Lateralisation

Question 1

Hemispheric lateralisation

Answer 1

Hemispheric lateralisation – hemispheres of the brain are not the same!
• They specialise in specific mental processes
• Split-brain research – research on people who’ve had their brains split in half – severing the corpus callosum

Question 2

How does it work

Answer 2

Lateralisation is the idea that the two halves of the brain are functionally different and that each hemisphere has functional specialisations, e.g. the left is dominant for language, and the right excels at visual motor tasks.
The most straightforward way it is specialised is that the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and vice versa.

Question 3

Split brain research

Answer 3

Split-brain patients originally came about by accident. There was a treatment for severe epilepsy whereby a surgeon would cut through the corpus callosum, the aim was to prevent the violent electrical activity that accompanies the seizure crossing from one hemisphere to the other

Question 4

Evaluation of split brain research

Answer 4

Szaflarki et al. (2006) found that language became more lateralised to the left hemisphere with increasing age in children and adolescents, but after the age of 25, lateralisation decreased with each decade of life.
•This raises questions about lateralisation, such as whether everyone has one hemisphere that is dominant over the other and whether this dominance changes with age.