斯伯里

斯伯里 - 概述

斯伯里(R.W.Sperry，August 20, 1913—April 17, 1994.)，
美国神经心理学家，用测验的方法研究了裂脑病人的心理特征，证明大脑两半球的功能具有显著差异，提出两个脑的概念。曾荣获国家科学奖，1960年当选为国家科学院院土，1971年获美国心理学会颁发的杰出科学贡献奖，1981年获诺贝尔生理学奖(又译为：斯佩里)。

他把猫、猴子、猩猩联结大脑两半球的神经纤维（最大的叫胼胝体）割断，称为“割裂脑”手术。这样两个半球的相互联系被切断，外界信息传至大脑半球皮层的某一部分后，不能同时又将此信息通过横向胼胝体纤维传至对侧皮层相对应的部分。每个半球各自独立地进行活动，彼此不能知道对侧半球的活动情况。这一手术于1940年由Van Wagenen 和Herren首先在临床上对慢性顽固性癫痫病人使用，获得较理想的疗效，癫痫发作几乎完全消失。1961年斯佩里设计了精巧和详尽的测验，在作割裂脑手术的人恢复以后，进行了神经心理学的测定，获得了人左右两半球机能分工的第一手资料，发现两半球机能的不对称性（asymmetry），右半球也有言语功能，从而更新了优势半球的概念。裂脑人的每一个半球都有其独自的感觉、知觉和意念，都能独立地学习、记忆和理解，两个半球都能被训练执行同时发生的相互矛盾的任务。斯佩里的研究，深入地揭示了人的言语、思维和意识与两个半球的关系，成绩卓著，获得了1981年度诺贝尔医学奖。
　　

斯伯里 - 奇特的裂脑人

有一种脑部疾患叫做“癫痫”，疾病大发作时病人会突然丧失意识，倒地，全身肌肉发生强烈的抽搐，并伴有咬舌、流涎、尿失禁等症状。美国诺贝尔奖获得者斯佩里为了医治此病，将患者的连接大脑两半球的主要神经纤维“胼胝体”切断，使一侧大脑半球的病灶所产生的神经电暴不能扩散到另一半球去。手术后患者的病情得到了极大的改善，而且也未出现不良的后遗症，如人格和智力的改变等等。然而经过这样手术的人，毕竟与常人有所不同了，他们实际上成了有两个独立的大脑的所谓“裂脑人”。

正常人的大脑也有两个半球，但是由于胼胝体的连接，左、右两个半球的信息可在瞬间进行交流，因此，正常人的大脑是作为一个整体而起作用的。人们很早就知道大脑两半球在机能上有分工，左半球感受并控制右边的身体，右半球感受并控制左边的身体。1861年，法国医生布罗卡发现患有失语症的病人，其大脑左半球颞叶有损伤。这个部位后来就被称为“布罗卡”区，它涉及人的说话功能，是运动性语言中枢。以后人们又继续发现了左半球的其他一些部位与书写、阅读等功能有关，只有少数左利手(俗称左撇子)的人语言中枢在右半球或分在两个半球上。由于大多数人的语言中枢位于左半球，大脑左半球就被人们称为优势半球。

从1961年开始，斯佩里等人对“裂脑人”长时间进行了一系列的实验研究。例如，在一个实验中让一个“裂脑人”坐在挡住他双手的屏幕前，视线凝视屏幕中心的一点，然后在屏幕上用0．1秒的时间闪现“帽带”这个词(“帽”呈现在左半屏幕，“带”呈现在右半屏幕)，由于呈现时间短得“裂脑人”的眼睛来不及移动，“帽”就传递到了右半球，“带”就传递到了左半球。当要求“裂脑人”说出他看到了什么时，他只回答说看到了“带”字。进一步要求“裂脑人”说出“带”的种类，他只好猜测是“胶带”、“音乐磁带”、“捆人的带子”等等。这表明语言中枢在左半球。如果在左半屏幕闪现一个物体的名称，从而使这个词传递到右半球，“裂脑人”虽然不能说出物体的名称，但能用左手从一堆他看不见的物体中选出这个物体。表明虽然右半球有一些语言的功能，但语言中枢位于左半球。

斯佩里的研究以及其他的一些研究表明，人的大脑两半球存在着机能上的分工，对于大多数人来说，左半球是处理语言信息的“优势半球”，它还能完成那些复杂、连续、有分析的活动，以及熟练地进行数学计算。右半球虽然是“非优势的”，但是它掌管空间知觉的能力，对非语言性的视觉图像的感知和分析比左半球占优势。还有的研究表明，音乐和艺术能力以及情绪反应等与右半球有更大的关系。对于正常人来说，大脑两半球虽然存在着机能上的分工，但是大脑始终是作为一个整体而工作的。

斯伯里 - 英文简介

左脑右脑 Cheung, Victoria

Roger W. Sperry – Autobiography

Birthplace and Family: Born August 20, 1913, in Hartford, Connecticut to Francis Bushnell and Florence Kraemer Sperry of Elmwood, a small suburb. Father was in banking; mother trained in business school and after dad’s death, when I was 11 years old, she became assistant to the principal in the local high school. One brother, Russell Loomis, a year younger, went into chemistry. I was married to Norma Gay Deupree, December 28, 1949. We have one son, Glenn Michael (Tad), born October 13, 1953 and one daughter, Janeth Hope, born August 18, 1963.

