Hemisphereric lateralisation Flashcards
Hemisphereric lateralisation
the idea that the two halves hemisphere of the brain are functionally different and that certain mental processes and behaviours are mainly controlled by one hemisphere rather than the other as in the example if language
Split brain research:
A series of studies which began in the 1960s and are still ongoing involving people with epilsey who had experienced a surgical separation of the hemispheres of their brain to reduce the severity of their epilepsy.
This enabled researchers to test lateral functions of the brain in isolation.
What function does localisation appear in both hemispheres
the case of vison the visual area is in the left and right occipital lobe.
What does split Brian research study
how the hemispheres function when they can’t communicate with each other
Sherry’s research
Roger speedy 1969 devised a system to study how two separated hemispheres deal with the example speech and vision
sherrys Procedure
11 people who had split brain operation. In the normal brain the corpus callous would immeadiatekt share information between both hemisphere giving complete picture of the visual world. However presenting the image to one hemisphere of a split brain participant meant that the information cannot be conveyed from the hemisphere to the other
Findings
when a picture of an object was shown to participants left hemisphere the participant could describe what was seen. But they could not do this if the object was shown to the right hemisphere. Although participants could not give verbal names they could select a matching object out of sight using their left hand. If a pinup picture was shown to the LVF there was an emotional reaction participants usually reported seeing nothing.
Conclusion
the observations show how certain functions are later;ised in the brain and support the view that LH is verbal and the RH is silent but emotional
