Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience (9780062228819)

by Gazzaniga, Michael S.

I hold no brief for either of these analyses, but I do agree with them that anything as complicated as a nervous system can be understood at several levels. And the logic of levels is such that they must be only loosely connected to one another—otherwise they would not be distinct levels. Moreover, the processes described at level N could probably be achieved by many higher processes at level N + 1—so a description at level N is never really an explanation of what is really going on at level N.

  Problem. What do levels have to do with our definition of cognitive neuroscience? This is not a rhetorical question—I really need an answer.

  For example, a particular drug known to affect synapses in a given way (manipulation at level 1) is observed to affect behavior governed by the patient’s general knowledge of spatial relations (a consequence at level 4). It meets our criterion (applied in manner 2) for inclusion in cognitive neuroscience. But to include it is not to understand it! Help!

  NOTES

  CHAPTER 1: DIVING INTO SCIENCE

  1. R. Sperry, “The growth of nerve circuits,” Scientific American 201 (1959): 68–75.

  2. Told to me by Berkeley physics professor and Alvarez’s former colleague Rich Muller.

  3. Many of these biographical details have been reported in other recent academic reviews: M. S. Gazzaniga, autobiographical essay in L. R. Squire, ed., The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography, vol. 7 (New York: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); M. S. Gazzaniga, “Shifting gears: Seeking new approaches for mind/brain mechanisms,” Annual Review of Psychology 64 (2013): 1–20.

  4. A. P. Aristides, “Spreading depression of activity in the cerebral cortex,” Journal of Neurophysiology 7 (1944): 359–90.

  5. Dr. Linus Pauling in conversation with me.

  6. Variously attributed to Francis Bacon or Roger Bacon (see discussion: Horse Teeth at http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/horse.htm).

  7. K. S. Lashley, Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929).

  8. R. W. Sperry, “Orderly functions with disordered structure,” in H. V. Foerster and G. W. Zopt, eds., Principles of Self-Organization (New York: Pergamon Press, 1962), pp. 279–90.

  9. D. Helfman, “Dr. Mead Livens Lounge,” California Tech 62, no. 24 (1961): 1.

  10. D. G. Attardi and R. W. Sperry, “Preferential selection of central pathways by regenerating optic fibers,” Neurology 7 (1963): 46–64.

  11. Dr. Mitch Glickstein, personal communication.

  12. Dr. Roger Sperry in conversation with me.

  13. Dr. Mitch Glickstein, personal communication.

  14. Steve Allen et al., Dialogues in Americanism (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1964).

  CHAPTER 2: DISCOVERING A MIND DIVIDED

  1. J. Bogen, autobiographical essay in L. R. Squire, ed., The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography, vol. 5 (San Diego: Elsevier Academic Press, 2006), p. 90.

  2. J. D. Watson and F. H. Crick, “Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid,” Nature 171, no. 4356 (1953): 737–38.

  3. M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. Bogen, and R. W. Sperry, “Some functional effects of sectioning the cerebral commissures in man,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 48 (1962): 1765–69; M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. Bogen, and R. W. Sperry, “Laterality effects in somesthesis following cerebral commissurotomy in man,” Neuropsychologia 1 (1963): 209–15; M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. Bogen, and R. W. Sperry, “Observations on visual perception after disconnection of the cerebral hemispheres in man,” Brain 88 (1965): 221–36; M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. Bogen, and R. W. Sperry, “Dyspraxia following division of the cerebral commissures,” Archives of Neurology 16 (1967): 606–12; M. S. Gazzaniga and R. W. Sperry, “Language after section of the cerebral commissures,” Brain 90 (1967): 131–48.

  4. R. E. Myers, “Interocular transfer of pattern discrimination in cats following section of crossed optic fibers,” Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology 48, no. 6 (1955): 470–73.

  5. R. E. Myers and R. W. Sperry, “Interocular transfer of a visual form discrimination habit in cats after section of the optic chiasm and corpus callosum,” Anatomical Record 115 (1953): 351–52.

  6. C. Morgan, Physiological Psychology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1943).

  7. C. Morgan and E. Stellar, Physiological Psychology, 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1943).

  8. P. Black and R. E. Myers, “Visual function of the forebrain commissures in the chimpanzee,” Science 146, no. 3645 (1964): 799–800.

  9. R. W. Sperry, “Mechanisms of neural maturation,” in S. S. Stevens, ed., Handbook of Experimental Psychology (New York: Wiley, 1951).

  10. R. W. Sperry, N. Miner, and R. E. Myers, “Visual pattern perception following subpial slicing and tantalum wire implantations in the visual cortex,” Journal of Comparative Physiological Psychology 48 (1955): 50–58.

