American English takes a slightly different approach to the agreement of verbs with collective nouns. There is a very strong preference for the use of singular verbs with such nouns, so in American English you are much more likely to see, for example:
By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD. The human brain is divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is the logical brain and is involved in language and analysis and the right hemisphere is the creative brain, involved in daydreaming and imagination. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body while the right hemisphere controls the left side.
Recent studies have shown that in around 97% of people, language is represented in the left hemisphere. However, in about 19% of left-handed people, the areas responsible for language are in the right hemisphere and as many as 68% of them have some language abilities in both the left and the right hemispheres.