THE

Other B o o k s b y Michael S. G a z z a n i g a

THE BISECTED BRAIN ( 1 9 7 0 )

SOCIAL
FUNDAMENTALS OF PSYCHOLOGY (1973)

THE INTEGRATED MIND, with Joseph LeDoux ( 1 9 7 8 )

PSYCHOLOGY (1980) BRAIN

FUNDAMENTALS OF NEUROSCIENCE,

with Bruce T . Volpe and Diana Steen ( 1 9 8 0 )

Discovering the Networks

of the Mind

MICHAEL S. GAZZANIGA

Basic B o o k s , I n c . , P u b l i s h e r s N e w York
"Hymn to Zeus" from George Boas, The History of Ideas. Copyright 1969
Charles Scribner's Sons. Reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner's Sons.

T o the m e m o r y o f Jeffrey D a v i d H o l t z m a n

Scientist, Friend, C o m p a n i o n

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gazzaniga, Michael S.
The social brain.

Includes index.
1. BrainLocalization of functions. 2. Split
brain. 3. Belief and doubt. 4. Neuropsychology.
I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Brainphysiologypopular
works. 2. Neuropsychologypopular works. 3. Social
Valuespopular works. WL 103 G289s]
QP385.G394 1985 612'.825 85-47563
ISBN 0^65-07850-8 (cloth)
ISBN 0-465-07851-6 (paper)

Copyright 1985 by Basic Books, Inc.

Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Vincent Torre
87 88 89 90 MPC 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 CONTENTS

PREFACE ix

C H A P T E R 1. T h e Interpretive Brain 3

C H A P T E R 2. Basic Brain Principles 9

C H A P T E R 3. Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early 27

Years

C H A P T E R 4. Left-Brain, Right-Brain Mania: 47

A Debunking

C H A P T E R 5. Brain M e c h a n i s m s and Belief 60

Formation

C H A P T E R 6. T h e Search for Modularity 81

C H A P T E R 7. Modularity a n d M e m o r y 100

C H A P T E R 8. Brain M o d u l e s a n d the 117

Unconscious

C H A P T E R 9. Psychological Aspects o f 136

Modularity

C H A P T E R 10. Setting the H u m a n Context: 147

N o t e s from Prehistory

C H A P T E R 11. O n the Inevitability o f 165

Religious Beliefs

C H A P T E R 12. After H o u r s 182

NOTES 205

INDEX 213

vii
 PREFACE

THIS IS A STORY about a scientific discovery, about its

evolution and ultimately its effect on my personal understanding
of social process.
Looking back over the last twenty-five years, I see how little
we can foretell our future. From personal habits to scientific
pursuits, our year-to-year endeavors change in ways that are
totally unpredictable. What do not change are initial unanswered
questions and, for me, those centered on how brain science
might address problems of personal consciousness and through
those a wider understanding of social processes. Some highly
intelligent people can marvel over the elucidation of a phenom-
enon and are quite happy to leave it hanging in a factual capsule.
Others are plagued with the secondary question of how a fact
relates to a value, or to a personal understanding of life. While
most scientific facts do not directly relate to broader social
realities, some do. I think I have come across such connections,
which is one reason for my writing this book.
In this book I recount how my experience in brain and
psychological research has led to a mechanistic understanding
of the way our brains are organized to generate our cognitions
and, ultimately, our beliefs. Personal beliefs are what we are all
about. We live and die by our commitments to particular views
of life. What is it about the human brain that finds the formation
of beliefs so central to its operation? Is there an identifiable logic
to human brain organization that predicts which phenomena
relate to belief formation? I address these and many other
questions, but only after what I hope is an enlightening and

ix
Preface Preface

even entertaining account of my brain research activities over I am accustomed to writing in a scientific style that requires
the last twenty-five years. references for everything. The wrath of one's colleagues when
I tell the story chronologically, as it happened. My first draft, they think their ideas are not properly cited can scarcely be
however, was not written that way. There I fell into the usual imagined. Since, however, this book is as much a personal
scientific posture of describing and explaining an idea formally, narrative as a scientific study, I have compromised by providing
in an order that implied that the theoretical construction argued source notes only for direct quotes and other specific references.
was preformed in the mind, that substantiating experiments were
carried out, and the results were presented to the world as an Thanks are due to the many people and institutions who
inexorable product of cold logic. Of course, precious few pieces helped me carry out this exercise.
of human knowledge ever emerge in that way, although most I am most indebted to Jeffrey Holtzman, to whom this book
descriptions of scientific odysseys lead the reader to believe that is dedicated. He encouraged me and humored me throughout
research always progresses logically. my work. His criticisms were unrelenting but always constructive.
The story is now presented in three parts. First I relate how His tragic death from Wegener's disease in the spring of 1985
my understanding of the basic principles of brain organization, has created an emptiness in my life that will not soon be filled.
as learned from studying unique populations of neurologically He was the stuff of science, of life. He was unique.
impaired patients, argues for a particular view of brain function I am indebted to Stephen Kosslyn, Nisson Schechter, Ira
that I call the modular view. The data suggest that our mental Black, and Michael Posner for their close readings of an early
lives amount to a reconstruction of the independent activities of version of the manuscript, and for their many helpful suggestions.
the many brain systems we all possess. A confederation of Thanks also go to Edgar Zurif, Gary Lynch, Ofer Bar-Yosef,
mental systems resides within us. Metaphorically, we humans and Robert Sommerville for their criticisms. I am also indebted
are more of a sociological entity than a single unified psychological to many of the principals in my intellectual life, including Leon
entity. We have a social brain. Festinger, David Premack, and George Miller. All gave help and
I then consider the implications of these ideas from the suggestions. At a practical level, my secretary, Christine Black,
perspective of archaeology as well as from an interpretation of worked tirelessly as she always does, and Kitty Miller made a
historical records related to the formation of religious beliefs. (It valiant effort to turn my prose into English. Most important, I
will become obvious later why I make these connections.) And thank all of the wonderful patients who made this work possible.
finally, in the last chapter, I argue that my basic findings in General support came from the Sloan Foundation, the Mc-
brain research lead to a particular view of culture. It is not a Knight Foundation, and the U.S. Public Health Service. I was
chapter for the timid. Understanding human biologic and psy- able to write this particular book as the result of a generous
chologic relations is still a most primitive enterprise. As our fellowship from the John Solomon Guggenheim Memorial
understanding of these processes deepens, so too will our under- Foundation. Finally, my profound thanks to the staff at Basic
standing of social process. Yet, what I hope this chapter will Books, and especially to Jo Ann Miller, my editor. She made it
suggest is that the ultimate and proper task of scientists is to all work.
work on these problems in an attempt to achieve such a
synthesis.

xi
The Social Brain
 CHAPTER 1

The Interpretive
Brain

BELIEVING is what we humans do bestwe may believe that

there is a God, or that the ACLU does or does not do good
workand we are in fact the only species to do so. What is
there about the human brain or mind that endows us with this
unique capacity? And, more important, in what ways does this
remarkable ability relate to how we create and order the world
around us? In this book I propose to demonstrate a new and
vital link between the way our brains are organized and the way
we construct beliefsa link that I hope will help us gain a
greater understanding of human culture in general and of the
important connection between biological processes and critical
issues in human behavior.
Beliefs stand at the end point of much of our cognitive
activity. They are measurable properties of our mental life and
Drawing by Lorenz; 1980 The New Yorker Magazine, Inc. they are, needless to say, powerful in determining much of what
we accept as true about the world. Beliefs are central to the
human experience, yet until recently the topic of how beliefs are
formed and why we are so committed to them has been a topic
more for philosophers and novelists than for laboratory scientists.
 T H E SOCIAL B R A I N T h e I n t e r p r e t i v e Brain

However, recent advances in our understanding of how the brain have access to the product of these brain modules and not to
and mind are organized are changing this view. In fact, right the process itself.
now we humans have more insight into why we behave the way These relatively independent modular units can actually dis-
we do than we have ever had before. And it is this knowledge, charge and produce real behaviors. With regular frequency we
gained in large part from the careful study of neurologically find ourselves engaged in activities that seem to come out of
disordered patients, that opens the door to a new understanding nowhere. Everything from eating atypical foods to forming
of the fixed characteristics of our species. uncommon relationships occurs, and at one level these activities
We oegin by taking a new view of the organization of the appear to start up from scratch. Through experiments to be
brain itself. Many prevalent theories about human thought have reported in this book, we are beginning to learn how this
argued that problem solving occurs only at the level of conscious occurrence comes about at a mechanistic level.
experience and that it is the product of the human language The realization that the mind has a modular organization
system per se. It has been a major assumption of many investi- suggests that some of our behavior should be accepted as
gators in psychological research that the elements of our thought capricious and that a particular behavior might have no origins
processes proceed serially in our "consciousness" for construction in our conscious thought process. For example, we just happen
into cognitions. I think this notion of linear, unified conscious to eat frogs' legs for the first time or we decide to read a different
experience is dead wrong. kind of book. But as we shall see, we humans resist the
In contrast, I argue that the human brain has a modular-type interpretation that such behaviors are capricious because we
organization. By modularity I mean that the brain is organized seem to be endowed with an endless capacity to generate
into relatively independent functioning units that work in parallel. hypotheses as to why we engage in any behavior.
The mind is not an indivisible whole, operating in a single way In short, our species has a special brain component I will call
to solve all problems. Rather, there are many specific and the "interpreter." Even though a behavior produced by one of
identifiably different units of the mind dealing with all the these modules can be expressed at any time during our waking
information they are exposed to. The vast and rich information hours, this special interpreter accommodates and instantly con-
impinging on our brains is broken up into parts, and many structs a theory to explain why the behavior occurred. While the
systems start at once to work on it. These modular activities interpreter does not actually know why there was an impulse to
frequently operate apart from our conscious verbal selves. That consume frogs' leg it might hypothesize, "Because I want to
does not mean they are "unconscious" or "preconscious" pro- learn about French food." This special capacity, which is a brain
cesses and outside our capacity to isolate and understand them. component found in the left dominant hemisphere of right-
Rather, they are processes going on in parallel to our conscious handed humans, reveals how important the carrying out of
thought, and contributing to our conscious structure in identifi- behaviors is for the formation of many theories about the self.
able ways. At the level of conscious experience, we frequently The dynamics that exist between our mind modules and our
ask ourselves where particular ideas came from when they appear left-brain interpreter module are responsible for the generation
in our consciousness. For example, when we write, we suddenly of human beliefs.
think of the exact way to phrase an idea. Where does such an Once one becomes sensitive to how strongly behavior guides
insight come from? We don't seem to know. We seem only to our beliefs and how they are formed, one becomes aware of the

4
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN T h e I n t e r p r e t i v e Brain

importance of the overarching social structure. Thus, an envi- as freely willed. At a psychological level, Albert Einstein felt he
ronment that conditions some of our mental modules to actions was acting freely even though intellectually he was committed
that may not be in the long-term best interests of our general to the idea of a mechanistic universe. The belief that we act of
belief systems ought to be avoided. For example, a belief in our own free will is such a powerful one it must result from a
marital fidelity might be seriously challenged when at a Christmas basic feature of human brain organization. I propose that this
party you find yourself succumbing to the attractive advances of belief follows from the modular theory of mind that will be
someone new. That is, possible rewards from the environment explicated here. Since we are continually interpreting behaviors
could find their mark in one of the modules, which in turn produced by independent brain modules as behaviors that are
generates a behavior. That behavior, once carried out, must be produced by the self, we come to the conclusion, which is largely
interpreted, and the new belief about the value of fidelity that illusionary, that we are acting freely. I will argue that it is this
results may well be at odds with other values. As we come to inescapable personal perception that finds our beliefs becoming
appreciate this process we gain a greater understanding of the altered the way they do in response to a variety of social forces.
biological basis of cultural phenomena. In this book I explore with the reader the scientific evidence
Human brain research urges the view that our brains are that has led me to these views. Much of the story is about the
organized in such a way that many mental systems coexist in exciting discoveries of mental mechanisms as they have become
what may be thought of as a confederation. The findings of this more generally understood by our studies of the brain. But I
research also suggest that identifiable regions of the human brain hope to go beyond this to place those findings into a larger
allow for certain computations that make our species the only social context, a context that surely interacts with the physical
one capable of high-order, abstract inference, and that out of nature of our species, but is one that is usually not addressed.
this special inference-making capacity comes the unique capacity Basic cognitive phenomena, such as acquiring and holding
to interpret our multiple self. These interpretations can actually social beliefs, are just as much a product of human brain
create beliefs. The possession of beliefs is a mechanism our organization as our desires to eat, sleep, and have sex. These
species uses to free itself from being in a simple reflexlike special human properties of the mind are the result of brain
relation with the rewards and punishments of society. At the organization, and as such reveal that many of the surface
same time, when our interpretive brain, which generates our differences in cultural beliefs are the inevitable product of how
personal sets of beliefs, is overwhelmed by the magnitude and the brain interprets the many milieus of this world. We know
frequency of such rewards, it can fall victim to new beliefs that that the four or so billion people on this earth have the same
may form as a result of reflexively having to interpret the elicited type of brain and that our species has possessed this type of
behaviors. brain for at least forty thousand years. It is an awesome fact,
Related to these principles of brain operation is the personal one that gives me hope that by divining the brain's nature we
perception humans possess that they act of their own free will. will become enlightened about the mechanisms of belief formation
Civilized, educated, twentieth-century humans, some even con- and consequently more tolerant of the diversity of human beliefs.
trary to their working knowledge of modern physics, believe Understanding the brain processes that lead to the formation
they are freely acting agents. Even habitual behaviors are viewed and maintenance of belief systems gives us a foundation for

6 7
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

understanding more clearly the basics of human mental life. But CHAPTER 2
in order to accompany me on the journey through my experiences
in brain research that lead up to these ideas, it is important for
readers to grasp certain basic principles of brain organization,
which I turn to now in chapter 2. Once these principles are
understood, the larger issues of how the brain actually produces
cognition and beliefs become a joy to discover.
Basic Brain
Principles

U N D E R S T A N D I N G the brain's relation to basic issues of

human nature raises some deep questions about knowledge of
the structure and function of that particular piece of biological
tissue. The majority of scientists see the brain itself as endlessly
modifiable and ever-responsive to environmental contingencies.
To them, the mind of a human just born into the world is rather
empty, but ready to be filled up and structured by the cultural
environment. Those who hold such a view look with suspicion
on findings that seem to suggest there are set properties to brain
tissue that impose specific features on the mind. In order to
learn more about how principles of brain organization relate to
cognition, we must first learn something about certain main
features of brain development and about their psychological
correlates. In short, one needs to know what brain tissue is like.
How does it work? How does it respond to experience? What
limits does the nature of this tissue put on any theorizing about
our species?
How such questions might be answered began to be revealed
to me about twenty-five years ago when I read a most intriguing
article in Scientific American written by my future mentor,
1
Roger W. Sperry. I was then an undergraduate at Dartmouth
College. He was one of the foremost brain scientists in the world,
8
9
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Basic Brain P r i n c i p l e s

the Hixon Professor of Psychobiology at the California Institute biologically educated person is amazed by those who maintain
of Technology (Caltech). Sperry's article explored how nerve the tabula rasa theory, that all brains start this life more or less
circuits grow to specific places in the brain. For example, how the same. That idea, welded onto the American psyche by the
does a frog's optic nerve, the nerve that will carry information Constitution, was forcefully argued in the intellectual community
about what the frog sees, find its way from the eye to its proper by the psychologist, John B. Watson. Watson was the recognized
connection in the brain? Any explanation of such matters must spokesman for an American reaction against German Rationalism
draw on the knowledge of how the brain is structured by the and the fragility of introspective evidence when taken as scientific
genetic code, and what are its limits for change in response to 2
evidence. His views came to rest on two major considerations.
environmental events. Understanding how nerves grow is about The first is that the manipulation of reward contingencies can
as fundamental as things get in learning about the brain. be a powerful determinant of behavior, especially in animals.
The 1960s were golden years for American science, when The second is that interaction with the environment gives the
almost every reasonable research program could get funded. On nervous system its structure. Watson made his case at a time
what I thought was a long shot, I wrote to ask Sperry for a when the brain sciences were young and scientists were largely
summer job between my junior and senior years. My home was ignorant of how the brain is built. In fact, it could be argued
close to Caltech, and I thought it would be perfect. T o my that when Watson was proposing his theories he was actually
surprise, he wrote back saying that it would not only be possible encouraged by contemporary biological research that the brain
but that the National Science Foundation had summer fellowships was infinitely plastic. At that time, in the early 1930s, the
for the likes of me. I couldn't believe it, but nonetheless managed accepted view in brain science was that "function precedes
to accept the offer. That summer proved to be the pivotal ten form," that an arm had to be used as an arm before the neurons
weeks of my life. innervating the arm became specified for that purpose. In short,
The lab was exceedingly cordial, and Sperry, who was already the biologic view was the equivalent of the psychologic view of
something of a legend, welcomed me with every courtesy. I was the newborn organism being born with a clean slate.
the lowest underling in the lab; but as in any large lab there . Sperry's work helped to set things straight. He showed that
were other underlings there who were generally available as the intricate neural networks that manage and control the
companions and who taught me not only about the brain but appendages are established during development and are carefully
about science in general. It was my good luck to get to know a formed and built under the control of genetic mechanisms^
most articulate and enthusiastic young psychologist, Mitchell These circuits become set in their ways early in life and theif~
Glickstein, who now, after years in American universities, is a capacities are strictly limited and defined at that time. The
professor at University College in London. Glickstein was doing implication of this work on the peripheral nervous system is
fine work at Caltech but also was one of those memorable people that many central circuits of the brain are the same, such that
who gave freely of his time to teach neophytes like me. He was, each person's individual nature reflects his or her underlying,
and still is, a wonderful scholar and teacher, and I learned much genetically prescribed neural organization. How brains adopt
from him. psychological character depends not only on accidents of envi-
My first order of business was to become familiar with the ronmental events but also on their innate architecture.
early experiments done by Sperry. I was soon to learn that any This work began at the University of Chicago when Sperry,

10 n
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Basic Brain Principles

still a graduate student, questioned the views of his famous

3
mentor, Paul Weiss. The thrust of Sperry's research was that
nerves grow in prespecified ways to their destination points.
Thus, contrary to Weiss's view, nerves grow out to a limb
already centrally specified through genetically controlled mech-
anisms. Nerves do not grow out in a random way and then have
1
the peripheral structure they happen onto specify what they d o .
Nerves are predestined to do particular jobs and they find the
right peripheral tissues to connect with. For example, if in a rat
the left hind leg nerve is experimentally diverted through surgical
manipulation into the right hind leg, the right hind leg begins
to act as if it were the left hind leg. And the situation remains
4
this way for the life of the rat.
In other classic experiments Sperry cut the optic nerve of a
goldfish and studied how specifically it would grow back to the
proper points of connection in the brain itself. Here, instead of
looking at the specificity of nerves growing out of the central
nervous system, he was assessing the kind of specificity for
nerves growing into the central nervous system, the seat of
important psychological processes. The regenerative process was
most exact, with specific retinal points represented by particular
neurons finding their way to definite regions in the fish's visual
system. If the neurons were diverted into an incorrect area, they
would grow through foreign zones and find the right part of the
brain (see figure 2 . 1 ) . Figure 2.1. An example of Sperry's work on neurospecificity. The
Sperry's model, which has now been verified through thousands neurons from the fish eye that had been cut grow back to their proper,
5
of examples, is that "form precedes function." Currently there exact places in the brain, bypassing incorrect zones (start at top left and
are several theories about what the exact, biologic mechanism is follow arrows).

by which a nerve knows where to grow. The identification of issue, working with data, talking about the biologic context, gave
6
that mechanism is not settled. N o one, however, now doubts all of us in Sperry's lab a deep respect for the genetic component
that the neuronal system develops under tight genetic control. in our lives.
Personal brain organization also is under tight genetic control It is also important to realize that a developing biologic system
and is not easily perturbable by environmental influence. Sperry such as the nervous system is under tight, but not altogether
showed that specific neuronal connections were made under complete, genetic control) A vast number of environmental
direction of the genome, not the environment. And studying the influences arise around the organismexternal forces of the

12 !3
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Basic Brain Principles

mother as well as forces from the outside physical environment. exists, consisting of predetermined proportions of cells that
The force of gravity causes water to flow downhill, but the water respond to particular orientation of light and dark edges presented
can be diverted from a seemingly predestined course by the in the cat's real field of vision. Some cells respond to leftward
judicious placement of a rock. In the biologic context of the leaning lines, some to rightward, some to vertical, some to
brain, it is probably more accurate to say that with our present horizontal, and some to other orientations found in between
knowledge, most of these influences remain unspecified, but these extremes. Other features include the number of cells that
they are definitely there. Comparison of the brairts of siblings, receive information from just one eye as opposed to both eyes.
or perhaps even those of identical twins at a postmortem, reveals Since the pioneering studies carried out in the 1960s, a number
gross differences in morphology; the variations in the microstruc- of subsequent investigators have shown that there is a time
ture of the cell-to-cell organization are staggering. Since the period during the first weeks of a kitten's life when exposure to
brains of close cohorts are different, it is not difficult to imagine an abnormal visual environment can change the proportion of
the wide range of variation in the rest of the population. Whereas cells committed to detecting lines of a particular orientation.
everybody has a left and a right hemisphere, a midbrain, and a Thus, if a new kitten sees only lines of a vertical orientation
visual cortex, the proportion of cells in each of these jjystems during the first three weeks of life, more cells will respond to
and how they interconnect varies from person to person) lines of that orientation when the kitten is tested at ten weeks
An intriguing thought is to consider whether the brain varia- of age. Lines or edges presented j n nonvertical orientations will
tions among individuals underlie the psychological variations tend not to elicit any responses/ Presenting such environmental
among normal adults. Although everybody responds to rewards, manipulations a few weeks later in a cat's life, say, at ten weeks
for example, some people respond with greater intensity. Could S^of age, seems to have no effect on the normal organization of
this difference in intensity be reflected in a differential projection the visual system. The critical period is over. The brain system
of neurons to a part of the brain that mediates the chemical seems set for the duration of the cat's life (see figure 2.2). \
mechanism responsible for the effect? In other words, do people Another example of these phenomena, one of my favorites,
who are exquisitely sensitive to flattery or the appreciation of comes from the work of Rockefeller University Professor Fer-
external goods have brains with a larger than usual projection 8
nando Nottebohm. A young male bird learns his song from the
to the reward system of the brain? adult male. If the young male is exposed to song anytime before
With genetics supplying the main framework for neural growth he is a year old, he learns the proper song. If he does not hear
and development, it is now recognized that there are definite the song until after he is a year old, he is never able to learn it.
time periods during development when brain organization is 2? The critical period for learning bird song, then, lasts for one
modifiable. These periods for change are short and are presently year. This period of learning is not unlike those for humans
known for only a few species and a few kinds of experience. during the development of their language and speech. If a young
Some of the best examples come from studies on the cat's visual child does not acquire language by a particular time, it never
system. In Nobel-Prize-winning research, Harvard neurophysi- develops normally^
ologists David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel described the normal Another way to look at the relation between brain growth and
7
cellular architecture of the visual cortex. They discovered that psychological development is to examine parallels between the
in both the adult and newborn cat an identical organization order of acquisition of childhood skills and the breakdown of

15
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Basic Brain Principles
Normal cat Vertically deprived cat Horizontally deprived cat
The discovery of such mechanisms is interesting from a
number of vantages. First, the data show how real environmental
input can modify the genetic intent of an organism. The other
side of the coin, however, suggests that the conditions under
which such changes can be effected are limited and short-lived.
Both points are of extreme importance.
There are other important features of the developing brain to
Vertical Vertical Vertical consider. The rate of growth varies from one brain to another.
(a) <b> (0 For example, Billy may have more of his cortical cells jnydinated
than Bobby has by the age of one year| Myelin is the substance
Figure 2.2 Orientation o f lines that elicit a response from cells in the
that wraps around neurons and gives them each a sheathT^This
visual cortex of a cat under three conditions. In (a) the normal
distribution of responses is shown. In (b) the responses are shown for a sheath changes the microstructure of the neuron and enables the
cat raised in an environment with only horizontal lines, and in (c) the neuron to transmit its electrical impulses more efficiently. Without
responses of a cat raised having seen only vertical lines. Brain organization this sheath the neuron is sluggish, which is an important consid-
can be influenced early in life. If the exposure occurs at ten weeks, eration when dealing with an intriguing aspect of brain devel-
however, these brain changes are not possible.
opment, the myelinization of the cerebral cortex. Much of
i human cognitive activity takes place in the cortex. For the cortex
such skills after acquired brain lesions occur in adulthood. to work efficiently, the myelin must be in place. Yet, myelini-
Parallel deficits may suggest that areas of the brain where damage 10
zation develops slowly. Some regions of the brain do not
in the adult results in loss of a particular function are the same receive their full complement until the third decade. Again, this
areas that need to mature in the young brain in order to support fact raises interesting questions about the brain correlates of
that function. An example will make this clear. developing psychological processes.
It has been shown that in young rats a specific brain area It is widely assumed by developmental psychologists that
called the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus is immature for the various cognitive stages must be realized in a specified order for
9
first month after birth. When these animals are carefully studied, normal cognition to occur. Ability A must be usable before
the young rats are seen to behave like adult rats with lesions in
ability B can mature, B must be usable before C can mature,
this area. In humans this brain area, the dentate gyrus, matures
and so on. Psychologists of every persuasion argue over the
after birth as well. As in the rat, the corresponding behavioral
nature and quality of each of these mental abilities, but they all
abilities of the preschool child are not yet wholly functioning
tend to believe that each step must be completed in its proper
until the critical brain areas mature. Thus, there are parallels
order. As a consequence, psychological models of development
between the behavioral abilities possible when a structure is
are created and are discussed as if this psychological process
lacking either maturationally or because of a lesion. This suggests
were the basic building unit for personal cognition.
that particular brain regions must reach a certain level of
A biological view that also honors the unique character of
maturity before the behavior they mediate can be achieved. Ages
psychological experience could argue this issue of the building
five to seven appear t o be the key period.
process by claiming nothing happens at the psychological level
16
17
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Basic Brain P r i n c i p l e s

until the brain areas subserving the requisite psychological the primary and secondary school establishments, were thrilled
processes are connected and functioning. Just as a computer and used this new "biologic data" to argue for greater control
that has a finite capacity cannot process more information than over early environment. Implicit in their rhetoric was the idea
it has memory chips to handle, the developing organism can do that superkids could be created. Suddenly the environmentally
only so much of a psychological job with the neuronal hardware minded abandoned their usual distrust of biologic statements
it has functioning. When the organism achieves another level of that suggest each of us has a predestined limited capacity, and
capacity, however, the argument would be that the brain has they instead argued on the strength of this supposed biologic
maturedmore cortical areas have become active or more data that the brain capacity could be enhanced.
efficient, making the new psychological ability possible. One Since these studies began, the experimenters themselves have
biologic possibility for this further development in the human is not lost their faith in these claims, which is a normal circumstance.
the differential myelinization pattern in the human cerebrum. The neurobiologic community at large, however, is less sanguine.
The myelinization process is a delayed one and matures only in First, the studies had and continue to have a basic design flaw.
the brain areas most responsible for cognition at about the time The so-called enriched animals are compared to so-called normal
a particular skill is realized in a young child. litter mates. But what is called enriched is most likely normal
Another important principle about the developing brain is and what is called normal is most likely deprived. What the
that, when all is said and done, all studies to date have shown experimenters do is place one group in an environment full of
that environmental influences affect the brain only in a negative toys and colors and they frequently handle them. In short, the
way. This fact stands in marked contrast t o the claims about the animals receive stimulation. They experience something like a
importance of early environment, much of which come from normal environment. The control or nonstimulated rats, o n the
brain researchers themselves. The only time in the natural other hand, stay in a small rat cage in a strict environmentally
history of an organism that it is operating at its full, undisturbed controlled animal room and basically lead a deprived life.
genetic potential is following an uneventful birth. This full neural Baselines are relative, and in this case the baseline was mislabeled.
deck, as it were, becomes diluted only by physical events The second major development in developmental neurobiology
impinging on the brain. Head injury, endocrine imbalances, that undercuts the view that experience enhances cortical growth
nutritional adversities, all act negatively. Contrary to what many is the discovery that the developing brain overinnervates all
2
. claim, there are no convincing data that an enriched environment areas.' This means that if brain area A sends projections to
can change brain power positively. This point is worth considering brain area B, those projections in the young brain can be seven
in some detail. times denser than projections existing in the adult brain. It is
Many scientists were pleased when a group of biopsychologists not yet known how and why neurons succeed in establishing
started reporting in the 1960s that rats raised in an enriched proper connections in the appropriate brain areas, but it is
environment as compared to control rats had thicker, more known that brain development starts out rapidly and then slows
complex cortical neural circuitry." The claim was that their down.
brains were better and more capable of carrying out problem But because the developing brain is so delicate, it can be
solving. Those who believe strongly in the influences of environ- slowed down early on by an interruption or injury. This has
ment, a view shared by those people that more or less "own" been clearly shown at the clinical level. Brain injury to either

18 !9
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Basic Brain Principles

hemisphere during the childhood years causes a marked decrease adolescence, the brain becomes neurologically set. Its long con-
13
in verbal I Q . This conclusion is based on comparison of the necting circuits transmit information in specified ways, and
verbal IQ range of an injured child with the verbal IQ range of injury to these circuits causes permanent impairment. This is
his or her siblings. Relative to them, the injured child is severely not to say that no recovery is possible. What is at issue with
impaired, a statistic that is at odds with the usual family profile cases of injury, however, is the mechanism of improvement. It
of IQ for siblings. appears likely that undamaged brain areas begin to regulate the
An important aspect of this developmental data on IQ is that behavior that has been disrupted or lost, usually by applying a
the detrimental effect of experiencing an early head injury is new behavioral strategy ( T h u s , what appears to be brain repair
more acutely apparent if the injury occurs before the age of one. is not recovery of damaged brain tissue, but adaptation by tissue
[jnjuries occurring after this age have less effect on verbal IQ?\ that has not been damaged. That is the "hard" view. Some are
This observation, which is a robust clinical finding, unveils more hopeful in neuroscience. I am not.
another complex and intriguing feature of brain development. And how is the mature, normally developed brain organized?
The very immature brain is in such a delicate dynamic state What is the structural logic that allows it to do the kind of tasks
that any insult to its growth pattern disrupts its ultimate upward we humans do so well?
potential. While the injury is occurring at a time when the brain When I started doing brain research in the early 1960s, the
is presumed to be most capable of self-repair, it is simultaneously brain was considered a much simpler organ than ensuing research
a time when the brain is most vulnerable to any interruption of has shown it to be. It was assumed then that sensory pathways
normal growth. At the same time, the effects of an injury conveyed sensory information to the cortex and there, in asso-
occurring anytime after the first year have less to do with general ciation areas, the information combined with other processes to
' intelligence and more to do with specific skills. This means that organize neural messages to be sent to the motor or response
14
at a very early age, the specialized functions of each half-brain part of the brain. With few exceptions there was a pervasive
are expressing themselves and with brain injury are irreparably "stimulus and response" mentality to both brain science and
damaged or lost. much of psychology. The psychological view was strangling the
What emerges is a picture of a brain that is a mosaic of neural field of cognition. The biological view was static, waiting for
centers behaving in delicate and dynamic interrelation during new techniques. These techniques were developed, and now after
the early years. The parts of the brain that are not responsible thousands of studies, they have revealed in a profound sense
15
for the management of adult cognitive skills are very active in how the adult brain is organized. And the advances in defining
establishing these cognitive processes in particular brain areas the adult brain over the past several years have been most
during development. The brain is aswirl with activity. Yet just remarkable.
as quickly as it starts, this activity stops when the specialized It has been said that the "gain in brain is mainly in the stain."
capacities of the adult have reached their final stage. When the In the early 1970s new chemical stains were developed that
brain system has reached maturity, changes in its abilities appear allowed more sensitive tracking of neuronal pathways; new
restricted to its capacity to learn, and this capacity differs from structural relations were discovered. This discovery, combined
person to person. with an ever-evolving set of neurophysiological techniques,
After the early years of development, by the time of a person's unearthed the new logic about brain organization.

20 21
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Basic Brain P r i n c i p l e s

Until this time the brain was viewed as a single integrated Cat-1965
system that gave rise to a unified cognitive process. Sensory RETINA L6N
information was projected to one part of the brain for any
particular modality such as vision. Upon arriving in the brain,
the information was elaborated in visual association areas; and
from these areas a message was somehow sent to the equally
u
TECTUM
CORTEX
AREA
17

discretely defined motor system, allowing for an appropriate

Cat-1985
response. This sensory information was analyzed to a greater RETINA LGN
degree at each stage along the way. Thus, at the first stage of the
visual process, brain cells responded only to simple primitive !b) A B AREA
A
1 17
visual stimuli such as edges or corners. As cells were stimulated 18
MIN
in deeper levels of the brain's visual system, where more complex TECTUM 19
computations were possible, responses to more specific features 1 AT
of the visual world were generated. The notion was actually
proposed that cells in some part of the advanced visual areas
responded to such specific things as pictures of hands, or brushes,
or fixes; as a result they became known as "grandmother cells,"
or cells that would specifically respond to particular stimuli,
such as one's grandmother.
Figure 2.3 In (a) the hierarchical view of the organization of the visual
With the aid of new stains and other techniques, it was system is depicted. In recent years this view has given way to the one
discovered that the primary visual information coming in from indicated in (b), where the visual system is multiply represented and
a sensory surface such as the retina projected to a variety of incoming fibers are projected to many brain zones simultaneously.

places in the brain. To be sure, their primary projections were

to the already well-recognized primary areas. But the new cell organization. Sensory information is now viewed as being mul-
stains revealed important secondary projections (see figure 2.3). tiply represented in separate and somewhat independent pro-
This raised the question of what animals would see if the primary 16
cessing modules. The actual mechanism by which one sees
projections were destroyed, leaving intact only the secondary one's grandmother, in both real life and in the mind's eye,
projection areas. Experiments were performed on all kinds of remains elusive. For present purposes, it is important to appreciate
animals. On humans, the effects of naturally occurring lesions that the adult brain is not organized as a unitary monolithic
to the primary visual system were observed. The results were system, with each part linked to every other in some kind of
uniformly striking. Animals could see complex stimuli without hierarchical way. In short, instead of information being processed
their primary visual systems. The earlier notion of a linear path serially, it now is clear there is much parallel processing.
of sensory information into more and more complex construc- While anatomists have been discovering the complexity of the
tions finally terminating in the perception of a discrete object basic neural architecture, neurochemists have been unearthing
underwent revision. There was a redundancy quotient to brain multitudes of specific chemicals that allow one neuron to "talk"

22 2
3
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Basic Brain P r i n c i p l e s

17
to another. These chemicals, which are secreted by the axonal their intensity. These modulating influences are possible most
tip of neurons, change the chemical milieu in and around clearly in human beings, where the existence of belief systems
adjacent neurons. This chemical change is what allows the can override primitive brain responses to environmentally induced
neuronal message to pass from one neuron to another., Modern painful and pleasurable events.
brain research shows that particular neurons are responsive to Another important brain principle is that the amount of pain
certain kinds of chemicals (called neurotransmitters) and not to and pleasure an organism can experience is finite. The chemical
others. As a consequence of these complex findings, it is now systems that mediate these functions are finite. They reach a
recognized that in addition to multiple sensory representations, peak, and attempts to elicit responses to more of the stimulation
there are multiple chemical systems. And, in all likelihood, each in question are wasted effort. Finally, especially in this domain,
chemical system is specifically involved in particular functions individual differences are enormous. One person's level for pain
when active in particular brain regions. Parkinson's disease is a may be another's level for only mild discomfort. The same is
case in point. It is accompanied by a specific chemical deficiency true for pleasure. Recent studies are showing that these individual
in a specific brain region. \ variations are most likely due to different structural capacities
Other recent correlative neurochemical discoveries have proved in a person's brain. Jones's capacity to make endorphins may
equally fascinating. These have to do with the body's chemical be different from Smith's or his capacity to respond to the self-
systems that help modulate pain and pleasure, and perhaps also made chemicals may be different. The possibilities for explaining
18
such basic activities as sleep. One such discovery is of the well- so many dimensions of personality are breathtaking.
publicized, self-produced opiates called endorphins which are My short tutorial is over. I hope I have imparted some
crucial to a body's well-being. These chemicals are activated understanding of the nature of the brain. These few glimpses of
under conditions of bodily stress and serve to curb some of the basic brain mechanisms are sufficient to tell us what we need to
pain we would otherwise feel in their absence. There is no doubt know about the basic nature of the tissue. Four principles
that we would feel more pain without them. A drug called emerge: (a) the brain develops under tight genetic control; (b)
Naloxone blocks the action of these self-produced opiates and, its basic architecture can be modified only very early in life and
if it is administered after heavy exercise or a painful stimulus, then only in a negative way; (c) it is organized in such a way
the discomfort is greatly increased. that relatively independent processing modules exist everywhere
These advances in brain research and related fields are of throughout the brain system; and (d) it has methods of self-
major importance to the understanding of how the brain func- modulating influences from the environment through an intricate,
tions, and any interested reader should investigate them further self-governed brain chemical system.
to learn more of the considerable details. For my purposes here,
I just want my readers to be aware of their existence. They tell That summer of 1960 convinced me that brain science,
us that physical and identifiable brain mechanisms are governing especially in terms of behavior, would be my life's work. I
some of our most personal experiences. They tell us that at assumed that I would finish my premed studies and trot off to
some basic level environmental contingencies do work because medical school as everyone expected me to. Back in Hanover,
they elicit specific brain action. But they also tell us that the however, life was not the same. I couldn't get the summer
brain itself regulates these actions and can modulate or enhance experience out of my mind. Finally I wrote Sperry and asked if

24 25
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

he would sponsor an application for me to do graduate studies CHAPTER 3

with him. He said he would be delighted, and so largely through
his support I was admitted to Caltech the following summer.
This change wasn't the easiest thing to explain to my father,
a physician passionately involved with medicine. My brother
was in medical school at the time and I was expected to follow Split-Brain Studies:
suit. My father, who had been born into a large Italian family,
thought medicine was one of the most honorable professions a
man could pursue. He kept telling me that I couldn't realize this
until I actually practiced it. He had gone to medical school
The Early Years
because, upon his graduation from St. Anselm's in New Hamp-
shire, the monsignor had called him in and told him he should
go to Loyola in Chicago. Although it was late June, the monsignor
had said he would make all of the arrangements. My father THERE IS an axiom in biological circles stating that if you want
protested, saying he had never even taken chemistry in college. to understand how something works, you study it functioning
The monsignor said, "So what? Learn it over the summer, and in disrepair. If a trained scientist were confronted with a television
while you are at it learn a little physics. The boys in Chicago set for the first time and asked to figure out how it works, the
think you have." He added, winking, "and you had better not task would be easier if the set did not function properly. With
make a liar out of me. I also told them you were seventh in the picture fluttering, hypotheses could be immediately formed
your class. I didn't tell him there were only seven in the class." about its underlying composition, and the scientist would be on
This method of gaining admission to medical school is no longer the way to understanding how it works.
available, but I am not at all sure that the current methods are The same approach can be used to understand how the human
any wiser. My father, by all accounts, was an extraordinary brain generates and sustains normal human cognition. The
surgeon. When I told him about my change in plans he merely neurologic patient suffering from a disease that disrupts normal
smiled and muttered something to the effect that he thought this brain relations can generate rich insights into basic brain orga-
might be the case. Then he said, "Whatever you want is okay nization. More important, the study of the disrupted brain
by me. I just don't understand why you would want to be a teaches us how the cognitive system itself is normally organized.
Ph.D. when you can always hire one." He had me there. As a consequence, neurologic patients produce information at
two levels. They tell us about brain principles and about cognitive
principles. This field of endeavor is formally called cognitive
neuroscience, and research in this area has occupied most of my
time for the past twenty-five years. Much of this work is pivotal
to my present arguments.
In brief, research on the neurologic patient will allow claims
to be made about certain crucial features of brain organization

26 27
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

and personal cognition. As I've already mentioned, it will 1

integrated with that presented to the other. In order to understand
become clear that, contrary to our intense introspections, con- what I am saying, the reader has to consider only the page he
sciousness is not an indivisible unitary process. Instead, what or she is reading. Fixate on any letter or word (figure 3.1). The
appears to be personal conscious unity is the product of a vast human brain, as well as the brains of the cat and monkey, is
array of separate and relatively independent mental systems that organized in such a way that visual information to the left of
continually process information from both the human internal the fixated point is projected to the right brain while all visual
and external environment. Put in more general terms, the information falling to the right of the fixated point is projected
human mind is more of a sociological entity than a psychological to the left brain. Yet, you see the visual world as one integrated
entity. That is, the human mind is composed of a vast number whole. Myers and Sperry wanted to find out which pathways
of more elementary units, and many of these units are capable were responsible for that integration. They found that out and
of carrying out rather sophisticated mental work. These activities much more.
can go on outside the awareness of our verbal conscious system. The band that connects the two half-brains in mammals is
Putting it the other way around, extensive information processing called the corpus callosum. It is an enormous tract of nerve
in the brain is going on independent of verbal processes. Further, fibers (over two hundred million individual neurons in humans)
the management of these separate systems is the chore of the and it is easily approachable for surgical sectioning. Severing
normally dominant computational systems of the left half-brain. this connection as well as a smaller, more anterior structure
What also emerges from recent research is that these left-brain called the anterior commissure isolates one hemisphere from the
computational systems are closely tied to language processes but other. Well, that is almost true. If, in addition, a structure called
are not the language system per se. It is the appreciation of these the optic chiasm is sectioned in the midline, visual information
aspects of brain organization that suggest new insights into how presented to one eye is projected to only one half-brain. Sec-
mental phenomena such as personal beliefs are formed and tioning the chiasm is carried out only in animal research (see
maintained, and how, as a result of their reflexive presence in figure 3.2).
the human mind, the simple effects of external contingencies Myers and Sperry discovered that when the corpus callosum,
can be overruled. The bulk of the work suggesting these views anterior commissure, and optic chiasm were sectioned, visual
comes from split-brain research, and I will begin, logically, at discriminations taught to one brain were not known by the
the beginning. other. For example, if a cat learned while the right eye was open
but the left was closed that every time it pushed a panel with a
That summer at Caltech in 1960, I learned about Sperry's triangle on it, it would receive some liver pate, it did not know
other discovery, the split-brain animal. The term was coined to that fact subsequently when the left eye was open and the right
describe a surgical procedure performed on cats and monkeys was closed. The information learned by the right brain did not
that disconnected the left brain, or hemisphere, from the right transfer over to the left brain. In study after study, animals with
brain, or hemisphere. In the initial experiments carried out in sectioned neural interconnections between the hemispheres be-
the early 1950s by Ronald Myers (who was then a student of haved as if they had two separate brains, hence the term "split-
Sperry's) and Sperry, the aim was to isolate the neural pathways brain."2

by which visual information presented to one hemisphere was Think for a moment what the implications are for humans.

