Brain asymmetry: the facts and why they matter
Thu 22 Oct 2026 , 18:00 - 19:30
- Venue
- Sir Charles Wilson Building, Room 201, 3 Kelvin Way, Glasgow G12 8NN
- Facilities
- Live subtitling, Wheelchair accessible venue
- Event series
- The British Academy Lectures
Delivered by the most outstanding academics in the UK and beyond, the British Academy’s flagship Lecture programme showcases the very best scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.
About the event
Across the animal kingdom, brain asymmetry is the rule rather than the exception. From our hominid ancestors to birds, fish, and reptiles, every creature with a brain exhibits striking differences in how its two hemispheres are structured and how they function.
Yet the fundamental question remains: why?
Many long-held assumptions about lateralisation have proven mistaken. This lecture explores the evolutionary origins of the divided brain, the distinct purposes each hemisphere serves, and how this fundamental asymmetry shapes the way human beings understand themselves and perceive the world around them.
Speaker
Dr Iain McGilchrist is a former Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is the author of The Master and his Emissary, and The Matter with Things.
Chair
TBA
Image credit: Barbey AK, Colom R, Paul EJ et al, ‘Architecture of fluid intelligence and working memory revealed by lesion mapping’, Brain Structure and Function, 2014, 219(2), 485–94 (reproduced in The Matter with Things).
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