http://www.stressfreebrains.com/neurovarium
Later anecdotal evidence from his life suggests that he was
able to support himself, although he had to relocate and take on a different
career as a stagecoach driver. A psychiatric practice to deal with various
disorders was the prefrontal lobotomy. This procedure was common in the 1940s
and early 1950s, until antipsychotic drugs became available. The connections
between the prefrontal cortex and other regions of the brain were severed. The
disorders associated with this procedure included some aspects of what are now
referred to as personality disorders, but also included mood disorders and
psychoses. Depictions of lobotomies in popular media suggest a link between
cutting the white matter of the prefrontal cortex and changes in a patient’s
mood and personality, though this correlation is not well understood. Left
Brain, Right Brain Popular media often refer to right-brained and left-brained
people, as if the brain were two independent halves that work differently for
different people. This is a popular misinterpretation of an important
neurological phenomenon. As an extreme measure to deal with a debilitating
condition, the corpus callous may be sectioned to overcome intractable
epilepsy. When the connections between the two cerebral hemispheres are cut,
interesting effects can be observed. If a person with an intact corpus callous
is asked to put their hands in their pockets and describe what is there on the
basis of what their hands feel, they might say that they have keys in their
right pocket and loose change in the left. Neurovarium They may
even be able to count the coins in their pocket and say if they can afford to
buy a candy bar from the vending machine. If a person with a sectioned corpus callous
is given the same instructions, they will do something quite peculiar. They
will only put their right hand in their pocket and say they have keys there.
They will not even move their left hand, much less report that there is loose
change in the left pocket. The reason for this is that the language functions
of the cerebral cortex are localized to the left hemisphere in 95 percent of
the population. Additionally, the left hemisphere is connected to the right
side of the body through the corticospinal tract and the ascending tracts of
the spinal cord. Motor commands from the precentral gyros control the opposite
side of the body, whereas sensory information processed by the post central gyros
is received from the opposite side of the body. For a verbal command to
initiate movement of the right arm and hand, the left side of the brain needs
to be connected by the corpus callous. Language is processed in the left side
of the brain and directly influences the left brain and right arm motor
functions, but is sent to influence the right brain and left arm motor
functions through the corpus callous.
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