Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre!geb
From: geb@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU (Gordon E. Banks)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Left vs. Right Brain <==> Reason vs. Mysticism ?
Message-ID: <2072@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU>
Date: 24 Jan 89 13:49:38 GMT
References: <1511@tank.uchicago.edu> <32342@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Reply-To: geb@cadre.dsl.pittsburgh.edu (Gordon E. Banks)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
Lines: 18

I don't want to be seen as supporting any claims about mysticism,
but the fact that lateralization is genetic is quite clear.  Left-handedness
can be shown to be genetic, and most mammals who are territorial have
lateralization of function within the hemispheres.  The locus of
the genes is not known and is probably complex, but it is
known that Turner's syndrome (XO) patients have deficient lateralization.  
It is true that most of the knowledge about it is gained from lesion
studies, but other studies involving dynamic PET scanning have
backed these up.  In addition to the spatial capabilities of the
right hemisphere, it appears to be more responsible for affective behavior.
By that I mean it has more to do with understanding and expressing
emotion than does the left.  Right hemisphere strokes may produce a patient
often incapable of expressing emotion, or understanding other peoples'
emotional states.  Howard Gardner has postulated that the right
hemisphere contains the person's "theory of mind" such that once
that is lesioned, the person become less able to consider other people
as having minds and to empathize.  Certainly this would be in line
with studies of psychopaths which show deficiency in the right hemisphere.