Fill in the Diagram - Split Brain Patients

Question 1

1) Split brain patients: what is damaged, what can they say, what would they pick up with what hand, etc.

Answer 1

Damage: the corpus callosum is damaged or cut.

General: patients are only conscious of left hemisphere activity. Only the left hemisphere can verbalize. The right hemisphere can only demonstrate (pointing, drawing). Patients are unconscious of what their right hemisphere (and thus left hand & left visual field) is doing.

Remember: right visual & right hand = left hemisphere. Left visual and left hand = left hemisphere.

Right visual field = left hemisphere = can consciously verbalize it and point at it with right hand, but not left hand.

Left visual field = right hemisphere = can’t verbalize and not conscious of it, but left hand can pick objects out or draw them.

Patients who grab a pencil with their left hand (RH) and an orange with their right hand (LH) will claim they are holding oranges in both hands (since they have conscious access only to their left hemisphere).

Cross cuing = one patient would shake head and frown after he made an incorrect answer, then he’d change the answer.