28 29
 Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

Figure 3.2 This is a sagittal view of a human brain. The large fiber
tract (CC) is the corpus callosum. It is this structure that the neurosurgeon
sections in seeking control for otherwise intractable epilepsy.

Fixate a point on the wall and hold your fixation. Now imagine
I place to the left of fixation two objects, one an apple and one
an orange. Keep fixating and imagine I tiptoe over and place a
one hundred dollar bill under the apple, all of this going on to
the left of fixation. Now close your eyes and just think for a
moment about which piece of fruit I baited. If you pick up the
correct fruit when you open your eyes, you may keep the one
hundred dollars. If you now open your eyes and the fruit is still
to the left of fixation, you would know the answer because the
same hemisphere that saw me place the one hundred dollars

1
3
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

under the apple is now being asked about it. If, however, I would not spread to the other, thereby leaving one half-brain
moved the apple and orange while your eyes were closed so that seizure-free and in control of the body.
when you opened your eyes they now appeared to the right of These patients were observed at the time of their surgeries by
3
fixation, the fruit would be seen by the left brain. That would a talented young neurologist, Andrew Akelaitis. In a series of
present no problem for the normal brain. Surely the reader studies, Dr. Akelaitis reported that the patients seemed essentially
would still know what to do, since the band of fibers that normal or unchanged. Cutting the largest fiber tract in the brain
connects the two hemispheres is still in place. Yet, the animal appeared to create in humans no problems of integration between
experiments suggested that if the neural interconnections between the two hemispheres. In fact, it was partly Akelaitis's studies Jf"
the two half-brains were cut, the left brain would not know what that led Karl Lashley, the great neuropsychologist, to conclude
^ to do. This seemed unbelievable, and in fact no one believed it. that the most important aspect of brain organization was the
Our everyday sense of what conscious unity is all about is so overall amount of brain tissue present, not the specific areas.
strong we would tend to reject such a claim. Cutting the brain interconnections and finding no change in
There was a way to test it. It so happened that back in 1940 function was about the biggest result for human clinical neurology
f !
a neurosurgeon in Rochester, New York, by the name of William in those days. *
Van Wagenen had sectioned the neural connections between the But something just didn't fit. The results of the animal work
two hemispheres in twenty-six epileptic patients. Epilepsy occurs were clear, and though contrary, the Akelaitis work seemed just
in many kinds and degrees, and it is commonly managed with as clear. As I sat in freezing Hanover that last winter, I thought
anticonvulsant medications. When medications fail to control it would be a good idea to go test the Rochester patients. We
it, epilepsy can frequently be brought under control by surgical had all talked about the patients during the preceding summer,
removal of the brain tissue that is malfunctioning and triggering and no one could figure out why the results were not like those
the seizures. In order for this procedure to work without causing seen in the animal studies. Were humans different or was the
more problems than it cures, the diseased area, or focus, has to original testing flawed in some systematic way? I wrote to Sperry
be localized to a particular point in the brain, and that point with some testing ideas involving Polaroid lenses and tachisto-
cannot be in a crucial brain area such as the major language scopes. The problem was that in order to test the patients
area. Since the focus is frequently not in a critical area, surgical correctly, information presented to either the left or right of
removal can take place and the seizures controlled. But if the fixation had to be quick-flashed. A tachistoscope does just that.
focus is in the language area, or if there are several foci, this Sperry wrote back and said he liked the idea, made some
method of medical relief is not possible; in such cases, split- suggestions, and wished me luck. I applied for a small grant
brain surgery is considered. from the Mary Hitchcock Foundation at the college to cover
In split-brain surgery, the corpus callosum is sectioned in travel expenses during my stay in Rochester over the spring
either one or two stages. In the initial surgeries carried out by break and got one hundred dollars. A friend of mine was going
Van Wagenen, the anterior commissure was sometimes sectioned to put me up so the money went straight to Hertz.
as well. The initial idea of the surgery was that by disconnecting Everyone knew about the patients but no one had gotten
the two half-brains, seizure activity initiated in one hemisphere around to actually testing them. Akelaitis had died as a young

3 2
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

man and Van Wagenen had moved to Florida, so I was referred exams in zoology at Dartmouth and had done well, so I asked
to another neurosurgeon. When I talked to him on the phone Sperry if I could take the test at the end of the summer and get
from Hanover he was cordial and receptive. He told me he had it out of the way. He agreed and I prepared for a late summer
most of the patients' records and that by going through them I exam to be given by Sperry and A. H. Sturdevant, the famous
should be able to get names, addresses, and so on. I was to go and very senior geneticist. I checked with the other graduate
to his office when I got to town and go to work. students about the test, and they told me Sturdevant had several
After much preparation, I loaded the tachistoscopes, tape boxes of insects he lent out for studyon the exam he gave a
recorder, and other baggage, all borrowed from the psychology test box of fifty insects to identify by both genus and species. So
department of Dartmouth, into my rented car and took off. I I trotted up to his office, got the boxes, and retired to my office
was nervous about the whole thing. to study them.
I arrived in Rochester and went straight to the doctor's office. The exam took place one afternoon in Sturdevant's office. He
He was out, so his nurse directed me to the records and said I was an avuncular sort, always smoking a pipe. He led off the
was to start. I took a stack of folders and began, trying to cut questioning and sure enough the first thing he asked me to do
through a lot of what to me seemed like mumbo jumbo. After was identify a box of fifty insects. I got forty-nine out of the fifty
a couple of hours the phone rang. It was the neurosurgeon correct. He smiled, asked me a couple of other perfunctory
calling to tell me he had changed his mind and that I couldn't questions, and then passed the questioning over to Sperry.
carry out the studies after all. I was flabbergasted. He gave no Sperry, who always adopts a stoic posture in this kind of
real reason but added, "You know I was a resident at the time situation, started off with the simplest question in embryology,
those surgeries were carried out and, if you ask me, the callosum one any undergraduate knows the answer to. He asked me to
was rarely if ever fully sectioned." describe the development of the otic capsule, that is, the devel-
I wrote Sperry the bad news, put away my gear, and played opment of the inner ear. A piece of cake, I thought to myself,
all spring. When I arrived in Pasadena in June, I knew imme- and started in. Sperry gave me no feedback. He just sat there
diately that I was in the right place. Many of the friends I had and listened to my answer. There were no "Uh-huhs" or "yea,
made the preceding summer were still there. I felt the added yea, yeas," no sign I was on the right track. I panicked. What
excitement of starting on a new adventure and the matter-of- the old otic capsule did in its proper migration to the correct
fact curiosity of whether or not I could cope with the Caltech part of the brain was to take a left turn, change its basic
curriculum. I was appropriately nervous but nonetheless still composition, and wind up, I think, in the liver. But after my
sort of cocky. My first two years at Dartmouth were rocky times answer they would have bet I couldn't recognize a frog if it had
for me, and my "bucolic" California high school education jumped up on the table. They asked me to step out of the room
wasn't behind me until the start of my junior year. At this point and a few minutes later Sperry came out to say they thought I
I felt I had a good Ivy League education and that once learning ought to take the exam over in the fall after school started. I
how to learn was in hand, the rest would be easyor so I was crestfallen but wiser. So much for the Ivy LeagueCaltech
thought. would require my total energies.
In order to qualify for a Ph.D. in biology one had to take an Roger W. Sperry was forty-eight years old when I arrived. He
oral exam in zoology. I had just finished my comprehensive had already survived a major medical incident, a bout with

34 35
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

tuberculosis. Sperry was considered a complex figure, painfully Since I had already developed some tests for the Rochester
shy and incessantly wondering what motivated people's actions. experiments and since I was just starting out, Sperry thought I
He was considered aloof by his peers, yet was entirely approach- was a good choice to head the project. There were others around
able by his students. Prior to his arrival at Caltech in the early who could have done the work but they were either leaving or
1950s at the insistence of Nobel laureate George Beadle, who uninterested. Mitchell Glickstein had tried his luck on a girl
accurately perceived his genius, Sperry had held some secondary who had been referred to the lab with a suspected callosal lesion.
positions in the academic world. Except perhaps for Sir John The testing proved impossible and he decided he liked monkeys
Eccles, Roger Sperry was far and away the most famous brain better, so the project fell straight into my lap.
scientist living at the time. As a result of his revolutionary One of the things that made Sperry an excellent mentor was
studies on nerve specificity, he was considered one of the primary that he left you alone. He set a laboratory context for work, and
thinkers in neurobiology. The data-driven theory he outlined in he was always there working to make things better, to advise, to
the 1950s still guides a huge amount of current research in assist, and to guide. But he didn't order anyone around or tell
neurobiology. He had also conducted a series of experiments anyone what to do. Many senior scientists do not operate their
setting limits on runaway theories about the underlying biology labs that way: graduate students are pawns for their chess games.
of Gestalt principles. And he had been working on the split- Not Sperry, and because of that everybody benefitedSperry as
brain preparation for approximately eight years. He was an much as his students. As a result, everything that came out of
institution in his own time. the work was a real team effort. We all freely interacted and
Meanwhile the real business I was interested in had already talked all the time about everything. In the early years the work
started. Shortly after I arrived, Sperry called me in to say that was being done primarily by Sperry, Bogen, and mysilf, but
Joseph Bogen, a neurosurgical resident at the White Memorial others were around too.
Hospital, was planning to do split-brain surgery on humans late In the early 1960s, when all of this was going on, there was a
that fall. Bogen had been at Caltech on a postdoctoral fellowship special atmosphere at Caltech. For the first year I lived in a
with Professor Anthony Van Harreveld whose office was next to house across the street from the biology labs, which was whim-
Sperry's. Bogen had become interested in the split-brain issue sically listed in the local phone book as J. A. Prufrock. Charles
and wanted to see whether or not the surgery made sense for Hamilton, another student of Sperry's, arranged that I got a
the control of epilepsy in humans. The earlier reports by Van room there, right across the hall from his. Five people were
Wagenen and Akelaitis were always quoted as showing the living in the house at the time, including two theoretical physicists
seizure-control aspect of the surgery to be inconsequential. Bogen
who have gone on to great things.
dug out all the papers and began trying to check out this
Sidney Coleman, then a student of the great Richard Feynman
assertion. He discovered that when all the case histories were
and now a professor of theoretical physics at Harvard, lived
sorted out, there was just as much evidence confirming control
down the hall. His work habits were as odd as mine. At one
as there was for nonconfirmation. Bogen thought the surgery
point I used to get up at midnight and go to the lab until about
worth a try, especially on a patient who could not be controlled
four in the morning, come back for a break, and then go back
through normal anticonvulsant medication. Case W.J. was the
to the lab until about six in the evening. One morning I came
first patient.
back about four and Coleman's light was on. There he was lying

36 37
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

on his bed, staring straight up at the ceiling. This was late even who were there to accomplish great things and there was no way
for him, so I stuck my head in his room and said, "Sidney, are one was going to settle for anything less. We all worked hard
you all right?" "Quiet," he said, "I'm working." and, because of the special Caltech atmosphere, we all felt
Norman Dombey, a Britisher and prize student of Nobel special. I guess Caltech thought so too. The day I received my
Prize-winning theoretical physicist Murray Gell-Mann, was al- draft notice in the fall of 1961, I took it in to the chairman's
ways walking around as if lost in thought. It was nerve-racking office as was the set routine. That afternoon I got a call from
because Dombey understood things I couldn't even spell. One the local draft board saying it would not be necessary to come
day after beating him in a game of chess, an event I relished, I in. It was unquestionably an elitist atmosphere. They were the
said, "Norman, what is it you are thinking about all the time? best of times.
It's distressing to see you apparently working every minute." There is always an asymmetry in relationships with physical
Dombey, who if sent to the store would have a hard time coming scientists. One needs to know too much to say anything intelligent
home with a loaf of bread, looked at me quite startled and said, about their work. Fortunately, they can comment on your work
"Why, my dear man, I am usually trying to remember whether with greater ease. One needs to know only a few basic points
Chuck remembered to buy my Coca-Cola!" about human brain anatomy in order to follow the line of
At the Prufrock, parties were frequent and many professors research to be outlined, and this is what allows me to tell my
came over for the fun. Coleman used to say, when he was really story more generally. As I have described earlier with regard to
feeling cocky, that the only difference between Feynman and animals, our species also possesses two cerebral hemispheres, or
himself that he could detect was that at the physics seminars half-brains. The left cortex, or hemisphere, or half-brain, controls
Feynman's hand always went up for the key question exactly the right half of the body and is also the part of the brain that
thirty milliseconds before his own. One night, after the split- usually controls language and general cognitive functions. Lesions
brain work was off the ground, Feynman came over to one of to this half of the brain can cause aphasia, which means that
the parties. He knew about everything that was going on, and depending on where in the left brain the lesion occurs, a person
so on the way out he said to Hamilton and me, "If you guarantee will suffer from an inability to understand language or to produce
me I can do physics after split-brain surgery, you can split me. speech or both. It is a nasty type of brain damage.
Maybe I could do even more." I said, "It's guaranteed," and we The right cortex, or hemisphere, or half-brain, does not
all laughed. Feynman paused for a moment, then said, "Well, normally contribute to language processes in any major way. It
good night," and stuck out both hands for adieus. usually manages nonverbal processes, such as attention and
Joe Bogen was always around. He is a big man with a huge subtle pattern discrimination like facial recognition and line
appetite for life. Sperry was not much of a cafe person, but orientation, and in the auditory domain such things as detecting
Bogen was a chum and loved to eat, drink, and talk about the difference between complex tones.
everything. He introduced me to good wines, good food, and Normally these two parts of the brain are interconnected
good conversation. He is bright, extremely articulate, and full of through the corpus callosum. This single nerve fiber system
energy. Several times during those early years we did things that constitutes the largest neural pathway in the animal kingdom.
paid off simply because Bogen kept pushing us. Its function, which was largely unknown until these studies,
It was more than a smart crowd. It was a group of people keeps each hemisphere aware of the activities of the other. As

38 39
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

far as one can tell, it is a totally efficient reporting system, such to trigger, largely because of the tonic effects of having the
that to discuss the normal intact person as left-brained or right- callosum sectioned. Seizure control is obtained to a degree
brained is nonsensical. unknown before by the patients.
Our first chore was to determine whether or not Case W.J.'s The first surgery was a success, although W.J., forty-eight
brain was working normally according to the textbook guidelines. years old at the time of the operation, took a long time to
4
I started by testing the visual system. My lab in the Alles recover. He remained in the hospital for about a month, and
Building was a shell, not yet equipped with the usual parapher- not until some time after that was he ready to come to Caltech
nalia of a biology lab. It did have one useful feature: exposed for testing. It was a day charged with excitement for me. It
ceiling pipes. I built an enormous rear projection screen and turned out to be the beginning of a new era in human neuro-
hung it from these pipes. I then fitted slide projectors with psychology.
mechanical shutters so that a picture could be quick-flashed to Bogen met me at the entrance in his resident's Good-Humor-
one or the other visual field. This meant each half-brain could man garb, which I always kidded him about, and W.J. and his
be tested separately and we could also see whether information wife drove up from Downey. We helped him out of the car and
from each half-brain was communicated to the other in normal placed him in his wheelchair. At Bogen's insistence W.J. wore a
fashion. crash helmet in case he fell. W.J. was smiling and chipper. As
Other tests were prepared that would test tactile function, that we rolled him into the building, I remember receiving an
is, whether W.J. possessed normal sensory skills in his hands, incredulous glance from Max Delbruck who was walking back
legs, and face. It took a few months to sort it all out. When we to his lab from lunch: somebody was going to learn something
were ready, Bogen brought W.J. up for his preoperative testing. from this epileptic? (Delbruck was a biophysicist and a future
The tests were uneventful. W.J. was entirely normal in his Nobel laureate who many claim was one of the main guiding
awareness of information presented to either hemisphere. His energies behind molecular biology.) We pressed on.
callosum was working perfectly. He returned home to await his One of the most compelling features of split-brain surgery is
surgery. the fact that the patient's behavior, affect, and general personality
Bogen and his Professor of Neurosurgery, Peter Vogel, decided are totally untouched. Having the left brain disconnected from
to cut the callosum and the anterior commissure in one operation. the right does not produce disturbances in everyday life, and the
Their reasoning was the same as Van Wagenen's: they hoped untrained eye would find it difficult to detail that a patient had
the surgery would isolate any future seizures to one half-brain, had surgery at all. The dramatic effects can be observed only
keeping the other side seizure-free and in control so the patient under careful laboratory conditions using the same procedures
would not suffer a generalized convulsion. When the other cases as our preoperative testing.
were done and after observing a few patients with an occasional Let me explain it once again because it is difficult to keep
postsurgical seizure, it became evident the mechanism of control straight. In the visual system if a person fixates a point in space,
was different. Instead of the patients having unilateral seizures such as a dot on the wall, everything to the left of the dot is
at the same frequency as before their surgery, their seizure projected to the right half-brain's visual system and everything
activity was vastly reduced overall. It was concluded that by to the right of the dot is projected to the left half-brain. In the
cutting the callosum, the epileptogenic focus was more difficult normal brain it doesn't make much difference where the infor-

40 4i
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

mation falls in the visual cortex because the connecting pathways was no problem in naming objects. But touch information for
between the two half-brains are intact. Information falling into the left hand is cross-projected to the right brain which was now
the right visual field is directly projected to the left, speaking isolated. We were dazzled.
hemisphere. Information falling into the left visual field projects That was the first day of what was almost a weekly event for
initially to the right brain but is then instantly communicated the next five years. There was consistency with the animal story
to the left hemisphere, which is normally dominant for language and the way was now paved to try to figure out how each half-
and speech. In the split-brain patient, this is not the case. brain works in isolation. That work is still progressing, but much
What we discovered that afternoon was the beginning of the was accomplished during those first five years.
split-brain story for humans. W.J.'s responses were completely Most of the testing went on at W.J.'s home in Downey, since
different from his preoperative results. We rolled him into the it was difficult for him to get to Caltech. I made a portable set
room where my cinemascope-size projection screen was still of testing equipment and trooped down to his house in my old
dangling from the ceiling, and I turned on the shuttered slide Studebaker. He and his wife always greeted me warmly. When
projectors. I told W.J. to fixate the dot and proceeded to flash he came to Caltech for testing it was usually on a Saturday or
simple figures such as triangles, circles, and simple words. They Sunday morning, and Sperry and I would test him together.
were randomly arranged so it was not known which visual field After either type of session Sperry and I would talk in his office
and therefore which hemisphere would be exposed to the stimulus. for a couple of hours about the meaning of what we had done.
The results were clear. W.J. easily named the visual stimuli After my car trips to Downey, Sperry would take copious notes
\ flashed into the right visual field; that is, to the left, speaking as I reported on the results of the day's testing. Those were
' hemisphere. That half-brain performed just as well as it had glorious meetings. Sperry has a real skill for eliciting one's
before the surgery. When stimuli were flashed to the left visual thoughts. He would let the conversation roam and not constrain
field, however, W.J. said nothing after each trial. When ques- the flow at all. His role here was essential and powerful. From
tioned, he denied seeing the stimuli. The right hemisphere, now these talks we developed the context and the framework that
disconnected, had no way of transferring information to the left, has now become the standard for this research. Our results were
which would engender a spoken response. It had become an clearly reported, not encoded in incomprehensible medical jargon,
independent mental s y s t e m / T h e next challenge would be to since writing was another of Sperry's many talents.
determine what the isolated "right brain could do. W.J. was a bright man with a wry sense of humor. The object
Splitting the brain did make a difference in how information of one set of tests was to see whether or not his right hemisphere
was shuttled around inside the head. The brain is not an would respond to the sudden introduction of a pinup girl
amorphous system where any information can get to any point presented unexpectedly as one slide among more boring stimuli
even in the presence of brain damage. W.J., while blindfolded, such as pictures of apples or spoons. W.J. sat there stoically after
could easily name objects held in his right hand. When the same seeing the girl, saying he didn't see anything and with no change
object was held in his left hand he could not name it. Touch is in his emotions. Disappointed, I packed my gear and headed
^ 7 * a different modality, but the disconnection is the same. Touch back to Caltech. About halfway there I realized I hadn't tested
information from the right hand is normally cross-projected to his left hemisphere. I turned around and went back, set up my
the left brain. Since the left brain has speech and language, there gear, ran through the whole thing, this time with the surprise

42 43
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Split-Brain Studies: T h e Early Years

coming into the left, talking hemisphere. Again, nothing with some common assumption or way of thinking. Such findings
any emotion. Just something to the effect it had been a girl. I receive much attention because by their very nature they are
realized the stimuli weren't doing the trick and I was preparing counterintuitive. Our first studies had this quality. I can remember
to leave again when W.J. said, "Say, Mike, is that the kind of telling a psychologist one night about our findings. This person
coed you have at Caltech?" had spent a lifetime trying to figure out the psychological laws
It wasn't all smooth going, however. The old saying that of reasoning. After I finished, he said, "So big deal. N o w instead
nothing is simpler than yesterday's solutions is one of the of trying to figure out one mind, you give me two. This is an
practical truisms in science. For everything that worked, there advance?" The basic truth of his remark was enough to keep
were twenty attempts that misfired. My favorite involved renting me busy in subsequent years as I tried to bring split-brain work
a penny arccde driving game and having it delivered to W.J.'s into a paradigmatic setting that would illuminate the nature of
house. I thought I could use the device to learn about possible human cognition. My chance to delve into the mechanisms of
problems in visual-motor coordination. The purchasing agent at conscious experience would come after I left Caltech. Still, at
Caltech was incredulous. He wanted to know what I thought he the time, the finding of two independent minds in one brain
was running. I told him to just do it, which he kindly did. The was riveting because of its bearing on the common assumption
huge contraption arrived at W.J.'s and was set up on the patio. of mental unity.
I sat down and played with it for a while and, pleased that I A few years into our work, Sperry was invited to a meeting at
didn't have to put in my own quarters, I looked at the monster the Vatican that was being chaired by Sir John Eccles, a devout
and asked myself, "Okay, big shot, what's the question? And, if Catholic. Many of the leaders of brain research were there, and
you figure that out, what's the control?" I let W.J. play with it it was really the first major meeting at which Sperry would
too and then ordered that it be picked up. I don't remember present our findings on the first two split-brain cases, W.J. and
talking long with Roger about this episode. 5
N . G . In his typical fashion he played down the meeting. I, on
The testing of W.J. went on for years and during that time the other hand, thought his studied nonchalance was in for
we studied a variety of issues that dealt with problems in trouble, not from the brain scientists, but from the papal scholars
memory, language, attention, and motor control. The upshot of within the Vatican. As a good Catholic boy, I knew that they
these first efforts was that the animal work was confirmed in really knew. I couldn't wait for his return to hear about this
manthe cutting of the cerebral commissures produced two historic meeting.
separate mental systems, each with its own capacity to learn, Sperry enjoys reducing puffery more than anyone I know. He
remember, feel emotion, and behave. The notion that man is also has a long-standing curiosity about how any intelligent
an indivisible conscious agent became questionable. The modern person can take religion seriously. These views came together in
series of tests was launched. And W.J. was living happily in his account of the meeting. With an outlandish eagerness I asked
Downey, California, with no sense of the importance of the how it went. "Oh, the Vatican is a good place to take Kodacolors.
discoveries that had been made through observation of his All those priests running around in those brightly colored robes
behavior. create quite a picture. The pope was kind of interesting. In his
What is construed as an advance in knowledge often turns opening remarks he said we could have the brain so long as we
out to be corrective information, or information contradicting left the mind to him." I was speechless at the time but have"

44 45
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

subsequently learned the pope didn't really say that. It was CHAPTER 4
Sperry's way, I guess, of introducing me to the view that
assumptions such as mine about the nature of man were based
on a parochial set of Catholic assertions that had no value for
working scientistsespecially for the kind who spend their lives
studying the nature of conscious experience. Left-Brain, Right-Brain
But how were the original split-brain findings of "two minds
in one brain" going to be followed up? The decision was to
argue that the left and right half-brains are not only separate
and distinct mental entities, each possessing different specialized
Mania: A Debunking
skills, but that they also have distinctive cognitive styles. Thus
began the most popularized versions of split-brain research. The
second claim has been largely promoted by journalists or other
scientists who have never examined a split-brain patient. Most
of what they say is nonsense, but it is worth pondering in some O U T IN CALIFORNIA, left-brain/right-brain stories are a way
detail. of life. These stories all derive from the popularly held belief,
supported by brain research, that the right brain is the place
where our creative and synthetic impulses arise. There is a
further belief that the right brain has been the black sheep of
our educational and cultural system and that it is high time it
received special attention. Thus the California state legislature is
currently entertaining proposals for elementary school curricula
that emphasize right-brain learning. Our schools are too cogni-
tively rigid, so their story goes. We need more art courses to
strengthen the right brain and allow us to become more creative.
This kind of thinking also makes its way into the media. An
advertisement in a recent edition of Esquire magazine describes
a machine that harmonizes the electrical patterns of each half-
brain. For a mere eight thousand dollars, the user is assured he
can feel more relaxed. The manufacturers tell us that the device
grew out of our knowledge of brain function that emerged from
the great discoveries of the 1960s and 1970s.
Or consider the 1984 Olympics. During the marathon an
ABC reporter informed us that running helps build up the right
side of the brain! With elaborate graphics, the report rambled on

46 47
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Left-Brain, Right-Brain Mania: A D e b u n k i n g

about jogging in the context of popular myths about the two remarks and constraints on the ideas prove to be too much of a
sides of the brain. burden for the potential audience. So scientific journalism purveys
Where does all of this conjecture come from? How did some its stories on simple-to-understand claims that most people can
laboratory findings of limited generality get so outrageously relate to, preferably at a personal level. This wouldn't matter for
misinterpreted? Why were they picked up so hungrily by the the present story except for the fact that the distortions get in
press and then embraced by every sort of scientific dilettante? the way of why split-brain patients are truly interesting. And,
There are several reasons. The left-brain/right-brain dichotomy the oversimplifications and outright erroneous information have
was simple and understandable and provided a way to talk about also tended to trivialize the complexity of the integrated processes
modern brain research and how it applied to everyday experience. of our minds.
Certainly no one was going to argue that people have artistic- Let me go back to the research related to this issue and try to
intuitive skills and logical-linguistic skills. Prima facie there are explain what the studies do mean and what they do not mean.
manifestly different activities of mind. So science is used to I'll start with Case W.J. since he was the first to show interesting
prove that one set of skills is in the left brain and another in the asymmetries in what is called a visual-spatial task. 2

right, which in turn proves that mental skills are different, and It all started on a sunny afternoon in Downey, California, in
therefore able to be differentially trained. The image of one part 1961. W.J. was shown a picture of a cube and then asked to
of the brain doing one thing and the other part something draw it. His left hand had no problem with the task; his right
entirely different was there, and that it was a confused concept hand was completely unable to accomplish it (see figure 4.1).
seemed to make no difference. The same sort of thing proved to be true for a test called Kohs
Others like Robert Ornstein, a talented psychologist and clever 3
Blocks. This test consists of a standard set of red-and-white
popularizer, understood this and saw how the metaphor could blocks and requires the person being tested to arrange them to
be stretched to include modes of thought as they existed in match a picture design. Again, his right hand could not perform
contemporary culture. He put together a highly successful book the task but the left one could. This was consistent with the
drawing upon Eastern and Western cultists, brain scientists, and general neurologic literature on focal left- or right-brain damage.
1
other psychologists. Left-brain and right-brain cognitive styles What had never been observed before was the presence of a
became shorthand for a hundred different views of styles of life function in one half-brain along with its absence from the other.
that ranged from the ridiculous to the absurd. Yet each appealed It was a startling sight and I immediately wanted to have it
to someone. Indeed, when this shorthand becomes a cartoon in filmed.
The New Yorker (see frontispiece), you know it has become a Caltech bought me an old Bolex, and I asked my friend Baron
part of the culture. Wolmon, a consummate photographer, to take the pictures at
The runaway fervor for such ideas relates, in part, to the W.J.'s house. They were beautiful and had a significant impact.
difficulty in communicating scientific ideas to the general public. I placed a simple pattern on a card in full view on a white
T o really understand concepts arising out of experimental data tablecloth on W.J.'s favorite coffee table. Wolmon fixed the
is a serious business, and most people do not have the time or lights and the Bolex and I then placed next to the pattern the
interest to assess information at that level. There is an extensive four blocks that had to be arranged to match the pattern. I let
and usually foreign vocabulary to learn. The necessary qualifying W.J.'s left hand go first, the one that gets its major control from

48 49
 Left Hand Right Hand Left-Brain, Right-Brain Mania: A D e b u n k i n g
Post-Op Post-Op
the right brain. Swiftly and easily the blocks were correctly
arranged. I then picked the blocks up, mixed them up, and
placed them back on the table. W.J.'s task was now to do the
same chore with his dominant right hand. This hand receives its
major innervation from the left, talking brain. We ran out of
film as we watched him struggle with the task. At several
instances during the filming, the left hand tried to intervene and
help the incompetent right hand. That side of his brain-body
knew how to do this task. His failure was riveting and completely
convincing.
Wolmon reloaded the camera and this time I told W.J. he
could use either hand. It was the first time I saw how the two
mental systems could get into a struggle of major proportions.
The left hand would make progress at solving the task and then
the right would come in and undo the left's superior accomplish-
ments. It was as if they were in a duel, and this observation led
to the design of many other experiments that I will discuss later.
Still, the major observation was the dissociation of competen-
cies between the two half-brains.'The claim that we based on
those findings was that the left brain was dominant for language
processes and the right brain was dominant for visual-construc-
tional tasks. In subsequent years this concept underwent radical
revision bSsed on a new set of experiments by others, and it
emerged in a barely recognizable form. It is the interpretation
of these new experiments that made me part company with my
mentor and his new colleagues. Their views struck me as
implausible. For example, Jerre Levy and Roger Sperry took a
different tack and in published reports claimed that the right
brain was specialized for holistic processes and the left was
4

Figure 4.1. Section (a) shows the first drawings made by patient W.J. necessary for analytical processes. As they put it, "The data
in 1961. The left hand, which receives its major motor control from indicate that the mute, minor hemisphere is specialized for
the right hemisphere, was able to carry out the task with greater skill Gestalt perception, being primarily a synthesist in dealing with
than the right hand. The right, which receives its major control from information input. The speaking (left) hemisphere, in contrast,
the left hemisphere, the dominant language center, performs poorly.
seems to operate in a more logical, analytic, computer-like
Section (b) shows the results of testing patient P.S., who was studied
years later at Cornell Medical Center. fashion. Its language is inadequate for the rapid complex synthesis

5i
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Left-Brain, Right-Brain Mania: A D e b u n k i n g

achieved by the minor hemisphere." It was a provocative idea, could not coordinate the two respective skills. It was also noted
yet based on extremely limited data. Bogen's interpretation of that when the left brains of these subjects were asked to describe
the same new experiments was more conservative. He did not the faces the subjects always commented on specific features
favor characterizing the two sides in the usual dichotomies of such as whether or not the head was bald, had a mustache, or
verbal versus visual-spatial or analytic versus holistic. He preferred wore glasses. This was thought to demonstrate the analytic nature
the terms "appositional versus propositional" by which he meant of the left brain as compared to the holistic analysis given by
the right brain takes in stimuli and apposes or compares them the right brain.
to prior information. It behaves in a more automatic and direct There are, however, a number of other possible interpretations
way. of this kind of experiment. That the subjects favored the right-
Nonetheless, Levy, Bogen, Trevarthen, and Sperry were con- brain stimuli does not necessarily mean that the right brain was
vinced the differences between the right and left brains were real responding more assertively because of a specialized gestalt
and were to be understood in the way they dealt with information. analyzer/The reason could be that it asserts itself simply because
In considering whether or not to accept the veracity of such it is able'to respond to such stimuli since it is by definition a
conclusionary views, it is helpful to consider the experiments system of markedly limited capacities. The left, in considering
that gave rise to the ideas. more aspects of such stimuli, merely loses out to the more literal
direct system of the right brain.
5
The key experiment used what are called chimeric figures. Second, the observation that tne subjects had difficulty learning
They were things like two half-faces stuck together to make a names for faces, an observation that received more attention
whole face, but with the left half being a picture of person A than the primary findings, is totally meaningless. The rate of
and the right half being a picture of person B. Split-brain subjects learning names for the faces for the left brains was compared to
were then asked to fixate a dot on a screen and the chimeric the rate at which Caltech undergraduates learned to associate a
picture was flashed. Thus, the left brain saw the right half-face name with a picture. That, as they say, is comparing apples and
of person B and the right brain saw the left half-face of person oranges.
A. After presentation of the stimulus, the subject was required Finally, the observation that the left brain's description of the
to choose from a set of faces the one it had seen. The choices faces demonstrated it was analytic as opposed to gestalt in nature
were all normal full-face pictures of the half-faces. I is also without meaning. How else is a talking brain supposed
The results showed that the faces presented to the right brain to describe a face except to describe its obvious features?
were more often responded to than those presented to the left.
This was easily detected by simply observing which picture the With all the leeway for contrasting interpretations of the data,
subject chose after each trial. It was also reported, informally, more experiments needed to be carried out. The experiments
that the left brain of the split-brain subjects had a hard time had raised interesting questions and after a few years it became
learning the names of the faces presented in the experiment. clear such studies were the backbone for the larger, more
This, it was suggested, was due to the fact that the gestalt irresponsible claims about left and right brains. The first studies
analyzer that was active for such stimulus processing was in the were done by Joseph LeDoux and myself. 6

right brain, and the naming mechanism, which was in the left, We first made sure our patients displayed the same basic

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T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Left-Brain, Right-Brain Mania: A D e b u n k i n g

phenomena such as was in Case W.J. Figure 4.1 shows a drawing story. We generated a series of stimuli that mimicked the
by Case P.S., an attempt to draw a cube with his right hand as chimeric stimuli used in the earlier experiments. We reran the
opposed to the more able left hand. At the level of analysis given basic experiment first on Case P.S., whom I will describe in
our first Case W.J., it could be said we had come across detail shortly. We were able to run the experiment on him very
confirmatory findings. The left hand, which receives its major soon after his split-brain surgery. This is important. In the Levy
motor control from the right brain which is specialized for such study, the patients all had undergone their surgery a number of
tasks, is better able to draw than is the right hand which receives years before her tests.
its major control from the left or language brain. But what does Case P.S. was instantly able to point to both stimuli, the right
it mean? Is the left/right difference in the execution of the task, half-picture flashed to the left brain and the left half-picture
or in the perception of the task, or both? Is it true for everybody? flashed to the right. In his early postoperative days there was no
Are all right brains superior at such tasks or are only some? favoring of one brain over the other. What is extremely interesting,
When Sperry, Bogen, and I first reported this data, it was our however, is that when the tests were rerun after the first post-
thought that the difference was more in the execution of the operative year, the right brain became more assertive on such
7
task. There was something special about the right brain's ability tests and made most of the responses. The same result has now
to take a visual image and to instruct the motor system of the been found on a number of other patients. Why?
brain on how to draw the matching figure or arrange the blocks Why is it in a family that more often than not one person
to match the diagram. The right brain had some sensory-motor will make breakfast and his or her mate will make dinner? It is
coupling capacity the left didn't have. It was not, we felt, that impractical that both do both jobs even though both are capable.
the right brain was superior at perceiving the objects themselves. There is often only one stove. As a result a behavioral resolution
At the time we said all of that, we hadn't done the key is adopted. One person will perform one task and one person
experiments to back up the claim. It just seemed logical. Years will perform the other. So too with a left brain and a right brain
later LeDoux and I working on the Dartmouth patients did the working within the same cranium. In the nervous system there
proper studies and the work basically confirmed the notion that is what is called the "final common path," a concept that refers
the right brain was specialized for something in the executive to the group of neurons that exit from the brain to innervate
realm but was not superior at the simple apprehension of visual the arms or legs. Matching pictures of shapes and faces and the
stimuli. The studies were simple enough. Instead of asking the like is something the right brain can do. As a rule it cannot talk.
patient to arrange blocks to match the stimulus, we merely Thus a tacit agreement is reached. The left brain does the
asked if the patient could match the stimulus to another set of talking, the right brain does the simpler matching tasks. This
pictures. In other words, no manipulation of the blocks was kind of behavioral resolution can mislead one to think hemi-
8
required. The task was simple picture-to-picture match. Under spheric modes of thinking or specialization are being observed
these conditions the differences between the two brains disap- when in fact they are not.
peared. As a result it was reasoned that when a task involved As for the generality of the informal observation that the split-
manipulating objects with the left hand, the right brain seemed brain subjects had a hard time learning names for the faces, that
superior. That distinction still holds in all patients. too proved to be most likely a spurious observation. In tests
Nonetheless, we were now set to test the chimeric stimulus explicitly run to see whether or not one brain had more difficulty

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T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Left-Brain, Right-Brain Mania: A D e b u n k i n g

learning a name for a face, the left brain proved as facile as the brain was processing the information. He then had the patient
right. This test, of course, used facial stimuli that were sufficiently point to one of three pictures, each an exploded line drawing of
dissimilar such that each half-brain could easily tell them apart. a geometric shape, one an exploded figure of the triangle. The
Still there have been persistent reports that patients with right- task was to point to the correct exploded figure. Nebes found
sided lesions were terrible at remembering normal faces that that the left hand performed the task much better than the right.
looked more similar than not. In a set of studies by Robin Yin He and others concluded this indicated the right brain was
at M.I.T., for example, stimuli were used that were not con- superior at apprehending visual information since it seemed able
founded by having some heads have glasses or mustaches or the to synthesize the figural elements with greater efficiency.
9
like that made them easily identifiable with a verbal code. We There are a number of problems with such interpretations.
reasoned that if those findings were true, the disconnected right To set the stage for proper criticism let me describe one more
brain should be excellent at detecting such faces and the discon- experiment, this one carried out by Dr. Brenda Milner and her
nected left should perform poorly. We went back to the testing colleague Laughlin Taylor of the Montreal Neurological Insti-
lab and tested our patients on this task. The patients were V.P. 12
t u t e . They studied the same patients and unearthed the fact
and P.S., two who can talk out of the left brain and right brain, that the left hand was able to retrieve nonsense tactile shapes
10
and J.W. who could talk only out of the left brain. with much greater accuracy than was the right. The shapes were
In each test a face is presented to the left brain and the patient irregularly shaped wire figures that the subject had to feel with
is required to select the match from a series of ten faces. In all the hand and, subsequent to that, find the exact same object
patients the left brain performed the task poorly. The right brain, from a set of four others. This simple match-to-sample test
however, found the task simple and performed well. This situation carried out within the touch modality was quickly done with the
persists for years after surgery, even in patients whose right left hand, but not with the dominant right hand. Thus a natural
brains have shown plasticity in developing speech. The right- bias in the brain enables the left hand to process hard-to-
brain plasticity given over to this enterprise does not seem verbalize touch information better than the right hand does.
present for facial perception in the left brain. This study appears We have reproduced these findings in some of our patients.
to support the idea that there is in the right brain a specialized / T h e built-in bias for processing nonverbal tactile information
system for controlling this kind of stimulus processing. In further seems to be a real, superior property of the right brain? What
studies it appeared the special skill is not for faces per se, but LeDoux and I also showed was that the asymmetry was not in
for stimuli that go beyond the ability of a verbal system to the perceptual apprehension per se. Thus, if the entire test was
describe their nature. Thus studies on distinguishing subtle line presented within the visual modality, no asymmetries were seen.
orientations also showed a right-hemisphere effect. That is, if a picture of one of the irregular wire figures was
Other tests have been designed by other investigators studying presented to the left or right brain, either hemisphere could
the same California patients. One of the tests that was particularly point to which of the wire figures it was.
11
intriguing was carried out by Robert Nebes. He had the patient It began to look more and more as if there was something
hold in one hand a cutout geometric shape such as a triangle. If specific about using the left hand to obtain some results suggesting
the object was held in the left hand, the right brain was perceptual asymmetries. In this light we reexamined the Nebes
processing the information; if held in the right hand, the left study on the exploded figures. Sure enough, if a picture of one

