Quantitative Estimates of Left- and Right-Hemispherical Dominance in Art

In order to determine their relationships to creativity, features of functional brain asymmetry were studied by means of analyzing the work of visual artists and composers from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, both in Western Europe and in Russia. To measure these features an iterative procedure was derived, permitting the researchers to use experts as specific “instruments.” The results are objective, despite the subjectivity of the primary data, and indicate a degree of dominance of left- or right-hemispherical processes in the work of each painter and composer studied.