Right vs. Left Brain
Our brain, like many other parts of our anatomy, is made up of two
halves, a left brain and a right brain. They are connected to each other by a
thick cable of nerves at the base of each brain, called the corpus callosum. It
is analogous to a cable or network connection between two incredibly fast and
immensely powerful computers, each running a different program to process
basically the same input. When Roger Sperry severed the corpus callosum in the
sixties, which connected the left and right brains, he was stunned by the fact
that his ‘split-brain’ patients behaved as if they had two minds and two
persons in one body!
He found that the patient could name an object but could not explain what it was used
for when the object was shown only to the right eye (the left ‘verbal’ brain
processes data from the right visual field). When shown to the left eye (the
right ‘non-verbal’ brain processes data from the left visual field), the
patient could explain and demonstrate its use, but could not name it. Roger
Sperry received the 1981 Nobel Prize for his work in this area. It appears that
when a normal person names an object and explains its purpose, both halves or
hemispheres of the brain, which are connected by the corpus callosum,
participate in this final conclusion.
