This is an introductory text providing the latest information on how mental functions are divided between the left and right sides of the brain. It explores asymmetry in normal, split-brain and brain-damaged cases, focusing on such key topics as left-handedness, sex differences, psychiatric illness, learning disabilities and theories of consciousness. This edition includes such recent findings as: brain anatomy and physiology as seen through new imaging techniques; biological differences in the way men and women think; and the connection between left-handedness and mortality.