Can a Side of the Brain Determine Sick or Sane?

Beginning of article

Investigators probe effects of left, right stimulation methods I By Douglas Steinberg

Several years ago, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, an associate professor of neurology and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, decided on a seemingly bizarre approach to studying people with medication-resistant depression. He asked his subjects to wear goggles that restricted sight to either the right or left visual field. He wanted to alleviate their depression with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and he had a hunch that the goggles might signal which brain hemisphere to treat with this experimental therapy to ensure the greatest clinical benefits.

The goggle strategy germinated in …