Biographical Memoirs Volume 71 (1997) / Chapter Skim
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ROGER WOLCOTT SPERRY
ROGER WOLCOTT SPERRY
Pages 315-332
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From page 315... ...
Indeed, his first paper, published in the Journal of General Psychology in 1939, entitles! "Action Current Study in Movement Coordination," begins: "The objective psychologist, hoping to get at the physiological sicle of behavior, is apt to plunge immecliately into neurology trying to correlate brain activity with mocles of experience," en c!
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During that period, in aciclition to developing highly skilled neurosurgical techniques, he made the first of what was to become a number of successful challenges to existing concepts related to neuronal specificity en c! brain circuitry.
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The demonstration that the basic structure of the mammalian central nervous system is h are! wired, and unmodifiable by training, resulted in significant modifications of treatment protocols.
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any adverse effect on cortical function. These studies demonstrated that perception clepencis on vertically oriented!
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that its major function may be to mediate epileptic seizure activity from one hemisphere to the other, Warren McCulloch quipped that it may simply be there to keep the two hemispheres from falling into each other. The mystery of the corpus callosum continues!
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by a clelay in buiTcling construction at NIH, cluring which time Sperry was offerer! the prestigious Hixon Professorship of Psychobiology at the California Institute of Technology, a position he began in 1954.
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the role of transitory facilitatory motor sets en c! "perceptual expectancy" that continues to have a profounc!
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These studies elegantly eluciciatec! some of the major functions of the corpus callosum in interhemispheric memory transfer en c!
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investigators to compare cognitive abilities between the two separatec! brain halves, demonstrating differences theretofore unrecognized.
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this issue as early as 1959 as part of a discussion at a Josiah Macy conference on the central nervous system en c! behavior, where he stated: I have never been entirely satisfied with the materialistic or behavioristic thesis that a complete explanation of brain function is possible in purely objective terms with no reference whatever to subjective experience; i.e., that in scientific analysis we can confidently and advantageously disregard the subjective properties of the brain process.
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grating macro- and microdeterminism with the causal reality of mental states is a more valid foundation for all science, not just psychology, with "endless humanistic implications for philosophy, religion and human values (1993~. By introducing the issue of human values, Sperry moved beyond the specifics of mind and consciousness to urge that these very unique and powerful forces be directed toward improving and preserving the quality of life on our planet, rather than the reverse.
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of Awaji, is to work toward establishing an International Network University of the Green World, dedicated to the continuing study of human values. Sperry's thinking about subjective experience, consciousness, the mincI, en c!
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numerous adventures in Baja, California, camping on remote beaches en c! fishing from a 12-foot rubber boat with homemade lures.
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WANT TO THANK Norma Sperry, not only for her help in providing personal information about Roger, but also for reading and commenting on drafts of this memoir.
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:241-44. For a review of work on neuronal specificity from the post-Sperry era to the present, see C
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20:295313. 1947 Cerebral regulation of motor coordination in monkeys following multiple transection of sensorimotor cortex.
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:878-85. 1994 Holding course amid shifting paradigms.
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it' ~ in J v)
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