Date of Award
4-1984
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Chris Koronakos
Second Advisor
Dr. Malcolm Robertson
Third Advisor
Dr. Fred Gault
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
A selective review of functional and anatomical hemispheric asymmetries in humans confirms the doctrine of hemispheric specialization. However, the post-insult phenomenon of recovery of functions challenges theories that posit too strict a correspondence between anatomical structures and functions. Follow-up studies on hemispherectomized and hemidecorticated patients, who later recovered language, support a hypothesis of hemispheric redundancy, rather than "invariant" hemispheric specialization for language. Thus, through an evolutionary selection process, the brain may have developed as two potentially similar organs. Neuropsychological research on recovery phenomena is criticized as neglecting environmental contributions to recovery. Several models of hemispheric specialization are compared with recovery phenomena, although no best model is identified. Finally, ontological, methodological, and epistemological reduction are defined and used to evaluate the assumptions of neuropsychologists and behavioral psychologists. It is argued that reduction to only one methodological level of analysis may exclude other valid theories of organismic functioning.
Recommended Citation
Butterbaugh, Grant Jackson, "The Problem of Reductionism in Theories of Hemispheric Specialization and Recovery of Functions" (1984). Masters Theses. 1481.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/1481