Roger Walcott Sperry (1913–1994): Obituary.

Memorializes R. W. Sperry, who was best known for his work on the relationship between the brain and behavior. His research included work on neuronal circuitry, interhemispheric communication through the corpus callosum, and the unique capabilities of each brain hemisphere. During his career, Sperry published almost 300 articles. He received numerous awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association in 1993 and the Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology in 1981. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sperry's leap.

Comments on the assertion by R. W. Sperry (see record 1994-00012-001) that cognitive science can provide a new source of goals and values. It is suggested that Sperry has lumped together 2 dramatically different perspectives, those of cognitive and humanistic psychology, and that there is no clear justification for his optimism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Citations for outstanding lifetime contribution: August 20, 1993.

Presents R. W. Sperry and H. A. Simon with the American Psychological Association citation for outstanding lifetime contribution to psychology. Sperry, the 1st individual trained in psychology to receive the Nobel prize for medicine/physiology, brought forth original and revolutionary concepts, such as his ideas on the mind–brain problem and consciousness. Simon, who was awarded the Nobel prize for economics, made outstanding contributions to organizational theory, the cognitive character of the decision-making process, and the computer metaphor of rational thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychology.

R. W. Sperry expresses his thanks for receiving the American Psychological Association citation for outstanding lifetime contribution to psychology. He suggests that psychology is turning the tables on physics and hard science and, with its cognitive revolution, is now leading the way in science to a more adequate and more valid paradigm for scientific and all causal explanation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

You can't get there from here: Comments on R. W. Sperry's resolution of science and ethics.

Comments on R. W. Sperry's (see record 1989-00022-001) claims about the nature of cognitive science, assertions that science can prescribe moral values, and proclamations about ethics. It is argued that Sperry (1) made assertions that are largely at odds with mainstream conceptions of cognitive science, (2) failed to specify his meaning of moral responsibility without an acausal free will, and (3) failed to provide justifications for a deductive logic that allows one to derive moral values from scientific knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mind and brain: A Gestalt problem.

Argues that R. W. Sperry (see record 1977-30777-001) might have avoided misrepresenting the Gestalt concepts with which he took issue by referring to the work of W. K?hler (1938, 1971). It appears that Sperry was not clear about the origins of isomorphism in relation to the mind–body problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can subjective experience cause brain activity?

Comments on a central disagreement in a dialog between D. Bindra (see record 1971-03399-001) and R. W. Sperry (1970) as to whether subjective experience (e.g., pain) can have a causal effect of brain activity. Sperry maintains that subjective experience itself directly determines the further course of brain activity. The author's views are that emergent properties are presumably "emergent" to the extent that they are not terms in the physical laws governing more elementary components. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Manfred J. Meier (1929-2006).

Manfred J. Meier, one of the most influential figures in the establishment of clinical neuropsychology as a specialty field, died at age 77 in Mexico on August 27, 2006, after a one-year battle with lung cancer. Manny's college and graduate school studies were completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a bachelor's degree (1952), a master's degree (1953), and a doctorate (1956)--all in psychology. During his graduate years, his mentors included Charles Bridgeman and Karl U. Smith, but he was also influenced by Harry Harlow, for whom he served as a research assistant in his primate laboratory. Manny's attendance at a 1952 conference where the speakers included Ward Halstead, Donald Hebb, Roger Sperry, and Hans-Lukas Teuber solidified his interest in the emerging field of neuropsychology. During his 36-year career at the University of Minnesota, Manny published more than 70 professional papers, book chapters, and books. He was promoted to associate professor in 1962 and to professor in 1966. At his retirement in 1993, he was named professor emeritus. A committed educator, Manny served as the director of the APA-accredited Psychology Internship Consortium from 1983 to 1993 and as director of a postdoctoral program in clinical neuropsychology from 1985 to 1993. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual control of the arm, the wrist and the fingers: pathways through the brain

Sperry and his colleagues had shown that section of the corpus callosum blocks the normally strong interocular transfer of visual learning in chiasma sectioned monkeys. Although interhemispheric transfer of learning was blocked, monkeys could be readily trained to use any combination of eye and hand in a task that required rapid visually guided responses. Sperry suggested that there must be a subcortical pathway linking sensory to motor areas of the brain. We tested monkeys in a task which required them to orient their wrist and fingers correctly in order to remove a morsel of food from a slotted disc. Animals in which we made lesions of the dorsal extrastriate visual areas of the parietal lobe were profoundly impaired in performing this task, but showed no deficit in visual discrimination learning. A monkey with an extensive lesion of the ventral, temporal lobe extrastriate areas showed no deficit in the visuomotor task but was profoundly impaired in visual discrimination learning. Lesions of peri-arcuate cortex, a major cortical target of parietal lobe visual areas, produced only a mild deficit which was motor in character. We suggest that the visuomotor deficit caused by parietal lobe lesions is brought about by depriving the cerebellum of its cortical visual input.     

