Hemispheres Of The Brain

Hemispheres of the Brain


     As I was reading the text I came upon a section that I thought to be

quite fascinating.  It talked about people who have a brain that functions like

two different people inside of the brain.  This is of course the Split-Brain

Personality.  As I studied this topic in more detail I found it to be quite

broad and yet very detailed.  I found that I needed a dictionary to be able to

read all of the medical journals and books that are out there, to be able to

understand what it was exactly, that I was reading.  But with a little study and

research I found that this is a precise science that is still largely full of

mysteries.

        The study of hemispheric asymmetry with in the cerebral cortex had long

been a fascination with the human race.  The ancient Aztec cultures used to

perform a type of brain surgery on humans.  This is evident from the human

remains that we find with incisions and piece's missing of the skull.  Whether

or not these primitive surgeries were successful is unknown.  The earliest way

for man to observe the brain was by noticing brain damage to a particular area

of the brain that was damaged.  Such observations were first recorded some 5,000

years ago (Myers,1995).  The most popular case is that of Phineas Gage a

railroad worker that had severe frontal lobe damage.  This happened when a rail

road spike was shot through his head by a piece of dynamite.  Miraculously he

lived through the experience, but with a severe change in his personality.  From

this physiologists learned that personality was largely controlled from this

point namely by removing a persons inhibitions.

        For the most part the brain has been a mystery that is waiting to be

opened.  The last two decades have witnessed a period of research on the human

cerebral functions comparable to the great era of discovery initiated by Broca

in 1861(Young, G,. Segalowitz, S,. Corter, C,. Trehub, S,.1983).  We have leaned

more in the past 20 years about the brain and it's hemispheric asymmetry than we

had learned in combined previous history.(Kosslyn, 1993).  Most of this new work

has been devoted to the study of cerebral functions in adults, but recently

there has been a growing interest in infants and young children most especially

among the study of hand preference.  About 10 percent of the human population in

left-handed(Myers,1995).  By looking at ancient writings this right-hand

preference has seemed to develop right from the start of the human race.  It

also is apparent that from ultrasound devises that about 9 in 10 fetuses suck

the right hand's thumb(Myers,1995).  This would lead us to believe that

handedness was an inherited trait.  Their was a man by the name of  George

Michel, who in 1981 did a survey of new born babies and what side of their

bodies they liked to lay their heads.  He found that about two-thirds of 150

babies preferred to have their heads turned to the right while about only one-

third laid their heads to the left.  In a follow up survey Michel found that

almost all of the right-sided babies were starting to reach with their right

hand and again one-third of the left sided babies were reaching with their left

hand(Myers,1995).  In contrary, it is also found that handedness is one of the

few genes that are not shared by genetically identical twins.   So what is it

exactly that develops handedness?  Some speculate that the handedness of a

person is evident in the brain and in its specialization concerning hemispheric

asymmetry.  Tests reveal to us that about ninety-five percent of right-handers

process speech primarily in the left hemisphere(Myers,1995).  While the study

has found that left handed people are more likely to be a little more diverse or

ambidextrous in their hemispheric asymmetry.  But as we had learned in the first

chapter is this a correlation or a causation?  I personally feel that it is a

correlation and not a causation.  The brain is a very flexible and delicate

instrument.  It has the ability to adapt and change with di
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