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of the geometric shapes was presented to one or the other half- does that. But it is highly interesting that by studying patients
brain, either one could easily point to which exploded figure with their cerebral hemispheres separated certain mental skills
depicted the visually presented shape. Yet, when the opposite can be observed in isolation. It is a hugely significant point.
was done, the phenomenon returned. That is, when a picture of Clearly, therefore, one can detect asymmetries in the processing
one of the exploded figures was flashed to the right brain and of information. It can be a very robust, or striking, phenomenon,
the left hand, the use of touch could find the answer with ease. but it is without a doubt one of the most elusive to accurately
Flashing the picture to the left brain found the right hand characterize. Some half-brains exhibit the asymmetry and some
performing poorly. At least that is how our results came out in don't. Some studies suggest it is perceptual in nature, and some
some patients. And in some cases we do not find the asymmetry suggest it is tied to a more manual response. Still others, such
at all, under any conditions. as I, wonder whether it is not more apparent than real. To use
Then there is the other problem. D o all patients show the a computer metaphor, do these asymmetries reflect a software
same kind of left/right asymmetry for these kinds of tasks? difference or a more structurally based hardware difference
Consider this about J.W. He loves cars and quite clearly is a between the two brains? Consider the following.
talented artist. Pre-operationally he drew dozens of pictures of Instead of thinking of the right brain as possessing a specialized
cars with his right hand since he is normally right-handed. module for the processing of such information, it could be that
Current cant about left-brain and right-brain processes would the left brain, under stimulus conditions that find its natural
say that prior to his surgery such processes were actually being disposition to codify a stimulus frustrated, allocates more re-
mediated by the right brain and that the callosum sent the sources to such an attempt and thereby focuses less on the
information over to the left where it was used to guide the simple task of attending to the key features of the stimulus that
right hand's response. After full split-brain surgery, there are would allow for a subsequent perceptual match. The right
n o differences in the quality of the drawings. Both sets of pic- hemisphere, which does not have such a rich hypothesis-gener-
tures are superb, yet the second set was drawn at a time ating apparatus, allocates all of its resources to the simple task
when we know J.W. could not accurately guide the right hand at hand and, as a result, relative to the left brain, scores higher
from the right hemisphere. The drawing was completely engi- on the memory-loaded perceptual task. Such an interpretation
neered from the left brain. (J.W. also draws nice cubes with either of the phenomenon cannot be ruled out at present. In fact, at
hand.) this time I prefer it to all others since it can explain almost all
Quite simply, all brains are not organized the same way. left/right dataj
Special talents like those seen in J.W. can reside in the right By the late 1960s and early 1970s the realization was spreading
brain or in the left.[Clearly what is important is not so much that the simple dichotomies of that time did little to advance
where things are located, but that specific brain systems handle knowledge about how cognitive systems work. Neuropsychology
specific tasks. We begin to see that the brain has a modular was at risk. Isolating mental systems or claiming that isolated
nature, a point that comes out of all of the data. It is of only mental systems process information differently does not really
secondary interest that the modules should always be in the illuminate the nature of cognition. This realization was responsible
same place. A correlate of this is that much of split-brain research for much of the new work that started with the East Coast series
should be viewed as a technique to expose modularity. That is, of patients.
it is not important that the left brain does this or the right brain

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 Brain M e c h a n i s m s and B e l i e f F o r m a t i o n

decided to study the response of single cells in this "mind cable"

CHAPTER 5 and see if we could understand how it worked. Our efforts were
to lead to some of the first single-cell recordings of the callosum,
not only in Italy, but in the world. Berlucchi and his colleague,
Giacomo Rizzolatti, continued their electrophysiological work,

Brain Mechanisms which became a cornerstone in the analysis of visual processes

that are transmitted between the two half brains.
It was an invigorating experience for me, and watching my

and Belief Formation Italian colleagues setting up the new technology of single-cell
recording in a garden laboratory in Pisa was a pleasure. The
Italians work with single purpose. Nothing stops them once they
set their minds to a task, even though there are moments of
hilarity along the way.
One afternoon after weeks of preparing the laboratory, all was
MOST PEOPLE in science do not stay fixed to one problem. It
ready for recording from the callosum. The bank of complex
seems that way from the outside because most people do wind
electrophysiological equipment was ready; amplifiers were tuned
up discovering they are interested in particular kinds of problems
up to record the first nerve cell crossing between the two half-
and those are the ones they write about. Yet, within a typical
brains of a cat. The cat was immobile, looking ahead at a screen
scientific career, there is the normal amount of boredom that
where visual stimuli would be presented and the expected neural
comes from working on any problem for a long period; when
response recorded. The microelectrode was just above the cal-
that happens breaks are taken and other interests are tried on
losum and about to be lowered into the structure that was going
for size. Something is gained from these experiences but usually
to be crucial to the brain code. About fifteen expectant scientists
the mind returns to its original interests. I was to return to
crowded into the little recording room.
human split-brain research, but I would take a wholly different
Rizzolatti lowered the electrode into the callosum. Just as the
approach from the one we had developed at Caltech. The new
electrode hit the callosum an electrical ground loop closed and,
studies would eventually provide insights into how we humans
instead of hearing the popping, static-like sound of a neuron, the
form beliefs. But as I say, I first played with other ideas.
sounds of the Beatles singing "We all live in a yellow submarine"
I left California in 1969 bound for the rigors of East Coast
burst forth over the loudspeaker. Rizzolatti looked up, cocked
life. After leaving Caltech in 1966 I spent a few months in Pisa
his glasses forward, and said, "This is high-order information?"
with my good friend, Giovanni Berlucchi. Disciplined, highly
I left Italy and all of this to return to the University of
intelligent, and dedicated, Berlucchi tried his best to turn me
California at Santa Barbara. It was a period of transition. While
into a neurophysiologist. Our mission was nothing short of
I returned to a fully funded grant to continue my split-brain
trying to crack the brain code. When he had visited Caltech for
work on both animals and humans, I was told that my efforts
a year, Berlucchi had become interested, as I was, in the corpus
on the human subjects were not appreciated by the Caltech
callosum. Since we knew that severing the structure eliminated
group. Whereas all of my plans to study the patients at Santa
the transfer of learning and memory between the two brains, we
6i
6o
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Brain M e c h a n i s m s and B e l i e f F o r m a t i o n

Barbara had been pre-approved at Caltech before I moved, N.Y.U. Medical Center. I went over to see the chairman, who
things changed in predictable ways. I was annoyed at first, but happened to be housed in what had been Teuber's space at
then let it pass, as I had become disappointed in Santa Barbara. N.Y.U. before he moved to Boston. I wanted to start a new
It was a beautiful but sleepy place. Leon Festinger, at that time project with neurologic patients suffering from language disorders,
a new acquaintance, had just moved to New York from Stanford. and that seemed like the logical place. The chairman greeted me
We had met at a seminar I gave at Stanford and quickly became with a superior medical air and said, "You see these labs. These
fast friends. Festinger, after establishing the field of modern used to be Teuber's neuropsychology labs. I personally think
social psychology, switched his interest to visual perception. He neuropsychology is a bunch of bullshit. N o w what is it you want
called from the New School in New York, where he had taken to do?" I mumbled something about the importance of the brain
a position. "N.Y.U. wants a physiological psychologist. D o you in understanding behavior and departed his office with a certain
want the job?" And after a little negotiating and at least twenty- relief. With a little work I found another niche, far more
three changes of mind, I took it. pleasant, through N.Y.U.'s Rehabilitation Hospital.
Califoraians arriving in New York City have to be among the But I missed human split-brain research. I knew the problems
most trying groups of people in the world. All they talk about is and issues, and I could read the continuing papers with a critical
the easy life and the good weather back home. They can be eye since the studies were all being carried out on patients I had
insufferable, and I was among their number until New York first characterized. I knew the story line coming out in the early
took hold. The people, then the restaurants invade your thoughts. 1970s from Caltech was full of problems and limitations, but I
The excellent faculty at N.Y.U. were very supportive. People had no way to verify and support my own views.
there were interested in more things and the pace of extracurric- Then I was asked by Dartmouth College Medical School to
ular information was swift. In addition there was Festinger who come up and give a talk. I looked forward to that with great
is a walking university. Every week we had lunch and talked pleasure. It was returning home, but from the other side of the
about everything from eyeballs to social structure. Living in an desk. After my lecture, a neurosurgeon named Donald Wilson
intensely social place like New York makes one more acutely approached me and, to my amazement, asked if I would be
aware of the social dimensions of work. New York living invades interested in testing some of his split-brain patients. I couldn't
everything. believe my ears. Wilson had been carrying out the procedure for
In addition to my studies on humans I had always carried out about two years and had several patients, none of whom had
extensive experimental studies on animals. In experiments with been studied by an experimental neuropsychologist. I jumped at
animals, ideas developed in work with patients could be followed the opportunity and ever since then I have had an active
up in more detail and with greater control. Upon arriving in association with Dartmouth.
New York I was quick to set up my monkey lab. Several The series of patients my colleagues and I now test come from
students had come with me from Santa Barbara and they worked several different medical centers in the East. But before I discuss
hard to get things going fast. On the clinical end my connections the patients, let me say a word about the people who are part
with hospitals were sort of hit-and-miss. Hans-Lukas Teuber, of the medical and scientific aspects of this work. Dr. Donald
then the charismatic head of the M.I.T. psychology department, Wilson of Dartmouth is credited for developing the surgery to
had generously introduced me to the head of neurology at its present fine form. He vigorously took part in all medical

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aspects of the research and supported our efforts throughout. the review panel caught the spirit of our trips, sort of like
Dr. Wilson died in 1982, and all who worked with him will miss Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. Those not involved in a
him enormously. He was a true gentleman. I am happy to say particular trip always look disappointed when the rest of us
his protege, Dr. David Roberts, continues to deliver these much- leave. The trips are usually scientific adventures, but they are
needed medical skills to the New England community. In always full of laughs and good times.
addition to doing work at the Dartmouth-Mary Hitchcock The current research staff is wonderful to work with. Until his
Clinic, my colleagues and I also study a patient from the Medical sudden and tragic death, fast, facile, data-ingenious Jeffrey
College of Ohio where Dr. Mark Rayport heads a program in Holtzman, a student of Leon Festinger, kept us all laughing with
the surgical control of epilepsy. Dr. Rayport started his series, his otherwise views of almost everything. Then there is seemingly
largely inspired by Dr. Wilson's success, a few years back. He is sober, responsible, Columbia-educated John Sidtis, who some-
a senior surgeon and enjoys a superior reputation for his surgical times has to be physically restrained from making demands for
skills. We also study patients from Yale and the University of urban amenities on the hotels and restaurants of rural New
Minnesota. England. Bruce Volpe, a neurologist and internist by training
Since 1972 I have worked in collaboration with a series of had he gone into private practice he could be building his
talented graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows. bookshelves of eighteen-karat gold instead of orange crateshas
The first studies were largely done with Joseph LeDoux, Gail succumbed to the excitement of research and the experimental
Risse, and Pamela Greenwood. We bought a used house trailer, approach to the study of cognition. Finally there is my wife and
converted it into a mobile lab, and for four years dragged it colleague, Charlotte Smylie. Her sparkling, captivating ways not
behind a van for monthly trips up to New England. The wear only enable her to usually ride herd on all of us (she's a Texan),
and tear on us all somehow paled next to the excitement of but also to run half of the experiments when she isn't driving
going there and doing the work. the van and listening to Emmylou Harris. We have a tradition
I left N.Y.U. in 1972 and accepted an attractive offer from of going on one of our New England trips each Thanksgiving,
the State University of New York at Stony Brook. At Stony and every year Charlotte is somehow able to convert the mobile
Brook a group of new students tackled the problems of split- lab into a dining room and serve a four-course turkey dinner
brain research with me. In 1977 I moved my laboratory from with candelabra (made out of aluminum foil). It is always the
Stony Brook to Cornell Medical School in New York City. best trip of the year.
Moving back to New York City was exhilarating, and I buried The first patients in our Dartmouth series were of limited
myself in work. Joseph LeDoux, my student and a man of interest. They basically confirmed the more neurological aspects
unrelenting generosity, came along with me before going out on of the California series. One hemisphere couldn't communicate
his own. As a parting shot to split-brain research, LeDoux stuck with the other, the left brain talked but the right didn't, and so
an equipment request for a twenty-six-foot GMC motor home on. Then came Case P.S., the patient who opened a whole new
into a grant application to the National Science Foundation way of looking at cerebral lateralization and the brain mechanisms
(NSF). Ironically, his budget justification for the van was suffi- involved in conscious experience. We have invested and continue
ciently compelling that the NSF awarded the van but not the to invest much time and effort in the understanding of Case
rest of the grant. According to reports that filtered back to us, P.S., as well as two similar cases, V.P. and J.W., which came

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along right after P.S. I will begin the story by telling you about
these three extraordinary human beings.
P.S., a fifteen-year-old boy living in a trailer park in Vermont,
suffers from epilepsy. The disease is a major concern in the hills
of Vermont and New Hampshire, where it is common. P.S. had
been referred to the Dartmouth Medical Center for help in
controlling his seizures. Medications were not working, and a
normal life did not appear possible.
Dr. Alexander Reeves, the talented neurologist in charge, first
tried juggling the drugs, checking blood levels, and using all the
other methods that are less invasive than brain surgery. Nothing
worked. P.S. was a candidate for split-brain surgery. As usual,
we were called and went to test P.S. preoperatively.
Dragging our own trailer behind us, we pulled into the trailer
park. One forgets that people live in trailers, and in small, dull
towns. I knocked on the door of a trailer and out flew this kid
with nerve-racking energy whom we all grew to love. P.S. is an
adolescent of low-average intelligence, with all of the conflicts
and aspirations of a "normal" youth. He wants to be a computer
programmer, an electrician, and a race car driver; he wants to
move to Boston, to fall in love, and so on.
P.S. proved to be normal in every way according to our tests.
Sensory information presented to either the left or the right
visual field could be named easily. The same was true for touch
information presented to either the left or right hand. Auditory
information could not be tested because of a preexisting hearing
loss in the right ear.
P.S. was operated on in January 1975. He proved to be a
most extraordinary patient, at once confirming the earlier Cali-
fornia studies and showing us that the split-brain story was far
1
richer than we had previously imagined. We tested him within
a month after his full callosal surgery. He was unique. All the
usual abilities were present, such as lateral specialization for
drawing cubes, arranging blocks, and other right-hemisphere
skills; and while his left hemisphere could talk normally about

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its experiences, it could not talk about experiences going on in displayed the full syndrome as classically described. Her right
the right half-brain. That was nothing new to me. The new hemisphere was specialized for certain tasks and her left hemi-
finding from this series of patients was that P.S., like two of the sphere could not talk about events transpiring in the right half-
fifteen California patients I had originally studied, could under- brain.2

stand language in the right hemisphere. This is not normally the That's where the similarity ends. Like P.S., she possessed an
case. enormous amount of linguistic skill in her right half-brain. V.P.
A traditional test for right-hemisphere language is to flash could also carry out commands. While initially she could not
words to the left visual field. The patient typically states that he speak from her right brain, she could write out messages about
doesn't see anything (this is the left hemisphere talking), and the information presented to her disconnected right brain. Our
test is seemingly over. However, if P.S.'s hand was placed analysis of these phenomena follows the description of our last
underneath a table where several objects were laid out, after patient, J.W.
palpating the various selections he would pick up the appropriate J.W. is another patient from the Dartmouth series. His epilepsy
object, the one whose name was flashed to the left visual field. started later in life at age nineteen and caused serious social
His right hemisphere understood the meaning of nouns, just as disruptions. He had been divorced twice and had been in
those of the two California cases had. continual trouble in his small New England town. His very
Yet unlike the previous patients, P.S. could carry out com- caring parents finally took him to Dr. Wilson who, after a careful
mands presented to the right half-brain. If we flashed the verb, preoperative workup with Dr. Reeves, decided split-brain surgery
"smile," he would smile. If we flashed the word, "tap," he would was the only solution. As with so many of the other cases, the
tap the table in front of him. His right hemisphere could respond surgery proved stabilizing and helpful.
to verbal commands. This ability was unique at the time, and J.W. also had his surgery carried out in two stages. We were
predicted a vast number of interesting features of the syndrome able to study him preoperatively, interoperatively, and postop-
that I will be discussing. 3
eratively. This opportunity led to some interesting observations
Case V.P. came to us from Ohio. Dr. Rayport called to ask if about how information transfer between the two hemispheres
we would be interested in studying her. Of course we were and takes place. J.W. resembled in psychological profile the two
we flew her to New York. By the time we saw her she had flagship California cases, L.B. and N.G., that I had first reported
already undergone surgery. In her case it was carried out in two in my thesis; these two cases became the backbone of the
stages, with the anterior half of the callosum sectioned approxi- California studies that continued after I left. J.W. provided a
mately ten weeks before the posterior half was sectioned. V.P. is bridge between the two series and a chance for relevant compar-
a charming, socially alert, and dutiful young woman who works isons. That is, J.W., like V.P. and P.S., could understand
hard to please. She is divorced and lives with her young daughter. language in the right hemisphere but was not as proficient
Like most of the patients, V.P. has parents who have an intense overall. Needless to say, he showed all the other standard split-
interest in her well-being and look after her with great care and brain effects.
concern. These three patients are the subjects of most of our studies.
We knew from the first visit that V.P. would be another There are many other split-brain patients but I will not discuss
special case. Like the others already mentioned, she initially them here for a variety of reasons, the most important being

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 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

that most split-brain patients do not possess right hemisphere

language. Following surgery it is common to see the talking left
hemisphere continuing its talkative ways. Information presented
to the appropriate visual field or objects placed in the right hand
are all named with normal facility. Yet unlike the cases of J.W.,
V.P., and P.S., information presented to the right half-brain
yields nothing in response. The right half-brain has no language
capacity and along with that a striking inactivity that borders
on behavioral tedium. This is not to say these right hemispheres
do not have specialized systems. They may have, but it is next
to impossible to demonstrate their existence in a brain system
that is so unable to behave overtly.
Cases like J.W., V.P., and P.S. are rare, and therefore raise
the question of the wisdom of building a set of observations on
a small minority of cases. I think it is not a problem because
the studies to be reported are not of the traditional left-brain/
right-brain variety that explore possible differences between the
two sides. On that issue the split-brain data fall into the context
of other clinical studies and studies on normals that do allow
for such observations.
The approach I am taking here is different. I will describe
how the left hemispheres of our three special patients deal with
assertive behaviors produced by their right half-brains. By careful
analysis of these phenomena, I hope to show how these insights
give clues to the conscious processes in all of us.
Consider the everyday life of a split-brain patient. The domi-
nant left hemisphere is dealing with the world, fielding its
questions, planning action, accounting for the body's moods,
and so on. Suddenly, the right half-brain decides it wants the
patient to take a walk. What does the left brain do? What does
it think? More generally, what does the left brain make of the
activities initiated by the right half-brain?
These kinds of questions can be asked under strict laboratory
conditions. Figure 5.2 depicts a typical experiment which LeDoux
4
Figure 5.2. Two problems are presented simultaneously, one to the
and I first carried out. In brief, the experiment requires each talking left brain and one to the nontalking right brain. The answers
for each problem are available in full view in front of the patient.
70 SOURCE: Reprinted with permission from Michael S. Gazzaniga and Joseph LeDoux, The
Integrated Mind (New York: Plenum, 1978).
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN
Brain M e c h a n i s m s and B e l i e f F o r m a t i o n

hemisphere to solve a simple conceptual problem. A distinct with the task of explaining an overt behavior that was initiated
picture is lateralized to one hemisphere: in this case the left sees not by that hemisphere but by the disconnected right half-brain.
a picture of a claw. At the same time the right hemisphere sees This phenomenon so clearly seen in the patients provides a
a picture of a snow scene. Placed in front of the patient are a major clue to conscious mechanisms, the system of rules that
series of cards that serve as possible answers to the implicit help normal people build up a personal sense of conscious
questions of what goes with what. The correct answer for the awareness.
left hemisphere is a chicken. The answer for the right hemisphere
With time, and taking into account changing attitudes of each
is a shovel.
patient, the powerful and compelling phenomenon just described
After the two pictures are flashed to each half-brain, the can take on many different forms. It is always there, but
subjects are required to point to the answers. A typical response sometimes it has to be more subtly elicited. For example, there
is that of P.S., who pointed to the chicken with his right hand are times when Case J.W. might have temporarily adopted a
and the shovel with the left. After his response I asked him, philosophical view of matters in general and be urging the more
"Paul, why did you do that?" Paul looked up and without a or less reflexive attitude that he doesn't know why he does
moment's hesitation said from his left hemisphere, "Oh, that's anything, especially if he is being constantly questioned by me.
easy. The chicken claw goes with the chicken and you need a In such states of mind he might well offer at the end of each
shovel to clean out the chicken shed." trial the clear response that he doesn't know why he pointed to
Here was the left half-brain having to explain why the left one of the two objects because he doesn't know why he does
hand was pointing to a shovel when the only picture it saw was anything, and so on.
a claw. The left brain is not privy to what the right brain saw
When such a state of mind exists, we have merely to change
because of the brain disconnection. Yet the patient's very own
our task to elicit the basic function of his left interpretive brain.
body was doing something. Why was it doing that? Why was
We have to let his interpretive brain deal with a more subtle
the left hand pointing to the shovel? The left-brain's cognitive
response. For example, we flash two words to J.W. One goes to
system needed a theory and instantly supplied one that made
the silent right brain and one to the talkative left brain. We ask
sense given the information it had on this particular task. It is
J.W. to draw with his right hand a picture of what he sees. In
hard to describe the spell-binding power of seeing such things.
one example J.W. was presented with the word "fire" to the
Manipulating mind variables is awesome.
right brain and "house" to the left. We sat back and videotaped
This basic observation has been made hundreds of times on the response.
these three patients. In the two patients who can respond to
First he drew a houselike structure, which was consonant with
printed commands presented exclusively to the right hemisphere,
the left-brain stimulus. Then he began to draw crossroads to
it is simple to create the same kind of experimental conditions.
show the house in a key location in a town, the location of the
A simple command such as "walk" is flashed to the mute right
firehouse. When he put his pen down, we asked what it was he
half-brain and the patient will typically respond by pushing his
had drawn. Startled, he picked up the pen, made some more
or her chair back and starting to leave the testing area. When
scratches, and said, "A tree house." He then added some marks
asked where he or she is going, a typical response is "Going into
to make the crossroads look more like a tree house. It went on
my house to get a Coke." As before, the left hemisphere is faced
like that, trial after trial.
72
73
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN Brain M e c h a n i s m s a n d B e l i e f F o r m a t i o n

The proposition is that the normal human is compelled to

interpret real behaviors and to construct a theory as to why they
have occurred. Interpreting our behaviors would be a trivial
matter if all behaviors we engaged in were the product of verbal
conscious action. In that case, the source of the behavior is
known before the action occurs. If all our actions consisted of
only these kinds of events, there would be nothing to explain. I
argue that the normal person does not possess a unitary conscious
mechanism in which the conscious system is privy to the sources
of all his or her actions. I want to build the argument that the
normal brain is organized into modules and that most of these
modules are capable of actions, moods, and responses. All except D D F G H L M N P P S T
one work in nonverbal ways such that their modes of expression A 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 A 0 c V
D P N D M 2 M X U L H
are solely through overt behaviors or more covert actions. To E E 0
2 0 L 1
build this case I need more data, so let m e continue. N C 0
E L
In the laboratory we set the stage for other experiments on
how the left brain interprets the responses of the right brain. Figure 5 . 3 . Left hemisphere verbal rating of stimuli exposed to the left
and right hemispheres. Data points represented by open squares con-
This time we d o not ask the right brain to make a real response,
nected by dotted lines indicate right hemisphere exposure, and open
that is, carry out a real bodily movement. Instead, the right circles connected by solid lines indicate left hemisphere exposure. In
brain is given a list of words that it knows and that we know to only one instance ("Nixon") did the ratings differ by more than one
be in the life of the patient. In the first part of the study, the scale value.
right hemisphere is asked to judge on a seven-point scale of
LVM: like very much D: dislike
likability the value of each word. In this pretest the right brain L: like D V M : dislike very much
responds by pointing to one of a set of seven cards that list the U: undecided
seven choices. It became quickly evident that the right brain SOURCE: Reprinted with permission from Michael S. Gazzaniga and Joseph LeDoux,
The Integrated Mind (New York; Plenum, 1978).
liked some of the words and disliked others.
In the next phase of the experiment, again carried out by was almost identical to those given by the right brain directly.
5
LeDoux and me, the manual response is not allowed. Instead, These experiments demonstrate that a separate mental system,
the left has to speak out after each word is flashed to the right in this case the right hemisphere, can react emotionally to a
brain and give its one-to-seven rating of the word. In this stimulus. It can put a valence, or value, o n a stimulus and this
situation, the left brain does not actually know what the word value, either positive or negative, can be communicated to the
was that was presented. When it makes its guess it is responding left hemisphere's verbal system, yet the left hemisphere cannot
to some feeling that is generated by the right brain and possibly say what the stimulus was that triggered the particular emotional
communicated to the left through remaining brain pathways. response being analyzed (figure 5.3).
The left brain's assessment of the words presented to the right When Jeff Holtzman came to the lab he brought with him an

74 75
 THE SOCIAL BRAIN Brain M e c h a n i s m s and B e l i e f F o r m a t i o n

elaborate eye-tracking device designed by Tom Cornsweet at the v.P.: I don't really know why but I'm kind of scared. I feel
Stanford Research Institute. It is a hugely complicated machine jumpy. I think maybe I don't like this room, or maybe it's
that requires a computer and hundreds of thousands of dollars you. You're getting me nervous.
worth of software to run. His mentor, Leon Festinger, had
changed fields of interest and had no need for it, so he sent it V.P. then turned to an assistant and said, "I know I like Dr.
along with Holtzman. The machine would have been useless Gazzaniga, but right now I'm scared of him for some reason."
without Holtzman and six computer jockeys he knew in New When a more serene view was presented such as a filmstrip
York who also know how to run it. In their hands it works of the ocean in front of my house in Santa Barbara, V.P. talked
perfectly and allows us to conduct many new experiments, not on about how she thought the picture was "nice and calm."
only on the split-brain patients but also on other neurological Here again the left half-brain was correctly reading the overall
cases. mood generated by the mute right half-brain. It is important to
The machine precisely measures the movement of the eyes. If note that either end of the affective scale could be so appreciated.
the subject, while sitting in the tracker, moves his or her eyes From distress to serenity the left half-brain appreciated the
even an iota, the computer closes an electronic shutter. This in emotional state of the right half-brain. The phenomenon is as
turn stops a movie being shown to either the right or the left dramatic as it sounds. Let me review the position.
brain. In other words, the machine allows us to present a The split-brain patient allows us to conduct discrete experi-
sustained visual story to one hemisphere or the other. It gives ments that examine how two separate mental systems interact.
us time to create a mood. This is a convenience for research and must not be mistaken as
In tests on V.P., who has the best-shaped eyeball for the the way the normal brain works. The two halves of the brain
machine to read, we were able to show her, for one or two are normally linked together, and the phenomena I have described
minutes at a time, film clips that produced emotional reactions.6
accounts for a special instance. Yet I am arguing that this special
In the first tests we showed her a filmstrip from the Cornell instance gives a much more general insight into normal brain
Office of Health and Safety, which counsels its employees not to organization. My interpretation is that the normal brain is
throw fellow employees into fires should they come across one. organized into modular-processing systems, hundreds of them
This bit of drama brought to us by some federal regulation is or maybe even thousands, and that these modules can usually
indeed terrifying. V.P. saw it, thanks to the eye tracker, only express themselves only through real action, not through verbal
with her then mute right hemisphere. This was the exchange communication. Most of these systems, not unlike those existing
that occurred between her and me, the examiner. in animals, can remember events, store affective reactions to
those events, and respond to stimuli associated with a particular
M.S.G.: What did you see? memory. All of these activities are routinely carried out by cats,
v.p.: I don't really know what I saw. I think just a white flash. dogs, and apes, and by humans. These activities proceed without
M.S.G.: Were there people in it? language and with abandon. They are the elements that a
v.p.: I don't think so. Maybe just some trees, red trees like in functioning mental system draws upon for a complete mental
the fall. life. Consider an example of everyday life that fits into my
M.S.G.: Did it make you feel any emotion? argument.

76 77
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

It is a Monday evening at home. All seems in place, all is

well. You are chatting with friends, everybody is feeling cheerful,
and everything is going your way. Then waking on Tuesday,
your mood has darkened for no apparent reason, and you
wonder what happened. The data about life's good fortunes have
not been altered in the last twelve hours. Why the change?
I would argue that a nonverbal module has somehow been
activated, and the emotional associates of the events stored in
that module have been communicated to the brain's emotional
system. What we all tend to forget is that the rich capacity of
the vertebrate brain to learn conditioned associative responses is
an active brain function that humans have in common with all
the nonspeaking subhuman vertebrates such as your pet dog.
Humans are constantly being conditioned to have particular
emotional responses, and the particular modules in the brain
that store that information can become activated for expression
by any of a number of means.
In this particular case of the Tuesday morning blues, a
negative mood is felt. If you let the process stop there, life might
be a lot simpler. What I am arguing is that you begin to interpret
previously neutral, negative, or even positive events more nega-
tively as a result of having to explain this new mood. Alas, the
person lying next to you might be in for a real surprise.
This example deals with the subtle manipulations of mood
and how they interact to change one's beliefs about things,
people, and events. My claim, however, extends to overt behav-
7
iors. The phenomenon is ubiquitous. Consider the happily Figure 5.4. The many observations on split-brain patients all lead to
married man who believes in fidelity. The Christmas party comes the conclusion that the brain is organized in a modular fashion with
along and after a little too much cheer he winds up in bed next each module capable of producing independent behaviors. Once the
behaviors are emitted, the left-hemisphere language-based system inter-
to Suzy. He proceeds to participate in a behavior that is at odds
prets the behavior and constructs a theory as to its meaning.
with his beliefs about the social institution he has contracted to
(NV: Nonverbal)
be a part of. What happens? How does he explain his behavior?
What happens, of course, is that he changes his evaluation of
the importance of fidelity to marriage through a powerful
psychological mechanism which has been brilliantly articulated

78
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

8
by Leon Festinger. Because people cannot live in a state of CHAPTER 6
dissonance between a held belief and an actual behavior, some-
thing has to give, and it is usually the value of the belief. That
is the gist of Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance.
What the new brain science brings to this interpretation is the
knowledge about how the brain is organized, that in fact it is
organized in these relatively independent modules that are
The Search
capable of initiating the disparate behavior in the first place.
The implications of this model of mind will be dealt with
shortly. For now let me simply summarize the discovery (see
for Modularity
figure 5.4). The dominant left hemisphere is committed to the
task of interpreting our overt behaviors as well as the more
covert emotional responses produced by these separate mental
modules of our brain. It constructs theories as to why these T W O T H O U S A N D YEARS of Western thought has urged the
behaviors occurred and does so because of that brain system's view that our actions are the product of a unitary conscious
need to maintain a sense of consistency for all of our behaviors. system. This represents a rather substantive body of opinion,
It is a uniquely human endeavor, and upon it rests not only the and there are many institutions and scientific beliefs built up
mechanism that generates our sense of subjective reality but also around this assumption. To effectively challenge this view takes
a mental capacity t o free us from the binding controls of external time, great effort, and always more supporting data. Let me
contingencies. I believe this point to be of fundamental impor- return to the neurologic clinic, this time to other kinds of
tance and will describe supporting data in the next chapter. patients, problems, and test procedures. My objective is to bring
to your attention other converging experimental data that argue
for the modular view of mind.
There is a procedure in neuroradiology called angiography. In
this procedure an opaque dye is injected into the brain vessels
and X rays are taken. The result is a picture of the normal or
abnormal blood supply to the brain. It is an extremely useful
procedure and particularly helpful to the neurosurgeon.
In a similar procedure called the Wada test, invented many
years ago by Canadian neurosurgeon Juin Wada, a short-acting
1
anesthetic is injected into the brain arteries. Because of the way
the brain vessels are organized, the drug is delivered to one
hemisphere and not to the other. (This brief general description
will suffice for our present purpose, although there are a host of
qualifications for it.) The technique allows one hemisphere to
80 81
T H E SOCIAL B R A I N The Search for Modularity

be put to sleep temporarily while the other remains awake. It up through the chest into the neck and finally into the carotid
was devised in order to assure the neurosurgeon that the hemi- artery on one side of the brain. This way, if the introduction of
sphere that should be dominant for language is, in fact, dominant. the needle into artery causes a plaque to loosen, an artery in the
The test should cause the left hemisphere, usually dominant for leg is blocked, something far more tolerable than a blockage in
language, to be unable to respond to spoken commands or to an artery of the brain.
produce speech. When the drug is injected into the nondominant The neuroradiologist inserts the catheter and tracks its way
hemisphere, these processes are not interfered with. Sometimes up to the brain, guiding it through the arteries and steering it
there are surprises, and it is important to be absolutely sure clear of detours and culs-de-sac. The patient watches the catheter's
which hemisphere is dominant for language if major neurosurgery progress on the same T V monitor the doctor uses. It is an
is contemplated. electrifying event.
It would be unfair to the reader not to communicate the Finally when the catheter is in place, the Wada test is ready
excitement of many of the research procedures that produce the to begin. The patient's hands are held straight up in the air.
kinds of observations being offered here. One of the most When the drug takes effect, the hand opposite the anesthetized
compelling scenes I have experienced occurs in the medical hemisphere falls down in a state of transient paralysis. The other
suite of the neuroradiologist during the Wada test. It is worth hemisphere is awake, as is the motor apparatus of the opposite
describing. side of the body. The stage is set for the psychologist to once
The patient, who is normal except for some type of acquired again piggy-back on a medical procedure and ask a question
brain damagebrain tumor, aneurysm (a thin arterial wall in about brain organization.
danger of bursting), or an a-v malformation (a strange pathological Take the case of a patient who is not aphasic but who is
network of vessels at the junction where oxygenated arterial having his left hemisphere put to sleep for two or three minutes.
blood blends into deoxygenated venous blood)is laid fully The neuroradiologist injects the drug into the left carotid artery
conscious on a mechanical table. The table is electronically and after about twenty-five seconds the left brain no longer
controlled so that the patient can be moved horizontally under understands language and the right hand is paralyzed. The room
an X-ray machine, allowing pictures to be taken of his body and becomes very tense because this procedure is a manipulation of
head. The attending doctors all wear lead aprons in the exami- human consciousness. The left hand is mobile and sentient
nation room to avoid excessive exposure to radiation, especially because the right brain is awake. I place an object (a spoon) in
to their testes. the speechless person's sentient hand, ask him to remember it,
Originally, a needle was placed directly into the carotid artery, and remove it after about thirty seconds.
which runs along the side of the neck. The left carotid represents A few minutes pass, the drug begins to wear off, and the
the main feed to the left hemisphere and the right carotid is the patient gradually regains consciousness. I ask, "How do you
main feed to the right hemisphere. This method was stopped feel?" The patient's usual response is "very good," as the drug
when, in a few cases, the needle removed a substance (called a gives a "high" along with its other effects. I then say, "I placed
plaque) from the arterial wall which was subsequently pumped something in your left hand while you were asleep. Can you tell
into the brain, causing a blockage or infarct and resulting in a me what it was?" The patient looks puzzled and usually denies
stroke. N o w a catheter is put into an artery in the leg and fed anything had been presented to his left hand. This is the left

82 8.3
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

brain's language system trying to access information that exists

in the brain but is tucked away in some kind of code or mental
module that does not recognize the brain processes that represent
natural language. I pursue, "Are you sure you don't remember
anything I gave you a few minutes ago?" Again a denial of
knowledge.
I then show the patient a group of objects, one of which I had

put in the left hand minutes before. With decisive speed the o
patient points to the correct object and then adds, "Oh yes, it o
was the spoon," in much the same fashion as one of our split-
brain patients theorizes with the left hemisphere about movements
initiated by the right.
What does all this mean? In a way, what we have done is slip
some information into the brain without the language system's
2
awareness. The information becomes encoded in the brain in
one of the many mental modules that records experiences. It is
not, however, one that talks. In fact, when language processes
return, the module does not tell its secrets to the language Q.
O.
system. Whether or not this is because the information is in a <

neural code without access to another, much as an Italian has a

hard time understanding a Greek, I do not know. Whatever the
final mechanism proves to be, this kind of experience does show
how information can exist in the brain, can be ready and able
to express itself through movement, and at the same time be
unavailable to the language system. The results add weight to
the theory of multiple mental modules.
3
to
Let me present another line of evidence. A bizarre clinical
| a a .a I
finding is that patients with a lesion in the posterior regions of S .2 c 3,
S 8 2 5 f
the right hemisphere do not see information presented in their s c
j
left visual field if other information is simultaneously presented .9 p 8 ? <
in their right visual field. For example, imagine yourself looking S 1
a -S -o
u r s
straight on at such a patient, head to head. If you held up a - -a .2, i
comb in your left hand and an apple in your right hand, the so 0
- '3 co
patient would maintain that he or she saw only the comb. i l i

Patients "extinguish" the apple (see figure 6.1).

