ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author show that the brain's plasticity by considering successively the findings relating to vision, audition, touch, motor functions, emotions, and dominance, insofar as they apply to mammals and particularly primates. They deal with selected variables and examine to what extent they can be shown to influence the outcome of commissural section. The authors describe the connections between the left and right halves of the brain. They explore organization approach what would otherwise appear to be discrepant and irreconcilable findings of the behavioural effects of commissure section. "The brain can change after surgery so as to prolong, and perhaps even to increase, the effects of separating the hemispheres, or else it can compensate for them almost completely". Perhaps a clue is provided by J. Semmes and M. Mishkin who studied intermanual transfer in monkeys having section of all the forebrain commissures and employed special apparatus to restrict the use of one or the other hand.