Onur Gunturkun notes that McGilchrist's theory could either become the bible of neuroscience in 30 years or be forgotten, with nothing in between—it cannot be a partial success because it is fundamentally different from current neuroscientific paradigms.

In pigeons foraging for food, one hemisphere concentrates on tiny details of individual grains while the other hemisphere maintains panoramic alert for aerial predators, demonstrating that hemispheric specialization solves the fundamental survival problem of simultaneous focused feeding and environmental vigilance.

A working hypothesis in science should be one step ahead of what is known, not two steps, and McGilchrist's theory is either going to be either the bible of neuroscientists in 30 years or forgotten—there is nothing in between.

Research on animal neurology, particularly pigeons trained to recognize humans in photographs, demonstrates that the left hemisphere recognizes objects based on isolated details (head, eyes, nose) while the right hemisphere requires seeing the whole body in correct position to recognize a human.