  11. M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. Bogen, and R. W. Sperry, R.W. (1962). “Some functional effects of sectioning the cerebral commissures in man,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 48 (1962): 1765–69.

  12. N. Geschwind and E. Kaplan, “A human cerebral deconnection syndrome: A preliminary report,” Neurology 12 (1962): 675–85.

  13. A. Damasio, “Norman Geschwind (1926–1984),” Trends in Neuroscience 8 (1985): 388–91.

  14. N. Geschwind and E. Kaplan, “Human split-brain syndromes,” New England Journal of Medicine 266 (1962): 1013.

  15. B. Grafstein, autobiographical essay in Larry Squire, ed., The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography, vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

  16. N. Geschwind, “Disconnexion syndromes in animals and man,” Brain 88 (1965): 237–94.

  17. J. Bogen, autobiographical essay, p. 87.

  18. J. Rose and V. Mountcastle, “Touch and kinesthesis,” in J. Field, ed., Handbook of Physiology, Section 1: Neurophysiology (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Society, 1959), pp. 387–429.

  19. M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. Bogen, and R. W. Sperry, “Laterality effects in somesthesis following cerebral commissurotomy in man,” Neuropsychologia 1 (1963): 209–15.

  20. Bogen, autobiographical essay, p. 95.

  21. O. Devinsky, “Norman Geschwind: Influence on his career and comments on his course on the neurology of behavior,” Epilepsy and Behavior 15, no. 4 (2009): 413–16.

  22. N. Wade, “American and Briton win Nobel for using chemists’ test for M.R.I.’s,” New York Times, Oct. 7, 2003.

  23. J. Bogen, autobiographical essay.

  24. C. B. Trevarthen, “Two mechanisms of vision in primates,” Psychologische Forschung 31 (1968): 299–337.

  25. M. S. Gazzaniga, “Cross-cueing mechanisms and ipsilateral eye-hand control in split-brain monkeys,” Experimental Neurology 23 (1969): 11–17.

  26. J. E. Bogen and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Cerebral commissurotomy in man: Minor hemisphere dominance for certain visuospatial functions,” Journal of Neurosurgery 23 (1965): 394–99.

  27. M. S. Gazzaniga, “Effects of commissurotomy on a preoperatively learned visual discrimination,” Experimental Neurology 8 (1963): 14–19.

  CHAPTER 3: SEARCHING FOR THE BRAIN’S MORSE CODE

  1. M. S. Gazzaniga, “Interhemispheric cueing systems remaining after section of neocortical commissures in monkeys,” Experimental Neurology 16 (1966): 28–35.

  2. M. S. Gazzaniga and S. Hillyard, “Language and speech capacity of the right hemisphere,” Neuropsychologia 9 (1971): 273–80.

  3. L.B., personal communication

  4. M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. Bogen, and R. W. Sperry, “Observations on visual perception after disconnection of the cerebral hemispheres in man,” Brain 88 (1965): 221–36.

  5. M. S. Gazzaniga and R. W. Sperry, “Language after section of the cerebral commissures,” Brain 90 (1967): 131–48.

  6. M. M. Steriade and R. W. McCarley, Brain Control of Wakefulness and Sleep, 2nd ed. (New York: Plenum, 2005).

  7. G. Berlucchi, M. S. Gazzzaniga, and G. Rizzolatti, “Microelectrode analysis of transfer of v
isual information by the corpus callosum,” Archives Italiennes de Biologie 105 (1967): 583–96.

  8. D. Hubel, David (1995) Eye, Brain, Vision (New York: Scientific American Library, 1995). Series (Book 22).

  9. R. A. Filbey and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Splitting the brain with reaction time,” Psychonomic Science 17 (1969): 335–36.

  10. See G. Berlucchi, “Visual interhemispheric communication and callosal connections of the occipital lobes,” Cortex (2013); S0010-9452(13)00037-3; doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2013.02.001.

  11. D. Premack, “Reversibility of reinforcement relation,” Science 136, no. 3512 (1962): 255–57.

  12. C. Blakemore and D. E. Mitchell, “Environmental modification of the visual cortex and the neural basis of learning and memory,” Nature 241 (1973): 467–68.

  13. M. S. Gazzaniga, “Cross-cueing mechanisms and ipsilateral eye-hand control in split-brain monkeys,” Experimental Neurology 23 (1969): 11–17.

  14. See R. W. Sperry, “Brain bisection and mechanisms of consciousness,” in J. C. Eccles, ed., Brain and Conscious Experience (Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1966), pp. 299–313.

