among the moments that determine the boundless diversity of human personalities, the properties of the main processes of nervous activity that are part of brain functioning – excitation and inhibition – play an essential role. It is these processes occurring in the human brain that influence the totality of stable individual personality traits that develop and manifest themselves in activity and communication and cause typical behaviors for them.
Discussion
Inhibition is a physiological process in the central nervous system that results in delayed arousal. The process of inhibition was first shown in 1862 by the physiologist Sechenov (Boogert et al., 2018). In the frog, a brain incision was made at the level of the visual tubercles with the removal of the cerebral hemispheres. The time of the reflex of pulling back the hind paw when it was immersed in a solution of sulfuric acid was measured. When a salt crystal was applied to the incision of the visual bumps, the reflex time increased. The salt crystal irritates the visual bumps and causes excitement, which descends to the spinal centers and inhibits their activity.
In the formation of behavioral reactions of animals and humans, along with conditioned reflex excitation, processes of conditioned reflex inhibition always take place in the central nervous system. There are external unconditional and internal conditional inhibitions. The term protective inhibition should be understood as the property of the inhibitory process to protect cells from shifts dangerous to their vital activity and performance associated with prolonged or excessively strong excitation. The theory of protective braking was created and substantiated by Pavlov (Boogert et al., 2018). The scientist also identified specifically human types that depend on the relationship between signaling systems. In humans, the second signaling system always prevails over the first. However, the degree of this predominance is different, in connection with which the following are distinguished: the middle type, the thinking type (with a more significant predominance of the second signal system), and the artistic type (with more pronounced elements of primary, imaginative thinking).
The functional interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain ensures the responsibility of the left hemisphere for the analysis of verbal information and the right for the processing of spatial and figurative patterns. The dominant part is considered to be the part that provides the function of the phase, possession of the most frequently used hand (Boogert et al., 2018). For most people, the left hemisphere is dominant. For left-handers, the right hemisphere is the leading one. There is a small group of ambidextrous people with the same ability to use both hands.
The right hemisphere provides musical hearing, emotional coloring of speech, holistic perception of images, spatial and intuitive processing of information, concrete thinking, visual perception, and recognition. The left hemisphere specializes in the mechanisms of inductive intellectual activity: for them, the initial process of analysis is followed by the synthesis of information. It is dominant for abstract, symbolic thinking (Boogert et al., 2018). The left hemisphere determines the operation of logical and abstract concepts and consistent mental activity. In addition, it is responsible for the local perception of images, verbal-symbolic functions, and the establishment of similarity and identity.
Conclusion
Therefore, people with the predominant influence of the right hemisphere are prone to contemplation, memories, and subtle deep sensitivity. The thought processes of the right hemisphere are carried out by the initial synthesis mechanism followed by analysis. The right hemisphere prevails when there is a need for concrete-imaginative thinking and the performance of emotional activity.
Reference
Boogert, N. J., Madden, J. R., Morand-Ferron, J., & Thornton, A. (2018). Measuring and understanding individual differences in cognition. Biological Sciences, 15(6), 49–75.