8 4
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN T h e Search for Modularity

The first question asked in such a situation is whether or not Dr. Jerome Posner of Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York
the patient is actually blind. Does the brain lesion affect the 4
City. He called one day to say that we had to see this patient
visual system such that the information is not reaching the brain and, because of her symptoms, we videotaped the testing session.
in the first place? The answer is no, because if a single object Mrs. Smith was in Memorial Hospital for brain surgery.
(stimulus) is held up in the extinguished field, the patient is Although she was an intelligent woman with great charm and
perfectly able to report on it. So the question becomes, what wit, she believed herself to be in Freeport, Maine. She sat in
happens to that visual information under the condition of hospital garb in her wheelchair with an IV in place, and during
behavioral stimulation that the patient cannot verbally describe? the course of a conversation about the intricacies of American
Can the information be used in a computation even though the history she would respond to the question, "By the way, Mrs.
verbal system does not have access to it? Smith, where are you?" by saying, "I am in Freeport, Maine.
The answer is that it most certainly can. If we ask the patient Where are you?" When I pointed to the elevators and asked,
not to name what the two stimuli are, but merely to state "What are those things over there?" she would respond, "Those
whether the two objects are the same or different, the patient is are elevators. D o you know what it cost me to have those put
able to make that judgment. Remarkably, on the trials where in my house? You know ever since I came in to have my brain
the stimuli are different and they say so, they cannot name the surgery, every doctor that has walked into my room has asked
stimulus that is presented in the extinguished visual field. In me where I am, and every time I tell them I am in Freeport,
other words, a computation transpires in one of the mental Maine. Every time they correct me and tell me I am at Memorial
modules, and the product of the computation is delivered to the Sloan-Kettering in New York. Finally, after about a week of
verbal system. The verbal system can take advantage of the this, Dr. Posner said to me just say you are in New York. They
answer but cannot tell you what went into the calculation. It is didn't care whether or not I believe it."
a compelling observation. Here is an otherwise intelligent woman with a module mal-
Once again the data suggest that the brain is organized in functioning as the result of her brain disease. That module
such a way that information is stored in modules. These modules contributed some unique data concerning her real-time location
can compute, remember, feel emotion, and act. They exist in in space. Its malfunction forced her into the position of having
such a way that they need not be in touch with the natural to explain some bizarre realities in reference to her location in
language and cognitive systems underlying private conscious space, and she did this with little hesitation.
experience. In a broader sense, what we hold as conscious Until 1978, my general formulation about the existence of
experiences are, to a large extent, the verbally tagged memories mental modules evolved from considering the results of experi-
that are associated with the interpretations we have given to our ments on split-brain patients and other clinical populations such
behaviors. as Mrs. Smith. However, in that year a most extraordinary
The neurologic clinic is full of rich examples that point to the development occurred. It came about first in one of the split-
modular view. Last year we saw a patient whom I'll call Mrs. brain patients, Case P.S. His right hemisphere began to talk, and
Smith, who had a lesion in her right parietal zone. Lesions in with that a whole new era of observations began.
this location can produce a wide variety of disturbances, among Ordinarily a split-brain patient is able to name information
them Mrs. Smith's translocation of place. She was a patient of presented in the right visual field, but not in the left. Imagine

86
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

my surprise and delight when P.S. began to name information

presented into the left visual field. He was our breakthrough
5
case, and he had had his surgery only three years before.
The first question to be asked about this is whether this really
is right-brain speech or whether the information being presented
to the right brain is somehow being transferred over to the left,
talking hemisphere? Consider the situation. A picture of a fork
is shown to the left hemisphere and a key is shown to the right.
P.S. immediately says, "fork and key" (see figure 6.2). But if
you ask the usual split-brain patient, "Are the two pictures I am
about to show you the same or different?" he or she is unable
to do the task above a chance level. This is because mind left
sees a fork and mind right sees a key and for all practical
purposes they do not communicate with each other. It is just as
if I showed a key to person A and a fork to person B. Unless
they talked to each other, there is no way one of them could
guess above a chance level whether or not they were both
presented the same object.
When a patient speaks from both hemispheres, our picture of
who is explaining what to whom becomes more complicated.
Fortunately it remains the case that the left hemisphere is still
the dominant partner in this relationship; it does most of the
talking. The right brain is prone to one-line descriptions, as can
be seen from the results of another experiment. This study also
brings us right back to the persistent characteristic of the left
brain, that it constructs a theory about behaviors emitted, and
in this case the behavior is language coming from the right half-
brain.
In this study, P.S. was shown a series of slides with two words
6
on each slide (see figure 6.3). When read normally from left to
right the series of slides told a logical story (Story 1. Mary +
Ann, May + Come, Visit + Into, The + Town, Ship + Today).
P.S., of course, could not read the story from left to right;
instead, on a given trial each hemisphere received a single word.
The left hemisphere proceeded to read only the words on the

88
T H E S O C I A L BRAIN T h e Search for M o d u l a r i t y

S H I P * TOOAY
RESPONSE story, he replied, "Ann came into town today to visit Ma on the

THETOWN
PS. Ann come into town today. boat."
Once again we see the integration of disparate behaviors into
VISIT* INTO E_ Anything else ?
a coherent framework. With the development of bilateral access
MAY COME PS, On a ship.
to speech, behaviors generated by the right hemisphere, which
E_ Who? now initiate the spoken word, are incorporated into the conscious
MARY ANN _
PS. Ma. stream of the left hemisphere.
E. What else ? A still simpler test was carried out on V.P. after she began to
7

PS. To visit. speak from the right hemisphere. Line drawings of scenes were
presented either to her left or to her right hemisphere. The
What e l s e ?
drawings were more complicated than just a picture of an apple.
PS- To see Mary Ann. Instead, they were, for example, a hurdler jumping over a hurdle
ANN MARY
COME MAY
EL Now repeat the whole story. with a particular set of clothes on and headed in a specific
INTO VISIT PS. Ma ought to come into town direction. When one of these pictures was presented to the left
TOWN THE
brain, it was described in accurate detail. When presented to the
TODAY SHIP today to visit Mary Ann on
right, the form of the description was different. Whereas the
the boat.
initial characterization was accurate, for example, "athlete," the
follow-up description went further and further afield. Instead of
Figure 6.3. Two stories are presented, one to each half-brain. The left being a hurdler, the description might have been of a basketball
hemisphere quickly reports its story, followed by the right hemisphere
player. In this situation we meet our old friend again. The left
offering its story in bits a n d pieces. A f t e r the left b r a i n hears these
half-brain hears the word "athlete" come out of its own mouth
semantic items, it combines both stories into yet a new one.
SOURCE: Reprinted from Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Right Hemisphere Language Following and invents a stimulus to explain its response. The phenomenon
Brain Bisection: A 20-Year Perspective," American Psychologist, vol. 38, no. 5 (1983): 525- is extraordinary, and we see it all the time.
37. Copyright 1983 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted by permission of
the author and publisher. Results of testing under conditions of strict behavior manip-
ulation lead to intriguing suppositions regarding the normal
right side of the screen, which by design also make up a story subject. To take a simpler example first, we can all remember
(Story 2. + Ann, + Come, + Into, + Town, + Today), and the blurting out some word or statement, usually as the result of
right hemisphere read only the words on the left side of the some kind of imagined loss of self-control, and then attempting
screen (Story 3. Mary + , May + , Visit + , The + , Ship + ) . to overcome the embarrassment it caused. This usually results
Following the presentation of the entire series of slides, P.S. in worsening the situation by elaborating on the remark. I am
was asked to recall the story. He immediately responded, "Ann thinking of the times when we surprise ourselves at how angry
come into town today." This was the more robust left hemisphere we become at something that is said in our presence. Controlling
expressing what it had perceived. Then P.S. was asked if that the unleashed emotion frequently becomes a severe challenge.
was the full story. He paused briefly and blurted out, "On a ship The more interesting case is one that is rankly speculative but
. . . to visit . . . to visit Ma." When asked to repeat the whole is more closely related to the subtle and usually opaque process

9 9 1
 T H E SOCIAL BRAIN
T h e Search for Modularity

of creative cognition. It has to do with the process of writing. I

to elicit mental images, each accessing related images carrying
believe it is usually the case that a writer is not fully aware of
different emotional valences. This fluctuating state of emotional
what the import of a sentence, paragraph, or page will be. The
energy leads to description of all these images by the continually
writing process, which elicits mental images through the judicious
active verbal system. In this dynamic way, the initial action is
use of words, demonstrates how different thoughts are from their
modified.
written form. Where do we find the words to capture and convey
It is an idea worth considering because, as I am about to
the peculiar quality of our personal communications? Why does
show, language is a system that is not intrinsically powerful.
the written version of our ideas appear different from what we
Language reports the cognitive computations of other mental
first imagined we wished to say?
modules. If I can convincingly establish this link, then the
A few years ago George Miller and I were having an evening
foregoing has more than a little substance.
drink at the Rockefeller University Faculty Club when we
A major challenge to the student of human cognition is to
decided it would be a good idea to discuss this paradox with
determine what language qua language confers on overall cog-
professional users of language instead of with professional sci-
nitive processes. At an elementary level, it is eminently reasonable
entists, who merely think about language. (Miller has not only
that specific knowledge of a word and its meaning aids personal
thought about language in a profound sense, he is able to write
comprehension enormously. Consider the word "vainglorious."
fine, prose.)
To someone hearing the word and unsure of its meaning, it
We invited a group of distinguished authorsWilliam Buckley,
might sound like a cumbersome phonetic ensemble that need
T o m Wicker, and T o m Wolfeto a dinner party for a discussion
not exist in our language. We all know what "vain" means and
of this linguistic phenomenon. We had also invited John Updike,
we all know what "glorious" means and we all can imagine
who typed a note saying that unfortunately he would not be
what the hybrid might mean. Yet when we hear the definition,
able "to be at our table." He had first written "to be at our
"excessive or ostentatious pride, especially in one's achievements,"
dinner" and then crossed out "dinner" for the preferred word. I
the word takes on an exacting reflection of a thought. It is so
liked that because it confirmed my idea that great writing is a
exacting that the obvious conclusion is that something about
product of great editinga view I expressed at our "table." That
words and their definitions actually facilitates cognition. I am
view, however, did not convince the others present. Tom Wolfe
going to argue that this is not correct.
declared that (a) it took twenty years to learn how to write and
Psychologists have traditionally tried to discern the relation
(b) he himself precasts each page in his mind's eye and rarely
between language and cognition by studying, during different
does any editing. It was a grand dinner. Miller guided these
stages in their development, children in whom the two processes
cultural giants through the problems of teaching language skills 8
are in various decoupled states. The literature on this subject is
to our best college students. He was very good at explaining
perplexing because a cognitive system and a language system
things since he can identify and verbalize a problem with
may be co-evolving, making it very difficult to interpret conclu-
incredible skill, and he does not express his opinions until he
sions about dissociations that one comes across.
has developed his ideas to his own satisfaction.
Another method commonly employed to investigate the link
Let me propose a model of the cognitive processes that
between language and cognitive processes is to study the language
accompany writing. As sentences are formed, the words begin 9
and cognition capability of the chimpanzee. David Premack
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has carried out ingenious studies on this animal. The rationale disturbance to language comprehension, the greater the cognitive
for his approach is straightforward and seemingly plausible: in impairment. These data are typically interpreted as showing that
order to learn what is unique about the human species, determine language and cognition are hopelessly linked phenomena.
the capabilities of its closest ancestor. Try to figure out how I wanted to test this idea on our three special split-brain
language training might help it to solve otherwise unsolvable patients. Remember, the right brain of man does not normally
problems. When the study is complete, those features of mental possess language. Our three patients, for reasons that are unclear,
life that can be carried out only by our species will be so do possess right-hemisphere language, and since the two hemi-
identified. spheres are disconnected, we can study what language confers
The problem I have always had with this approach is that to a neural system that does not normally possess it. Does
what appear to be similar acts of man and beast may not, in language let the right hemisphere do all the things it lets the left
fact, be the same. When my pet dog runs out the door at 6:00 hemisphere do? Well, that is not quite the way to put it. One
A.M. to visit the deli on First Avenue for a dish of milk, and might want to ask whether in a right brain with language,
when I go out much later for my quart of milk, a Martian might language almost as measurably rich as that of the left brain,
think we are engaged in the same act for the same reason, cognition exists at the same level. It does not.
supported by the same brain systems in each of us. Nothing Let me quickly review how facile the language system is in
could be further from the truth. these three patients. All three possess rich lexicons, the right not
The problem of establishing a common vocabulary applicable being significantly different from the left. Two patients can also
to man studying humans is extremely difficult. It is the same as carry out some syntactic processing and two can speak as well
in a political discussion with a Soviet, since his use of the words as understand language with the right hemisphere.
"freedom," "democracy," and the like mean totally different This quick summary does not communicate the spellbinding
things from what Westerners mean by these concepts. dimensions of these very special people. Let me give a fascinating
Once we identify our target for studythe biological and example from J.W.'s history. J.W. is a patient who understands
psychological nature of our own species, Homo sapiens sapiens both written and spoken language in the right brain, but cannot
then Homo sapiens sapiens is the species we should study. The as yet speak from it. I flash a word to his right brain and in
biosphere leading up to modern Homo sapiens sapiens man is order for him to indicate that he grasped the word and its
of enormous interest and studies on every conceivable aspect various meanings, I simply ask him to "Draw with your left
and on every possible topic, from cellular genetics to the capacity hand a picture of the word I flashed." In the beginning of any
of animals to form affective bonds, has contributed to setting one test session he usually protests that my command doesn't
the context for understanding ourselves. But, again, to understand make any sense because he (the left brain) has not seen anything
humans you must study humans. (which it hasn't) so how can he draw something. 1 nurse him
Another approach is the one used by the cognitive neurosci- along and say something like, "Oh, Joe, go ahead and let that
entist, whose subject is usually the aphasic patient. As already left hand try." The left hand will pick up a pencil and accurately
mentioned, this patient usually has suffered a stroke in the left draw a picture representing the word flashed (see figure 6.4). He
half-brain that caused language impairment. When language does this kind of thing routinely.
understanding is impaired, so too is cognition. The greater the It is of interest to note that when a word or a picture has been

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VISUAL STIMULUS presented to only the right brain and the left hand draws the
answer, J.W. will typically say, "I don't know why I drew that.
What is it? It looks like a bird. I guess I saw a bird." This is a
test situation where the left brain saw nothing. It has received
no stimulus and the interpretation of the action is more circuitous
and less dramatic than in the double-field presentation situations
described at the beginning of the chapter. Yet it is still there.
To further demonstrate the language power of this right brain,
suppose that instead of having J.W. draw a picture of the word
he saw I say, "Joe, don't draw a picture of the word. Draw me
a picture of what goes on it." If I flash the word "horse," J.W.
picks up the pencil and draws not the horse, but a beautiful but
abstract picture of a saddle. I then say, "Draw a picture of what
the word was," and out comes a picture of a horse. At that, Joe
says, "Oh, I guess this thing is a saddle." (See figure 6.5.)
We know from other tests that J.W.'s right brain does not
understand syntactic niceties. But it has enough pragmatic
VERBAL RESPONSE language knowledge to listen and follow my instructions. If one
simply observed how J.W.'s right brain responded to my ques-
tions, one would say it qualifies as being conscious in the human
sense of that word. Nevertheless, this half-brain with all of these
language qualities cannot make a simple inference.
If I flash the words "pin" and "finger" to the right brain, and
J.W.'s task is to combine the words into a new meaning or to
make a simple inference about those two words, the right brain
fails miserably. The task is simple because the answer, in this
case the word "bleed," is listed in front of the patient along with
LEFT-HAND other possible choices. J.W. responds at random from the right
DRAWING brain; the left brain, of course, finds the task trivial. What is
even more astounding is that the right brain, if flashed the word
"bleed," can define it. Other inabilities are as great. The right
brain cannot carry out simple math. It cannot solve second-
grade geometric puzzles. What can we conclude? We can start
by observing that a rich language system does not necessarily
mean rich cognition exists. Language qua language confers little.

97
Figure 6.4. The right, nontalking brain of patient J.W. is flashed the
word "bike." Although J.W. says he sees nothing, his left hand is able
to draw a picture of a bicycle.
 T h e Search for Modularity

There are other systems coincident with language that do the

serious computing and decision making. Language merely reports
on these other processes. These processes exist alongside language
in the left hemisphere but seem absent in the right brain.
There are unique neural systems present in the left hemisphere
of (right-handed) humans that compel the brain system com-
municating with the external world to make sense out of the
diverse behaviors humans produce. Inherent in this process is
the person's developing "beliefs" about the nature of the self,
which become more multidimensional the more diverse the
mental modules are in their behaviors. These beliefs take on a
central importance to the person and as such can override the
tugs on the person produced by more mundanely delivered
rewards or punishments for the behavior.
I argue further that the presence of beliefs in our species
results from the way the human brain is constructed. With the
appearance of left-hemisphere systems that allow for the making
of inference, an act that freed humans from the endless tedium
of advancing by trial and error, the system was inextricably
committed to the construction of human beliefs. A brain system
that can make inference about events in the real world must by
definition make inferences about its own behaviors. Once beliefs
were in place, the organism no longer lived only in the present.
The montage of conditioned responses that had governed bio-
logical creatures for all of time now dwelt in a brain system
capable of thwarting their power.

Figure 6.5. In this example of right-hemisphere comprehension, J.W.

was asked not to draw what he actually saw, but instead to draw a
picture of "what goes on it." J.W. drew an English saddle. Subsequently
he was asked to draw what he saw.

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CHAPTER 7 word before it rendered a decision? Why is it the more a human

(brain) knows the faster it works, while the more an artifact
(computer) knows the slower it works?
Colleagues in experimental psychology working with intact
normal brains have been examining these exciting and other
Modularity related questions for years. Before I get to the neuropsychological
work done with amnesiacs, it is worth pointing out that much
of our understanding of memory processes came from experi-

and Memory mental psychologists studying normal brains. Indeed, they have
carefully charted the processes of memory and have made a
number of crucial observations. There are, for example, processes
that seem to work very quickly on new information. These
processes control (and limit) the amount of information one can
A SINGULARLY important task in the scientific process is to apprehend with only a brief exposure to stimuli. Still other short-
check and recheck all of one's own experiments and to constantly term processes allow one to rehearse new information, such as
look for other experimental settings to try to confirm or discon- someone's telephone number, and with a little practice commit
firm hypotheses. Proposing that the brain is organized in modular it to long-term memory. Other processes work on how a memory
form makes certain predictions that can be examined in a is retrieved from long-term storage. The experimental psychol-
variety of patient groups. The main prediction is that strange ogists, usually working with normal college sophomores as their
and striking dissociations in various behaviors should be observ- subject base, always push the normal brain until the system
able. Nowhere is the phenomenon more evident than in the breaks down so that errors are made by the subject. Also, the
study of amnesia. length of time a subject takes to perform certain tasks is carefully
Amnesia is not only the stuff of popular suspense novels. It is measured, and through such strategies the resulting patterns of
a clinical state that has been carefully studied for decades by a errors and latency differences allow the psychologist to construct
host of talented neuropsychologists. How the brain stores infor- theories about how the memory system must work.
mation and through what kind of logical structure it retrieves I first became interested in how the brain represented human
information is about as exciting an intellectual question as one memories some years ago after my father had suffered a small
can address. How is it, for example, that the brain (you) can but transiently disabling stroke in his left hemisphere. Within
almost instantly recognize that "secleb" is not a word in the twenty-four hours he changed from a vibrant, energetic man to
English language. Depending on your level of knowledge of one near death. He became totally aphasic, unable to carry out
English you might have as many as two hundred and fifty even the simplest written or spoken command. This event was
thousand words in your working vocabulary. "Secleb" could be most distressing, as disabling diseases are the hardest to bear.
a word. It has all of the proper phonemic and graphemic All of his children went home to him, and the family stood on
elements of a word, yet, you instantly knew that it was not. twenty-four-hour watch in his room.
Why didn't your brain have to look in its dictionary word by Then, suddenly, the entire disabling process started to reverse

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Modularity and M e m o r y
itself. My father began to move, to show signs of becoming
sentient. Over the course of a few days, all of his faculties stimulus, were functioning. The module or neural circuit that
returned, including his delicious sense of humor. It turned out stored the actual name was nonfunctioning. It wasn't simply a
the stroke was an infarct of a small arterial branch of one of the naming problem because, although he could name other items
brain's posterior arteries, and the net effect had been to cause with ease, he did not recognize a particular item even when it
more swelling to surrounding tissue than any actual damage. As was named for him. These kinds of observations not only argue
the swelling subsided, the surrounding neural tissue and networks for modularity, they suggest that the modularities are highly
began to function once again. specific. Time, space, affect, and a host of other dimensions of
It was during this time of recovery that I was able to make a a stimulus event all have to be encoded, and apparently are
1

set of observations that caused me to think about what I used encoded, in different brain areas. '
to call the multidimensionality of human memories. The actual Still, such observations are informal and must be followed up
observations were as follows. At one point in time as he was with direct experimentation. The bedside exam can give clues,
recovering, I asked Dad to name for me a set of items in the but the real data are from formal experiments. Years after my
room. Everything was going fine until I held up a carnation. He father's stroke, my lab became involved in real studies on
said he didn't know what it was. He told me it was a flower, amnesia in the context of existing research in amnesia, about
that it was pink, and then he took it from me with a big smile which there is much to say.
and placed it in his lapel. Still, he couldn't name it. I then said Around 1950 modern clinical work started on this topic with
2
three words, one of which was "carnation," and asked him to the strange history of Case H.M. He was a patient of the
indicate which item it was. He was unable to do so. I then told Hartford neurosurgeon William Scoville. The man suffered from
him it was a carnation and he said, "Okay, if you say so." uncontrolled epilepsy, and it was thought in those days that
Moments later I asked him if he remembered what plant we surgical removal of the hippocampus, a structure embedded in
had planted at his Santa Barbara house the preceding weekend. each temporal lobe, would alleviate the distressing disease. H.M.
He said, "Oh yes, it was Sunday afternoon, Becky was there, was one of the first and last epileptic patients to undergo such
and we planted it down by the Lewis house near the southeast surgery. The effect on his memory was devastating.
corner of the property." I said, "Yeah, but what was the name True to the amnesiac's form, H.M. could not remember
of the plant?" He couldn't guess even though he was a fabulous anything for more than ten minutes. If a joke was told to him
gardener and it was a gazania, a plant he loved both aesthetically and he laughed, the same joke was good for the same laugh if it
and phonetically. Naming it for him didn't help either. About was told just fifteen minutes later. People could be with him for
six hours later all of this cleared. He proceeded to name every a day at a time, and if they walked out of the room for more
plant in the room and its genus and species. than ten minutes, they would have to reintroduce themselves
Clearly his mending brain was at a particular stage during the upon returning. More important, an exhaustive series of formal
time of the examination, which resulted in what psychologists memory tests was carried out on him by Dr. Brenda Milner of
call a nice "dissociation." At the time when he couldn't name the Montreal Neurological Institute. The tests confirmed the
the flower he could give all other relevant information about the qualitative clinical story and gave exact quantitative profiles to
item. The circuits, modules that process these aspects of the his huge abnormality.
Milner and her colleagues were able to propose as a result of
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T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

getting into the brain, and that the failure to store it was not
their studies that there was a crisp neurological reality to the
total. A very strong motor component was involved in the tasks
experimental psychologists' conception of a staged process in
H.M. originally had to perform, and somehow Milner's finding
memory formation. In short, there was a short-term memory
was left as evidence that memory for motor tasks was different
system that received new information, rehearsed it, and then
from that for more episodic events. It turns out that it is much
transferred it to long-term memory storage. The brain structure
more complicated than that.
that is heavily involved in this transfer from short-term to long-
Another patient, N.A., was tested in California by another
term storage is the hippocampus. Thus H.M. could remember 4
group of talented neuropsychologists. Larry Squire and Neal
past events (long-term memory was fine) and could remember
Cohen decided to pursue the issue of skill learning on this
new information in the short-term (ten minutes) but could not 5
patient, who for all practical purposes behaved exactly like
transfer the information out of short-term into the long-term
H.M. They showed N.A. could learn to mirror read as fast as
system. The work was conceptualized as showing that specific
normals in such tests. An eight- to ten-letter word such as
brain damage to a particular region (the hippocampus) produced
"bedraggle" is presented by mirror reflection very quickly. With
an anterograde amnesia. All events occurring after the injury
practice the time needed to correctly read the word decreases.
were not encoded into memory. Thus the brain lesion produced
Cohen then took his talents East and tested patient H.M. on
a dysfunction in the brain system that consolidates new infor-
another kind of cognitive task. He showed that a densely amnesic
mation. When all the details are considered, the Milner work 6
patient can learn the Tower of Hanoi problem. This is a parlor
established the framework for much of the modern work on
game that requires the player to figure out how a stack of five
amnesia.
concentric rings, each with a different diameter and all placed
Yet it is in the nature of the scientific enterprise to challenge
on one of three pegs, can be moved to another peg such that no
and be challenged by existing hypotheses. New cases or new
larger ring is ever placed on top of a smaller ring during the
tests come along that cast different lights on earlier findings. At
move. It takes thirty-one moves to carry out the task most
this moment, memory research is undergoing a revolution that
efficiently, and each move must be precise or else the correct
is altering the way many of us think about the problem. And
sequence is broken and the task becomes impossible to do. It is
some of the new work came out of findings left dangling by
now known that both N.A. and H.M. can perform this task
Milner. In particular, she discovered that H.M. could learn how
even though they deny at each testing session ever having seen
to "mirror-draw," that is, learn how to improve his tracing skills
the game before.
when looking at geometric shapes via a mirror that reversed
3
Squire and Cohen have proposed that their studies demonstrate
perception of the shapes. Thus when the hand went to guide a
there are two kinds of memory we humans learn. One is called
pencil to the left edge of a rectangle, it appeared in the mirror
"procedural" and the other "declarative." The part of the brain
to move to the right. With practice it is easy to learn to adapt
that learns procedures, that is, things such as motor skills,
to such contrived distortions; and H.M., just like normals,
cognitive skills, or strategies like the Tower problem is different
learned to do the task and could maintain his good performance
from the part of the brain that takes part in declarative learning,
from one day to the next, even though he could not remember
which is learning of events. At one level of analysis, their data
having done the task before.
support the idea of the modular brain. The procedural module
This meant, of course, that information of some kind was

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is intact but the declarative module is in disrepair. One of the reasons for ignoring these patients for study was
On a larger scale, the issue that began to surface as more and that some of them had complicated brain lesions and some of
more people began to study patients with memory disorders was them appeared to have none! Since a big part of the cognitive
centered on the question of whether these patients did, in fact, neuroscientist's job is to find the specific brain structures that
consolidate new information. It was argued first by the Oxford relate to specific disorders, it was much more appealing to study
group led by Elizabeth Warrington and Larry Weiskrantz that a patient with a crisp surgical lesion, a known and definable
7
the average amnestic patient failed to access new experiences. pathology. That obviously made the job much easier. But about
The experiences had been recorded but, because of the brain ten years ago things started to change on a number of fronts.
damage, the capacity to gain access to the stored information First, there were major changes in neuroradiography. Financed
was impaired. In short, it was becoming apparent that amnestic in part by the Beatles, the CT scanner was invented by the
patients should be defined as people with poor recall but with a British. This remarkable device localizes X rays to almost any
capacity to recognize that they had had a particular experience plane in the head that one is interested in studying in order to
before. Thus, whereas amnestic patients may not be able to detect the presence of pathologic tissue. This means that patients
recall what ten fruits had been shown them an hour before, they with problems such as memory disorders can now be more
could recognize many of them if placed in view. In such a clearly defined, neurologically speaking.
recognition test a new fruit and an old fruit are shown next to Second, experimental psychologists began to shift away from
each other and the patient must choose the one he or she had simply considering the short-term to long-term distinction, that
seen before. Since the amnestic patient is able to do this above is, the problem at the input end of things. More attention was
a chance level, researchers began to wonder why recall was so being given to problems of retrieval of information, and how
poor. information was internally represented or encoded. (When psy-
It was at about this point in the problem that our laboratory chologists change their models, the kinds of questions the brain
became interested in the issue. In a neurologic clinic it is virtually scientists ask change as well.)
impossible not to be absorbed by the disorders of memory. They Finally, as one might expect, there emerged the view, mainly
are the single most common presenting problems for the neu- espoused by those purely interested in the structure of normal
rologist dealing with behavioral disorders. Memory problems are cognition, that any patient could be studied who gave the
common in the elderly and manifest in dementia. They appear examiner an interesting dissociation of function. This type of
in alcoholics and as a result of head trauma. Memory disorders scientist is wholly unconcerned with what brain structures are
are often seen after cardiac arrest. They can occur following involved with what functions. Such a view heralds the brain-
strokes, the appearance of brain tumors, and a host of other damaged patient as merely proving that the biologic system
problems such as herpes simplex encephalitis. honors particular distinctions and therefore, these distinctions
Curiously, however, at this time many of the patient groups must be incorporated into a model of memory processes.
tested had been given only a cursory assessment of their memory N o w there were problems with all of these impulses to open
disorders. It was simply noted, perhaps even measured, where up the study of amnesia. For example, the CT scan records only
the patients stood relative to age-matched controls. But their minimal lesions so that a so-called tight CT-scan correlate is not
particular problems were not carefully analyzed. that at all. There may be hidden damage that the scanner misses.

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Modularity a n d M e m o r y
Thus spurious correlations between a memory disorder and the
brain structures responsible for it can occur. Of course, implicit one of the professors of neurosurgery called. With each call also
in this observation is the fact that the CT scan can miss real came a unique story, both neurologically and psychologically.
lesions totally. The trick was to make sense out of it all.
This and other issues came up when our studies got underway One of the patients, L.K., behaved similarly to H.M. When
in 1980. Most of them have been carried out by Bruce Volpe we first went to test L.K., a group of us drove out in our special
and William Hirst. Both of these investigators are inherently van. We were met by L.K.'s lovely wife, who immediately
unhappy with the status quo on just about everything, and in warned us that her husband was not so good on names but was
particular about how the amnesia problem has been viewed. very good on numbers. We all dutifully noted that and proceeded
They bring new energy to a field full of creative scientists. to start testing him. We hadn't been with the patient for five
minutes before he too informed us he had a terrible memory
The neurology department at Cornell may be unsurpassed in
for names but he was terrific at numbers. He had managed a
the quality of its medical care. The chairman, Fred Plum, is an
deli in his day and was always having to add up the costs of
institution in his own time. He is hard-driving, energetic, curious
items and as a result became quite good with numbers. Three
and, most important, completely supportive of our work. The
hours later L.K. had told us that story approximately twenty
resident staff also assists us in finding subjects.
times, each time with fresh gusto. Finally George Miller, who
We had let it be known that we were looking for cases of
was beginning to think this was a Bob and Ray routine, said,
amnesia. And you have to be careful in the clinic. A few years
"How come you have never told us that before?" T o which L.K.
back an alert resident called me to say that there was a patient
calmly responded, "You never asked."
up on the ward who was suffering from Huntington's disease,
and he felt she was displaying some memory and thought After many tests on many patients, a behavioral profile began
disorders. I gathered my bedside tricks together and went up to to emerge. All the patients in a group of eight were markedly
see her. Mrs. Levine seemed alert, and I proceeded to give her impaired on delayed recall of past events. Tests as simple as
my bedside exam. Contrary to the resident's perception she giving a word list of ten c o m m o n items could be recalled well
looked pretty good; but then on a last-minute hunch, I turned after a thirty-second delay. Yet if the examiner waited a little
over the hospital menu that listed that morning's breakfast. I longer, the normal control group performed well, but the am-
said, "Okay, Mrs. Levine, what did you have for breakfast?" She nesiacs were extremely poor at recalling the items.
sputtered and said she didn't know, and I began to think we At the same timeand this is the important pointthese
were getting somewhere. I got up, picked up my notes, and told patients could recognize the words. In this kind of test there is
her I would be back after lunch for more formal tests on her not the same demand on the patients. Two items are given to
memory. She agreed, and as I was about out the door of the each patient, one being from the original list and the other a
four-bed room, she said in no uncertain terms, "Doctor, the new item. The test requirement is merely that the patient pick
menu, I should memorize it?" There was nothing wrong with one or the other, even though he or she may verbally deny
Mrs. Levine, at least not yet. having seen either. In this "forced choice" kind of test, the
Gradually, however, the serious cases began to come our way. amnesiac reveals that, at some level, he or she remembers the
First a neurologist from Long Island called with a case. Then original information.
This condition allows for some interesting experiments. The
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T H E SOCIAL BRAIN

Clearly such an impairment should greatly affect the normal

task becomes to try and understand what went wrong in the recall process. Critical cues are not associated with the new
initial encoding of the new information that makes it difficult to information.
retrieve. When thinking about this problem it becomes clear There are other examples of how processes that are largely
that no new piece of information is an isolated element, suspended automatic for the normal human seem impaired in the amnesiac.
in time and space, as it were. All experiences have a context Take, for example, the process of assigning value to new infor-
and, because we are emotional creatures, a valence of like and mation. The lead for running this experiment came from the
dislike is associated with them. The first question Hirst and fact that amnesic patients tend to have a "hollow," remote
Volpe asked was whether or not the amnesiac coded new items quality to their behavior. While they can be highly intelligent
8
to be learned in proper temporal sequence. Normally such and socially aware, there is a marked sense of personal distance.
things are done automatically. Usually if called upon we can All events are talked about with equal intensity or, more
recall the morning's events or the week's events in their proper pointedly, lack of intensity. Kathleen Redington and I asked
order of occurrence. We don't actively think about coding 9
whether these people can form new preferences. The thought
information in time; we do it automatically. Is the same true for was that perhaps the normal brain mechanisms that assign
amnesiacs? Are their automatic processes functioning properly? emotional value to new stimuli were not working correctly,
The experiments I've been describing made it clear that the thereby making behavior appear flat.
patients were severely impaired on such tests. In one test design The test we used is a simple one developed by the social
the examiners showed that the patients recognized certain new psychologist Robert Zajonc. In brief, a series of pictures of
items that were given to them but could not indicate whether human faces or other stimuli are shown to the patient. In the
one had occurred before the other. In one form of the test, they series of pictures, some of the faces are shown more frequently
simply used everyday news items for their exam. The patient than others. For a normal subject, the faces seen more frequently
group was a very bright crowd, and most of them read the New are better liked, faces seen infrequently are less liked. This
York Times and watched the evening news. This made them finding pleases the advertising industry immeasurably.
able to take tests on what news events occurred before others. When this test is administered to amnesiacs, they show a
For example, the amnesiacs were asked if the Sadat assassination dramatic inability to form a preference. The amnesiacs cannot
came before or after the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan? respond normally in terms of liking the more frequently viewed
(Remember, this test was administered in 1981.) They were faces even though they can indicate which faces had been
terrible at ityet they knew both events had occurred. presented. They seem to have one more automatic process
Discovering that amnesiacs tend to remember "what" but not impaired, a process that assigns value to new information. Again,
"when" argues for the existence of certain superordinate processes in the modular view, their particular kind of brain damage has
being active in human memory. In other words, in my modular affected a system that is normally given over to these duties.
view there is a module somewhere in the brain that tags new When this value assignment system is damaged, the new infor-
information and gives it a temporal context. It oversees, that is, mation receives one less tag, making recall still more difficult.
is superordinate to the actual recording of information itself. These automatic processes take real energy to carry out, just
The temporal dating module gives the information a tag. If the as it takes real energy to move an arm and take a breath. They
module is damaged, the new information does not receive tags.
i n
no
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN
Modularity and M e m o r y

are actual systems or modules in the brain contributing their

to know for our present purpose. And the present purpose is
specific duties to the encoding of new information. If that is
that a medical technology now exists that allows for a more
true, it is fair to ask the question, where are they in the brain?
sensitive measure of brain disease in the living human. Can it
Most brain scientists act as if they were born and raised in
be used to locate our hidden modules?
Missouri; they want to be shown the place.
The answer is most definitely yes, although at this writing the
Until very recently that request would be impossible to grant.
struggle for sure answers has just begun. We started our current
Detecting brain damage in humans, unless the damage is severe,
studies as the result of a personal exchange I had with one of
is not all that easy, and the CT scan can fail the experimentalist
the world's medical authorities on the matter, Dr. Marcus E.
in this area, which compounds the problem already mentioned,
Raichle of Washington University in St. Louis. He is director of
that a CT-scan lesion merely gives minimal information. Because
the PET scanner there and is a man of enormous talent and
of these shortcomings the much-heralded CT-scan correlates of
vigor. I told him about Volpe's patients suffering from amnesia
behavioral disorders are passing out of style. They aren't precise
but who at the same time had no identifiable brain lesion,
enough.
according to CT-scan analysis. At the time we talked, a great
Luckily there is a new device in operation at several medical
hope for the new technology was that specific cognitive states
centers, the Positron Emission Tomography Scanner. It is called
might be picked up by the machine's analyses. Thus thinking
the PET scanner for short. Like the CT scanner, it takes pictures
about Keats might activate different brain areas than thinking
of the living brain at various levels. Unlike the CT-scanner,
about the Beatles. That kind of thing is still an open question
however, it shows profiles of how the brain is actually functioning
and a tough problem to solve, but I suggested we try scanning
by carefully measuring biologic parameters like the rate of blood
an amnesiac to see if any brain pathology could be detected. He
flow, cell metabolism, or blood volume delivered to specific
instantly agreed, and within weeks Volpe and his first patient
areas. This is accomplished by special cameras sensitive to 10
were on a plane to St. Louis.
radioactivity which are strategically placed around the head such
The interinstitutional marriage worked nicely, largely because
that they can detect radioactive-labeled compounds that have
of Dr. Raichle's endless generosity, and to date the team has
been injected into or inhaled by the patient. These compounds
made a number of interesting observations. To begin with, the
vary in their chemical nature, as they measure different things.
PET scan unearthed pathologies totally missed by the CT scan.
One thing they all have in common, however, is that chemists
In the patient they studied it was found that the hippocampus
have made each chemical a positron-emitting compound. This
was working at a lower than normal metabolic rate. This suggests
means the compound emits a positron which collides with an
it was not functioning properly and hence is a possible reason
electron and is annihilated. This collision creates two gamma
for the patient's memory disorder. It would fit nicely with the
rays which then exit from the brain tissue at a 180 angle. The
famous case, H.M., who had discrete surgical removal of the
radiation-sensitive camera detects these rays, and they are reported
hippocampus. But there is more.
to a large computer which in turn figures out where in the brain
that particular physiochemical event occurred. An image is then The old game about giving somebody an answer and having
reconstructed that allows for what amounts to a metabolic map them supply the appropriate question is a daily issue in science.
of the living brain. This is the basic idea, and all that we need The PET scan is rich with information. Each picture, or slice,
of the brain shows relatively detailed metabolic profiles of all
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kinds of brain structures. Combined with this information is the simply, it should come as no surprise to learn we have limited
blood flow information for these same slices. This allows for a capacities for the processing of new information, and these
comparison at each point whether the blood flow and the limitations are tied to biological processes active in the brain.
underlying neural metabolism are coupled. It makes sense that Are the limiting systems mainly in the cortex and associated
they are, since it is the blood that brings the oxygen needed for with language processes or perceptual processes, or are they
the nerve cells to function. What happens sometimes, however, more general features of the brain that are an integral part of
is that there is a decoupling of the two processes. The blood whole brain function? Are they more correctly viewed as sort of
flow remains high but the metabolism decreases, or vice versa. the gasoline for the brain cells?
All of this appears on the scan, and all of it suggests abnormal To study this problem we first returned to our split-brain
processes. subjects, and Holtzman and I asked ourselves some very simple
It is not so easy to make sense out of all these data. Whereas questions." If one half-brain is working on a problem at a
it is relatively easy to find an abnormality, it is relatively difficult certain level of proficiency, is it influenced by how hard the
to say that it is the only abnormality present. And, if the object other half-brain is working? Does the level of difficulty of the
is to try and find a brain lesion correlate of a behavioral disorder, problem matter? If the two systems are completely independent,
the approach becomes even more problematic. And the added it shouldn't matter. If, however, they are drawing upon certain
fact that the psychologic theories are becoming more complex, common resources that are biologically represented in brain
and suggesting the memory system operates using several mod- structures that each half-brain is still connected to, there ought
ules, makes the task for the PET scientists even more challenging. to be an effect.
But that they should accept the challenge there can be no doubt, And there is a measurable effect. If one half-brain is working
and initial studies are underway. Using new statistical techniques on a hard problem, the overall ability of the other half-brain to
it may be possible to show that other pathologies are identifiable. work is affected more than when the half-brain is working on
This suggests that identifying pathologies other than the one I an easy problem. Here, with this kind of experiment we can
have mentioned and their possible specific locations in the brain begin to see how psychological concepts such as resource allo-
could give clues for the brain correlates of the modules handling cation can be mapped onto real biological systems. In other
such processes as temporal coding, affective coding, and atten- words, a problem defined at one level of analysis, such as
tional mechanisms. It may turn out that attentional mechanisms resources or psychologic energy, might well have a direct biologic
are the key systems disrupted in memory disorders. Let me correlate in the amount of neural cell-to-cell energy that is
explain. available; such energies are limited and set in the brain. From
There are other theories in the psychological sciences that are these split-brain studies on resource allocation, it would appear
relevant and should be taken into account. In general terms they that the whole brain has a set number of resources, that these
have to do with what is called "resource allocation," a term involve deep structures in the brain, and that they are not
meaning that each mental task a human solves in a given divisible. If this were not the case, the split-brain patient would
moment in time takes a certain amount of the overall set show no interactions between the two hemispheres.
resources a human has to apply to solving problems. Put quite From here it is a short jump to ask whether and how the

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CHAPTER 8
coupling between psychological energy and biologic energy might
be disrupted in amnesia. Perhaps some of the automatic psycho-
logical processes I have been talking about, such as temporal
coding of information, try to draw on impaired energy resources
in a damaged brain. A general decrease in biologic activity of
the brain can exist in patients, represented by an overall decrease
Brain Modules and
in blood flow. One exciting possibility is that such metabolic
markers will allow the identification of the specific modules
taking part in various aspects of memory function. Untangling the Unconscious
this will keep us all busy for quite a while.