  15. M. S. Gazzaniga, “Understanding layers: From neuroscience to human responsibility,” in A. Battro, S. Dehaene, and W. Singer, eds., Proceedings of the Working Group on Neurosciences and the Human Person: New Perspectives on Human Activities, Scripta Varia 121 (Vatican City: Ex Aedibus Academicis, 2013).

  16. Op-ed, Los Angeles Times, May 18, 1967.

  CHAPTER 4: UNMASKING MORE MODULES

  1. N. M. Weidman, Constructing Scientific Psychology: Karl Lashley’s Mind-Brain Debates (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

  2. M. S. Gazzaniga, The Bisected Brain (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970).

  3. J. Didion, “Letters from ‘Manhattan,’” New York Review of Books, August 16, 1979, pp. 18–19.

  4. M. S. Gazzaniga, “Lunch with Leon (Festinger),” Perspectives on Psychological Science 1 (2006): 88–94.

  5. R. G. Collingwood, An Autobiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939).

  6. K. Lewin, “1963 Frontiers in group dynamics,” in D. Cartwright, ed., Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers (London: Tavistock, 1947), pp. 188–237.

  7. L. Festinger, H. Riecken, and S. Schachter, When Prophecy Fails (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1956).

  8. M. S. Gazzaniga, I. S. Szer, and A. M. Crane, “Modification of drinking behavior in the adipsic rat,” Experimental Neurology 42 (1974): 483–89.

  9. M. S. Gazzaniga, “Brain lesions and behavior,” in C. Blakemore and M. S. Gazzaniga, eds., Handbook of Psychobiology (New York: Academic Press, 1973).

  10. D. Premack, “Sameness versus difference: From physical similarity to analogy,” 2009, http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~premack/Essays/Entries/2009/5/15_Sameness_Versus_Difference_From_Physical_Similarity_to_Analogy.html.

  11. A. Velletri-Glass, M. S. Gazzaniga, and D. Premack, “Artificial language training in global aphasics,” Neuropsychologia 11 (1973): 95–103.

  12. M. S. Gazzaniga, A. Velletri-Glass, M. T. Sarno, and J. B. Posner, “Pure word deafness and hemispheric dynamics: A case history,” Cortex 9 (1973): 136–43.

  13. Ibid.

  14. M. S. Gazzaniga, “One brain—two minds?,” American Scientist 60 (1972): 311–17.

  15. D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896). (Reprinted from D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature [London: John Noon, 1739].)

  16. “Normative,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normative.

  17. A. R. Gibson and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Hemisphere differences in eating behavior in split-brain monkeys,” Physiologist 14 (1971): 150.

  18. J. D. Johnson and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Reversal behavior in split-brain monkeys,” Physiology and Behavior 6 (1971): 707–709.

  19. J. D. Johnson and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Cortical-cortical pathways involved in reinforcement,” Nature 223 (1969): 71.

  20. D. G. Deutsch et al., “Analysis of protein levels and synthesis after learning in the split-brain pigeon,” Brain Research 198 (1980): 135–45.

  21. M. S. Gazzaniga, “Interhemispheric communication of visual learning,” Neuropsychologia 4 (1966): 183–89.

  22. D. H. Wilson, A. G. Reeves, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “‘Central’ commissurotomy for intractable generalized epilepsy,” Neurology 32 (1982): 687–97.

  23. G. Risse, J. E. LeDoux, D. H. Wilson, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “The anterior commissure in man: Functional variation in a multi-sensory system,” Neuropsychologia 16 (1975): 23–31.

  24. J. E. LeDoux, D. H. Wilson, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Block design performance following callosal sectioning: Observations on functional recovery,” Archives of Neurology 35 (1978): 506–508.

  25. J. LeDoux, The Cognitive Neuroscience of Mind: A Tribute to Michael S. Gazzaniga (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010).

  26. M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. LeDoux, C. S. Smylie, and B. T. Volpe, “Plasticity in speech organization following commissurotomy,” Brain 102 (1979): 805–15.

  CHAPTER 5: BRAIN IMAGING CONFIRMS SPLIT-BRAIN SURGERIES

  1. B. Volpe, J. LeDoux, and M. Gazzaniga, “Information processing on visual stimuli in an extinguished field,” Nature 282 (1979): 722–24.

  2. L. Weiskrantz, Blindsight: A Case Study and Implications (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).

  3. J. Holtzman, “Interactions between cortical and subcortical visual areas: Evidence from human commissurotomy patients,” Vision Research 24, no. 8 (1984): 801–14.

