Lateralisation and Split-Brain Research

Question 1

What is brain lateralisation?

Answer 1

Refers to the fact that the two halves of the human brain are not exactly alike

Question 2

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 2

Each hemisphere has functional specialisations which are localised primarily in one half of the brain

Question 3

What is left hemisphere dominant for and what is the right?

Answer 3

LEFT
- Speech and language

RIGHT
- Visual-motor tasks
- Facial recognition

Question 4

How are the two hemispheres connected?

Answer 4

Corpus callosum

Question 5

Who is used to investigate the abilities of hemispheres?

Answer 5

Epileptic patients who had nerve fibres cut from their corpus callosum
- Refereed to as split-brain patients

Question 6

Who investigated split brain research and when?

Answer 6

Sperry and Gazzaniga (1967)

Question 7

Explain the flashing picture experiment

Answer 7

Dog flashed in right visual field
- Asked what they could see and they would say dog

Cat flashed in left visual field
- Asked what they could see and would say nothing