Sperry, Roger Wolcott (1913–1994)

US neurologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1981 for his work on the functional specialization of the brain's cerebral hemispheres. He shared the prize with David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel for their work on visual perception.

Sperry investigated how the nerves in the embryo connect with one another to form the correct synapses (the links between nerve cells which transmit nerve impulses) at the right time. In 1954, he started work on split brains (brains in which the connection between the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere is severed) in animal models in an attempt to understand how different sides of the brain are specialized to perform different functions (cerebral specialization).

He also examined the effect of split brains on behaviour and bodily functions in humans and was the first to show that the left side of the brain is mainly involved in verbal and written skills, logic, and powers of deduction, whereas the right side is more active in visual recognition and artistic expression. His work forms the basis of human developmental neurobiology and psychobiology.

Sperry was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and studied psychology at Oberlin College and zoology at the University of Chicago. He worked at Harvard University and Chicago University before moving to the California Institute of Technology in 1952 as a professor.