Sperry, Roger

Sperry, Roger

(born Aug. 20, 1913, Hartford, Conn., U.S.—died April 17, 1994, Pasadena, Calif.) U.S. neurobiologist. He earned a doctorate in zoology from the University of Chicago. He studied functional specialization in the hemispheres of the cerebral cortex, examining animals and then humans with epilepsy in whose brains the corpus callosum had been severed. His research showed that the left side of the brain is normally dominant for analytical and verbal tasks and the right for spatial tasks, music, and certain other areas. His techniques laid the groundwork for much more specialized explorations. He shared a 1981 Nobel Prize with David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel.