VIRGIN IEWS by VIRGINIA

RIGHT HAND-LEFT BRAIN

In this edition of Virgin Views I am going to share with you some- thing that is still a half-baked idea in the back of my head but it is kind of intriguing and there may be, among my readers, some who are skilled in psychology, sociology, and biology sufficiently to be intrigued by the concept and maybe somebody can figure out some experimental techniques to verify it. So here goes.

For some years back I have been fascinated by some of the re- search done at Cal Tech and elsewhere on what are called "split brains." As mot everybody knows, the brain-the cerebrum, that is— the larger part of the brain is divided into two hemispheres. A few are aware that sensory and motor nerves from the right side of the body cross over the left hemisphere of the brain and vice versa. Half of the eye fields are connected to one side and half to the other. Since the inner (nose side) of each retina is handled by nerves connected to the opposite sides of the brain and the outer or temple side of the fields is connected to the same side hemisphere, it means that the outer half of the right eye and the inner half of the left eye send nerve fibers to the right hemisphere and the inner side of the right eye and the outer half of the left eye are connected to the left hemisphere. Very few know that when the bundle of nerves that run between the two halves is cut, which may happen due to an accident, and is some- times resorted to in special brain surgery, the two halves of the brain are found to function as separate brains in many ways. Not only does the left brain control the right side of the body and vice versa, but the left brain is the principle center for language and speech, of logic reason, linear thought, mathematics, etc. The right hemisphere seems to be more concerned with spatial relationships, emotionality, in- tuitive thinking, art, music, color, etc. The experiments demonstrating this are interesting and intriguing but are too complicated to

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