Sperry's emergent interactionism.

In attempting to resolve the mind–body problem and the split between science and humanism/religion, R. W. Sperry (see record 1989-00022-001) proposed the concept of "emergent interactionism" and concluded that individuals can do whatever they subjectively choose, decide, or want to do. Not only is this conclusion at odds with reality, but the paradigm appears to be untestable and heuristically sterile. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology's cognitive revolution.

Questions the assertions of R. W. Sperry (see record 1994-00012-001) that (1) tying cognitive events directly to brain activity avoids the classification of dualism and (2) the cognitive revolution in contemporary psychology was made possible by the overthrow of a dominant materialist philosophy. It is concluded that nothing as dramatic as a paradigmatic shift or revolution has taken place in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

My developing understanding of Roger Wolcott Sperry's philosophy

Reviewed are some of the dramatic experimental results and penetrating analyses characterizing the career of Roger Sperry. These require that we seriously consider his opinions regarding matters not yet testable, especially regarding the brain/mind relationships. His opinions include first, that a worthwhile understanding of brain function requires a biological explanation of consciousness; second, that mental properties described by him as "overall pattern effects in brain dynamics" can govern neuronal traffic at the cellular level by virtue of "mental forces'; and third, that further development of this outlook can provide a scientific basis for moral values. Discussion here is restricted to the first two of these points, urging that most criticisms of them arise largely from semantic confusions inherited from our past. Particular emphasis is placed on distinguishing mind from soul, thus totally separating the brain-onto-mind mapping problem from the nexus problem inherited from Descartes. Taken here is a physicalist position regarding mind, together with agnosticism regarding the nonmaterial.     

Review of Psychopathology and psychotherapy: From diagnosis to treatment.

Reviews the book, Psychopathology and psychotherapy: From diagnosis to treatment, edited by Len Sperry and Jon Carlson (see record 1993-97172-000). Alfred Adler is perhaps the most unjustly overlooked theorist in our field, and deserves wider recognition and greater integration into the clinical mainstream. Such is the admirable goal of Sperry and Carlson's effort. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to achieve that goal. This is an edited text in which a variety of distinguished Adlerians have been asked to address specific DSM categories. In each case the chapters begin with a review of the category in question, typically including a summary of diagnostic criteria, epidemiology, course, associated problems, various etiological positions, and so forth. This non-Adlerian material consumes an enormous proportion of the book. The intent was to produce not only an Adlerian reference source, but also a text for undergraduate and graduate psychopathology courses in all mental health disciplines, as well as interns and residents. It attempts to do too much, and fails to do enough. It attempts to appeal too widely, and fails to appeal at all. In nearly all of the chapters the coverage is insufficiently comprehensive to actually serve as part of an abnormal psychology textbook; this is particularly true in the areas of etiological theory and research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Advancing “the boldest model yet”: A commentary on psychology, religion, and spirituality.

Following O’Donahue’s (1989) consideration of the psychologist as metaphysician-scientist-practitioner, Jones (1994) proposed, “the boldest model yet” in which “religion could participate as an active partner with psychology as a science and as an applied discipline” (p. 184). Lisa Miller goes a step farther in her call for a spiritual psychology, which extends “a map of human experience beyond the material” and offers “the vast possibility of the science of psychology...to generate new methods beyond materialism” (see record 2010-09501-001). Each of the articles in this section illustrates what can be gained in reaching beyond materialism to meaning. Len Sperry (see record 2010-03251-006) advocates for a holistic, postmaterialist perspective to health, which de-emphasizes pathology and symptom reduction as the singular focus. Embedded in his thesis is the intricate connection between mind and body, yet he resists the unified model of scientific naturalism on the grounds that it “represents a biologization of spirituality.” The final article in this special section calls into question the fundamental assumptions of materialist psychology. Bruce Greyson’s study (see record 2010-03251-005) of near-death experiences challenges the assumption that the mind and the brain are identical and that psychological phenomena can be readily explained by existing physiological models. Will such challenges be embraced and will more fundamental questions be taken up, though it means that certain truth claims may need to be put aside? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and neurobiology in a postmaterialist world.