THERE HAVE BEEN many sources of theories about human

behavior; some of the most important ideas have come from
Freud. His comprehensive theory of psychodynamics is full of
proposals about the underlying causes of our behavior and about
our private mental lives. A basic tenet of Freudian theory is that
unconscious processes are important in governing behavior.
These unconscious processes can reflect attitudes that we do not
want to admit we possess. Yet many of our actions are to be
explained by these attitudes and by our need to satisfy these
processes. Freud in his own way presaged much of modern
cognitive theory. He refused to accept the notion of a unified
conscious process. He argued, in the early part of this century,
fori a diverse and compartmentalized mental system.
One can quickly adapt Freud to the theory of modules by
changing his concept of "unconscious process" into the idea I
present here of "coconscious but nonverbal mental modules."
A response tendency, a decision for action on the part of a
nonverbal mental module, is not unconscious. It is very conscious,
very capable of effecting action. One of its features, that it cannot
internally communicate with the dominant hemisphere's language
and cognitive system, should not find it being characterized as
"unconscious." With that single correction in Freud's formula-

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tion, much of what else he claims as important in mental life
can be viewed in modern mechanistic terms. shown by a great number of investigators that a word related to
In current experimental psychology, attention has been newly the first or "primary" word is more quickly classified as a word
focused on the idea of unconscious processing. Operationally, than is an unrelated word. This "priming" effect is now reported
this means experimental stimuli are administered to subjects, by Marcel to occur even when the usually clearly seen first word
which they are unable to report verbally, but which can influence is flashed so fast that it is not consciously perceived. If the work
how they subsequently respond. It is the scientific version of the holds up, questions can be asked as to how complex the
old subliminal perception phenomenon. information given to the unconscious processors (read nonverbal
Added to this, of course, is the notion of the automatic mental modules) can be. D o they fatigue? What are the charac-
processes that were outlined in the discussion on memory teristics of their memory? How do the unconscious systems
phenomena. As new information is stored in our brains, auto- interact? Experiments to answer these questions are currently
matic processes assure it is tagged according to when in time it being carried out.
occurred. Imposing temporal order on information is an uncon- Our own laboratory work on this important topic is done in
scious process, yet it normally occurs during the awake conscious a number of ways. One of the most dramatic demonstrations of
state. the existence of unconscious processes affecting seemingly con-
A few years back when I was on the road lecturing about the scious behavior comes from recent studies that Holtzman and I
idea of mental modules and how I think much of cognitive have done on case J.W. The experiment is both simple and
2
processing goes on in such modules, a hand was raised in the revealing.
audience and a meek voice asked, "How many modules are J.W. is told to fixate a point and either a 1 or a 2 is flashed
there and what is in them?" I made some sporting response like to the left or right hemisphere. It comes as no surprise that when
I hoped one of them was working on the answer to her question the number is flashed to the left brain it is named normally.
but that in fact I didn't know. The question, however, has stayed What is intriguing is if J.W.'s left brain knows that the right
with me because it is a sign the scientific community is playing brain is also only seeing a 1 or a 2, the left brain can accurately
its next important game with any investigator, which is, "We'll name which of the two numbers is flashed to the right brain on
give you your formulation for the time being, now get on with the right-brain trials. For a variety of reasons, we know J.W.'s
characterizing the elements in your model." That is the stuff of right brain is not doing the talking. It is his disconnected left
science, to get on with it and see how much of an initial idea brain; somehow the right brain is able to set up the correct
holds up under a variety of conditions. speech behavior in the left.
It is in this context that the paradigms developed in normal It is interesting to consider whether or not the left brain is
psychology are so interesting. Most notable in recent years has consciously aware that its left-based speech apparatus possesses
been the work of Anthony Marcel at Cambridge University. 1
the information for the correct response. Could it be the right
Many of his studies make use of what is called the lexical- brain has somehow accessed the left speech/motor system and
decision task. In the standard use of this test, a word is clearly deposited the correct information for the spoken response, but
presented to a subject. Subsequently either a nonword or a that the information is not accessible to the left brain's conscious
related, as opposed to unrelated, word is presented. It has been process? The study suggests this is exactly the case. Consider the
experiment. Following the flashing of the number 1 or 2 to the
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THE SOCIAL BRAIN

process visual information. It has been maintained that it

right brain, the number 1 or 2 is flashed to the left brain. If the
exclusively receives the information from the midbrain station,
left brain is generally consciously aware of the information, that
the lateral geniculate nucleus, and then after processing the
is, if it is capable of accessing the information in the speech
information sends it along to other cortical regions for further
system, it should be able to point to the correct answer. Quite
analysis.
remarkably, it cannot. On this kind of task the left brain
According to this simple view of the visual system, when a
performs at chance.
patient suffers a lesion in the occipital lobe he or she should be
This striking dissociation clearly demonstrates that a conscious
blind. The major link between the eye and other brain regions
system does not have access to all information that governs what
has been cut off by virtue of the lesion. Yet the first clinical
is taken to be a conscious response. We do not as yet fully
"blindsight" reports claimed these patients could see crude
understand how, and through what routes, the right brain is able
information in the huge blind spot. What was so interesting
to set up the left; but that it does so, and in a way that leaves
about the nature of their sight was that consciously they claimed
the left brain unconscious of the process, there can be little
they could not see anything. Yet if their hand or eyes were
doubt. Again, a neurologic patient is able to teach us about the
allowed to point to a stimulus presented in the blind field, the
multiple levels present in generating our overall sense of personal
hand or the eyes could move to the correct position; hence the
cognition.
term "blindsight." Similar findings were also reported for animals.
Since my laboratory concentrates overall on the neurologic
In fact, such reports did not violate other known anatomical
approach, we find other opportunities to explore such questions.
features of the human or animal visual system. It is now known
One of them deals with a much-heralded concept called "blind-
that the geniculate projects to other cortical areas (see chapter
sight." This phenomenon was first reported by a group of British
2). And it turns out that the retina, in addition to sending most
investigators, and has since been reported to have been confirmed
3
of its fibers to the lateral geniculate nucleus, also sends fibers to
by a number of other investigators. Unfortunately we have been
another midbrain structure called the superior colliculus. This is
unable to confirm its existence, and this being the case, we gain
a good-sized structure that lies just below the occipital lobes.
a glimpse of how difficult it is going to be to study isolated brain
The colliculus in turn sends fibers to other places and it also
modules.
sends and receives fibers from the occipital lobe above it. Thus,
Blindsight is a condition found in patients who have suffered
it has been simply reasoned this structure could be a module
from lesions to the cortical visual centers of the brain. The parts
that is handling such unconsciously generated movements as
of the brain that process visual information are thought to be
those seen in the blindsight patient. As a consequence, these
the occipital lobes located at the back of the skull. Information
patients seem like wonderful candidates for the study of a
arrives at these centers by way of the retina which, through an
module in isolation, and that is what we set out to do.
intricate neural-relay network at the retina itself, sends the
The first task is to find a patient with the proper lesion. We
information first to the lateral geniculate nucleus. This is a
usually hear about candidates at morning report, a meeting held
laminar (layered) structure in the thalamus, and the first major
every weekday at 8:30 A . M . The chief resident reports on all
way station up to the all-important primary visual cortex. I say
admissions to the hospital during the preceding twenty-four
all-important because it has been thought for years that only the
hours. Present at the meeting are all of the attending clinical
primary visual cortexthat is, the occipital lobesis able to
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professors. These are the people who do the real neurology of right occipital lobe would have to be sacrificed. Thus portions
the hospital, that is, the doctors in charge of the sick and needy. of the vision in her left visual field would become nonfunctional
Also usually present is the department chairman, Fred Plum, or blind, but her other visual structures would remain intact
who uses the occasion to keep up on the condition of some and normal. She would show blindsight.
forty patients and to teach the current group of residents about At this point Holtzman and his eye tracker entered the scene.
neurology and medicine. Practically speaking, every patient He had been carefully studying the literature of blindsight and
admitted to New York Hospital's neurology service gets the had come up with a number of problems with some of the
added benefit of having his or her doctor hear the opinions of earlier data. It is axiomatic that when one studies the visual
several others on each case. system, one must study it carefully. It is perhaps the most
One morning report was unforgettable. One of the attending carefully studied sensory system and has been so for decades.
4
neurologists that day was the exceptionally talented Dr. Frank Holtzman fired up his computer and his eye tracker. The eye
Petito, a man of energy, wit, and medical savvy. It is also tracker is a highly sensitive device that measures the exact
important to know that he could have chosen a much more position of the eyesif not exact, a better one than has ever
comfortable life; he is somewhat of a financial wizard and his been measured before in this context. Quite simply, here's how
famous father had been a senior vice president at Morgan it works, although it is not all that simple. Unbeknown to the
Stanley. The doctors were reviewing the case of Mr. X, who had subject, an infrared light is projected onto one eye. Infrared light
a benign brain tumor which had to be removed. At this time, is invisible to the naked eye, but special detectors measure
Dr. Plum had the opportunity to make a medical and sociological exactly its reflection from different parts of the eye. By comparing
point of value to the new residents. the differential reflection, a function performed by the computer,
"One of the things we have got to do is to let it be more an exact and real-time record of the position of the eye is made.
generally known that many kinds of brain tumors are curable. This is important because Holtzman's task is to specifically
Take my good friend, Mr. X. He thought it was the end for limit visual stimuli to only the blind spot produced by the
him. We got him in here, diagnosed the tumor, discovered it surgical lesion. If light from his stimuli strays over into the
was benign, and then took it out. After he recovered from normal part of the retina, any claim of visual processing in
surgery, he returned to Wall Street and closed one of the biggest terms of blindsight is of little interest. With the tracker, if the
financial deals of our time. Wouldn't you say so, Frank?" patient moves his or her eyes such that the stimulus could fall
Petito, who knew about the deal (a deal not involving Morgan onto the good part of the retina, the computer catches the
Stanley) saw his opportunity. He looked up from his notebook movement as it begins and immediately turns off the stimulus
and said, "Nickel-dime, Fred, nickel-dime." The interactions are display. Thus cheating the visual game is aborted.
priceless, and everyone benefits. The actual task was quite simple. Four Xs arranged in the
At another of these meetings Bruce Volpe learned about a shape of a square were presented to the blind part of the patient's
case that just fit our needs. A woman, we call her B.H., had visual field. Following a certain cue, one of the four was
suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her right occipital lobe. She was highlighted, and B.H.'s task was to move her eyes to the
to undergo surgery to fix her leaky artery, and in the course of highlighted X. It doesn't get much simpler than that, and of
the surgery, given where the aneurysm was located, parts of the course when the test is presented in her good visual field she

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performs it flawlessly. Yet, when B.H. tried to do the task when

opposite brain, the eyes moved to the right place! It looks like
the critical light was presented to her blind visual field, she in
the subcortical modules can work to carry out this task and can
fact was unable to perform above chance, this after thousands
do so outside the conscious control mechanism.
of trials.
We all rejoiced. The modules can be studied and their varying
N o w it is not a big deal to state that someone cannot in fact
natural functions can be assessed. In this case, we see how
see in her blind field. Blind people are blind. But it is a big deal,
information about spatial location is computed by one such
since there is every reason in the world why, given the actual
module, and how it can control the eyes and allow for a
anatomy of the brain, it could work. After all, B.H. does have
coordinated response. We also confirm from this experiment
these other structures, that is, other modules. Why can't they
that the modules handling spatial information are different from
carry out the task? That is the important question. It is only of
those handling perceptual information. In follow-up experiments
secondary interest that so-called blindsight is a field full of
it was shown that if, instead of having one of four Xs be the
experimental error.
cue, one of four different geometric symbols was the cue, the
We vigorously pursued the matter. Perhaps, we reasoned, the
interbrain comparison was not possible. The subcortical modules
mid-brain module works only when it has normal input from
deal only with spatial information, not geometric.
the visual cortex above it. That is, it is devastating for a separate
Yet, for the student of the real stuff of cognition, the stuff of
module to function in isolation. Most modules operate as part
language, of perception, of mental images, studies on separating
of a larger interacting system. That a carburetor is different from
the modules at the cortical level of brain function would be of
a piston there can be little doubt. Yet, it would be very difficult
greatest interest. In order to do that one could imagine that
to study the functions of the piston when the carburetor wasn't
microlesions strategically placed throughout the cortex could
working.
effect such disconnections between modules and could thus add
Back to the lab. This time we studied two of our split-brain
confirming evidence to the modular idea.
patients, J.W. and V.P. In these two people, you recall, there
That high-tech approach need not always be the way to get
was no damage to the visual cortex. As a result, the cortical and
interesting answers to interesting questions. When it has to be
subcortical modules are intact. Moreover, it is also a fact that
used, it has to be used. But the shrewd use of patients with
the subcortical modules are interconnected by a neural fiber
either special surgical or neurologic status is also important.
system. N o w since these patients have their cortical systems
Such opportunities were made available to us when the neuro-
disconnected, we were poised to study the subcortical interactions
surgical team of Wilson and Roberts decided to cut the callosal
and thereby be able to infer what these subcortical modules can
section, the enormous interbrain connector, in two different
do. And Holtzman did just that.
stages, at two different times. The first patient to undergo this
In split-brain fashion, the left brain was unable to verbally
procedure was J.W. and we were there for all stages of the
report which X of the four had been highlighted in the left visual
process.
field. Since the left visual field projects to the right disconnected
By cutting the callosum in two sections, one can study the
brain that was no surprise. What was surprising was that if the
partial transfer phenomenon. Clearly when the callosum is
left brain was requested to move the eyes to the X in the right
intact, everything presented to the right brain is transferred over
visual field that corresponded to the X that had stimulated the
to the left brain for verbal analysis. There is little opportunity
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specific test example that illustrates why we believe this to be

to see whether or not the en masse transfer is actually multiple the case.
modules sending over relevant information. The surgical decision When the word "knight" is flashed to the right hemisphere of
to cut only part of the neural cables permits examination of the a normal patient, the basic sensory information is communicated
possibility of partial transfer of information, that is, whether through callosal neurons to the left hemisphere, and the left
only some of the modules are able to report to the left brain speech-dominant hemisphere names the stimulus. In J.W., whose
from the right. posterior callosum has been sectioned, the raw stimulus infor-
After we got the call from Dartmouth, John Sidtis and I mation does not appear to be transferring. Instead, the patient's
traveled up to Hanover. Sidtis had never seen a surgery and left hemisphere develops a strategy to deal with certain cognitive
wanted very much to observe the whole medical process, green aspects of the stimulus that do appear to be transferring. Thus
gowns and all. We, of course, started by carefully testing J.W. J.W.'s left, speaking hemisphere responds as saying, "I have a
in his preoperative state. Words and pictures of all kinds were picture in my mind; I can't say it. Two fighters in a ring, ancient,
flashed to each brain and as a normal, intact brain should, the wearing uniforms and helmets, on horses; they knock each other
left brain was able to instantly tell us all about visual information off. Knights?" The left brain acquires bits of information and
presented exclusively to the right. All of his interbrain cables then hazards a guess as to what the stimulus must have been.
were working. J.W. underwent surgery the next day. This idea predicts that when the remaining part of the neural
The surgeons decided to section the posterior part of the cables connecting the cortical system are sectioned such phenom-
callosum first. Splitting the posterior region disconnects the part ena should cease. A few weeks later the surgeons completed the
of the visual system that usually transmits to the left brain the section of the fiber system and J.W. lost the ability to name
actual sensory image of a stimulus that had been presented to stimuli presented to the right brain. It was as if the separate
the right brain. The two occipital lobes usually can no longer modules in the right brain that processed cognitive associates of
directly communicate their primary sensory information to each the stimuli then had the remaining interbrain fiber systems
other. unavailable to them.
Immediately after surgery stimuli such as words or pictures Another example of how information becomes parceled for
when presented to the right brain elicited a response of limited the transfer process is as follows. A simple black-and-white line
5
accuracy. In J.W. the right-brain stimuli produced only a 28 drawing of a traffic light was flashed to the left hemisphere. As
percent rate of accuracy. Over time, however, the scores increased J.W. tried to describe what he saw, I asked, "Does it have
and J.W. became quite good at naming stimuli present to the anything to do with cars?"
right brain. What had happened? Had new pathways become
active that allowed the sensory information to be transferred to
the left brain for interpretation? Or were the remaining uncut "Yes."
callosal connections transferring information from other modules "Does it have anything to do with colors?"
that allowed the left brain to infer what the right-brain stimulus "Yes, red, yellow, green . . . Is it a traffic light?"
must have been? Perhaps modules that deal with various attributes
of the stimulus were still connected to the left brain. Our analysis He then maintained, on subsequent examination, that he had
suggests the latter interpretation to be correct. I'll go through a
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seen a traffic light in color, even though the picture had been
medicine, this one based on the principle of nuclear magnetic
presented in black and white.
resonance (NMR). The images the N M R machine can produce
These examples strike me as further evidence that mental
are dazzling and give exquisite details of the anatomical structure.
modules exist, that they are real brain components. It is important
It can reveal whether or not a split-brain person has a fully split
to note, however, that any one experiment on any particular
brain. For twenty-five years I have had to rely on the surgical
patient must always be considered in context. As previously
notes for descriptions of how extensive the callosal surgery had
mentioned, J.W. most likely possesses unique capacities in his
been. N o w a postoperative N M R image tells all, and we have
right hemisphere. That is, we now know that his right brain is 6
completed studies on three of our patients.
one of very few that is capable of processing language stimuli. It
Cases J.W. and P.S. prove to be fully split. The image clearly
has a semantic network that appears to be reflected in a neural
shows that the entire corpus callosum was sectioned. This
network, some connections of which remain to the left brain via
imaging technique that can verify the surgical reports sets a new
the uncut corpus callosum. Yet in a patient S.W., who underwent
standard for reporting split-brain cases, and it also gives rise to
similar surgery in two stages, there was no fractionation process
new opportunities for study. Consider case V.P.
observed following the cutting of the posterior half of the
The N M R on V.P. showed the surgeon had inadvertently
callosum. Words flashed to his right brain elicited no response
spared a very small portion of the posterior corpus callosum and
whatsoever. Following full callosal surgery, he proved to be
a very small portion of the anterior callosum. These two portions
without right-hemisphere language.
are distant from each other and are involved in different func-
Clearly, then, the location of various modules varies from
tionsthe posterior region is involved in visual functions. Yet
person to person. While that point is of tremendous interest in
V.P., like J.W., does not transfer perceptual information. It
and of itself, it need not dissuade us from considering the results
would appear there is not enough remaining callosum to subserve
of single-case studies. Rather, the findings on J.W. allow the
such processes. Similarly, the anterior callosum is thought to be
experimenter to observe a functional decoupling of the infor-
involved in the transfer of semantic information in such kinds
mation-processing system and demonstrate that such decouplings
of cases. Yet V.P. is unable to judge whether or not two words,
have an anatomical basis. Brain modularity is not just a psycho-
one presented to the left brain and one presented to the right,
logical concept. Through studies such as this, it becomes clear
are related. At least that's how it seems at first glance.
that modularity has a real anatomical basis. At the same time,
We have recently discovered that if the words are carefully
however, data from such pathologic-surgical cases should rarely
chosen in a systematic way, the results can be quite different. In
be used to argue that a particular case reflects clues about normal
the work of Drs. Marta Kutas and Steven Hillyard at the
brain organization, that is, about the normal location of specific
University of California at San Diego, a series of words were
modules. Getting at that brain architecture will take some time
tachistoscopically presented, one to each half-brain, in a way
and many more cases. It is a very important point and one we
that varied as follows: some did not lopk alike or sound alike,
all tend to minimize.
some looked alike but did not sound alike, some sounded alike
In the continuing search for modularity and its definition in
but did not look alike, and some both sounded alike and looked
terms of real brain systems, there has recently been a major
alike. After seeing each word pair, V.P. had to say whether or
development. Another imaging device has made its way into
not the two words were related. If she could respond above a
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chance level, it would suggest that her remaining commissures object placed out of sight in the right hand, but not an object
were communicating critical information. The results were fas- placed in the left hand. This shows the standard split-brain touch
cinating. effect. Touch information from the right hand projects to the
On three separate test runs, V.P. scored above chance on only left brain, and since the left brain contains the speech system in
one condition: when the words both looked alike and sounded these patients, objects placed in the right hand are easily named.
alike. When the words only looked alike, a condition that would But touch information from the left hand goes to the right brain,
favor use of the posterior callosal fibers, she failed. When they and in these patients, because of the callosal section, the infor-
sounded alike, a condition that favored the anterior callosum, mation remains isolated in the right brain, leaving the left
she also failed. It was only when the words both looked and ignorant as to its nature.
sounded alike that enough information was transmitted between If, however, the object is presented visually in either visual
the two hemispheres for the correct judgment to be made. field and therefore to either half-brain, these patients will respond
V.P.'s two remaining regions in her corpus callosum seem as a normal person responds and describe the object presented.
sufficient to cross-integrate information when both systems are Again that is because the visual connections between the two
working together and in parallel. In short, different modules half-brains are intact and can carry out their normal function.
have different pathways, and these combine in some way that Since that is the case, we would predict that such patients could
allows for a correct response even though V.P. is no more aware easily do what is called a visual-tactile match. That is, if an
that she is correct on some trials than she is when sheri&incorrect object, say, an apple, were presented visually to either half-brain,
on others. either hand should be able to retrieve it by using only touch.
A variety of other studies support the idea that human The visual system is intact, thereby transmitting the real visual
cognitive structures are organized in terms of mental modules. image to the opposite brain. This means either half-brain "sees"
Consider the question of mental imagery, the ability to produce the real visual image and therefore can direct the hand it controls
a seemingly visual representation in the mind's eye of an object to the correct answer. In fact, the patients perform the task with
or scene. For example, a person is asked to imagine an apple. A ease, just as predicted.
beautiful, delicious-looking apple appears in consciousness. It is 7
The stage is now set for a unique experiment. An object is
easy to think that such kinds of visual imagery, which are so placed in the patient's right hand, and the patient is asked not
vivid for us personally, might be part of the actual visual system to name the object aloud but instead to form a mental image.
of the brain as it is known from neurophysiological and neu- So the patient holds the object in the right hand, and after a
roanatomical analysis. We examined this question in the split- moment indicates he or she has an image of the object. I then
brain patients, and to our surprise it does not appear to be the ask the patient to find the matching object with the left hand.
case. Let me explain. This simple task cannot be done without imagery instruction,
There is a subset of commissure-sectioned patients who are since there is a marked disconnection for touch information
tactually split but not visually split; that is, because of the nature between the two half-brains. But since a specific instruction has
of their surgery, information with respect to touch does not been given to the patient by me to put the tactually perceived
transfer between the two half-brains, whereas visual information object into the visual domain, and since we know the visual
does. As a consequence, these kinds of patients can name an system is connected, it is conceivable that the information could

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now be transferred to the other half-brain, in this case the right approximately one third of the distance from the top right corner
brain, and thereby allow the patient to make a correct match. along the top line, drop a perpendicular line down to the lower
In test after test on a variety of patients we have been unable edge. How many lines do you intersect? I said two and he said
to demonstrate transfer through such procedures. This suggests right. My quickness in figuring it out was because I had used
that visual imagery, as it exists in humans, is not a property of mental imagery. Using a system to solve the tough formal
the actual visual system but is a computation taking place propositions would take a very long time.
somewhere else. Mental images are another aspect of our con- I was fascinated by mental imagery as an investigative topic,
scious lives that go on in specific modules and, in this case, it and asked my good friend Edgar Zurif, who works in Boston, if
would appear the module carrying out the function is discon- he could arrange an introduction with Steve Kosslyn, one of the
nected from the right brain, since it proved unable to assist in wunderkinds of cognitive science who had, more than anybody
solving the task with the left hand. else, established mental imagery as a real field of study. Kosslyn
The topic of mental imagery per se has received much has critical and incessant energy. He is one of those people who
attention in recent years from the cognitive sciences. In the exhausts his friends because of the pace he keeps. He tackles
studies just described, I have been using mental imagery to ideas and fights with refreshing enthusiasm and vigor, and he
investigate questions of brain modularity. Yet many investigators knows his topic like no one else. We met for lunch in New York
study imagery in and of itself. I wanted to know more about it. and I told him I wanted to bring his cognitive technology and
I was intrigued with the standard question posed by both ideas into the neurologic setting. He was all for it and a new
students and critics of the topic, namely, is mental imagery collaboration was born.
something that exists independent of language and semantics? Kosslyn's early studies established the imagery phenomenon
That question is tough to answer but approaches the modularity 8
as a serious topic for study. Consider one of his experiments, a
question from another angle. clever study combining the use of reaction-time measures and
One of the pleasures of being advanced in a career is that you imagery processes. He would instruct subjects to think of a dog,
frequently have the occasion to ask the right person the exact say, a Chihuahua, and to imagine they were looking at its nose.
question you would like an answer to. Not long ago I was Then he would tell them to hit a button as soon as they had
walking along a path at Airlie House, a conference center outside scanned along the dog's body and arrived at its tail. That, on
of Washington, when I ran into Herb Simon, Nobel laureate, the average, took a certain amount of time to do. Then he would
cognitive scientist, and the world's most unassuming man. I tell the subjects to imagine another kind of dog, say, a dachshund,
wanted to know what he thought about mental imagery, whether an animal longer than a Chihuahua. Again, they were to imagine
it was real and separate from propositional thought, and if so they were fixating the nose and as soon as they came to the tail
what its properties were likely to be. Herb smiled, sat down on they were to hit a button. Subjects took much longer to respond
a tree stump, and in the next forty minutes gave a lucid summary to this instruction. After all, the dachshund is longer, even in
of the phenomenon. Basically he answered me with a puzzle. the mind's eye!
Imagine, he said, a rectangle. Draw a line from the top right- The experiments proceed, each more clever than the last and
hand corner to the bottom left corner. N o w draw a line from each causing quite a stir in the field. Critics were concerned
the middle of the diagonal to the bottom right corner. N o w from the beginning of his work whether or not imagery was an

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epiphenomenon to the language system itself. Since the language now be operationalized and subjected to scientific scrutiny.
system knows dachshunds are longer than Chihuahuas, perhaps Consciousness in my scheme of brain events becomes the output
it wouldn't let the response be delivered until a bit later. Clever of the left brain's interpreter and those products are reported
experimentation brings out clever critics. It is the nature of good and refined by the human language system. The interpreter calls
science, but in the end Kosslyn has prevailed. upon an untold number of separate and relatively independent
9
The first experiment was simple. A capital letter such as an modules for its information. As a result, modern cognitive
A is flashed into one half-brain. The task is to think of the neuroscience is in a position to study the whole brain and all its
lowercase version of the letter in your mind's eye and then say processes with equal vigor.
whether or not its printed form would extend above or below a I now leave the realm of human brain science to consider
line upon which it is written. Thus an A would yield a "no" how brain studies instruct us about psychological process. Study-
answer because of the shape of a, whereas a G would find the ing the brain is of interest to me only to the extent that it allows
subject answering "yes" because of the shape of g. Of course, in insights into our psychological selves. The physiology of the
a test like this, each half-brain has to know the shapes of both brain is interesting, but no more so than the physiology of the
versions of all the letters in question. In control tests, the capital kidney. It's what the brain does that makes it more intriguing!
letter is flashed. A list of the lowercase letters is in full view of
the subject, and the task is to point to the right one. Each half-
brain found this easy to do, but only the left brain could make
the judgment as to what a lowercase version of a capital letter
looked like when generating a private mental image was required.
J.W.'s right brain with all its language capacity and with all its
superior skills in facial recognition tests was extremely poor at
carrying out the task.
There are many fascinating dimensions to this kind of finding,
not the least of which is the conclusion that the left brain has a
specific module that is specialized for the generation of mental
images. The capacity does not seem to be language-based, since
J.W.'s right brain possesses a lexicon almost as good as the one
on the left. In short, a right brain with language but with no
ability to make inference is also incapable of generating visual
images. It is one more chapter in the story about how important
separate nonlanguage modules of the left brain are in generating
our total sense of personal cognition.
Unconscious processes? In some sense, yes. They are every-
where. At the same time, it is now possible to demystify the
concept and to see how such intuitive hunches of the past can

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CHAPTER 9 and neither will speak to the Swiss Italians. The prejudice cuts
deep, and in fact the democracy works because there is little
interaction among the ethnic groups. The interpersonal under-
standing of the average Swiss tends not to extend beyond his or
her canton. The people living in one canton are all of one ethnic
Psychological Aspects group, and these civilized people have deep prejudices about
their neighbors.
We all carry around bizarre beliefs: whites about blacks, blacks
of Modularity about whites, Jews about Arabs, Arabs about Jews, ad infinitum.
We are full of prejudices, full of social beliefs upon which we
place a continually fluctuating value. Sometimes we have strong
feelings about ideas, and at other times we feel less committed
to certain views. What is going on? What is the mechanism by
H U M A N PREJUDICE is a pervasive phenomenon. We all have which our prejudices, part of our belief system, are continually
prejudicial views of matters and they are very much part of our being manipulated by life's events?
belief system. For the most part they represent the less appealing In considering prejudice as an example of a human belief, it
side of the normal mental operations active in producing our is helpful to break the problem down into two related processes.
personal beliefs. Prejudice is such a persuasive phenomenon of First, it is important to consider how a prejudicial belief is
human behavior that it deserves an explanation. Understanding initially established. Second, and more important, it is of interest
the mental processes that give rise to beliefs such as prejudices to understand the mechanism by which it becomes either more
allows us to link up our current understanding about brain deeply ingrained or discarded. Both processes invoke the special
mechanisms with what we know about psychological processes. properties of the human brain that I have been describing.
In Switzerland where I wrote these words, living in an Alpine One of the major mechanisms that contribute to the formation
chalet overlooking one of the world's most idyllic settings, I of human prejudice comes from the incessant left-brain-based
discovered that even one of the oldest democracies is troubled capacity to make inference and thereby attribute cause to life's
by the problem of prejudice. The Swiss publically profess that events. When a prejudicial view arises out of these processes it
their four ethnic groups speaking different languagesItalian, is a serious example of how the human mind can misapply its
French, German, and Romanshlive in harmony because of special gifts and capacities.
their democratic ideals. Indeed, the country is immaculate, the Consider the problem. You are a blue person and live in your
trains run on time, the food is good, the inexpensive wines are milieu, incessantly considering your own problems. In walks a
better than those in California, and the landscape is incomparable. green person and begins to compete for your space. It is almost
It appears that harmony reigns and democracy works. That is impossible not to attribute some of your problems to this easily
what the Swiss say, and it all appears to be true until you live identifiable other; thus prejudice can begin. When the differences
there a couple of months. between social groups are clear, due to color, religion, language,
In reality the Swiss French barely speak to the Swiss Germans, or nationality, the reaction is clear, crisp, and pervasive. When
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these kinds of cues are not clear, as in modern-day Italy, one of who thought cheating was bad cheated, and some of those who
the more homogeneous cultures, the inference-based prejudice thought cheating wasn't so bad cheated. After the test, the
system starts in on other more subtle distinctions such as whether students were again asked to rate how they felt about cheating.
or not the other person is from a particular region or town. The results were clear. Of those who initially felt cheating was
There are, of course, a host of other ways prejudicial beliefs bad, those who cheated now felt cheating wasn't so bad, and
are picked up. They can be learned at a mother's knee, on the those who did not cheat now really thought cheating was bad.
streets, from the media, or from any other informational source. The values of the other group were manipulated in a similar
It is the nature of our species to try to continually persuade fashion. Of those who initially thought cheating wasn't so bad,
others of our views. Accordingly we are constantly besieged with those who cheated continued to think it wasn't bad, and those
views up for adoption. What is more important to consider is who did not cheat now thought it was bad to cheat.
the psychological mechanism by which more or less value is Here we see how the value of a belief was systematically
placed on one of these attained beliefs, no matter how it was manipulated by having a behavior be in conflict with a belief.
initially inserted into our overall belief system. That state of dissonance will not be tolerated by the organism.
For an explanation of how human prejudices either deepen What has never been clear in dissonance theory, however, is
or disappear in our belief system, I turn again to Festinger's why the organism engages in the behavior that is at odds with a
theory of cognitive dissonance, described in chapter 5. His theory belief in the first place. Why do all the conflicts develop? Enter
fits and has a direct correspondence to my proposed model of the answer from our review of brain research. I suggest it is
brain function. Remember, according to Festinger's theory, when because our brains are organized in terms of independent
a belief and a behavior are in conflict, the belief must change to modules, each capable of action, of carrying out activities that
conform to the behavior, or the behavior must change to test and retest the beliefs that are being maintained by our
conform to the belief. It is usually the belief that changes. Let dominant left brain's language and cognitive systems. The conflict
me review one of the classic examples as studied by Festinger's is produced by a mental module eliciting a behavior, a module
colleague Judson Mills.' It deals with the problem of cheating. that can function independently from the dominant, language-
Many of our beliefs, especially those early in life, are imposed based system of the left half-brain.
by rote. When we are young, for example, we can roll out the The formulation has many other aspects. One implication is
maxims our mothers have taught us. Cheating is bad, cleanliness that one value of the brain being organized in the way I propose
is good. What happens during the course of our own life is that is that it allows for the constant testing and retesting of our
these views either deepen or are discarded. beliefs. The responding, exploring human being will have a
In one experiment students were asked to rate how they felt higher probability of constantly reevaluating his or her beliefs,
about cheating. Some felt it was a very bad thing to do, others the sedentary one less so. If the brain were a monolithic system
that it wasn't so terrible. Subsequently they were given an exam with all modules in complete internal communication, then the
on which they had to do well. The exam was so structured by value we place on our beliefs would never change. The human
the experimenters that it was easy to cheat without being caught. culture would be doomed to repeat the cant of its preceding
The students were unaware that their behavior was being carefully generations in a reflexlike manner. Thus the incessant duel
monitored by psychologists. Not surprisingly, some of the people between cognition and behavior so active in the formation of

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our own beliefs emerges as a very special feature of our species. essay, another five dollars, a third one dollar, and one group
Cognitive dissonance theory was proposed over twenty-five received only fifty cents. After the essay was written each group
years ago and has withstood the test of timedespite minor was measured on its attitude about the police. The results were
modifications, qualifications, and even some denunciations. It is clear-cut. The students in the group that had received the least
a powerful psychological process that is part of all of us. amount of money (external justification for their actions) were
Advances in brain research not only underline its validity but the most positive about their attitudes, and the other groups
also suggest the behaving human would have little opportunity changed their opinions less, with the ten-dollar group barely
for an alternative control mechanism. The organism strives for changing at all.
consistency between the beliefs it articulates and its actions. The Experiments such as this illustrate a key parameter in the
left dominant interpretive brain tries to bring order and consis- successful manipulation of beliefs. The studies show that a
tency to its mental modules, its mental constituency. behavior has to be strongly perceived as freely willed in order
A second important aspect of dissonance theory that must for the behavior to be powerful in participating in a belief
always be honored in order to be effective is that people must change. Behaviors easily dismissed as carried out because of
freely engage in the behavior that will be dissonant with a prior external forces do not engage the dissonance reduction process
belief. Most observations that purport to undercut dissonance and as a result the belief system remains unthreatened.
theory are seriously flawed by excluding free choice, or more Another example concerning the importance of freely willed
accurately the illusion of free choice, as a condition of the action comes from an area of psychological research called
experiment. If one is forced at gunpoint to commit a crime, it 4
intrinsic motivation. This is motivation that develops as the
should not come as a surprise that the person's prior belief in result of engaging in behavior perceived to be more or less freely
law and order has not been modified. If, however, one is induced willed. A typical experiment might be as follows. Children are
to commit a first crime with little outside force, the attitude trained in a new body of information or a specific task that
about such behaviors will most likely change to view the activity requires real effort to learn. One group of children learns under
as not so bad. strict behaviorist procedures; rewards are methodically meted
The original work that spelled out these relations came again out with appropriate effects on acquiring the information. Along
2
from Festinger and his colleague Merrill Carlsmith. It was with the good behavior of acquiring the information efficiently
followed up by others, including Arthur Cohen at Yale, who come more rewards, and so on. Another group of children is
showed how insufficient external justification for engaging in introduced to the same new task with the same kind of instruction
what the researchers called count-attitudinal behavior gave rise but is not given rewards for their efforts in the same simplistic
to the greatest state of dissonance and hence the greatest attitu- quid pro quo way. They too learn the task.
3
dinal change. In Cohen's experiment, Yale undergraduates were Once the formal lessons are over, the experimenters keep an
assigned the task of writing an essay about the actions of the account of how often the children voluntarily engage in the
New Haven police force. The undergraduates all highly disap- practice of their new skill. The results are usually unequivocal.
proved of their behavior in breaking up a student riot. They The children who learn the skill in the presence of external
thought the police had behaved most brutally. The students were rewards seldom use it, while the other children go on to enjoy
assigned to four groups. One group was paid ten dollars for the their new ability. The interpretation given to these kinds of

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experiments is that the children trained with rewards come to the atomic and molecular level of matter that some believe are
consider the new behavior as something to do only to be not theoretically knowable because of the problems introduced
rewarded. If the teacher reinstates the reward contingency then by trying to measure the phenomena. These issues, which fall
the behavior will once again appear. Without that contingency, into the domain of quantum and statistical mechanics, need not
however, the new skill is abandoned until rewards are possible. concern us and probably are not relevant to biological processes.
In short, the children have not assigned an intrinsic worth to The point MacKay makes is that in order to defend free will, it
the skill itself. Since the skill was not perceived as an act they is not necessary to oppose the concept that the universe is as
freely engaged in, it did not become part of their personal beliefs. mechanical as clockwork. He develops the idea of "logical
The question of freedom is crucial to these investigations of indeterminacy," a special feature of an information-processing
how we establish our motivations and actions, and raises the machine, such as the human brain, that embodies a cognitive
issue of what a concept of free will means in our modern agent. His argument can be introduced as follows.
scientific world. We live in a time in history when most educated A brain scientist tells me that my wife will eat a bowl of cereal
people accept the view that all events have their causal antecedents at precisely 7:00 A.M. He knows this, he says, because he has a
and, intellectually, interpret the world in mechanistic terms. If full account of her brain-cell activity and the cells are programmed
that is true, why is this psychological parameter of free will so so that she will always perform this action at seven. He and I
important? Why is the concept of free will, an apparent relic tiptoe around the house and at seven we see my wife start to eat
from the past, so crucial to the changing of our personal beliefs? a bowl of cereal.
The most direct and prominent consideration of the question "See," says the super brain scientist with his electrical record-
of free will as a construct in a scientific, reductionistic world has ings, "I can predict her every behavior. She thinks she is acting
5
come from Donald M. MacKay of England. He rejects the freely, but she isn't. All is preordained and inevitable for her, if
notion that man is not free to choose. His argument stands in only she knew it." Right? Wrong according to MacKay's analysis.
contrast to most current assumptions, and he makes the strong Although my wife's predictable action may have been predictable-
claim that our species is personally responsible for its actions, for-us, it was not inevitable-for-her. If anyone had said to my
that we do possess free will. His 1967 Eddington lecture states wife, "I predict that at seven you are going to eat a bowl of
the problem and solution to the dilemma. It represents the major cereal," there would have been nothing to stop her from saying,
thinking on the issue from a logical point of view, and as such "No, I'm not."
is worth describing in some detail. The brain scientist retorts, "That doesn't negate my view. All
MacKay, a physicist, neuroscientist, philosopher, and part- I have to do is take her statement into account and my prediction
time theologian, accepts the notion that the world is, as he puts will hold." It is at this point that MacKay feels he wins the
it, "mechanical as clockwork." The operating assumption of all argument, and to grasp his point you must understand the
scientists is that things exist and happen because an orderly set distinction between something that is predictable and something
of prior events occurred that determine the event or action that is inevitable.
under study. While specifying those prior states is the challenge In order to prove that my wife's future state is inevitable-for-
of most science, that they are specifiable is never challenged. her, the brain scientists would have to prove that it already has
That, of course, is only mostly true. There are phenomena at one (and only one) specification now, which she would be