Education: My early schooling was in Elmwood, Connecticut and William Hall High School in West Hartford, Connecticut. I attended Oberlin College on a 4 year Amos C. Miller Scholarship. After receiving the AB in English in 1935, I stayed on 2 years more in Oberlin for an MA in Psychology, 1937, under Professor R. H. Stetson. I then took an additional third year at-large at Oberlin to prepare for a switch to Zoology for Ph.D. work under Professor Paul A. Weiss at the University of Chicago. After receiving the Ph.D. at Chicago in 1941, I did a year of postdoctoral research as a National Research Council Fellow at Harvard University under Professor Karl S. Lashley.

Professional positions: Biology research fellow, Harvard University, at Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology (1942-46); Assistant professor, Department of Anatomy, University of Chicago (1946-52); Associate professor of psychology, University of Chicago (1952-53); Section Chief, Neurological Diseases and Blindness, National Institutes of Health (1952-53); Hixon professor of psychobiology, California Institute of Technology (1954-present).

Awards and Honors: Amos C. Miller Scholarship, Oberlin College (1931-35); National Research Council Fellowship (1941-42); Distinguished Alumni Citation; Oberlin College (1954); Elected National Academy of Sciences (1960); Elected American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1963); Howard Crosby Warren Medal, Society of Experimental Psychologists (1969); Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association (1971); California Scientist of the Year Award (1972); Co-recipient William Thomson Wakeman Research Award, National Paraplegia Foundation (1972); Honorary Doctor of Science degree, Cambridge University (1972); Passano Award in Medical Science (1973); Elected American Philosophical Society (1974); Elected Honorary Member American Neurological Association (1974); Co-recipient Claude Bernard Science Journalism Award (1975); Karl Lashley Award of American Philosophical Society (1976); Elected Foreign Member of Royal Society (1976); Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, University of Chicago (1976); Elected member of Pontifical Academy of Sciences (1978); Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, Kenyon College (1979); Wolf Prize in Medicine (1979); Ralph Gerard Award of the Society of Neurosciences (1979); International Visual Literacy Association Special Award (1979); Albert Lasker Medical Research Award (1979); Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, The Rockefeller University (1980); American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award (1980)

A vocational and anti-brain-strain: Collected and raised large American moths in grade school. Ran trap line and collected live wild pets during junior high school years. Three-letter man in varsity athletics in high school and college. Through middle life continued evening and weekend diversionary activities including sculpture, ceramics, figure drawing, sports, American folk dance, boating, fishing, snorkeling, water colors, and collecting unusual fossils - among which we have a contender for the world’s 3rd largest ammonite.

Selected Bibliography


The problem of central nervous reorganization after nerve regeneration and muscle transposition. R.W. Sperry. Quart. Rev. Biol. 20:311-369 (1945).
Regulative factors in the orderly growth of neural circuits. R.W. Sperry. Growth Symp. 10: 63-67 (1951).
Cerebral organization and behavior. R.W. Sperry. Science 133:1749-1757 (1961).
Chemoaffinity in the orderly growth of nerve fiber patterns and connections. R.W. Sperry. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 50: 703-710 (1963).
Interhemispheric relationships: the neocortical commissures; syndromes of hemisphere disconnection. R.W. Sperry, M.S. Gazzaniga, and J.E. Bogen. In Handbook Clin. Neurol. P. J. Vinken and G.W. Bruyn (Eds.), Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co. 4: 273-290 (1969).
Lateral specialization in the surgically separated hemispheres. R.W. Sperry. In Neurosciences Third Study Program. F. Schmitt and F. Worden (Eds.), Cambridge: MIT Press 3:5-19 (1974).
Mind-brain interaction: mentalism, yes; dualism, no. R.W. Sperry. Neuroscience 5: 195-206 (1980). Reprinted in Commentaries in the Neurosciences. A.D. Smith, R. Llanas and P.G. Kostyuk (Eds.), Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 651-662 (1980).
Science and moral priority: merging mind, brain and human values. R.W. Sperry. Vol. 4 of Convergence, (Ser. ed. Ruth Anshen) New York: Columbia University Press (1982).
From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1981, Editor Wilhelm Odelberg, 【Nobel Foundation】, Stockholm, 1982

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Roger W. Sperry died on April 17, 1994.