Transvestia

gradually cutting down the fields in which the be- haviorist theories are presumed to be applicable; this presumption often rested on no better basis that that no physiological explanation was readily at hand. Such phenomena (I avoid the prejudicial word 'diseases') as alcoholism and schizophrenia are proving to be biochemical in origin, while left- handedness and some forms of epilepsy proved to be due to unusual brain circuitry. The latter problem led to the discovery, by Dr. N. W. Sperry of Cal Tech, that two "personalities" could be created in an animal by cutting most of the connections between the brain hemispheres, leaving one eye attached to each. The two sides could then be trained independ- ently to do opposite things in response to the same visual stimulus but when both eyes were open, the animal showed no indecision. It would usually per- form according to the training of its previously dominant side, but would occasionally "switch" and respond as trained in the "minor" hemisphere. Later. similar cuts made to correct epilepsy but going too deep, led to a few human "split-brain" cases and others turned up as birth defects. (Scientific American, pp 42-52, Jan. 1964; also, Science, Vol. 133, 1749, June 1961).

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7) Dr. Sperry was kind enough to comment in a private communication that he felt the "girl within" was not specifically located in the minor hemisphere, but in a "female pattern of cells with a character- istic mental set or attitude that serves as a nucleus for the accumulation of additional behavior patterns. When the two (male and female patterns) get establ- ished in the same brain, a large variety of factors would be involved in determining which would be trig- gered into dominance at any time."

8) This ties in closely with work by Dr. S. Levine at Stanford. He has further developed the concept proposed by several others that the brain. is basically female. This appears perfectly logical, as the lowest classes of animals and plants are all

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