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correct to accept, and mistaken to reject, if only she knew it. domain that humansno matter what their intellectual level,
This is clearly impossible if the specification implicitly indicates no matter what other beliefs they possessbelieve unshakably
whether or not she accepts it! If the brain scientist does not that they are acting freely in 99 percent of their behaviors. The
disclose his prediction to her, he may have a prediction valid rational point that they usually are not has absolutely no
for himself and perhaps even the rest of the world. But however psychological reality. Our immediate experience is too powerfully
he trims up his calculations, he cannot produce a complete present in our minds, and it cannot be overridden by a textbook
specification that will be equally accurate whether or not it is assertion. As a consequence of this overwhelming perception, a
believed by my wife, and so inevitable for her. N o prediction of behavior initiated by a mental module must be accounted for
that sort can achieve the status of "universally true." This means by the person's belief system. They see no other head to hang it
there is "logical indeterminancy" about the future states of on. In contrast, a behavior induced by external methods has
people's brains; and it is this fact that allows for the concept of many scapegoats.
free will. It pleases MacKay no end to have articulated this view Let me return to a clinical example that helps illustrate the
because, as I say, it has the added benefit of making humans power and the need to explain self-produced movements. Our
personally responsible for their actions. It is a very clever split-brain patient, J.W., is bright and alert. When we place him
analysis. in the kind of experimental situation described in chapter 5,
MacKay's analysis, which has been largely accepted as ines- where both the left and right brains are given a simple task to
capable by the philosophic community, tacitly accepts the as- carry out, the left brain, you will recall, explains the reasons for
sumption of Western civilization that personal consciousness is the two hands' choices. It tells exactly why the right hand is
a product of a unified cognitive system and human action the pointing to the card it is touching and then constructs a theory
product of a monolithic brain system. The formulation could, as to why the left hand is responding the way it is. After a few
however, be readily adapted to the notion of separate mental of these trials, J.W. typically becomes agitated. The answer being
modules each capable of action and responses. His argument is offered by the left brain is at odds with what the right brain
not rendered ineffectual by the brain model proposed here, knows. The right brain knows why the hand is pointing to a
though he does not consider it explicitly. His analysis could particular card, and it is not taking the left brain's story lightly.
confer his "logical indeterminacy" upon any of the mental It registers its disapproval through an emotional response. The
modules of the brain. patient is unhappy and the experiments are stopped.
While MacKay's argument seems to put the concept of free J.W. is once again briefed on the nature of his surgery, that
will on solid scientific footing, therefore enabling it to be his right brain has been disconnected from his left, that the left
considered a variable in psychological studies, the analysis lacks hand may do something sometimes that his left brain cannot
the psychological reality I am searching for. For, although truly explain because the hand is really following the dictates of
MacKay's analysis does address the philosophic dimension of his right hemisphere. He rejoins, "Ah, I got it and I plan to
the problem of "freedom of action" in a mechanistic universe, explain to my date next Saturday night the behavior of my left
it does not deal with the question of why self-produced behaviors hand. 'I am sorry, dear, you see I have a right brain and a left
have an effect on personal beliefs and externally imposed com- brain, and ' " We all laugh and the tests continue. They
mands do not. The answer lies somewhere, I think, in the continue after we have given him an explanatory model. Yet

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the very next trial will see J.W. return intensely to the process CHAPTER 1 0
of the left brain explaining the actions of the left hand. The
feeling is that his left hand is doing something and it must be
explained. Explaining self-produced behavior is essential. And,
of course, I mean self-produced here in its very special meaning.
The illusion of possessing freedom of action, of having psy-
chological free will, may be the direct result of our brains being Setting the Human
built the way they are. A monolithic, completely integrated
cognitive system that knew prior to any behavior the reason for
it, that always moved from a set of preexamined rules, might Context: Notes
well entertain the idea that the world is not only as mechanical
as clockwork, but that it is a mere cog, so to speak, in that fixed
universe. As a consequence, the illusion of free will would
vanish, that is, the illusion of doing things freely. This would
from Prehistory
render the human mind with a perpetual scapegoat as to why it
does what it does, and the consequence of that would be our
beliefs would never change as the result of experience. We would
be slaves to our past, to what was told to us. I HAVE F O U N D it possible to keep working at a particular
A cognitive system composed of mental modules, each one of topic only if there are interesting interruptions. If they do not
which could act independently from the other but all together come about naturally, I make them up myself. Around 1980 I
forming a mental federation, would be most likely to assign to was getting restless and this time my new hobby was supplied
one cognitive system the chore of establishing and maintaining by Leon Festinger. He had become interested in archaeology,
a theory about the federation's actions. Part and parcel of that and when he becomes interested in something you somehow
process would be the necessary concept that the organism was find yourself talking to him about this new interest instead of
acting freely, that in fact the organism was governable. If the about matters that might have mutually concerned you a week
concept of free will were not present, then the overpowering before. When he decides to switch fields he switches, and it is
psychological sense of humans ought to be that mental life is always exciting for those around him.
chaos, produced at random, and that nothing can be accounted As the year rolled on, the topic became more and more
for, least of all inconsistent behavior. fascinating. Festinger received a small grant from the Sloan
So far I have argued for the existence of psychological processes Foundation to pursue his new interests. We traveled to archae-
that are active in the formation of beliefs, and in the assigning ological sites together, discussed our findings, and in the end
of value to those beliefs. The concepts reviewed come out of held different views about what we had learned. I was looking
experimental work, out of laboratory science. The laboratory is for something useful about the uniqueness of our brains. He was
my natural habitat and one that will ultimately deliver the valid looking at the archaeological record concerning early humans
answers to questions concerning the mechanisms underlying because it was an opportunity to consider first causes; it was a
human behavior. time in human history when things happened very slowly. In

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more modern times the historical record is not all that heipfu! ingly slow to produce change in products it could make. The
at determining causal relations, because any new idea is instantly marker that exists in the historical record to support this view is
transmitted throughout the world culture. In prehistory one has the evidence concerning its use of stone tools. Although Homo
sort of a laboratory method of examining, in slow motion, the erectus deserves high marks for being the species that seriously
stages in human evolution; the effects of new ideas on the developed the process, for over 1 million years its products were
culture; or, for me, possible brain changes that correlate with exceptionally monotonous: 1 million years. The quality, variation,
major advances in human cognition. and style barely changed from the known onset of the species,
In considering prehistory, it is also possible to look for data which was about 1.5 million years ago, to its demise approxi-
or clues to primitive universals that might not only enlighten mately 100,000 to 300,000 years ago.
the hunt for brain or cultural variables to explain human culture, Still, this unimaginative behavior of Homo erectus must be
but also possibly shed light on emerging brain mechanisms considered along with other important contributions it made to
responsible for left-brain specialized skills. Our slow-motion the history of humans. Homo erectus moved about and learned
camera made some interesting observations. how to keep warm. This early human not only found his way
Consider a group of Homo erectus fellows sitting around the to the south of France, he populated North Africa and parts of
campfire on the French Riviera, one of their favorite haunts. All southeast Asia. Overall the inventiveness of our genus was
day long they had been hunting or scavenging; maybe a few had beginning to be manifested. By spreading into habitats for which
been making some primitive tools such as existed one million he was not particularly well suited, Homo erectus displayed a
years ago. With Homo erectus other options for behavior were unique amount of ingenuity. Our ancestors were beginning to
absent, largely due to the existing cultural environment. I show signs that the environment could be controlled for personal
emphasize cultural environment, because the physical environ- improvement. The development of excellent scavenging and
ment was highly differentiated. Yet the existing data suggest to hunting skills and the intelligent use of fire are just two indicators
me that Homo erectus was unable to seize new opportunities in that Homo erectus was a quantum jump ahead of its predecessor
an extensive way. Contrary to what is commonly said, these Homo habilis.
early humans strike me as having accomplished very little. As a There are, then, two sides to the Homo erectus story. On the
result, their culture was rather monodimensional. The reason one hand his life had a monotonous regularity to it, but on the
for this lackluster performance, I suggest, was that the brain of other he was showing a definite refusal to allow the environment
Homo erectus was not yet capable of easily making inferences to completely rule his behavior. The hominid was struggling to
of the kind already described. Thus the first step necessary for be in control. The reason he didn't do more, that he experienced
the establishment of beliefs had not been taken, which in turn what might be called a long, relatively stable cognitive plateau
suggests the species was not yet ready or able to transcend being is, I think, traceable to certain identifiable features of his brain.
in a locked and reflex relation with environmental contingencies. Before describing the brain changes that eventually took place,
As a result, it did not yet possess the power to carry out any let's look at the Neanderthal man.
more than simple operations on the environment. Neanderthal had a much larger brain than Homo erectus, and
Homo erectus, the species before the Neanderthal man, which this is often considered very important. In fact, he had a larger
was the subspecies in Europe before modern man, was frustrat- brain than that possessed by modern man. Those who think

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brain size is important in human evolution could make the case, ered, are closely associated with inferential capacity, were finally
as Professor Gary Lynch of the University of California at Irvine in place for our species. The impact of this development would
has done, that Neanderthal was more "intelligent" than modern be enormous. With the advent of such new brain-based skills,
1
man. When one considers the vast number of human processes the superior techniques of one tool knapper could be commu-
Neanderthal man originated, the claim makes some sense. Once nicated to another and would more quickly compound over the
the species launched its cultural developments and technological years into better ability to make superior tools. I asked Tixier
inventions, it could be argued that the species could settle back whether he had ever tried to teach someone the skill under a
into a simpler applications mode that did not require as much condition where no verbal instructions were given. He had not
brain power as Dr. Lynch claims Neanderthal possessed. and shuddered to think how long such a process might take.
At any rate, Neanderthal, who was around for only approxi- In addition to the expansion of tool technology as an indicator
mately ninety thousand years, brought life and joy to the of the emergence of a major change in brain processes, there is
monotonous culture of Homo erectus. On Neanderthal's arrival, a fascinating array of other simultaneous developments. Nean-
the tools became more sophisticated and also more aesthetically derthal learned to use water and began to navigate. It is likely
pleasing. Specific tools were made from particular kinds of flint. that he migrated from winter to summer homes. This in itself
The soft hammer, made of deer antlers, was invented to shape suggests the emergence of a system of mental maps, a process
the stone tools. The skill in making these tools was immense; it that requires specific brain areas be present and active. Nean-
was described to us during a visit to the laboratory of Jacques derthal also began to decorate himself, which suggests the
Tixier, one of the world's great lithic technologists. 2 emergence of a sense of aesthetics. Certain features of the tools,
Leon and I had the pleasure of watching Dr. Tixier make for example, took on an unnecessary aesthetic aspect which
3
some tools. This remarkable and delightful archaeologist has a went beyond any utility value the tool might have. Finally,
full laboratory just outside of Antibes, where he carefully studies Neanderthal began to demonstrate the presence of beliefs, the
prehistoric tool making and where he teaches graduate students sine qua non of a brain that supports language. Burial sites have
this rare art. It is a difficult skill to acquire, one that caused me been found, and the particular positioning of bones at these sites
to doubt my own dexterity. Tixier relieved my anxiety by saying suggests to some researchers the existence of some kind of
it takes years of hard work and practice to learn how to make beliefs. Neanderthal is an archaic Homo sapiens and one step
the stone tools of Neanderthal. back from Homo sapiens sapiens and from the lightning-fast
What struck us about the experience was Tixier's running events that took place with modern man. Since we can't chart a
description about what he was doing. A vast array of maneuvers steady upward progression in human accomplishments as real
and decisions must be made when making stone tools: the time passed, the question becomes, to what are the changes
position of the striking platform and the angle of impact of the attributable? There are two main views to consider. The first
hammer (another rock) are just two of these. It suddenly can be called the bottom-up view; others might call it the
occurred to us that the more or less exponential increase in the sociobiological view. The other view is the top-down view, the
quality of the tools made by Neanderthal might reflect the notion that things don't start until there is a brain change.
presence of a communicative language; this meant the special According to the bottom-up view, an organism has a set of
brain areas managing these processes which, as we have discov- genetically controlled response capacities, and these can be

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appropriately shaped and selected by the organism's habitat. 4

not break apart. Perhaps Homo erectus could infer that a tool
With this view, which arose from a vast number of brilliant and made from this material might last longer. The power of
thorough animal studies dealing with the intricate social orga- inference saved time and short-circuited the always-available but
nizations of various species, such as ants, wolves, and baboons, slow-moving method of trial and error. With the appearance of
the social intricacies of their behavior can be neatly explained. the much more complex brain of Neanderthal, and finally Homo
These animals live in a dynamic and largely reciprocal relation sapiens sapiens or modern man, the capacity for inference
with their environment because their brain power is not sufficient flourished to reach the point of its current glory where inference
for any other kind of existence. In short, they are unable to has become as automatic as a peripheral neural reflex.
insulate themselves from the environment in any important way. Can any knowledge gained from contemporary brain research
As a result, there can be no doubt the environment plays a that might be applied to interpretation of the archaeological
powerful and controlling role in selecting the maximal capacities record reveal evidence of evolving inferential systems in early
of these subhuman organisms. The bottom-up view undoubtedly man? The answer is most definitely yes, and it comes out of the
explains certain processes in the biologic world. In my opinion, work on split-brain patients that demonstrate the left hemisphere's
however, the theory is transparently inadequate in explaining capacity to make inference. This special capacity of left-brain
human evolution. processes also appears to lie in a region coincident with the
According to the top-down view, genetically induced changes language areas of the brain. That's the lead. Knowing that, one
in the brain are the key element in human history. Specifically, can analyze data from prehistoric endocasts and try to learn
it was the ever-increasing capacity of the human brain, even of something about the evolution of brain processes supporting
these early hominids, to make inferences that separated them inferential processes by examining the more identifiable systems
from anything that had existed before in the animal kingdom. supporting language.
The inference capacity, which is the putting together of two Endocasts are made from the skulls of the various hominids
novel variables into a hypothesis about possible causes of events, that have been discovered by field archaeologists. They allow us
also is the substrate for the formation of beliefs. We have already to carry out a volumetric measure of brain size, which is, as I
seen that the capacity to make inference is a property unique to say, a much discussed aspect of archaeological data on human-
the human brain, and the capacity can most likely be tied to brain evolution. The problem with the claim that bigger brains
certain specific human-brain systems. Possession of this capacity are better for cognition has always been that a big brain doesn't
freed man from the rigid grasp of the environment. Needless to necessarily mean better cognition, even when body weight is
say, the capacity is also very much a double-edged sword. taken into account. We now know, for example, that the
Consider the power of a system that can make inferences over cognitive capacity of a person with half a brain that could weigh
5
the kind that cannot. In primitive hominids, inference capacities as little at 700 cc can be equal to that of someone with a normal
were limited but nonetheless contributed to the greater cognitive brain weighing approximately 1250 cc. With this premise, an
power seen in early man. Say, for example, that Homo erectus argument that the cognitive capacities of someone with a 1000-
has stone tool A made out of flint type B. He was always cc brain {Homo erectus) should be different from those of
frustrated because the flint splintered too easily. Suddenly he someone with a 1300-cc brain {Homo sapiens sapiens) seems
sees a rock come crashing dov/n a hill and notices that it does moot. Obviously there are differences in internal organization

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between the brains of the early species of man and these evolutionary processes for humans are top-down processes. Until
differences are responsible for their different competencies. Evi- this blood vessel supply existed, along with the underlying brain
dence for internal organizational differences, however, has seemed tissue it supports, the kinds of cognitive function we now know
unapproachable since only the bony skulls remain; the brains these brain areas subserve would most likely not have been
themselves have long since decomposed. possible. The implication is that no amount of environmental
There is, however, a possible approach to this problem. influence (positive or negative) on the organism would assist the
Alexander Marshack, a scholar with a vast knowledge of archaeo- species in question beyond what its upper limits proved to be.
logic literature, related to me a most intriguing observation that More important, a central change in brain architecture was
Yves Coppens, a French palaeontologist, had made on human necessary before human cognitive skills gained the potential to
6
fossils. By carefully reconstructing fossil brains in such a way be free from environmental contingencies.
as to reveal the blood supplies to the lateral surfaces of the brain, An analogy comes from the modern computer. A computer
Coppens was able to trace the relative distribution of blood with configuration A has a finite amount of power. Add another
supply to key brain areas. These distribution patterns were found memory card, thereby changing the computer to configuration
by examining the lateral surfaces of the skulls of the various B, and the power of the machine changes. Once said, it seems
species where the blood vessels make indentation marks. Marshak reasonable enough, yet it is vastly important. The analogy tells
didn't know what to make of the findings but kindly sent me us what has to come first in evolutionary process to produce
the article. changes that become socially significant. Those changes must
The key findings add a fascinating dimension to our knowledge first occur in the brain hardware. Today no one would ask
about early human brains. The part of the brain that we now brain-diseased people, those suffering from dementia or mental
know is crucial for language and inference capacity did not retardation, to improve on their minimally proficient skills. Nor,
become highly vascularized until Homo sapiens sapiens, that is, therefore, should one be puzzled about the cognitive plateau of
modern man, had evolved. In the earlier hominids, however, Homo erectus. His brain was not ready to take the next step.
one can see that the appropriate region was gradually becoming All of this, of course, is reminiscent of the basic features of brain
more and more vascularized. The importance of this observation organization that I discussed in chapter 2.
is that vascularization is crucial to efficient and productive brain Nothing happens psychologically until the appropriate brain
activity. Without a rich blood supply bringing much-needed region in the modern developing human brain has become
nutrients to an active brain center, the mental processes repre- physiologically functional. Before leaving this aspect of prehistory,
sented in that center would be only weakly functional. With no I should point out that I have been talking about social processes
blood supply, as is the case following a cerebral stroke, there is that result from the left hemisphere's capacity to make inference.
no function. The Coppens data clearly show that the lateral It is equally important to realize that brain processes, such as
surface of the cerebral hemispheres is heavily vascularized in a changing patterns of vascularization with the correlate change
brain area called Wernicke's Area. This general zone in the left in the underlying neural anatomy, occur, by and large, symmet-
brain is responsible for major language processes as well as areas rically. The right brain is receiving the same kind of attention
that allow for human inference. It is a remarkable correlation. the left is receiving. What do we know about the corresponding
The importance of the observation lies in the claim that regions of the right brain? Are there specialized processes active

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here that might be of crucial importance in the evolutionary It would appear that along with the increases in inferential
record as it is presently understood? There are at least some capacity and their implications for quicker, more efficient ad-
intriguing hints. vances against the mysteries of the environment comes an
Recall that objects of aesthetic quality did not really appear aesthetic appetite. It is not only that more tools with new kinds
until Neanderthal came along. Aesthetic primitives were realized of functions were generated. They had to look like something as
in stone tools and in the first signs of ornamentation. Then with well. In some sense things not only have to be good at a
modern man, aesthetic activity was importantfrom the famous functional level, they also have to feel good. With a brain
Lascaux cave to present-day achievements. Does brain science structure managing this kind of mental activity, it is no wonder
have information on such mechanisms as aesthetics? There are that Neanderthal, along with his more aesthetic tool making,
some new leads. also became fascinated with ornamentation.
Recall for a moment the findings described in chapter o on
It's forty thousand years ago and modern man is looking out
patients with posterior right-brain disease. They experience dis-
over the savanna. His big brain is ready for big things. It is
turbances in recognizing unfamiliar faces, discriminating line
going to take a little time, but this inference-capable human is
orientation, and other perceptions. In short, they show some
now prepared to ask bigger questions of the environment, ask
disturbance in their apprehension or evaluation of stimulus
for bigger things from it. At this point in time cultural evolution
material. Could such a lesion also affect aesthetic judgments?
progresses so rapidly that it is almost impossible to detect first
Or, for the present context, could aesthetic achievements be
causes. Once an idea whose time has come is acted upon, it is
managed without a particular brain structure?
difficult to predict and evaluate the multitude of ways it affects
We had the opportunity to examine that question in a split-
7
a culture and becomes part of the human fabric. It is this
brain patient. We studied V.P. so that we could examine the
problem that makes the historian's task so difficult.
perceptual and aesthetic life of each of her half-brains independent
of influence. Remember that her right brain is dramatically Still, I want to look at one more event during prehistory, circa
superior to the left in the discrimination of such stimuli as 8,300 B.C., and attempt to analyze why it happened. It is a very
unfamiliar faces. And it is this condition that made her the ideal important human event: the formation of large groups. Why did
case for asking the question on aesthetics. our species choose to move from small groups to large groups?
The faces we used for the experiment were pictures from my This is an event that I think illustrates the nexus between
high school annual, and the attractiveness of the individual faces principles that govern subhuman behaviors and more cognitive
varied. On a separate independent measure, some faces were principles specific to the human species. Put differently, preference
clearly closer to ten in attractiveness and some closer to one, on mechanisms, which are an important part of all vertebrates, can
a ten-point scale. We asked each half-brain to rate the attrac- be the major motivating factor for triggering a human social
tiveness of the pictures. The results were clear. The right half- behavior. Once a particular behavioral event has occurred, the
brain rated the stimuli, making the same distinction the normals human makes inferences about possible meaning. These hy-
made. The left half-brain, the brain dominant for language and potheses become candidates for beliefs which, in turn, can
general cognition, was widely uneven in its assessment, unable, overpower the more primitive preference mechanism. Considering
as it were, to tell a beauty from a beast. these phenomena, therefore, demonstrates the human connection

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to the past and also reveals how we depart from the strict out on a stretcher. Festinger, who is occasionally generous in
constraints of the environment. my direction, thought I had hit on a masterful closure to the
The story takes us to modern-day Israel. Festinger was spending old man's talk.
his sabbatical in Jerusalem, and while there he organized a We were shown key archaeological digs by our host, the Israeli
conference, this time on early life in the Levant. David Premack archaeologist Ofer Bar-Yosef, one of the most respected professors
canceled at the last minute, so Festinger and I voted to give his at Hebrew University. Bar-Yosef was ready to delineate some
ticket to Jeff Holtzman, our mutual student. It was a wonderful major occurrences of about twelve through eight thousand years
trip. Can Jerusalem be anything but wonderful? ago in the Levant, events he is intimately familiar with since he
Festinger had organized the meeting beautifully. In order for discovered many of the facts himself. He and his staff have
interdisciplinary conferences to work you need a fall guy, someone carefully mapped out several sites, some near Jericho in central
who will ask provocative questions on both sides. At this meeting Israel, some well down into the Sinai. Several of these sites are
it fell to me to play that role, and I must say I did it with a the remains of a particular culture and people, the Natufians. 8

certain panache. I was going splendidly into the last morning The Natufians were a sedentary people, living at about 12,000-
when a retired archaeologist was given time to report on the 10,000 B.C. They built homes and at first formed small groups
importance of ochre in early cultures. In his heyday this man of about thirty to fifty people. The communities spread from
had done some fine work and had shown how ochre was very northern Syria south to the Negev. Natufians ate well, dining
important in body markings. The red substance was used in dye, mainly on gazelle, fallow deer, ibex, and fish. It is clear from
ornamentation, and so on. their food refuse and their tools that they were also users of wild
The problem was that the old man finished his story and then cereals and pulses of all kinds. In all of their sites archaeologists
began again. As he was winding down the repeat performance find mortars and pestles, minute stone tools which were used as
and it looked as if still another ochre encore was at hand, barbs or arrowheads, as well as sickle blades and some fish-
Festinger leaned over and told me to do something about it. N o hooks. Unlike their predecessors, the Natufians appear to have
problem, said I, for I had a number of questions. And because been able to make serious choices about what they would eat
of my phonetic comprehension problem, I launched into an on any particular day. The brain's insistence on preferences was
unforgettable discussion. being expressed. The pleasures of variety were being discovered
"Excuse me," I said to the professor, "but what about early by our species.
use of the substance as a foodstuff?" The group turned toward The descendants of the Natufians, known also as Neolithic
me. For days they had assumed I knew what I had been talking farmers, were the first to domesticate the cereals. Tools were
about, and they then searched their combined scholarly minds being adapted to deal with these new occupations. Storage
for any evidence of it that they may have forgotten. Finally I facilities were built to keep the crops. In short, once the idea of
said, "You know, like for dinner?" The old man looked at me sedentary living took hold, along with the development of all of
and said, "But how do you prepare it?" I was incredulous. "You these specialized activities including the domestication of goats
boil it. We used to eat it all the time in California. My mom and sheep, which occurred some time afterward, man invented
made a terrific okra stew." They nearly had to carry Holtzman ways to cope with the abundance that resulted from his new

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ability to adapt the environment to his needs. In this climate of With all of these new specialties more people were needed to
product diversity humans seem to have come up with another produce the products.
major idea, the idea of large groups or villages. In a group of four hundred people, some could be fishermen,
Bar-Yosef explains that about 10,300 years ago a dramatic some hunters, some farmers, some jewelers. It made sense to
change in the size of the Natufian campsite occurred. Within a give up the simple life and to go to town. There was something
period of 300 years, which in archaeological time amounts to a to do, to enjoy, to prefer. The brain-based preference system in
couple of seconds, the Natufian sites had expanded to accom- the human could finally express itself and, I submit, this proved
modate around four hundred or more people. Why this jump to be a powerful force in the formation of group dynamics, of
in size? At one level there seems to be no need for it. Food is villages. Once groups formed, of course, new ideas about the
abundant. There is no evidence of hostilities or natural disaster. social value of other services such as sewers and water supply
The small living units of thirty seem completely adequate. Why developed. Indeed, hypotheses generated about the value of
should this successful group suddenly want to form larger living in large groups emerged and were reinforced, yet the initial
aggregates? The archaeological record cannot answer this question. factor in choosing to live together was related, I think, to the
I think a psychological interpretation of the record offers some pleasures of allowing the preference system to work.
distinct possibilities. It was David Premack who articulated the importance of
10
Consider the life of the early Natufian prior to the appearance preference as motivation for action. He has studied the process
9
of these new commodities. Although not so monotonous as in rats, monkeys, and retarded children. Premack's work shows
that of Homo erectus, it must still have been fairly boring. The that a vertebrate does not budge from inactivity unless a less
same animal was eaten day after day, year after yearand there probable response is made contingent on a more probable
are only so many ways to prepare ibex or gazelle. There were response. This means it is very difficult to get Johnny to eat
no other major foods. The daily activities consisted of making lima beans unless he knows ice cream is for dessert.
tools for hunting and then hunting the gazelle for dinner. In a Are preferences really all that important in the motivation of
climate like this, modern man's known propensity to express behavior? In a classic set of experiments on rats, Premack showed
preference was not being honored. It would only have been both the importance of preference for action and the relative
more of the same in a larger group. nature of reinforcement. He let one group of rats drink all it
Then things started to happen in the Natufian culture. As the wanted. The rats were not, however, given the opportunity to
result of various discoveries, such as fishing, grain domestication, exercise regularly, that is, to run. Another group was given free
the selection in killing gazelles, the later domestication of animals, access to a running wheel but was allowed only a little water,
the proliferation of finer tools, the advent of jewelry and probably enough to get along. The questions Premack asked were, would
dozens of other things, the Natufian had a choice. Instead of the water-sated rat drink more if given the opportunity to run?
gazelle again, dinner might be a little fish with cereal. His lady Would the exercise-fulfilled rat run more if given the opportunity
could put on a new necklace; her man could have a fancier to drink? The answer to both questions was a resounding yes.
spear. It was a bonanza time for our speciesit was going to Anything can be a reinforcer as long as it is the more preferred
organize itself to take advantage of the new variety of riches. behavior at the time of test.
People were going to band together into a larger living unit. Consider another example. This time Premack placed ten

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locks of different kinds and shapes in front of a monkey. The Modern humans make inferences reflexively and about almost
monkey displayed a preference for one over the others. That is, everything. They make inferences by correlating two events that
a particular monkey would spend more time playing with lock take place contiguously. The average mind takes great pleasure
A than with lock B , more with lock B than with lock C, and so in building theories based on these surface correlations. Only a
on. In short, the monkey demonstrated a preference hierarchy. trained and educated mind learns to inhibit this reflex and
Premack then examined whether he could influence the amount sometimes look for hidden or other causes. As we all know, it
of time the monkey spent on a particular lock. It turned out to is a very active process because the making of surface correlations
be easy. All he had to do was manipulate the preferences of the is a lot easier and is usually amusing.
monkey. If he wanted to increase the time the monkey spent Thinking, even thinking simply, is unique to man and is what
playing with lock C, all he had to do was make the opportunity enabled him to adapt and control parts of his environment to
to play with the more preferred lock (in this case either lock B his own purposes. Thinking clearly about complex variables is
or lock A) contingent on playing with lock C. A more probable also unique to man, but it is hard work. Man engages in this
response reinforces a less probable response and never the other process very rarely. In order to do it he needs to be aware of
way around. accumulated information. Without accumulated information, he
The importance of preferences for humans is just as great. In has only the more elementary power of thinking simply. Infor-
humans preferences can be systematically manipulated by the mation did not accumulate during prehistorical times and that
clever psychologist. They can be upgraded, reversed, dissolved. is why things took so long to develop for early man. The culture
While being based in very old systems in the brain, they play a was not offering to the inferential brain enough data to move it
crucial role in the complex psychological processes that contribute along.
to the construction of human beliefs. Henri Frankfort argues that, contrary to popular views that
Taking this well-developed psychological principle back to the prehistoric man was prelogical, early man's thought processes
Natufians permits an explanation. Powerful energies were un- were quite clear." Frankfort makes the profound point that
leashed by the appearance of a variety of commodities for ancient man lived on the thin edge of the present. There was no
human consumption. Prior to their appearance the motivating history, no recorded experience. There was nothing but his
value of possessing a preference hierarchy remained unactivated subjective reaction to immediate events. In a situation like that,
because of the limited availability of goods. The small group human cultural advances would proceed slowly indeed.
was sufficient. With the advent of more commodities, which Perhaps, however, such a climate wasn't all bad. With no
allowed the preference system to function, the small group did recorded history, there was little chance one human could
not prove sufficiently resourceful to supply the goods for these misunderstand the interpretation of life's data offered by his
preferences. The large groups did, and when they formed, neighbor. As a consequence, interpersonal hostilities would be
motivated by rather primitive impulses common to all species, less.
they inadvertently began a new era for humans. This new social Consistent with this data, there is in the record of prehistory
climate catalyzed the formation of seemingly endless beliefs and virtually no evidence of assault by one human being upon
social institutions. another. Homicide may have been as rare as ducks killing each

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other. If all members of the species have available to them the CHAPTER 1 1
same data, then it would not be too surprising to think they
came up with the same inferences and developed the same
beliefs about the nature of the^ world. As a result, conflicts were
rare.
With the advent of groups, however, hostilities became com-
mon. Full-scale wars occurred after man had developed the
On the Inevitability
opportunity to have his preferences entertained by the growing,
diverse environment he had constructed for himself. They also
came at a time, more or less, when human behavior was
beginning to be recorded. It is hard to imagine a more perfect
climate for the human inference system to develop and to
generate beliefs about the nature of culture. These times represent
the turbulent beginning of a complex human culture. Instead of
living only in the present, it was possible to interpret what others RELIGIOUS BEHAVIOR for most people expresses an intense,
had experienced in the past. With this, of course, came the serious belief. The most serious believers are those who spend a
beginnings of interpretive history. Again, it was the perfect great amount of time studying the tenets and claims of their
setting for the widespread launching of beliefs, of different views particular belief and who practice the rules of their faith. Even
about the world. Sunday Christians or Friday Moslems are believers, part of the
In summary, the view is that the archaeological record is large pack that follows the true believers. In Qum, at this writing,
suggesting specific brain areas evolved to carry out specific some fourteen thousand mullahs spend from seven to thirty-five
functions that in turn produced new capacities for our species. years studying the mysteries of Islam so that in their remaining
These capabilities, such as inference and aesthetics, are manifestly years they may advise Iranians. They are true believers.
present in Homo sapiens sapiens. Their origins can be traced all Forces from both the environment and the self contribute to
the way back to Homo erectus, perhaps further. The ensuing the formation of strong religious beliefs. In order for strong
cognitive skills came slowly, and in prehistory early man was beliefs to be inculcated, the religion in question must initially
capable of making more associative responses than inferential exercise strong control over neophytes. Its promulgators try to
leaps. Once inference was possible, however, modern man was create an environment that minimizes situations where a religious
born into and doomed to a most difficult way to live. The tenet can be broken. Allowing the occurrence of a behavior that
inferential capacity led to the formation of beliefs, not only conflicts with the tenets of the belief makes inroads on the belief.
about his own behavior but also about the past and present For the true believer, things like sleeping with Susy outside of
behavior of others within his group. Such mental activities in wedlock or drinking Scotch must be very tightly controlled. The
turn begin the process of decoupling man from the influence of discovery that one's head does not instantly fall off at the will
environmental forces. of God, or Allah, or whomever, following a transgression of a
group's beliefs, would be disturbing information to the young

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1
believer. Those opportunities for the multiple mental system to Geschwind of Harvard Medical School. 1 would have been most
work must be forbidden. skeptical of his account if I had not seen a case that exactly
In religious beliefs, as with any other belief, we again see the matched his description. This syndrome now has been reported
left-brain interpreter seeking an explanation for a series of life several times. In its basic form, the brain injury causes a
experiences. Just as it is charged with delivering a running deepening of religious conviction, a desire to write extensively
2
explanation of the behaviors of all of our independent modules, (hypergraphia), and the performance of bizarre sexual activity.
it is similarly charged with explaining real-life events and circum- There is no a priori reason I know of why affecting one of these
stances existing in the culture. It is seeking consistency, and the behaviors ought to affect the other two!
left-brain interpreter module, linked as it is to the special human The reality of the syndrome is not amusing. Of interest here
inference system, works hard to construct theories about the is the religious behavior aspect of the syndrome. Not only is
causes of perceived events. That our brains accept the theories conviction deepened, but the form it takes becomes erratic and
this system comes up with is also of interest. the person switches from one belief to another rapidly and
But how did the idea of religion start? Why did our species without apparent cause. The brain process that allows for
generate the idea of deities? The nature and origins of religious nonrational and magical interpretations of events that are usually
beliefs has an intriguing and, I think, interpretable history that implicit in stories of religious creation is readier than ever. It
underscores the centrality of the brain-based psychological mech- seemingly doesn't matter which belief is plugged into this process.
anism I have been describing. I will argue that religious beliefs In a way, the brain lesion frees the patients from their personal
were inevitable and had to start once the left-brain interpreter histories and prepares them for any set of beliefs. These clinical
was fully in place and reflexively active in seeking consistency phenomena suggest that a dynamic equilibrium can be set up in
and understanding. Explanations were generated and institutions the brain between systems that generate hypotheses and systems
created to manage and deal with the issues of human existence that accept such explanations as meeting rational criteria. The
and cosmic origin. Once launched, such institutions, given their normal state allows for a certain degree of nonrational and
intense coercive power, have a way of staying. magical beliefs. The diseased and disinhibited state so lowers the
Alternative views like the ones now readily available from criteria for acceptance that rapidly accepting and changing beliefs
modern science and those made available by Aristotle have become the rule.
played and continue to play a subordinate role to beliefs involving If there are brain networks in our modern brains that do tilt
revealed truths. And, in an effort to explain this fact, I will also us toward magical beliefs, it would follow that there should be
argue that the acceptance of these not-of-this-world beliefs is due evidence for religious behavior in primitive humans, at least in
to another special capacity of the human brain, the capacity for all humans who possessed the same brains as those we possess.
magical thinking. Let me explain. That means we could examine the prehistorical record back to
There is a region of the human brain that, when tampered approximately forty to sixty thousand years ago and, if clever
with, causes profound changes in the human psyche. A lesion enough, find evidence of religious practice. It turns out that the
in that region, which can come about for a number of reasons, record is replete with such evidence.
tends to cause a change in three behaviors. This "temporal lobe The evidence for religious practice prior to 3,000 B.C. has to
syndrome" was first described in detail by the late Norman be inferred from the unwritten archaeological record. In the

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main, the data come from the variety of burial practices that Consider the world ten thousand years ago. Throughout the
can be traced back at least forty thousand years, and some entire world there were at most only ten million people. Of
3
archaeologists maintain that even earlier evidence exists. Most these, half were under the age of ten and the oldest and wisest
of the data take the form of the odd positioning of the bones of in the village was typically only thirty. There is no reason in the
the various unearthed human skeletons. Other, more indirect world not to think that this inference-capable human did not
evidence is found in the cave paintings of southern France. experience a dash of existential despair. "What," he might ask,
These drawings demonstrated that seventeen thousand years ago feasting on roast gazelle, "does it all mean?" His dilemma must
man could draw with skill, showing such dimensional ability as have been grave. Everything this organism did had meaning. If
interposition, shadowing, and other artistic techniques. Yet these he didn't get up and go hunt, he didn't eat. If he didn't build a
skills that gave rise to perception of depth and form were applied hut, he was cold. If he didn't domesticate wild grain, his diet
only to animals. Human representations in these drawings were was boring. Finally he asked, "I know why I do all those things,
pathetic in comparison and for the most part were simple stick but why am I here?"
4
figures. The first signs of what this process yielded don't appear, as I
Some drawings showed figures half human and half animal. said, until about 3,000 B.C. From that time written records
Historians have theorized that these data suggest a religious abound, and interestingly for our purposes they exist in different
devotion. They theorize that, for some unknown reason, depicting cultural settings. That gives us the opportunity to check out
man on a tablet or an enduring medium was taboo. some armchair hypotheses about what ancient man's thought
Whatever the case, there is much archaeological data to suggest might have been about.
that early humans were engaged in practices that had no obvious My model is based on the assumption that something about
utilitarian value. Something magical had to be happening in the species (a property of our brains) inclines it to yield to a
their thinking that motivated them to these kinds of activities. belief in a greater order than that perceived around it. The
They believed something about the uniqueness of their species. psychological mechanism is through the inference system, and
It wasn't until the written record came into existence that it it is realized by the process of attribution and by the human
became possible to track what the mental antecedents to human brain's capacity to accept magical beliefs.
religion as we now know it might have been. Remember, these Picture ancient man questioning the meaning of life, and
were brains like yours and mine dealing with the data presented assume that the brain can be given over to magical thinking. It
by that environment. The human brain's inference-making goes without saying that this early human is going to look to
device wanted badly to come up with a theory to rationalize the immediate environment for ideas about supernatural pro-
activities into a parsimonious reality. As is true of our own time, cesses. Environment A should yield one theory of what a god
the brain wanted to find consistency in an otherwise uninter- should look like, and environment B, if it is truly different,
pretable set of events. And, contrary to current assumptions, my ought to produce quite another theory. I want to argue that the
reading of history suggests that the human brain-based system historical record supports this hypothesis. The Egyptian view of
ultimately strived for a form of monotheism, that being the most creation is quite different from the Mesopotamian view. Both
parsimonious view of creation. The reason for holding this view came about at roughly the same time and both were generated
will soon be obvious. by the same human brain that is with us today. The only thing
168
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that was different was the brain's physical environment. The late out of their everyday experiences with the environment.
John Wilson of the University of Chicago has described these This god, Re-Atum, also needed assistance and so other
5
differences in fascinating detail. constructs were developed. How did Re-Atum, who was self-
The Egyptians saw the world as a very orderly place and their created, get all the chores of his kingdom done? Atum itself
role in it as supreme. They lived in a highly structured environ- means "what is finished, completed, perfected." With that posture,
ment, the Nile valley. Every morning the sun rose in the East Atum clearly needed a staff. For example, how did the heavens
and set in the West. All the Egyptian had to do to control his and earth separate? Well, the goddess, Shu, took care of that.
environment was to take a seed, plant it in the ground, sprinkle She was the goddess of the air and held up the heavens. In some
a little Nile water and rich silt on it, and watch it flourish. accounts she was helped with pillars. Other chores required other
Things were very orderly indeed. gods and all of these become part of the story. The point to
It is not surprising that as a consequence the ancient Egyptians keep in mind, however, is that there was, in a sense, only one
inferred that the sun had special powers. They came to worship supreme godRe. The other gods were really and truly secondary
the sun and generated the idea of a sun-god, Re. The sun had characters in this formulation of creation. And the plot thickens.
to be the reason for their good fortune. The sun was male and The physical instantiation of all of these gods, from Re down
by all legends was considered the first divine king of Egypt. This to the more junior gods, was becoming less appealing to the
god was so primary, so great, he could divide himself into citizens living in Memphis. Intellectually things were a little
separate entities, each responsible for a single aspect of life. Thus disorderly, so a concept was developed that explained matters
there was Re-Atum, the creator god of Heliopolis; there was Re- of creation more neatly. A new supreme god was invented not
Harakhte, the god of the eastern horizona very special direction only to explain the activities of Re but also as an expression of
for Egyptians, since that is where the sun appeared for each new the key idea that there is but one force behind all of these
day. Even local communities were able to use this god. For activities. Enter the god Ptah. The source of this remarkable
some he became Sobek-Re, a crocodile god; for others, Khnum- knowledge about Ptah's origin is a stone tablet that is in the
Re, a ram god; and so on. It is of interest that Re himself was British Museum.
depicted as wearing a beard and possessing two disks over his Ptah is equated with Nun, the primeval waters out of which
head. Re-Atum emerged. Having given Ptah this status, the stone goes
But establishing that the Egyptians put great importance on on to say that Ptah, because he is the "heart and tongue," which
the sun and gave it divine status does not answer the question means mind and speech, of the one creator Ptah, created Re
of why everything exists. Their magical thinking needed a and his ennead of gods. Ptah wants more. Not only does he
creator. That was easily solved. Re-Atum, the creator god, was transmit all power to gods, he wants to be the power behind
sent to begin life from the primeval waters of Nun on a little everything that exists. The tablet says "It has come to pass that
mound of dirt in the town of Hermopolis, the kind of mound the heart and tongue control {every} member (of the body) by
that is always deposited by the Nile during the yearly floods. teaching that he (Ptah) is throughout every body (in the form of
When the Nile recedes, these rich mounds of new soil generate the heart) and throughout every mouth (in the form of the
the new season's fertile surrounds. Thus the point of origin for tongue), of all gods, of all men, of {all} animals, of all creeping
the creator god. The Egyptians' religious beliefs came straight things, and of what (ever) lives, by (Ptah's) thinking (as the

