Is the left-brain/right-brain personality theory real?

The answer

The popular notion that people are either left-brained (logical, analytical) or right-brained (creative, intuitive) is not supported by neuroscience. A large-scale brain imaging study at the University of Utah analyzed resting-state functional connectivity in over 1,000 individuals and found no evidence that people preferentially use one hemisphere over the other. While specific functions do show some lateralization (language processing is typically stronger in the left hemisphere, spatial attention in the right), healthy brain function depends on constant communication between both hemispheres through the corpus callosum, a bundle of over 200 million nerve fibers. Both hemispheres contribute to virtually all cognitive tasks, and creative and analytical thinking both require widespread bilateral brain activity. The myth likely originated from misinterpretations of Roger Sperry's split-brain research from the 1960s.