Hemispheric Lateralisation and Split Brain Function

Question 1

hemispheric lateralisation refers to the idea that

Answer 1

the two half’s of the brain are functionally different

Question 2

if the two half’s of the brain are functionally different,

Answer 2

some mental processes in the brain are specialized to either the left or right hemisphere

Question 3

how are the two sides of the brain connected?

Answer 3

a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum

Question 4

what does the corpus callosum do?

Answer 4

share information between the hemispheres

Question 5

which side of the body does the left hemisphere control?

Answer 5

the right side

Question 6

which side of the body does the right hemisphere control?

Answer 6

the left side

Question 7

what does the right side of the brain control?

Answer 7

visual-motor tasks

Question 8

what does the left ride of the brain control?

Answer 8

language and speech

Question 9

split brain patients have undergone

Answer 9

a surgical procedure to control severe epileptic fits by severing the corpus callosum

Question 10

Sperry date

Answer 10

1968

Question 11

what did Sperry do?

Answer 11

tested whether the two hemispheres are specified for function whether tasks were performed independently from one another

Question 12

in split brain patients

Answer 12

information cannot travel between the two hemispheres so information can can only be processed by the hemasphere that recieves it

Question 13

in a normal brain…

Answer 13

the corpus callosum would immediatly share the information between the two hemispheres giving a complete picture of the visual world

Question 14

Sperry procedure

Answer 14

an image or word was projected to the patients right visual field and the same or different was projected to the left visual field

Question 15

Sperry Findings - describing what you see

Answer 15

when the picture was shown to the right visual field, the participant could describe what was shown.
when the picture was shown to the left visual field, the participants said that there was nothing there.

Question 16

Sperry Findings - recognition by touch

Answer 16

although they could not attach a label to objects projected to the left visual field, they were able to match that object or choose an associated object from the right hemistphere

Question 17

Sperry Findings - matching faces

Answer 17

right hemisphere seems to be dominant in facial recognition. when asked to match a picture, success was based on presentation to the left visual field.

Question 18

Sperry’s & Michael Gazzaniga’s work in split brain phenomenon has produced

Answer 18

a sizable body of research findings

Question 19

Sperry’s & Michael Gazzaniga’s main findings are

Answer 19

the left hemisphere is more geared towards analytic and verbal tasks while the right is more spatial tasks and music

Question 20

the split brain experiments made use of

Answer 20

highly specilised and standardised procedures

Question 21

Sperry contolled the exposure of a stimuli to

Answer 21

one tenth of a second

Question 22

by keeping the exposure of the stimuli to only one tenth of a second, Sperry insured that

Answer 22

the participants couldnt move their eyes and spread the image to both visual fields

Question 23

Sperry’s work promoted a

Answer 23

theoretical and philosophical debate between the two hemispheres and the nature of consciousness

Question 24

differences in functions maybe overrated

Answer 24

pop psychological literature oversimplifies the distinction between L + R hemispheres and some of its potential implications

Question 25

Gazzaniga suggests that discoveries from early split brain research may have been supplanted with the use of

Answer 25

technology

Question 26

a patient called J.W developed the capacity to

Answer 26

speak out of the right hemisphere and can now talk from either the left or right brain

Question 27

can you generalise from split brain patients?

Answer 27

no - they’re an unusual group of people with only a small sample due to the surgery only being performed rarely

Question 28

how many patients did Sperry have?

Answer 28

11