The current issue of Psychology of Religion and Spirituality provides three articles that address the relationship between spirituality and psychology in the context of the postmaterialist perspective. One of the unifying themes of these articles is the notion that spirituality may be truly separate from the mind and brain, but that such a distinction still provides fertile ground for scientific and psychological investigations. We have long argued for this general concept in work on neurotheology, which seeks to understand the relationship between spirituality and the brain (d’Aquili & Newberg, 1999). An important point in this context, and consistent with each of the articles, is the notion that we are not looking for a scientific study of spirituality per se, but at an integrated synthesis of science, religion, and spirituality. Such a synthesis might ultimately result in the kind of reductionist perspective that Bruce Greyson (see record 2010-03251-005) appropriately argues against in his discussion of near-death experiences (NDEs). Whereas Greyson’s article might tackle the issue of material reductionism directly, the other two articles speak more specifically to some of the practical implications of both the materialist and nonmaterialist perspectives. In his article, Sperry (see record 2010-03251-006) describes three clinical situations in which spirituality becomes important in the psychotherapeutic setting. The article by Richards (see record 2010-03251-007) investigates how spirituality influences or, more specifically, inspires those individuals in helping professions. Again, an important element is the synergy that arises out of a combination of spiritual and scientific perspectives. The articles in this issue are nicely representative of different but related paths toward understanding the nature of spiritual experiences and how spirituality might be incorporated into personal and clinical pursuits. Future research will have to elaborate on these findings. And, it is hoped, a better integration of all dimensions of the human person, including the biological and the spiritual, will yield a deeper understanding of ourselves and of reality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Watching for light: Spiritual psychology beyond materialism.

Spiritual psychology is well poised to contribute to the field of psychology by extending a map of human experience beyond materialism. We can expand scientific inquiry to explore consciousness as it pertains to states other than matter. Several of our sibling fields in science have moved well beyond strict materialism, such as academic physics, which includes a branch of quantum physics reliant on consciousness. The great majority of people around the world express an awareness and dialogue with the powerful nonmaterial presence that surrounds us and is in us and view the nonmaterial presence as sacred. Understanding this more fully would seem to be our work as psychologists. In this special section, we consider the vast possibility of the science of psychology to explore, develop theories and models, and generate new methods beyond materialism. Three rigorous and innovative articles are presented by Len Sperry, Kari O’Grady and Scott Richards, and Bruce Greyson, all leading scholars and psychotherapists, who together offer fertile ground for starting to build a spiritual psychology beyond materialism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Roger Sperry and his chemoaffinity hypothesis

In the early 1940s, Roger Sperry performed a series of insightful experiments on the visual system of lower vertebrates that led him to draw two important conclusions: When optic fibers were severed, the regenerating fibers grew back to their original loci in the midbrain tectum to re-establish a topographical set of connections; and the re-establishment of these orderly connections underlay the orderly behavior of the animal. From these conclusions, he inferred that each optic fiber and each tectal neuron possessed cytochemical labels that uniquely denoted their neuronal type and position and that optic fibers could utilize these labels to selectively navigate to their matching target cell. This inference was subsequently formulated into a general explanation of how neurons form ordered interconnections during development and became known as the chemoaffinity hypothesis. The origins of this hypothesis, the controversies that surrounded it for several decades and its eventual acceptance, are discussed in this article.     

Predicting the consequences of our own actions: the role of sensorimotor context estimation

During self-generated movement it is postulated that an efference copy of the descending motor command, in conjunction with an internal model of both the motor system and environment, enables us to predict the consequences of our own actions (von Helmholtz, 1867; Sperry, 1950; von Holst, 1954; Wolpert, 1997). Such a prediction is evident in the precise anticipatory modulation of grip force seen when one hand pushes on an object gripped in the other hand (Johansson and Westling, 1984; Flanagan and Wing, 1933). Here we show that self-generation is not in itself sufficient for such a prediction. We used two robots to simulate virtual objects held in one hand and acted on by the other. Precise predictive grip force modulation of the restraining hand was highly dependent on the sensory feedback to the hand producing the load. The results show that predictive modulation requires not only that the movement is self-generated, but also that the efference copy and sensory feedback are consistent with a specific context; in this case, the manipulation of a single object. We propose a novel computational mechanism whereby the CNS uses multiple internal models, each corresponding to a different sensorimotor context, to estimate the probability that the motor system is acting within each context.     

The processes of therapy.

(This reprinted article originally appeared in the Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1940, Vol 4, 161–264. The following abstract of the original article appeared in PA, Vol 14:6018.) Certain basic conditions for successful therapy are: the client's awareness of dissatisfaction with his current adjustment, his intelligence being above borderline level; a reasonable expectation of manipulating adverse social factors; and a skilled therapist where the purpose is to strengthen the individual. The steps in successful therapy are: (1) establishment of rapport with a delicate balance between identification and objectivity; (2) a client's free expression of thoughts and feelings; (3) his recognition and acceptance of his spontaneous self; (4) his responsibility for making his own choices; (5) his gain in insight through assimilated interpretation; and (6) his growth of independence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Harry Goichi Yamaguchi (1921-2002).

Reports the death of Harry Goichi Yamaguchi (1921-2002) and notes his contributions to to teaching, research, and clinical supervision and research. In keeping with his clinical experience with children and adolescents, Yamaguchi emphasized developmental psychology in his teaching. Learning theory remained the focus in his research, his publication, and his approach to clinical work. Yamaguchi's work with several professional organizations is also noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)