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heart) and commanding (as the tongue) anything that he wishes." supposedly identifiable origins. The doctor diagnoses, prescribes,
Power is thus centralized and the Egyptians have opted for a and waits to see if the proposed solution takes effect. If it does,
much more parsimonious description of events. As has been the doctor files the diagnosis away in his mind with a theory for
pointed out by others, this formulation has all the earmarks of a cure. Enter the next patient with supposedly the same disease.
the triune god of the New Testament. Ptah is the heart and The physician tries the last successful cure. It is applied, but this
tongue. He has ideas from the heart and then gives commands time it doesn't work. He keeps on trying until something does
through the tongue. Compare that to "In the beginning was the work. That is also filed away, and then tends to be the next
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." applied cure, which may or may not work.
The point here is that the orderly environment of the Nile In still another situation, the doctor proposes a cure that he
valley generated a more or less orderly concept of creation. formulates on the basis of some spurious data in the patient's
From Nun to Ptah there was a striving for a kind of monotheism, history. That also goes into the doctor's personal bank of clinical
and that simplicity reflected the simplicity of life as the Egyptian wisdom. The result of this ad hoc thought process can be a lot
experienced it. It also prepares us for the realization that the of ill-formed theories about medicine. But the reason for it is
idea of monotheism probably did not come de novo from the no mystery. The modern medic is not unlike the Mesopotamian.
Hebrews. It certainly is implicit in the Egyptian experience, even He is trying to function in a stormy and diverse environment
though it was never formally realized. he frequently has little control over; there are too many variables.
Let us now examine how the Mesopotamians constructed I suggest in such situations people adopt similar coping measures
their theories of creation, of religion. Life was different then in or philosophies to deal with their problems.
what is now modern-day Iraq. In Egypt the fertile Nile had In modern medicine, physicians generally adopt an authori-
produced its tranquil view of life; man was central, powerful, tarian strategy to deal with the world. They realize all of their
and the gods supplied the continuing resources for a bountiful privately held theories need an arbiter. They realize their profes-
life. In Mesopotamia, there was no such good fortune. sional group needs a policy. August bodies are formed, and
Unlike the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers can break the while individual positions are argued vehemently (and privately),
spirit of a man. They flood unexpectedly. Scorching winds there a general public policy is usually announced. The ad hoc nature
produce dust storms of unwieldy magnitude. Torrential rains of much of the enterprise is covered over. In general terms
turn the land into mud and paralyze movement of every kind. theories to explain the diverse events abound, and the need for
It is a place of infinitely complex environmental contingencies. a central authority becomes apparent.
And to communicate what it must have been like, how difficult Like the doctor, the Mesopotamians inferred the existence of
it must have been then to generate a reasonable theory of nature, a diverse set of gods to describe the difficult patient, which in
let me digress a moment for a look at how a modern-day their case was the unpredictable environment. They were also
institution works: medical practice. The variables active in the first people in human history to set up authorities to deal
keeping someone well are indefinable. As my physician father with the chaos: a strong family structure and the city-state
put it, "It is not why people die that is a mystery. It's why they system. Let us consider those stormy times.
live." In the first place, the Mesopotamians didn't concern themselves
6
A medical doctor is faced with a patient who has a disease of with the importance of the sun. That was a backdrop to other

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far more problematic entities. The god most highly valued was in which people lived. Given that people were prepared to ask
Anu, the god of the sky. Most of the problems came from above, questions about origins, the day-to-day data from which they
and the sky enveloped all. Right behind Anu in the Mesopota- were to draw their inferences varied enormously; therefore, so
mians' concern were the gods of storms, rain, dust, and wind. did the nature of their ideas of creation.
The god who supervised these elements was called Enlil. Then For the predictable world of the Egyptian, man was central,
came the elements from the earth; the gods Enki and Ninhursaga god was good, and there was a strong tendency to believe in one
were in charge here. main god. At least that is how they finally hammered out their
The key to Mesopotamian myths of creation and of their gods view. Their lives blossomed and their notions of how to organize
is the inordinate concern for details. While some of their the universe were expansive.
dominant, primary myths have god pairs coming out of the In the unpredictable world of Mesopotamia, our species had
water, probably at the fertile junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, a chance to develop a much more theory-laden view of the
to produce god offspring such as Anu, the really serious myths world. Nothing seemed to follow from antecedents except by
concern the god of storms, Enki. developing elaborate theories. Everything took on a psychologic
Enki's story is endlessly detailed and represents an effort to character and the emphasis was on details. Only in the details
explain the psychological character of complex human relations. could the possible real correlates of first causes be found.
This is a first and is a theory based on the very different cultural In both cases, however, the human brain's unique capacity
environment of Mesopotamia, a culture that didn't consider and insistence on making inferences from observed events is
man the center of the universe. How could it? Everything man responsible for the two different constructions of creation theory
tried to do was undercut because of his position in an unpre- and, finally, personal beliefs. Give the inference system orderly
dictable environment. With such an environment to live in, it data (Egypt) and it generates an orderly universe. Give it
follows from all I have said that people were going to come up disorderly data, and the inference system constructs a vastly
with more theories as they tried to explain and correlate what more complex notion of creationone that emphasizes the
caused what. There were more theories because each citizen was helplessness of man. Yet in both cultures a close examination
having different experiences as a result of the diverse environment, of the hierarchy of imagined gods reveals that the inference
and each experience had its own explanation. With this rich system would not let go of the idea of one supreme God. In
diversity came the need for details. Two people meet and discuss Egypt it was Ptah and in Mesopotamia it was Anu. The human
the same calamity but each has a different theory. In order to inference system wanted parsimony.
explain this difference, they come up with the details. N o such Surely, from this quick review of brilliant scholarly history of
problem existed in Egypt. Everyone there had the same experi- others, such as the late John Wilson, one begins to see glimmers
ences, and one set of interpretations could explain the fact that of the underlying psychological mechanisms involved in religious
the sun always rose in the east and set in the west. belief. Just as the split-brain patient seeks a unified theory to
The view I am proposing is that early humans, just like explain his or her own behavior, and just as normal humans do
modern humans, possessed a capacity to entertain magical the same for understanding personal actions, humans seek a
beliefs. These beliefs came from personal experiences, which in parsimonious and unified explanation for the logic governing
turn differed widely depending on the climate and environment worldly matters. Consistent with this view is the claim that so-

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called polytheism is in fact an early form of monotheism. The certain key features. First of all there was going to be no room
human brain seeks order, reflexively, even in religious belief. for idolatry. There were to be no graven images. Thus God says
Try as I might, I find it difficult to read ancient history and to Moses, "I am what I am," which Professor Albright says
believe the polytheistic assumption. In both Egypt and Meso- means, "He causes to be," or "He causes to be what comes into
potamia, there is a very definite hierarchy of gods. In fact, I existence." The idea is one of the creator of all things, of having
doubt there has ever been anything like a nonhierarchical no family, living in no special place; it is slightly anthropomorphic
organization in the history of man. The politburo of the Soviet but more aniconic. God should be kind, he should like children,
Union has a chairman. Anu was the final arbiter for the and so on. Moses addressed these issues, and Judeo-Christian
Mesopotamians. The same is true for the Egyptians and for tradition was launched. When you think about it, it is a story
every example of successful organization in existence. It has to every bit as astounding as Joseph Smith's.
be this way. It is in the nature of decision processing. Meanwhile in Greece, our species had not yet caught up to
Even today elements of polytheism are present in the mono- the rank monotheism of Moses. It was still dealing with the
theisms of Homo sapiens sapiens. Catholics can pray to a saint, existential question, the same way as the Egyptians and Meso-
to the Virgin Mary, to the Holy Spirit. These religious elements potamians were. Gods were being constructed for everything.
can intercede with the Lord on behalf of the client just as There was an Artemis of Brauron, of Aegina, of you name it.
Khnum-Re could work on Re-Atum. Minor gods helped the fisherman, the baker, or the candlestick
Again my point is that we are looking at a universal psycho- maker; others dealt with hope and charity. It all became too
logical mechanism at work here that has always taken more or much and, gradually, as with earlier societies, the Greeks moved
less the same form. As the human hypotheses gradually evolved toward a syncretism. Zeus was the head god, the final arbiter.
about first causes, it became apparent that having several gods Somehow the god system wasn't as richly received. Not long
within a culture was unwieldy. Many of these gods no doubt after their full-blown establishment, the Greek philosophers
developed rather independently within the culture as the separate attacked the notion. In Greece a few men put reason before
diagnoses of individual members of that society. But as the belief and put forward the idea of monotheism because it was
culture moved forward they were gradually collated into panthe- the most logical. As Professor George Boas points out, in the
ons or assemblies, and a supreme senior god was identified. sixth century B.C. the philosopher Xenophanes ridiculed the
Clearly the Egyptians moved ahead from this with Ptah and 7
notion of multiple gods. He promoted the idea of one god, a
tried to rewrite their own history in one true voice. A society god with many features of Moses's God.
cannot have ten presidents or ten gods. The idea has to be Boas gives another example of philosophic theology from
condensed and the concept made orderly. In short, our species Cleanthes' "Hymn to Zeus." The poem is remarkable in the
was never really without the concept of monotheism. intensity of its mood and in Zeus's rank similarity to the god of
That is not to say the concept didn't need work. It clearly the prophets.
did, and Moses seems to have played a major role. For forty
Zeus, ruler of immortals, you of many names, ever omnipotent,
years he isolated himself from the Egyptians on the one hand
Zeus, ruler of nature, governing all by law,
and from the Syrians on the other. The idea Moses finally Hail! for it is man's duty to address himself to you,
announced grew out of a very complex history. His god had For we are your children, being, as it chances, the sole image of one,

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On the Inevitability of Religious Beliefs

THE SOCIAL BRAIN

Whatsoever mortals live and move about the earth, the Greek monotheists believed that the purpose of life was to
Wherefore to you shall I sing hymns and your power shall I forever achieve self-sufficiency, to arrive at a state of autarchy. Plato,
celebrate. Aristotle, the Stoics, all saw it happening in different ways, but
You and none other does the cosmos, circ1ing round this earth, obey that was the gist. Since their conception of the logic of the
Whitherwever you lead, and willingly is it led by you.
These have you as servants in your invincible hands,
universe was to be found in logic itself, it follows that the chore
The forked lightning, fiery, ever-living; of life would be to establish independence from all frailties of
When it strikes, all nature trembles. the heart and vicissitudes of society.
By it you guide the universal Logos, which pervades all things, Needless to say, the problems created by these different views
Mingling with both the greater and lesser stars; of monotheism and their implications still pursue students of
As you have been and are supreme ruler of them all.
these issues. What should be clear is that early man turned his
Nor is any deed done on earth against your will. 0 Lord,
Either in the high and divine heaven or on the sea, mind toward matters of first cause; his ideas evolved from his
Save that which evilmongers do in their madness. personal experience, which in turn came from his environment.
But you know how also to render the even odd, Although these produced interesting differences in the style and
And to bring order into the unordered. and the displeasing is pleasing content of the theories, it is my contention that the same overall
in your sight. commonality of data took the form of a brain-based inference
For SO have you brought all things into unity, good with evil,
That the universal Logos, ever-being, has become one. system, and the progression of ideas was remarkably the same.
When the evil flee from it, they become 11 makes human history understandable, not bizarre.
Miserable, and those of good men who always yearn for the possession As a consequence of this analysis, it seems to me we have a
of wealth rationale for explaining why religious beliefs are so easily accepted
Neither see the common law of God nor listen to it; in the atomic age. Underlying the surface appearance of differ-
But evildoers again and again strive indecently for something else,
ences, beliefs all share a common form, and that form is and
Some possessed by passionate zeal for fame,
Some turned to craftiness in complete disorder, has been always totally acceptable to human thought. They all
And others to the shameless and voluptuous deeds of the body, proposed a unified, orderly universe, governed by one super-
Hastening in all ways to become the opposite of the good. ordinate, logical force.
But Zeus, giver of all gifts, shrouded with dark clouds, you of the Yet even this formulation begs the key question, which is,
bright lightning, why does our species insist on having religious beliefs at all?
Free men from endless misery,
Which you , Father, may expel from their souls, and give us the power Why do we set ourselves up to accept beliefs, to live by theory,
To be governed by your mind, trusting in which you govern all things either a theory of our own, one we are given, or one we buy
with justice, into? Why do we reflexively insist on believing in an order?
To the end that honoring you, we may share in your honor, Before I attempt an answer, let me put to <est the ideas of
Hymning your works continually, as it is fitting those readers who think they are spared this challenge because
For a mortal, since there is no better prize for men
they are convinced they have an Aristotelian grasp on matters
Or for gods, than ever to celebrate the universal law in justice,'
and currently do not possess any of the off-the-shelf beliefs
But there were problems with the theologic and metaphysical available to the world culture. You believe current beliefs are
gods of the Greeks. They did not make demands of man. All of unsubstantiated acts of faith or worse, ignorance, and that they

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all belong on the junk heap of human thought. Your belief may friends' worldly goods, and so on. All religions more or less
classify as a rational belief as opposed to a magical belief, but a subscribe to these views, and in order to run a society all of
belief it is! these ideas are very helpful and positive. Indeed, it is the
I have argued that our propensity to hold religious beliefs reasonableness of these more general substantive points that
comes directly and reflexively from our brain's special capacity makes people initially willing to consider the magical part. Then,
to make inference, as well as its special capacity to accept through the process of valuation I have been talking about, the
magical thinking. Further, since at some point the system cannot magical aspect of the belief takes on greater and greater impor-
continue to endlessly make new inferences about the structure tance. If believers could come to realize there isn't ten cents
of the world, it has to place a bet on one. And the minute it worth of difference in their substantive plans, perhaps they might
does this, data about the possible fallacy of the assumptions then begin to see the magical part for what it is.
implicit in the belief of choice are ignored. More conservatively,
the threshold for considering new information goes up because
of the natural unpleasantness associated with not believing. It is
unpleasant because without a belief in some kind of order there
is a sensation of capriciousness, of instability, of lack of control.
Our species must have a belief. It guides, it controls, it dictates
the rules of behavior. We all demonstrably develop one about
ourselves. It is a short jump to imagine how we must also have
one about extrapersonal events as well. Call it Christ, Muhammad,
or quantum mechanics, these are all beliefs that allow for human
action.
Certainly a major challenge to modern man may be to figure
out how to transcend current religious beliefs and to move
forward into a system that creates interpersonal understanding
instead of indifference, even hate. To achieve that, the most
difficult obstacle would be to reassure our species on the not-of-
this-world, magical level about the part about God and His will
and what He thinks about man and about what man should do
if he is to please God. Each religion has its own story here, its
own start-up account. This magical part is what most religious
people would die for, not only to keep it intact but also to
promulgate the belief.
Perhaps the hope for quickest change comes from the substan-
tive level. Religion, overall, gives a fairly good prescription for
social living. Love thy neighbor, share, be kind, do not lust after

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CHAPTER 12 experiments in my life does not automatically qualify me to

comment on social process from a psychobiologic perspective.
Physicists never sound sillier than when they are talking about
biology, let alone about social issues. It is most presumptuous.
By and large I think basic scientists should stick to their
After Hours labs. Our game is scientific method, and trying to fit life's
events into a totally rational formula is risky. Let everyone
have his or her own pet social idea. Most social ideas are so
far from purely rational they have their own life and nothing
I say can directly bear on these issues. They exist at another
STUDENTS always ask disquieting questions about relevance. level of organization, a level that transcends current scientific
When they are exposed to a new view of a subject, the better analysis.
among them immediately ask, "What does it mean?" One might s.: So your idea is to stay in the lab and leave the meaty
expect the sage professor to be the source for this question. The questions of our existence to the likes of Ronald Reagan and
sage professor, however, has learned the payoff for skepticism. Mario Cuomo. You think politics is the art of the possible
He knows that little is actually ever explained in life. The kind and all that kind of thing. It is nothing but a patchwork of
of new data that people claim should put one into a state of special interests. I bet you believe that in practice ii borders
disequilibrium aren't worth considering. We explain what we on being atheoretical. It is certainly not the kind of topic
can explain, not what we want to explain. As a result most scientists would want to dirty their hands with. Well, we know
things die of their own weight. That is as it should be. you really don't think that, so let's get on.
At the same time it is the wonderfully hopeful questioning of M.S.G.: Yeah, but saying that makes my friends a lot more
each new generation that energizes. After a talk on science, tolerant of my sketches of some social processes. I'll talk about
students ask, "So what does brain science have to say about our the nexus of science and politics if we can start with a problem.
culture?" I say things like, "Not much." They say that won't Why should a professor make more money than a janitor?
do. I ask why not. Every brain scientist in the history of the N o matter what the culture, such economic distinctions exist,
world who talks about the meaning of neuroscience for larger even though they go against many cultural tenets. It is a tough
questions has come off as foolish. They say seventeen studios issue. Consider the problem. Jones, a very good janitor, is
turned down E.T. Maybe your story will take. I say let's go have doing his best at his job. He is working at his full potential,
a drink and we usually talk into the wee hours. Several students the job just matching his biologic and cultural talents. He also
have actually interviewed me, and it usually goes something like possesses the qualities of decency, honesty, and responsibility
this. traits that are frequently hard to come by in any group. Jones
makes $11,000 per year plus benefits.
S T U D E N T (s.): What are your views on how brain science relates On his way to work every morning, Smith the physicist
to social process? takes note of Jones's existence by greeting him. Smith has a
M.S.G.: That is a dangerous game. The fact that I have run some built-in social reason to appear eccentriche is truly "smart."

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In fact, Smith is a hard-working nuclear physicist. He, too, is would allow for such equality. None does, but could one?
working at his biological and cultural capacity. Smith makes And what would one have to believe about us humans to
$52,000 a year. What is the rationale for this discrepancy in make it work? Even in a society that could provide equal
salary between two professions? goods for Jones and Smith, would Smith stand for an equal
s.: D o you think the brain sciences are going to be able to distribution? If that were true, it seems to me there would be
answer a question like this? a strong case for moving toward a society that aspired to such
M.S.G.: I think if the brain scientists can't answer this question goals. One way or the other it is worth knowing the answer,
at some point in the evolution of their knowledge, then the which already is manifestly known. The question is why do
brain scientists are not only ignoring the major phenomena members of our species behave this way?
of our culture, but they are also working in a moral vacuum. S.: But there are societies that do distribute goods according to
But let's take the matter further and observe a most remarkable need, and far more equitably. That is certainly true of the
thing about Jones and Smith. If you measure the amount of Communist nations.
time each week they spend working, eating, sleeping, loving, M.S.G.: Oh really? Let's look at the Soviet Union. The Soviets
commuting, watching TV, playing with the children, and so purportedly believe in equal distribution. They do not have a
on, you will probably find there is not much difference world of abundance, but they have enough of everything so
between them. It is also the case that Jones and Smith both that everyone can share equally in the stores of the society.
like steak, ice cream, wine, Jack Daniel's, vacations, speedboats, Yet, I know they don't. I was there and I saw at firsthand a
tape recorders, bikes, private property, Holiday Inns, and the Jones and a Smith, and I experienced the differences between
innumerable other material commodities available in our theory and practice.
culture. Why shouldn't our society be set up so that all can Comrade Smith was a party member, which immediately
have equal access to all of these things? After all, it is not put him among the chosen. He could travel, which meant he
Jones's fault he fails to understand Kepler's laws. was trusted, and he could tell you ad nauseum about the
s.: There are a million possible explanations for such realities. virtues of a Marxist society. Smith was a charmer, a lovable
Many people would look for economic explanations, others sort, the sort who reminds one of a Midwest farmer. Russians
genetic. Why raise such a question? Each culture can cook up are the only Europeans who look, act, and talk like Americans,
a dozen reasons why things work out the way they do. a circumstance that is very disconcerting. With them, one has
M.S.G.: The purpose of the exercise is not to seek answers that no sense of cultural inferiority, as one has when talking to the
describe the actual existence of such practices in a culture. I French. These are knee-slapping folks who will belt down a
don't want to consider everyday explanations that deal with vodka, regale you with stories, and feed you unbelievably bad
obvious current economic realities like the properties of supply food till the early hours of the morning. They prefer, however,
and demand of specially trained people. Such factors play a after their vodka to sip French cognac, and they usually have
role but don't bear on the question I am asking. What first it. That is, Smith has it. In fact, meat, milk, shoes, and other
has to be understood is the psychological reality of why necessities are readily available to Smith but not to Jones.
egalitarianism never seems to work. The question probes that Jones has to take his commodities where he can find them.
reality, and I want to know whether a culture could exist that In Moscow one sees millions of Joneses walking around with

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large empty briefcases. Jones can't be sure when a commodity among themselves and others. The thought of being in the
might become availablea meat store might actually have same boat as a neighbor is not acceptable. Look at things at
meat, a shoe store, shoes. If, on his way home, he should the other end of the scale.
come across this happy event, he will line up in freezing cold Consider the !Kung who eke out their living in the Kalahari
weather in order to obtain a commodity that is always readily desert. Anthropologist Richard Lee has written about this
available to Smith. He hopes he can go home with a briefcase small society and makes many remarkable observations. Here,
containing some hamburger. Relative to Smith, Jones has in what is equal but subsistence living compared to the affluent
nothing. suburb, the !Kung men sit around the campfire and complain
Smith is consumed by the need for an even better life. I about certain members of the community who are not rowing
unknowingly became part of an intricate plot to acquire their oar, are not being polite, are not showing humility. In
certain goods for him. After the event had occurred, I smiled short, the ad hominem remarks are setting a context for
and said to him, "Oh, I guess you really don't believe in this differentiating one !Kung from another. The thought of all
equality business, just as William Sloane Coffin doesn't really being the same, having the same, and living the same is as
believe in God?" That was at two o'clock in the morning after alien to the !Kung as it is to all other members of our species.
much cognac and many laughs. His eyes narrowed and he And so it goes all over the world. Our species has properties
said, "You must remember, I am a Soviet citizen." Then his of mind that are common to all its members, and while they
eyes glazed over and moments later the party was over. The are expressed differently from one culture to another, this
story is not new. In fact, I can't think of a single person I difference in expression does not undercut the fact that the
know who after visiting Russia doesn't tell the same story. Homo sapiens sapiens brain has certain algorithms for action.
S.: So you think the need to individuate within a social group It is my belief that failure to honor this reality raises havoc
exists regardless of the social beliefs of a culture. with the personal and societal psychology of our lives.
M.S.G.: It happens at each end of the economic and social scales. s.: So you're saying that one behavior that is sort of universal
Look at affluent communities. Society has distributed vast across all human cultures and social systems is that we all
wealth to each of the folks who live in such places. The seek to differentiate ourselves from others, which frequently
community when looked at in this light is a socialist's dream. leads to acquisitive behaviors that spell the end for egalitarian
The question is, what is life like under such unreal circum- ideas. I won't argue that the simplest way to achieve differen-
stances? tiation is to acquire more or different goods. But one could
All reports come back that our species is up to its old tricks. accept or reject your thesis without having to refer to brain
Family A is trying to outdo family B in car ownership. organization to do so. Why bring in brain science?
Nonutilitarian acquisitions abound, and seemingly mindless M.S.G.: You are quite right that these claims about universality
social superiority is sought in virtually every social and material of the species could be simply asserted as a fact of the species
dimension. In short, in this land of plenty, members of our and left at that. But that is not the game the scientist likes to
species are desperately trying to differentiate themselves from play. The aspiration is always to find which claims are actually
their neighbors. The folks agonize over the decisions that true and valid for all; and if one finds such a fact, then we all
allow for independence of expression, of establishing differences must adjust to its reality. Social theorists can argue ad infinitum.

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The natural scientist wants to know what the facts of our aesthetic sensibilities and intellectual considerations, along
species are that will allow us to begin to choose among all the with the ever-present effects of environment.
alternatives for social theory, and I think brain science is So why should the janitor be paid differently from the
learning more about our real nature than most disciplines. physicist? To my way of thinking there is no a priori reason
Then again, I am a partisan to that view. Besides, you are the why he should, it just always works out that way; and the
one who wanted to talk about how brain science might relate reason, no matter what the theory of the overlying social
to social process. structure and no matter what period in history we speak of,
s.: Okay. Why do you think the way the human brain is can be traced to these brain principles.
organized leads our species to seek differentiation, that is, S.: All right, let's talk about these principles specifically. You
independent identity? talk about left brains and right brains. You talk about free
M.S.G.: It has to do with the left brain's interpreter, which is will and how its illusory presence is important for the devel-
always busy sorting out the behaviors produced from our opment of human beliefs, which in turn makes us unique and
many brain modules. The left brain is constantly and reflexively differentiated from the animal kingdom. How can this be
generating theories to explain the internal and external events pulled together? What does it mean? What is the point of
that occur around us. And it is because of that structure that knowing about it?
we always attribute causes to everything that happens to us. M.S.G.: Before commenting on that, I want to make sure you
Now it turns out that most of us think things are not going understand why I think it is important to recognize the need
our way as often as they should, and we like to find external for individuation. I maintain that such needs represent what
causes for our dissatisfaction. As I have said, if a green person might be called "impenetrable characteristics of the species."
walks into my space and I am a blue person, I have found Nothing in the culture seems to dilute or neutralize the force
someone to blame. This is the mechanism by which most of of these needs, and as a result they should be recognized and
our silly prejudices form, but it is part of life and it is always accepted.
at work. I have heard it argued that the minute Israel obtains s.: That is a strong claim, and I want to go over how you arrived
a lasting peace with the Arabs, the state will self-destruct at it.
because the natural prejudices that now exist among all of the M.S.G.: Okay. It has been commonplace to think that our con-
various social groups within Israel will be unleashed. There scious cognitive self is organized and exists in such a way that
has never been a heterogeneous culture in the history of the our language system is always in complete touch with all of
world that has lived at peace. our thoughts. It knows where in our brains to find all the
At any rate I think this same mechanism is at work in information we have stored there, and it assists in all com-
simple one-to-one relationships. Mr. X tends to think Mr. Y putations or problem-solving activities we engage in. Indeed,
is the source of his failure to be completely fulfilled. Since the strong subjective sense we all possess of ourselves is that
living well is the best revenge, Mr. X strives to acquire things we are a single, unified, conscious agent controlling life's
Mr. Y doesn't have. His actions may in turn stimulate these events with a singular, integrated purpose.
same processes in Mr. Y, and the situation continues to spiral. S.: That's what we have been taught, more or less.
What Mr. X and Mr. Y aspire to is influenced by intrinsic M.S.G.: And it is not true. Brain studies show that our cognitive

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system is organized in modular fashion. That means there are without carrying around an articulated theory. Yet we think
a vast number of relatively independent systems in the brain we believe in something about human nature that makes us
that compute data from the outside world. These independent take a passionate stand for or against a social issue.
systems can deliver the results of those computations to the What are these theories that determine our stands on
conscious verbal system, or they can express their reactions particular social decisions? And, do the brain and behavioral
by actually controlling the body and effecting real behaviors. sciences support one particular view over another? Let's say
In the human brain there is a special capacity, a special system social program X is proposed and the electorate is called upon
found in the left brain, that interprets the diverse behaviors of to vote on it in a referendum. What is it we think we know
these modules and through these interpretations forms beliefs. about the nature of humans such that we are either for or
The left brain is constantly constructing theories about the against such a program?
casual relations among elementary events that transpire inside There are two major implicit beliefs about how humans
and outside our heads. These interpretations are reflexively best respond to social challenge. The primary belief of our
carried out by the left brain because it and only it has the culture is what I call the "externalist" view. It is the view that
capacity to make inference. in order to handle the multiple problems of this lifeproblems
S.: Are you saying animals don't have the capacity to interpret deemed so complex it is thought they go beyond any individ-
their behavior? A dog can quickly learn not to go into a ual's ability to copesociety should set up structures, agencies,
neighbor's yard. institutions to help manage the individual's affairs. Things
M.S.G.: Look, it is necessary to distinguish between learned and people can be fixed by the external administration of
associations and the capacity to make abstract inference. All circumstances and goods. According to this view, humans are
kinds of animals can do the formernone but the human supposed to respond to these externally delivered aids in a
can do the latter. Making an inference means going beyond very positive way. This view makes certain assumptions about
the data given and grasping relations among elements. human nature, and therein certain assumptions about brain
I hope I made it clear that this inference-making capacity organization, that I will address.
which is the source system for the left-brain interpreter is a The other position is what I call the "internalist" view. This
system that exists independent of the language system per se. view recognizes that personal beliefs are the proper guides for
Language reports on its activities, but it is not language qua personal action and that by placing responsibility on the
language doing the job. Another point for the modular brain. person, social groups function better. A key idea is that
S.: How does the modular brain with its special left-brain systems responsibility for action is an individual responsibility, not the
for inference making relate to any ideas you might have about responsibility of any social system. Structuring social systems
social attitudes? Can you get there from here? that remove the centrality of the person, self-perceived as
M.S.G.: I think so. When friends and colleagues are confronted acting freely, becomes the destructive impulse of an externally
with the question as to what it is they believe to be true about oriented culture.
the species that finds them for or against a social issue, they Internalists tend to be against an aggregate, social response
are forced to admit that they do not have crisp theories about to a personal problem. They tend to think that in the long
human nature; in fact, most of us get along day by day run humans are better equipped to deal with the stresses and

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strains of everyday life on an individual level, and that to assert that civilized people of all persuasions naturally want
construct social support systems that absorb the individual's to help the disadvantaged, which is why these societal mech-
sense of personal responsibility and transfer it to external anisms are usually set up. I have no doubt that proponents of
institutions is unhealthy for the species. A simple example: both externalized and internalized views are equally charitable.
instead of having street cleaners, people should have the The question is how to achieve the goal without violating the
internalized value that littering the streets is bad behavior. psychological and biological principles of the species. In the
Moreover, internalists tend to believe that once the street present context let me identify the psychological assumptions
cleaner is hired, the mechanism by which human values such that underlie the notion that (a) offering an external support
as cleanliness are inculcated is seriously undermined. system is a good idea, and (b) such a system is organic with
Clearly the externalist/internalist dichotomy does not begin respect to how the human is naturally built.
to tell the whole story or capture all of the subtleties of tacit The major psychological assumption present in the exter-
human beliefs for approving or disapproving of social actions. nalist view is that the organism is primarily responsive to the
Yet it does serve as a more or less accurate portrayal of the contingencies of externally offered rewards and, moreover,
assumptions about human nature most of us tend to make that most human behavior can be explained by contemplating
before deciding on a social position. an individual's environmental contingencies. An environment
s.: Can you tell me more? How does an externalist function? can be structured with an intricate set of rewards strategically
M.S.G.: Sure. Jane and Bob are disruptive in school. An externalist placed throughout its landscape such that all eventualities can
solution: send them to a counselor. A woman is harassed; go be positively dealt with and order maintained. That is the
to a women's center. Dairy farmers are not making the profits behaviorist idea as commonly stated, and a vast number of
they deem fitting with their investment; go to the dairy our current social programs are constructed in this spirit. The
association to lobby for special considerations. Harry can't externalist devalues the concepts of personal responsibility and
find work. He is a teacher and the only available jobs are for is ready to let responsibility be a function of institutional
delivery men. Harry is not enamored with the concept of systems. The externalist sees the concept of personal respon-
downward mobility; go to the unemployment office. In our sibility as an illusionary construct with no real meaning or
current culture there is an agency, a service group, or an value. In this reductive view, humans are irrevocably connected
emotional support system for every conceivable problem. At to the actual physical environment. Since it is the environment
one level it would seem to be a handsome index of our that metes out rewards and punishments to individuals, it is
culture's humanity, of its caring. Some might view it as a well, if not preferable, for the social structure, not the individ-
measure of our culture's guilt response to the overall affluence ual, to be the responsible entity. Remember our discussion
that abounds, still others as an expression of a special interest about intrinsic motivation?
group. Externally motivated rewards are not effective at controlling
I will forgo consideration of these more psychodynamic and behavior. Something in the human conscious agency intervenes
sociological views, since, if I considered them, in a very short and guides behavior. It is something that is interesting, this
time I would find myself in a quagmire of hypotheses, each "stuff," these mental properties of the human mind, and it is
dependent on the rank assumptions of another. Let me simply these properties we are trying to learn more about. My point

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is not that the powerful effects of reward on behavior do not grams produce results that are precisely the opposite of those
have interesting implications for understanding behavior, but intended.
that they are limited in scope. They deal neither with the The internalist believes our species should capitalize on the
interesting dimensions of human consciousness nor with the emancipating attribute of humans, the capacity to make
major discoveries made in the brain and psychological sciences inferences that go beyond the immediate relations perceived,
over the past two decades, and through this hypothesis-generating system form beliefs.
s.: So what does an internalist do? And since beliefs are formed by actual behaviors, the manage-
M.S.G.: Susan loses her parking ticket after parking for only one ment of cultural rewards is profoundly important for the
hour. She believes you pay for your mistakes, so she does not workings of a healthy society. This view can be generalized to
seek special consideration. She pays for a full day. Bill loses suggest that societies are better organized and more workable
his job; he finds another one and develops new skills. Grand- when there is least central organization to them. Societies
mother becomes senile; the children take her in. A graduate work better when identifiable people are held personally
student wants a thesis project outlined; Mike tells him to find responsible for their actions.
another advisor. This is the posture of people with the The major assumption in the internalist view is that those
internalist view of matters. One reacts to life's problems by personal beliefs perceived as being freely arrived at allow for
calling upon the internalized values of a lifetime that emphasize the formation of internal principles, which in turn influence
beliefs in personal management and personal responsibility as a person's particular responses to external reward and punish-
far as possible. A key notion is that when people are held ment. There is, then, what might be called a superordinate
accountable for their own decisions and actions, they become construct present in the human mind that is free to override
singularly capable of responding to environmental surprises. a human's response to environmental contingencies.
But when the accountability function is tacitly or explicitly The research I have reported demonstrates that specific
assumed by a societal institution, people begin to adopt brain areas in the left hemisphere of most humans generate
antisocial behaviors whereby the concept of personal respon- hypotheses concerning the separate actions a person engages
sibility becomes perverted, and general social welfare is in fact in as the result of either external or internal contingencies.
derailed. Instead of viewing life in a contributory way, life's These personally generated hypotheses about our own behavior
game becomes a scheme that is tied closely to increasing receive a special status and can in turn modulate or facilitate
personal consumption. It happens to corporate executives and future behavioral responses.
it happens to the ghetto poor. Overregulation results in the According to my model, the brain is constructed in a
antisocial response of self-aggrandizement. modular fashion in which particular modules would be free
The internalist believes that as individuals are relieved of to respond to the literalness of environmental contingencies.
responsibility for personal management, the strong perception Yet a brain system built in a modular way would also need a
that each of us has of being freely acting organisms becomes single interpreter to explain the various behaviors emitted over
fixated, by necessity, only on the accumulation of things and time by the modules, enabling a human to construct a unified
services for personal well-being no matter what the implications theory of self, an activity most of us have carried out. It turns
for societal cost. The internalist believes that externalist pro- out the brain is organized in precisely such a fashion.

