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| Roger Sperry |
During the 50s of the twentieth century, the
American neurobiologist Roger Sperry performed various investigations on
animals, and human epilepsy patients who suffered repeated attacks, intense and
persistent. As a solution to these attacks, he used the somewhat drastic (but
possibly necessary) technique of cutting the corpus callosum, a bundle
of nerve connections that connect the two hemispheres of the brain. The
treatment was successful and provided Sperry with a number of subjects with
whom he could experience what happens when the two cerebral hemispheres are
disconnected from each other.
In his experiments, Sperry proved that the two cerebral hemispheres can act independently.
He also discovered that their function is different: the left hemisphere is
usually the seat of aggressiveness, logical processes, and the interpretation
of written and spoken word. The right hemisphere is responsible for short-term
memory, global thinking, artistic activities (as our response to music) and the
analysis of spatial relationships. These investigations shed light on diseases
and behaviors such as autism, depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s
disease. In 1981, Sperry received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, shared
with David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel for a different research.
