how do you tell which side of the brain does which function? eg creative or accademic?

Question: how do you tell which side of the brain does which function? eg creative or accademic?

Asked by xxbethxx to Joanna on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: Your Research.
- Joanna Brooks answered on 17 Jun 2010:
  
  Hello again! Psychologists have a variety of ways of understanding which side of the brain is involved in different functions. One way is to ask people to perform tasks (like maths for example) when inside a brain scanner – we take pictures of the active parts of people’s brains (could be the left side or the right side). Another way is to see what happens when people damage their brains on each side – what functions do they lose?
  
  Using these methods we have found that the left side of the brain is mainly involved in language processing and the right side of the brain in spatial processing. Of course, there are many other functions but this is just an example.

Question: how do you tell which side of the brain does which function? eg creative or accademic?