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S.: Since all humans possess human brains why doesn't the s.: Most practicing externalists know nothing of these concerns.
interpreter module click in and overrule the interest in rewards And the ones that do say the personal cost to the individual
and punishments for all of us as it seems to do for internalists? is worth the price of having solved the original problem. Quite
I know what your view of the internalist is. These are people simply, the externalist sees a social problem and wants to help
who sort of take advantage of their special human brain solve it. It is the "We are rich and don't want to feel guilty
features and let the beliefs that naturally form in all of us about it, so let's throw money and bureaucrats at the problem"
become an internal guide for action. They try not to engage attitude. I can live with that mainly because I never am clear
in human activities merely as a function of external reward what the internalist would do when it is clear something must
or avoid them for fear of punishment. The transcendent beliefs be done.
established by the left brain's interpreter guide behavior, right? M.S.G.: You want to get practical, even though what I am
M.S.G.: We are getting closer. My point is, of course, that all arguing for is a realignment of a conceptual view of humans
humans when closely scrutinized do behave alike. Beliefs such that future policymakers become sensitive to the real
established by the left brain's interpreter bringing order to our nature of our nature. I want to halt the reflex toward exter-
behaviors are as richly present in the externalist as they are in nalism that besets us all. But I know you want to be concrete.
the internalist. Needless to say, these processes are also active Well then, let me take it from the top.
in people heavily dependent on externalist social programs. In my most expansive moment I would argue that brain
That is why structuring an artificial, make-do environment and behavioral sciences have gained knowledge about the
that elicits dependent behaviors is so dangerous. The interpreter mechanisms responsible for our brain's unique propensity to
module is going to have to make sense out of such a strange form beliefs and to evaluate them. A consequence of this
world, and beliefs about the nature of things emerging in such process for humans is that we are free, by having beliefs, to
an environment are going to become quite odd. Ever heard override responses to immediate gains and losses offered up
of welfare rights, that is, the right to receive welfare? by the environment. This feature of the human brain dooms
It is frequently said that most social programs are a disaster. the species to be endlessly inventive and resistant to environ-
The existence of programs that deal only with symptoms mental regulation. The more regulated its environment, the
causes strange behaviors to occur that become perversely more the species withdraws from responsible participation in
powerful in changing certain personally held, socially necessary the social structure and becomes wholly interested in self-gain.
beliefs. Beliefs such as personal accountability, cooperative This same species' specific ability to form beliefs allows for
behavior, personal generosity, trust, and a host of others the appearance of certain behaviors essentially unique to the
become perverted. species, behaviors like considering the future, planning the
Why externalists fail to see that I don't know. Why they present, and others that transcend the need to live on the thin
insist on continually proposing external programs with their edge of today. Yet these vastly important dimensions of
unarguable antisocial implications for transferring responsibility human culture have occurred with positive value only when
for action from the individual to society is another matter. It humans function in a society regulated as loosely as possible,
has to do with latent or not-so-latent elitism. But let's not get and where individuals are perceived as being personally re-
into that. sponsible for their actions. When humans function in a highly

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regulated social context, the unique human capacity becomes Everyone wants to appear caring and, in the egotistical com-
self-oriented and fixates on personal well-being. The ever- petition to prove themselves humane, people never deal with
present human perception of "self-willed" action, of what the the underlying issues. In order to avoid the usual chest
human is responsible for, narrows and falls to new levels of poundings, let me analyze a biomedical problem that has a
parochialism. direct impact on the life of the average citizen. It deals with
I am arguing, therefore, a most counterintuitive point. I am our culture's planned response to the increasing social problem
claiming that a culture becomes more caring and humane the of senile dementia. It is a problem that is not going to go
more its citizens feel themselves to be part of the problems away. If we could cope with this kind of social issue, we would
that beset their lives. The only sure way to bring them close begin to better cope with the others.
to such problems is to structure a culture where they deal Modern medicine's brilliant advances have created a bizarre
with the problems at a personal level. state of affairs by prolonging life without preventing brain
S.: This is a general view. How does this translate to specifics? disease. Senile dementia afflicts approximately 16 percent of
M.S.G.: There is not one among us who would not like to lead people over the age of sixty-five. This problem was nonexistent
a problem-free life. My first reaction to letting a social insti- when life expectancy was lower. Now as modern medicine
tution deal with a problem is one of assent. After new social raises life expectancy with every new somatic cure, the absolute
institutions resolve a few problems, I expect them to continue number of elderly people with healthy bodies goes up. Senile
to do so. Suddenly the administration begins to slow down. dementia is already so ubiquitous that virtually all of us are
Other programs they started are costing much more than familiar with the disease.
anticipated and are not functioning efficiently. People are The reason externalists are making proposals for the man-
taking advantage of them. People don't treat an institution as agement of senile dementia is that the senile person can be a
a personal friend, and no one seems able to find the source of disruptive social entity. A once-sentient grandparent, once
this view because all inquiries produce the same answer: the capable of regaling all with stories of life, now can't speak
problem is elsewhere. The culture has developed institutions coherently. Sequential behavior becomes impossible.
that have their own lives and continue independently of the The socially oriented externalists combine their interests
problems they were formed to address. But the culture must with those of the business-oriented externalists and argue in
yield to the demanding public that now expects all problems favor of building nursing homes, old age homes, and other
to be solved by external agencies, and instead of correcting baby-sitting institutions. A personal family responsibility is
what is basically uncorrectable, more attempts are made by assumed by the state or by a private institution. The disturbing
borrowing more money and setting up more agencies that stimulus is removed from the family, usually to the relief of
won't work. This downward spiral is the oldest story in the the relatives, and the paramedical businessman is delighted
world. It is sort of an uncontestable reality that has beset with new and expanding profits from the upkeep payments of
every age of human history. either the private or public sector.
The issues handled by these schema are usually ones of This short-term externalist solution works only with a small
social and ethical justice, such as care for the "needy." These number of people. By 1990 it is estimated that it will cost
issues rankle, and a dispassionate analysis is usually impossible. society over thirty-five billion dollars a year to care for this

198 *99
THE SOCIAL BRAIN After H o u r s

population in America alone. That kind of price tag is not historical process seem to have taken the place of religious
allowable; the culture cannot support it. There is, in short, no belief. D o you really think any educated person believes in
workable externalist solution, and the advent of a scientific revealed truths anymore? Early humans had no choice.
solution is not even close. M.S.G.: I hear you but I don't buy it. Bill Buckley believes.
The internalist solution requires a lot of discipline, but it Donald MacKay believes. Sir John Eccles believes. Even Dave
works. The demented person has to be cared for through Premack is heavy on mysticism. N o one can accuse that
much smaller units and, for the most part, such care will have crowd of being short on worldliness. They all have word
to be an obligation of the family. Instead of baby-sitting processors, medications in their bathroom cabinets, investments
cooperatives, there will be senile-sitting cooperatives. The in Comsat and gene splicingand yet they still possess rather
middle-class, comfortable family will have to appreciate that simple faiths. And certainly if you did a likability analysis,
this responsibility is a personal one and not call for a social there are just as many lovely people in this world who believe
solution. as who don't. That any particular belief can be dissected and
s.: One last thing, what have you got against religion? its contradictions illuminated with relatively little ease is
M . S . G . : Nothing, why? completely beside the point. We are a believing species. And
s.: Implicit in your theory about how beliefs are formed is that we believe both because of the way our brains are organized
all beliefs are relative. That means that you do not believe in and because of certain capacities we have, in the left brain.
one true faith. s.: Your argument, then, as to why we humans form beliefs is
M . S . G . : I am trying to help elucidate the mechanisms of belief as follows. The brain is organized in terms of independent
formation and I hope we are coming to a better understanding processing modules and each can generate behaviors. These
of how these mechanisms work. Religious belief is a nice behaviors, which can be either internally executed or externally
example of how the process works. Religious scholars, by and monitored, are then interpreted by special nonlanguage pro-
large, chart the historic course of particular religions, and the cesses usually present in the left half-brain. "The Interpreter"
more brilliant among them try to unearth conflicts in religious module, call it TI, then reports on its hypothesis about the
dogma not only existing among faiths but also within faiths. causal relation among things to the left-brain language centers,
They then try to look at how outside social and historic forces which we will call TT for "the talker."
act upon those belief systems. My interest is quite different. I M.S.G.: That's pretty much it.
want to get at the question of why people possess such beliefs S.: And because we humans more or less automatically make
in the first place. Why do humans develop and maintain such hypotheses about our elicited behaviors that are freely gener-
magical beliefs? ated, a sense of our generated beliefs or thoughts as being
s.: That explains your interest in the early beliefs of the Egyptians freely willed is extremely strong. Related to this reality is the
and Mesopotamians and the distinctive difference in their fact that when externally imposed laws or customs are forced
beliefs being related to environmental variables. But a more upon us with no choices possible for alternative responses, TI
general point is that ever since the Enlightenment, the educated is not engaged in a way that forces us to alter our personal
mind has drifted away from actually believing in organized beliefs. It is given an easy out by virtue of the fact that no
religion. Scientific beliefs as well as an accurate knowledge of decision is being personally made that requires a personal

200 201
T H E SOCIAL BRAIN After H o u r s

interpretation and therefore attributes the reasons for action the human situation is very real and beliefs about the impor-
as simply due to the external system that created the imposition. tance of the issue have filled newspapers and books for nearly
M.S.G.: Yes, but there is another point. I am saying that because forty years. And to fully appreciate the problem, one has to
we now know our brains are organized in this fashion, certain be clear about the subjective intensity one experiences when
social organizations are doomed. In particular I am saying the holding a belief.
externalist (who is privately an internalist since he too possesses There was a time in my life when receiving absolution
a human brain with a TI) who argues for curing social ills followed by receiving Holy Communion gave rise to the most
with reward schemas is harming the species because he is intense feelings of worth imaginable. I was raised according
setting up an artificial environment for certain people that to a set of rules for living, rules that brought order and speed
those people must interpret. And sadly, the down-and-out to my decisions about how to behave, and I had lived by
recipient can't write off the externally imposed rewards and them, with a few minor infractions, for a long time. Com-
simply accept the fortuitous goods. Such a recipient in Western munion was the celebration of this contract, and it was a very
societies is usually free to choose alternatives. Because of that sweet experience. That submission to the rewards such beliefs
his TI is clicked in and has to explain why the fortuitous can offer is, of course, what keeps millions of people subscribing
goods are being accepted. That's the psychological moment to them.
when the antisocial hypotheses start and when the social Clearly there is no budging the Arab, the Jew, or the
systems begin to crack. The externalist, then, is setting up Christian from his or her similar pleasures of mind and heart.
societal landscapes that are destructive. With all of the archaeological, biological, psychological, and
S.: From what you say I really wonder whether or not there is historical data in the world pointing out how beliefs are
any hope that our species can learn to live together when formed, the true believers quietly say they understand all of
various groups maintain and wish to impose different beliefs this, but that the inquisitor does not understand a fundamental
about the nature of things. Since there is no changing the issue. They, as opposed to the others, are correct!
brain property that insists on this belief feature of human We all know this and respect it, but I know something too.
activity, the only hope is that humans will grow to appreciate I know that everybody has an effect on everybody else. I hope
how beliefs are formed and, by knowing that, begin to realize, that my book has spelled out some of the organic reasons why
at least to some extent, their relative nature. our species generates and maintains beliefs of all kinds. With
M.S.G.: I don't know. I can remember standing in the old Jewish that knowledge, perhaps all of those who possess beliefs at
section of Jerusalem, looking down at the Wailing Wall, then odds with the beliefs of others will, upon quiet consideration,
looking up above it at the magnificent mosque Al-Aqsa, and become more tolerant.
then smelling the incense wafting over from the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher. There in Israel millions of people have
guns pointed at one another because of the beliefs about the
value of that small piece of real estate. Arabs and Jews alike
are ready to lie, to cheat, to kill either to protect or to conquer
in order to call that piece of earth their own. On the surface

202 203
 NOTES

Chapter 2

1. Roger W. Sperry, "The Growth of Nerve Circuits," Scientific American 201

(1959): 68-75.
2. John B. Watson, Behaviorism (New York: Norton, 1925).
3. Paul Weiss, "Nerve Patterns: The Mechanisms of Nerve Growth," Third
Growth Symposium 5 (1941): 163-203.
4. Roger W. Sperry, "Mechanisms of Neural Maturation," in S. S. Stevens,
ed., Handbook of Experimental Psychology (New York: Wiley, 1951), 236-80.
5. Roger W. Sperry, "Chemoaffinity in the Orderly Growth of Nerve Fiber
Patterns of Connections," Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 50
(1963): 703-10.
6. Paul H. Patterson and Dale Purves, Readings in Developmental Neurobiology
(Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1982).
7. David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel, "Receptive Fields, Binocular
Interaction and Functional Architecture in the Cat's Visual Cortex," Journal of
Physiology 165 (1962): 559-68; and David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel,
"The Period of Susceptibility to the Physiological Effects of Unilateral Eye
Closure in Kittens," Journal of Physiology 206 (1970): 419-36.
8. Fernando Nottebohm, "Ontogeny of Bird Song," Science 167 (1970): 950-
56; and Fernando Nottebohm, "Brain Pathways for Vocal Learning in Birds: A
Review of the First Ten Years," Progress in Psychobiological and Physiological
Psychology 9 (1980): 85-124.
9. Joseph Altman, "Postnatal Growth and Differentiation of the Mammalian
Brain with Implications for a Morphological Theory of Memory," in Gardner
Quarton, Theodore Melnechik, and Francis O. Schmidt, eds., The Neurosciences:
A Study Program (New York: Rockefeller University Press, 1967), 723-43.
10. Paul I. Yakovlev and Andre R. LeCours, "The Myelogenetic Cycles of
Regional Maturation of the Brain," in Alexandre Minkowski, ed., Regional
Development of the Brain in Early Life (Oxford: Blackwell, 1967).
11. Mark R. Rosenzweig and Edward L. Bennett, eds., Neural Mechanisms
and Memory (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1976).
12. Giorgio M. Innocenti, "The Development of Interhemispheric Connections,"
Trends in Neurosciences 4 (1981): 142-44.
13. Bryan T. Woods, "The Restricted Efforts of Right Hemisphere Lesions
After Age One: Wechsler Test Data," Neuropsychologia 18 (1980): 65-70.
14. Alf Brodal, Neurological Anatomy, 2d ed. (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1969).
15. Richard L. Sidman and Pasko Rakic, "Neuronal Migration with Special
Reference to Developing Human Brain: A Review," Brain Research 62 (1973):
1-35.

205
Notes Notes

16. Mark A. Berkley, "Vision: The Geniculo Cortical System," in R. Bruce of the National Academy of Sciences USA 48 (1962): 1765-69.
Masterson, ed., Handbook of Behavioral Neurobiology: Sensory Integration (New 3. Joseph E. Bogen and Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Cerebral Commissurotomy in
York: Plenum Press, 1978). Man: Minor Hemisphere Dominance for Certain Visuospatial Functions," Journal
17. Jack R. Cooper, Floyd K. Bloom, and Robert H. Roth, The Biochemical of Neurosurgery 23 (1965): 394-99.
Basis of Neuropharmacology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978). 4. Jerre Levy, "Psychological Implications of Bilateral Asymmetry," in Stuart
18. Floyd K. Bloom; D. Segal; N. Ling; and R. Grillemin, "Endorphins: J. Dimond and J. Graham Beaumont, eds., Hemisphere Function in the Human
Profound Behavioral Effects in Rats Suggest New Etiological Factors in Mental Brain (New York: Halsted Press, 1974).
Illness," Science 194 (1976): 630. 5. Jerre Levy, Colwyn Trevarthen, and Roger W. Sperry, "Perception of
Bilateral Chimeric Figures Following Hemispheric Deconnection," Brain 95
(1972): 61-78.
6. Michael S. Gazzaniga and Joseph E. LeDoux, The Integrated Mind (New
York: Plenum, 1978).
Chapter 3
7. Michael S. Gazzaniga, Joseph E. Bogen, and Roger W. Sperry, "Observations
1. Ronald E. Myers and Roger W. Sperry, "Interocular Transfer of a Visual of Visual Perception After Disconnection of the Cerebral Hemispheres in Man,"
Form Discrimination Habit in Cats After Section of the Optic Chiasm and Brain 88 (1965): 221.
Corpus Callosum," Anatomical Record 115 (1953): 351 -52; and Roger W. Sperry, 8. Joseph E. LeDoux, Donald H. Wilson, and Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Block
"The Corpus Callosum and Interhemispheric Transfer in the Monkey," Anatomical Design Performance Following Callosal Sectioning: Observations on Functional
Record 131 (1958): 297. Recovery," Archives of Neurology 35 (1978): 506-8.
2. Roger W. Sperry, "Cerebral Organization and Behavior," Science 133 9. Robin Yin, "Looking at Upside-down Faces," Journal of Experimental
(1961): 1749-57. Psychology 18(1969): 141-47.
3. Andrew J. Akelaitis, "Studies on Corpus Callosum: Higher Visual Functions 10. Michael S. Gazzaniga and Charlotte S. Smylie, "Facial Recognition and
in Each Homonymous Field Following Complete Section of Corpus Callosum," Brain Asymmetries: Clues to Underlying Mechanisms," Annals of Neurology 13
Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry (Chicago) 45 (1941): 788; Andrew J. (1983): 536-40.
Akelaitis, "Studies on Corpus Callosum: Study of Language Functions (Tactile 11. Robert Nebes, "Perception of Spatial Relationships by the Right and Left
and Visual, Lexia and Graphia) Unilaterally Following Section of Corpus Hemispheres of Commissurotomized Man," Neuropsychologia 11 (1973): 285-
Callosum," Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology 2 (1943): 89.
226; Andrew J. Akelaitis, "Study of Gnosis, Praxis, and Language Following 12. Brenda Milner and Laughlin Taylor, "Right Hemisphere Superiority in
Section of Corpus Callosum and Anterior Commissure," Journal of Neurosurgery Tactile Pattern Recognition After Cerebral Commissurotomy: Evidence for
1 (1944): 94; and Andrew J. Akelaitis et al., "Studies on Corpus Callosum: Nonverbal Memory," Neuropsychologia 10 (1972): 1-15.
Contribution of Dyspraxia and Apraxia of Corpus Callosum," Archives of
Neurology and Psychiatry (Chicago) 47 (1942): 971.
4. Joseph E. Bogen and Peter J. Vogel, "Cerebral Commissurotomy in Man:
Preliminary Case Report," Bulletin of the Los Angeles Neurological Society 27
(1962): 169; and Michael S. Gazzaniga, Joseph E. Bogen, and Roger W. Sperry, Chapter 5
"Some Functional Effects of Sectioning the Cerebral Commissures in Man,"
Proclamation of the National Academy of Science USA 48 (1962): 1765-69. 1. Michael S. Gazzaniga, Donald H. Wilson, and Joseph E. LeDoux, "Language,
5. Roger W. Sperry, "Brain Bisection and Mechanisms of Consciousness," in Praxis, and the Right Hemisphere: Clues to Some Mechanisms of Consciousness,"
Sir John C. Eccles, ed., Brain Mechanisms and Conscious Experience (New Neurology 27 (1977): 1144-47.
York: Springer-Verlag, 1965); and Michael S. Gazzaniga and Roger W. Sperry, 2. J. J. Sidtis; B. T. Volpe; D. H. Wilson; M. Rayport; and M. S. Gazzaniga,
"Language After Section of the Cerebral Commissures," Brain 90 (1967): 131- "Variability in Right Hemisphere Language Function After Callosal Section:
48. Evidence for a Continuum of Generative Capacity," The Journal of Neuroscience
1 (1981): 323-31; and M. S. Gazzaniga; C. S. Smylie; K. Baynes; W. Hirst; and
C. McCleary, "Profiles of Right Hemisphere Language and Speech Following
Brain Bisection " Brain and Language 22 (1984): 206-20.
Chapter 4 3. John J. Sidtis; B. T. Volpe; J. D. Holtzman; D. H. Wilson; and M. S.
Gazzaniga, "Cognitive Interaction After Staged Callosal Section: Evidence for
1. Robert E. Ornstein, The Psychology of Consciousness (San Francisco, Calif.: Transfer of Semantic Activation," Science 212 (1981): 344-46.
Freeman, 1972). 4. Michael S. Gazzaniga and Joseph E. LeDoux, The Integrated Mind (New
2. Michael S. Gazzaniga, Joseph E. Bogen, and Roger W. Sperry, "Some York: Plenum Press, 1978).
Functional Effects of Sectioning the Cerebral Commissures in Man," Proceedings 5. Joseph E. LeDoux, Donald H. Wilson, and Michael S. Gazzaniga, "A

206 207
Notes Notes

Divided Mind: Observations on the Conscious Properties of the Separated Bilateral: Hippoeampal Lesions," Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psy-
Hemispheres," Annals of Neurology 2 (1977): 417-21. chiatry 20 (1957): 11-21.
6. Michael S. Gazzaniga and Charlotte S. Smylie, "What Does Language Do 3. Brenda Milner, "Les Troubles de la memoire accompaynant des lesions
for a Right Hemisphere?" in Michael S. Gazzaniga, ed., Handbook of Cognitive hippocampiques bilaterales," in P. Passaurant, ed., Physiologie de Thippocampus
Neuroscience (New York: Plenum Press, 1984). (Paris: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, 1962).
7. Michael S. Gazzaniga, "On Dividing the Self: Speculations from Brain 4. Larry R. Squire and Robert Y. Moore, "Dorsal Thalamic Lesions in a
Research," in W. A. den Hartog Jager et al., eds., Proceedings of the 11th World Noted Case of Chronic Memory Dysfunction," Annals of Neurology 6 (1979):
Congress of Neurology (Amsterdam: Excerpta Medica, 1978); and Michael S. 503-6.
Gazzaniga and Bruce T. Volpe, "Split-brain Studies: Implications for Psychiatry," 5. Neal J. Cohen and Larry R. Squire, "Preserved Learning and Retention of
in Silvano Arieti and H. Keith H. Brodie, eds., American Handbook of Psychiatry, Pattern Analyzing Skill in Amnesia: Dissociation of Knowing How and Knowing
vol. 7, Advances and New Directions (New York: Basic Books, 1981). That," Science 210 (1980): 207-9.
8. Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford 6. Neal J. Cohen and Larry R. Squire, "The Amnesic Patient H.M.: Learning
University Press, 1957). and Retention of a Cognitive Skill," Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 7 (1981):
235.
7. Elizabeth R. Warrington and Larry Weiskrantz, "The Amnesic Syndrome:
Consolidation or Retrieval?" Nature 228 (1970): 628-30.
Chapter 6 8. William Hirst and Bruce T. Volpe, "Temporal Order Judgments with
Amnesia," Brain and Cognition 1 (1982): 294-306.
1. Juin A. Wada and Theodore Rasmussen, "Intracarotid Injection of Sodium 9. Kathleen Redington, Bruce T. Volpe, and Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Failure
Amytal for the Lateralization of Cerebral Dominance: Experimental and Clinical of Preference Formation in Amnesics," Neurology 34 (1984): 536-38.
Observations," Journal of Neurosurgery 17 (1962): 266-82. 10. B. T. Volpe; P. Herscovitch; M. E. Raichle; M. S. Gazzaniga; W. Hirst;
2. Gail Risse and Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Well-kept Secrets of the Right and D. C. Derrington, "PET Defined Metabolic Abnormalities in Transient and
Hemisphere: A Carotic Amytal Study of Restricted Memory Transfer," Neurology Chronic Amnesia," Neurology (in press).
28 (1976): 950-93. 11. Jeffrey D. Holtzman and Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Dual Task Interactions
3. Bruce T. Volpe, Joseph E. LeDoux, and Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Information Due Exclusively to Limits in Processing Resources," Science 218 (1982): 1325-
Processing of Visual Stimuli in an Extinguished Field," Nature 282 (1979): 722. 27.
4. Robert Ruff and Bruce T. Volpe, "Reduplication of the Local Environment
After Right Parietal and Right Frontal Brain Injury," Journal of Neurology,
Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 44 (1981): 382-86.
5. M. S. Gazzaniga; J. E. LeDoux; C. S. Smylie; and B. T. Volpe, "Plasticity Chapter 8
in Speech Organization Following Commissurotomy," Brain 102 (1979): 805-
15. 1. Anthony Marcel, "Conscious and Unconscious Perception: An Approach
6. Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Right Hemisphere Language Following Brain Bisec- to the Relations Between Phenomenal Experience and Perceptual Processes,"
tion: A 20-year Perspective," American Psychologist 38, no. 5 (1983): 525-37. Cognitive Psychology 15 (1983): 238-300.
7. M. S. Gazzaniga; C. S. Smylie; K. Baynes; W. Hirst; and C. McCleary, 2. Michael S. Gazzaniga, Jeffrey D. Holtzman, and Charlotte S. Smylie,
"Profiles of Right Hemisphere Language and Speech Following Brain Bisection," "Speech Performance Without Cognition" (in preparation).
Brain and Language 22 (1984): 206-20. 3. John Campion, Richard Latto, and Y. M. Smith, "Is Blindsight an Effect
8. Jean Piaget, The Child's Conception of the World (New York: Harcourt, of Scattered Light, Spared Cortex, and Near-threshold Vision?" The Behavioral
Brace, 1929). and Brain Sciences 6 (1983): 423-86.
9. David Premack, Intelligence in Ape and Man (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 4. Jeffrey D. Holtzman, Bruce T. Volpe, and Michael S. Gazzaniga, "Deficits
1976). in Visual/Motor Control Despite Intact Subcortical Visual Areas," Neurology 34
(suppl.) (1984): 187; and Jeffrey D. Holtzman, "Interactions Between Cortical
and Subcortical Visual Areas: Evidence from Human Commissurotomy Patients,"
Vision Research 24 (1984): 801-13.
Chapter 7 5. J. J. Sidtis; B. T. Volpe; J. D. Holtzman; D. A. Wilson; and M. S.
Gazzaniga, "Cognitive Interaction After Staged Callosal Section: Evidence for a
1. Michael S. Gazzaniga, "The Biology of Memory," in Mark R. Rosenzweig Transfer of Semantic Activation," Science 212 (1981): 344-46.
and Edward L. Bennett, eds., Neural Mechanisms of Learning and Memory 6. M. S. Gazzaniga; J. D. Holtzman; J. Gates; M. D. F. Deck; and B. C. P.
(Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1976). Lee, "NMR Verification of Surgical Section of the Human Corpus Callosum and
2. William B. Scoville and Brenda Milner, "Loss of Recent Memory After Presence of the Anterior Commissure," Neurology (in press).

208 209
Notes Notes

7. Michael S. Gazzaniga and Charlotte S. Smylie, "What Does Language Do Irwin, The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (Chicago and London: The
for a Right Hemisphere," in Michael S. Gazzaniga, ed., Handbook of Cognitive University of Chicago Press, 1946, 1977).
Neuroscience (New York: Plenum Press, 1984).
8. Stephen Kosslyn, Image and Mind (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1981).
9. S. Kosslyn; J. D. Holtzman; M. Farah; and M. S. Gazzaniga, "A Compre- Chapter 11
hensive Analysis of Mental Imagery Generation: Evidence from Functional
Dissociations in Split-brain Patients," Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 1. Norman Geschwind, "Behavioral Change in Temporal Epilepsy," Archives
(in press). of Neurology 34 (1977): 453; Norman Geschwind, "Editorial: Behavioural Changes
in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy," Psychological Medicine 9 (1979): 217-19; and
Norman Geschwind, "Interictal Behavioral Changes in Epilepsy," Epilepsia 24,
suppl. 1 (1983): S23-30; Norman Geschwind, "Pathogenesis of Behavior Change
Chapter 9 in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy," in Arthur A. Ward, Jr., J. Kiffin Penry, and
Dominick P. Purpura, eds., Epilepsy (New York: Raven Press, 1983).
1. Judson Mills, "Changes in Moral Attitudes Following Temptation," Journal 2. Stephen G. Waxman and Norman Geschwind, "Hypergraphia in Temporal
of Personality 26 (1958): 517-21. Lobe Epilepsy," Neurology 24 (1974): 629-36.
2. Leon Festinger and J. Merrill Carlsmith, "Cognitive Consequence of Forced 3. Patricia Phillips, The Prehistory of Europe (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana
Compliance," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 58 (1959): 203-10. University Press, 1980).
3. Arthur R. Cohen, "An Experiment on Small Rewards for Discrepant 4. Robert J. Wenke, Patterns in Prehistory (New York: Oxford University
Compliance and Attitude Change," in Jack W. Brehm and Arthur R. Cohen, Press, 1980).
eds., Explorations in Cognitive Dissonance (New York: Wiley, 1962). 5. John A. Wilson, "Egypt," in Henri Frankfort; J. A. Wilson; T. Jacobsen;
4. M. Ross, "Salience of Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation," Journal of and W. A. Irwin, The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (Chicago and
Personality and Social Psychology 32 (1975): 245-54. London: The University of Chicago Press, 1946, 1977).
5. Donald M. MacKay, Freedom of Action in a Mechanistic Universe: The 6. Ibid.
Eddington Lecture (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1967). 7. George Boas, The History of Ideas (New York: Scribner's, 1969).
8. Ibid.

Chapter 10
1. Gary Lynch, personal communication.
2. Jacques Tixier, personal communication.
3. Leon Festinger, The Human Legacy (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1983).
4. Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1975).
5. Richard Nisbett and Lee Ross, Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings
of Social Judgment (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980).
6. Yves Coppens, Expose sur le cerveau: Le cerveau des hommes fossiles
(Paris: Institut de France, Academie des Sciences, 1981).
7. Michael S. Gazzaniga and Charlotte S. Smylie, "Facial Recognition and
Brain Asymmetries: Clues to Underlying Mechanisms," Annals of Neurology 13
(1983): 536-40.
8. Ofer Bar-Yosef, "Prehistory of the Levant," Annual Review of Anthropology
9 (1980): 101-33.
9. Robert J. Wenke, Patterns in Prehistory (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1980).
10. David Premack, "Reinforcement Theory," in David Levine, ed., Nebraska
Symposium on Motivation (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1965).
11. Henri Frankfort; H. Frankfort; J. A. Wilson; T. Jacobsen; and W. A.

210 211
INDEX

Accountability, 194 80, 201-2; free will and, 6-7, 142,

Aesthetic capacity, evolution of, 150, 144-45, 189; inferential capacity
151,156-57 and, 99, 164; interpreter module
Affective behavior, see Emotional re- and, 5; of Neanderthal, 151;
sponses preference mechanisms and, 157,
Affective coding, 114 162; prejudicial, 136-38; primitive
Akelaitis, Andrew, 33, 36 brain responses overridden by, 25;
Amnesia, 100-111, 113, 116 religious, see Religion; social actions
Analytical processes, 51-53 and, 191, 192, 195-97; subjective
Angiography, 81 intensity of, 203
Animal studies: of environmental in- Berlucchi, Giovanni, 60, 61
fluences on brain development, 14- Blindsight, 120-24
15, 18-19; of immature vs. mature Blood flow, cerebral, 114, 116; to
brain, 16; of link between language hominid brain, 154, 155
and cognitive processes, 93-94; of Boas, George, 177
nerve growth, 12; of preference Bogen, Joseph, 36-38, 40, 41, 52,
systems, 162; split-brain, 28-30, 54
33, 62; of visual system, 22 Brain size, 149-50, 153
Animals, domestication of, 160 British Museum, 171
Anterior commissure, 29, 32, 40 Buckley, William F., 92, 201
Aphasia, 39, 94 Burial practices, prehistoric, 168
Aristotle, 166, 179
Association areas, 21, 22
Attentional mechanisms, 44, 114
Attribution, 169 California, University of: at Irvine,
Automatic processes, 111-12, 118 150; at Santa Barbara, 6 1 - 6 2
California Institute of Technology
(Caltech), 10, 26, 34-37, 39, 41,
43-45, 53, 6 0 - 6 2
Carlsmith, Merrill, 140
Bar-Yosef, Ofer, 159, 160 Catholicism, 176
Beadle, George, 36 Cave paintings, 168
Behaviorism, 141 Central nervous system, 12
Beliefs: cognitive dissonance and, Cerebral cortex, myelinization of, 17
138-41; diversity of, 7; environ- Cerebrum, myelinization of, 18
ment and, 6; formation of, 3, 6 0 - Chemical stains, 21, 22

213
 Index Index

Chicago, University of, 11, 170 Differentiation, human need for, 186- Gell-Mann, Murray, 38 Identical twins, comparison of brains
Chimeric figures, 52, 54-55 88 Genetic code, 10; and neural devel- of, 14
Christianity, 165 Dissonance theory, see Cognitive dis- opment, 11-14 Imagery, 130-34; writing and, 93
Cognitive development, 17 sonance German Rationalism, 11 Individual differences, 25
Cognitive dissonance, 80, 138-41 Geschwind, Norman, 166-67 Individuation, need for, 186, 189
Cognitive neuroscience, 27 Gestalt processes, 5 1 - 5 3 Inference-making capacity, 6, 99;
Cognitive processes: and assertive Glickstein, Mitchell, 10, 37 belief formation and, 164; eman-
behavior of right brain, 72; brain Grain domestication, 159, 160 cipating nature of, 195; evolution
development and, 20; brain orga- Eccles, Sir John, 36, 45, 201 Grandmother cells, 22 of, 151-55, 157; prejudice and,
nization and, 7; language and, 9 3 - Economic distribution, 183-87 Greece, ancient, 177-79 137-38; reflexivity of, 163; religion
99; memory and, 105, 107; mod- Egalitarianism, 184-85, 187 Greenwood, Pamela, 64 and, 168, 169, 175, 179, 180;
ularity and, 125, 127; unconscious Egypt, ancient, 169-72, 175, 176, right-brain lack of, 97; social be-
processes and, 118; unitary view 200 havior and, 190
of, 22; in writing, 9 2 - 9 3 Internalists, 191-96, 200, 202
Electrophysiology, 61
Cohen, Arthur, 140 Interpreter module, 5, 6; conscious-
Emotional responses: modularity and,
Cohen, Neal, 105 ness as output of, 135; religion
77-80; split-brain research on, 7 4 - Hamilton, Charles, 37, 38
and, 166; right-brain behavior and,
Computational systems, left-brain, 28 77, 145; in writing process, 93 Harvard University, 14, 37; Medical 73-74, 80
Computers, 155 Endocasts, 153 School, 167 Intrinsic motivation, 141-42
Consciousness, 189; and interpretive Endorphins, 24, 25 Head injury: adaptation of brain tissue IQ, impact of brain injury on, 20
module, 135; modularity and, 4 - Enlightenment, the, 200 following, 21; developmental im- Islam, 165
5; split-brain research on, 70-74; Environmental influences: on beliefs, pact of, 19-20 Israel, 188, 202-3
unified, 4, 28, 117, 144; verbaliza- 6; on brain development, 9, 1 3 - Hebrews, ancient, 172
tion and, 86 19; on prehistoric man, 148, 149, Hemispheres of brain, see Left hemi-
Constitution, U.S., 11 152; on religion, 169-75 sphere; Right hemisphere; Split-
Coppens, Yves, 154 Epilepsy, 32, 36, 40, 64, 67, 69, 103 brain research
Cornell Medical Center, 50, 64, 108 Evolution, 148, 150; of aesthetic ca- Hillyard, Steven, 129 Judeo-Christian tradition, 177
Cornsweet, Tom, 76 pacity, 15657; bottom-up view Hippocampus, 103, 104; dentate gy-
Corpus callosum: single-cell responses of, 151-52; of inferential capacity, rus of, 16; metabolic rate of, 113
in, 6 0 - 6 1 ; in split-brain research, 151-55, 157; top-down view of, Hirst, William, 108, 110
29, 31, 32, 39, 40, 125-29 152, 155 Holtzman, Jeffrey, 65, 66, 75-76, Kohs Blocks, 49
Creation, religious concepts of, 1 7 0 - Externalists, 191-93, 196, 197, 199- 119, 123, 124, 158 Kosslyn, Stephen, 133, 134
72, 174-75 200, 202 Homo erectus, 148-50, 152-53, 155, IKung, 187
Creative cognition, 92 Eye tracker, 76, 123 160, 164 Kutas, Marta, 129
Creativity, 47 Homo habilis, 149
CT scanner, 107-8, 112, 113 Homo sapiens, 151
Homo sapiens sapiens, 94, 151, 153,
154, 164 Language processes, 44; beliefs and,
Festinger, Leon, 62, 65, 76, 80, 138, Hubel, David, 14 139; bilateral access to, 88-91;
Dartmouth College, 9, 34, 35, 63, 140, 147, 150, 158-59 Human nature, beliefs about, 1 9 0 - cognition and, 93-99; computa-
67, 69, 126; Mary Hitchcock Feynman, Richard, 37, 38 91 tional systems and, 28; conscious-
Clinic, 64 Final common path, 55 Huntington's disease, 108 ness and, 135; development of, 15;
Declarative memory, 105-6 Frankfort, Henri, 163 "Hymn to Zeus" (Cleanthes), 177- evolution and, 153-55; imagery
Delbruck, Max, 41 Free will, 6-7, 141-46, 189, 201 78 and, 134; left hemisphere and, 39,
Dentate gyrus, 16 Freud, Sigmund, 117 Hypergraphia, 167 51; right hemisphere and, 56, 6 8 -

214 215
Index Index

Language processes (continued) pocampus in, 103, 104; superor- Nerves, growth of, 10, 12 Posner, Jerome, 87
70, 95-98, 128; social behavior dinate processes in, 110; value as- Neural networks, 11 Preference mechanisms, 157, 160-62,
and, 189, 190; tactile function and, signment and, 111 Neurons: chemical milieu of, 2J-24; 164; memory and, 111
42-43; tool making and, 150-51; Mental imagery, 130-34; writing and, myelinization of, 17 Prehistory, 147-64; religion and, 167
visual system and, 42; Wada test 93 Neuroradiology, 81, 107 69
and, 82-84; written, 9 2 - 9 3 Mesopotamia, 169, 172-76, 200 Neurospecificity, 13 Prejudice, 136-38, 188
Large groups, formation of, 149-61, Metabolism, neural, 112-14, 116 Neurotransmitters, 24 Premack, David, 93-94, 158, 161-62,
157, 164 Miller, George, 92, 109 New School for Social Research, 62 201
Lascaux cave, 156 Mills, Judson, 138 New Testament, 172 Primary visual cortex, 120
Lashley, Karl, 33 Milner, Brenda, 57, 103-5 New York, State University of, at Procedural memory, 105
Lateral geniculate nucleus, 120, 121 Minnesota, University of, 64 Stony Brook, 64 Psychodynamics, 117
LeDoux, Joseph, 53, 54, 57, 64, 70, Modularity, 4 - 5 , 23, 74, 81-99; an- New York Hospital, 122 Psychological processes, 136-46; archi-
74 atomical basis of, 128; blindsight New York Times, 110 tecture of brain and, 11, 12; brain
Lee, Richard, 187 and, 120-24; cognitive dissonance New York University, 62-64; Medical growth and, 15-18; brain variations
Left hemisphere: beliefs and, 139, and, 138-41; emotional responses Center, 63; Rehabilitation Hospital, and, 14; cognitive dissonance and,
140; computational systems of, 28; and, 77-80; free will and, 1 4 2 - 63 138-41; energy required for, 114-16;
evolution and, 155; interpretive 46; intrinsic motivation and, 1 4 1 - New Yorker, The, 48 evolution of, 155, 162; free will and,
function of, see Interpreter module; 42; language and, 93-99; memory Nottebohm, Fernando, 15 141-46; inference-making capacity
prejudice and, 137; processes con- and, 100-116; mental imagery and, Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and, 137-38; religious beliefs and, 176
trolled by, 39; religion and, 166; 130-34; psychological aspects of, 129
social behavior and, 188, 190, 196; 136-46; social behavior and, 190,
see also Split-brain research 195; split-brain studies and, 5 8 -
59, 8 7 - 9 1 , 95-98; unconscious Quantum mechanics, 143
Levy, Jerre, 51, 55
processes and, 117-35; Wada test Occipital lobes, 120-22; in split-brain
Lexical decision task, 118-19
and, 81-84 patients, 126
Lithic technology, 150 Monotheism, 168, 172, 176, 177,
Logical indeterminacy, 143, 144 Ohio, Medical College of, 64
179 Optic chiasm, 29 Raichle, Marcus E., 113
Long-term memory, 101, 104, 107
Lynch, Gary, 150 Montreal Neurological Institute, 57, Optic nerve, 10, 12 Rationalism, 11
103 Omstein, Robert, 48 Rayport, Mark, 64, 68
Motivation: intrinsic, 141-42; pref- Otic capsule, 35 Redington, Kathleen, 111
erences and, 161 Overinnervation, 19 Reeves, Alexander, 67, 69
MacKay, Donald M., 142-44, 201 Motor control, 44, 50, 54 Religion, 165-81, 200-201; Egyptian,
Magical thinking, 166-70, 174, 180, Motor tasks, memory for, 105 169-72, 175, 176; Greek, 177-79;
181, 200 Myelinization, 17-18 magical thinking and, 166-67; Me-
Marcel, Anthony, 118-19 Myers, Ronald, 28, 29 Pain, experience of, 24, 25 sopotamian, 169,172-76; prehistoric,
Marshack, Alexander, 154 Parkinson's disease, 24 167-69
Mary Hitchcock Foundation, 33 Peripheral nervous system, 11 Resource allocation, 114-15
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Petito, Frank, 122 Responsibility, individual vs. social,
(M.I.T.), 56, 62 Naloxone, 24 Plato, 179 191-92, 194, 196
Medical practice, modern, 172-73 National Science Foundation, 10, 64 Pleasure, experience of, 24, 25 Retina, 120, 121
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, Natufians, 159-62 Plum, Fred, 108, 122 Rewards, external, 141-42, 193-94,196
87 Navigation, prehistoric, 151 Politics, science and, 183 Right hemisphere: creativity and, 47;
Memory, 44, 100-116; procedural Neanderthal man, 148-51, 153, 156 Polytheism, 176 evolution and, 155, 156; lesions of,
vs. declarative, 1056; resource al- Nebes, Robert, 56-57 Positron Emission Tomography (PET) 84-86; processes controlled by, 39;
location and, 114-15; role of hip- Neolithic farmers, 159 scanner, 112-14 see also Split-brain research

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Index Index

Rizzolatti, Giacomo, 61 Subcortical modules, 124-25 Verbal IQ, 20 Weiskrantz, Larry, 106
Roberts, David, 64, 125 Subjective reality, sense of, 80 Verbal processes, see Language processes Weiss, Paul, 12
Subliminal perception, 118 Visual-constructional tasks, 51 Wernicke's Area, 154
Sun wo^hip, 170 Visual cortex: brain hemispheres and, Wiesel, Torsten, 14
Superior colliculus, 121 42; influence of environment on cel- White Memorial Hospital, 36
Scientific American, 9 Surface correlations, 163 lular architecture of, 14-16 Wicker, Tom, 92
Scoville, William, 103 Syncretism, 177 Visual-spatial tasks, asymmetries in, 49 Wilson, Donald, 63-64, 69, 125
Self: free will and, 7; theories of, 5 Visual system: animal studies of, 28-30; Wilson, John, 170, 175
Self-produced behavior, explanation of, lesions of, 84-86, 120-24; motor Wolfe, Tom, 92
144-46 control and, 54; in normal brain, 40, Wolmon, Baron, 49, 51
Senile dementia, 199 67; parallel processing in, 22-23; pos- Writing process, 92-93
Short-term memory, 101, 104, 107 Tabula rasa theory, 11 terior part of corpus callosum and,
Siblings: comparison of brains of, 14; Tachistoscopes, 33, 129 126; in split-brain patients, 41-42,
IQ of, 20 Tactile function: in normal brain, 40, 131; unitary view of, 22
Sidtis, John, 65, 66, 126 67; in split-brain patients, 42-43, 56- Visual-tactile match, 131 Xenophanes, 177
Simon, Herb, 132-33 58, 131 Vogel, Peter, 40
Single-cell recording, 61 Taylor, Laughlin, 57 Volpe, Bruce, 65, 108, 110, 113, 122
Skill learning, 105 Temporal coding, 114
Sloan Foundation, 147 Temporal dating module, 110 Yin, Robin, 56
Smylie, Charlotte, 65 Temporal lobe syndrome, 166-67
Soviet Union, 185-86 Teuber, Hans-Lukas, 62, 63 Wada, Juin, 81
Sperry, Roger W., 9-13,25-26, 28, 29, Thalamus, 120 Wada test, 81-84
33-38, 43, 45-46,51,54 Tixier, Jacques, 150, 151 Warrington, Elizabeth, 106 Zajonc, Robert, 111
Split-brain research, 27-59, 63-77; on Tool making, 148-51; aesthetics of, 156, Watson, John B., 11 Zurif, Edgar, 133
conscious processes, 70-74; on emo- 157; brain change and, 150-51; in-
tional responses, 74-77; on epilepsy ference-making capacity and, 151-53
patients, 39-44; evolution of brain Touch, sense of, see Tactile function
processes and, 153, 156; of freedom Tower of Hanoi problem, 105
of action, 145-46; of imagery, 130- Trevarthen, Colwyn, 52
32, 134; modularity and, 87-91, 95-
98; nuclear magnetic resonance and,
129; popularization and misinterpre-
tation of, 47-59; on resource alloca-
tion, 115; on right hemisphere lan- Unconscious processes, 117-35; blind-
guage, 68-70, 88-91, 95-98; on un- sight and, 120-24; mental imagery
conscious processes, 119-20, 124-28; and, 130-34; split-brain research on,
on visual system, 29-32 119-20, 124-28
Squire, Larry, 105
Stanford University, 62; Research In-
stitute, 76
Statistical mechanics, 143
Stoics, 179 Values, internalized, 194
Stroke patients: language impairment in, Van Harreveld, Anthony, 36
94-95; memory loss in, 101-3 Van Wagenen, William, 32, 34, 36, 40
Sturdevant, A. H., 35 Vascularization of brain regions, 154 Biikent university
Library
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Figure 5.1. The inside of our trusty van with our gear and my not-so-
reverent colleagues, John Sidtis and the late Jeff Holtzman.