IUBio

Right/Left brain

Todd I. Stark stark at dwovax.enet.dec.com
Fri Jul 23 11:39:27 EST 1993


Sorry, Raymond informed me that he wished a more general treatment of
the subject, not a continuation of the previous discussion.  
Let me start with a reference list I compiled a while back :

	B. Milner, "Hemispheric Specializations : Scope and Limits,"
	in Schmitt and Worden (eds), _The Neurosciences : Third
	Study Program_, Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press, 1974, pp. 75-89

	M. Kinsbourne, "Hemispheric Specialization and the Growth of
	Human Understanding," _American_Psychologist_, 37 (4[1982]):411-420

	D. Kimura, "The Asymmetry of the Human Brain," _Scientific_American_,
	228, (3[1973]):70-80.

	R.D. Nebes, 1974, "Hemispheric Specialization in commissurotomized
	man," _Psychological_Bulletin_, 81, pp. 1-14.

	M. Allen, 1983, "Models of Hemispheric Specialization," 
	_Psychological_Bulletin_, 93, 73-104.

	A. Gevins et. al., in _Science_, sometime in 1979 had possibly
	the most 'skeptical' view of hemisphere specialization,
	claiming from his EEG studies of dozens of people that 
	when motor contaminants were removed, that there was no
	preferential activation of either hemisphere for even the simplest
	of tasks.  His Aug 21, 1981 article in _Science_ (vol. 213,
	pp. 918-921, "Electrical Potentials in Human Brain During Cognition:
	New Method Reveals Dynamic Patters of Correlation," is even
	better for discussing his findings, though less specifically
	addressing hemisphere specialization.  

	My impression is equipotentiality is mostly dead, but that 'naive 
	localization' doesn't quite do the job, either.  The patterns of 
	activity for even simple tasks is extremely complex, not hemisphere
	preferential in any useful sense.  The main differences
	between the hemispheres are (suggested by brain damage study for the
	most part) that sophisticated language depends on the left side in 
	most normal right handers (though the right has _some_ primitive 
	language use), and that spatial processing is (to a lesser extent) 
	dependent on the right side in most neurologically normal right
	handers.

	But for useful investigation of practical problem solving
	and higher mental abilities, it probably requires a finer
	breakdown than provided by hemisphere specialization.

	As I mentioned in alt.s-i, Howard Gardner provides a nice
	review of the background and foundation for this kind of study 
	in his _Frames_of_Mind_, _Multiple_Intelligences_.

	Hope this helps.
						kind regards,

						todd
	
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Todd I. Stark				  stark at dwovax.enet.dec.com           |
| Digital Equipment Corporation		             (215) 542-3573           |
| Philadelphia, Pa. USA                                                       |
|    "(A word is) the skin of a living thought"  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.   |
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+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Todd I. Stark				  stark at dwovax.enet.dec.com           |
| Digital Equipment Corporation		             (215) 542-3573           |
| Philadelphia, Pa. USA                                                       |
|    "(A word is) the skin of a living thought"  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.   |
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