  4. S. M. Kosslyn, J. D. Holtzman, M. J. Farah, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “A computational analysis of mental image generation: Evidence from functional dissociations in split-brain patients,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 114 (1985): 311–41.

  5. Pierre S. DuPont addressing the French National Assembly in 1790.

  6. G. A. Miller, Language and Communication (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1951).

  7. N. Chomsky, Syntactic Structures (New York: Mouton, 1957).

  8. G. A. Miller and N. Chomsky (1963). “Finitary models of language users,” in G. A. Miller & N. Chomsky, eds., Handbook of Mathematical Psychology (New York: Wiley, 1963), pp. 421–91.

  9. G. A. Miller, “The cognitive revolution: A historical perspective,” Trends in Cognitive Science 7, no. 3 (2003): 141–44.

  10. J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick, “A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid,” Nature 171 (1953): 737–38.

  11. J. D. Holtzman, J. J. Sidtis, B. T. Volpe, D. H. Wilson, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Dissociation of spatial information for stimulus localization and the control of attention,” Brain 104 (1981): 861–72.

  12. J. R. Moeller, B. T. Volpe, J. S. Perlmutter, M. E. Raichle, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Brain pattern space: A new analytic method uncovers covarying regional values in PET measured patterns of human brain activity,” Society for Neuroscience Abstracts (1985).

  13. M. S. Gazzaniga, The Social Brain (New York: Basic Books, 1985).

  CHAPTER 6: STILL SPLIT

  1. R. Galambos and S. A. Hillyard, Electrophysiological Approaches to Human Cognitive Processing (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981).

  2. G. R. Mangun and S. A. Hillyard, “Spatial gradients of visual attention: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence,” Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 70 (1988): 417–28.

  3. N. Jerne, “Antibodies and learning: Selection versus instruction,” in G. C. Quarton, T. Melnechuk, and F. O. Schmitt, eds., The Neurosciences: A Study Program (New York: Rockefeller University Press, 1967), pp. 200–205.

  4. S. Pinker, The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind (New York: William Morrow, 1994).

  5. M. S. Gazzaniga, Nature’s Mind (New York: Basic Books, 1992).

  6. R. Granger, J. Ambros-Ingerson, and G. Lynch, “Derivation of encoding characteristics of layer II cerebral cortex,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 1, no. 1 (1989): 61–87.

  7. S. A. Seymour, P. A. Reuter-Lorenz, and M. S
. Gazzaniga, “The disconnection syndrome: Basic findings reaffirmed,” Brain 117 (1994): 105–15.

  8. D. M. MacKay and V. MacKay, “Explicit dialog between left and right half-systems of split brains,” Nature 295 (1982): 690–91.

  9. J. Sergent, “Unified response to bilateral hemispheric stimulation by a split-brain patient,” Nature 305 (1983): 800–802.

  10. J. Sergent, “Interhemispheric integration of conflicting information by a split-brain man,” Dyslexia: A Global Issue 18 (1984): 533–46.

  11. See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_and_Brittany_Hensel.

  12. Abigail and Brittany, http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/abby-and-brittany.

  13. M. S. Gazzaniga, J. D. Holtzman, and C. S. Smylie, “Speech without conscious awareness,” Neurology 37 (1987): 682–85.

  14. S. A. Hillyard and M. Kutas, “Electrophysiology of cognitive processing,” Annual Review of Psychology 34 (1983): 33–61.

  15. Personal communication. Also, S. J. Luck, S. A. Hillyard, G. R. Mangun, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Independent hemispheric attentional systems mediate visual search in split brain patients,” Nature 342 (1989): 543–45.

  16. J. D. Holtzman, J. J. Sidtis, B. T. Volpe, D. H. Wilson, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Dissociation of spatial information for stimulus localization and the control of attention,” Brain 104 (1981): 861–72.

  17. P. A. Reuter-Lorenz, G. Nozawa, M. S. Gazzaniga, and H. H. Hughes, “The fate of neglected targets: A chronometric analysis of redundant target effects in the bisected brain,” Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance 21 (1995): 211–23.

  18. J. D. Holtzman and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Dual task interactions due exclusively to limits in processing resources,” Science 218 (1982): 1325–27.

  19. J. D. Holtzman and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Enhanced dual task performance following callosal commissurotomy in humans,” Neuropsychologia 23 (1985): 315–21.

  20. A. Kingstone, J. T. Enns, G. R. Mangun, and M. S. Gazzaniga, “Guided visual search is lateralized in split-brain patients,” Psychological Science 6 (1995): 118–21.