R01_ONE BRAIN OR TWO? by Gazzaniga, M.S. (1967) Flashcards
What is the typical term for the area of psychology that studies biological functions?
Psychobiology or biological psychology.
The field focuses on the actions of your brain and nervous system; the processes of receiving stimulation and information from the environment through your senses; the ways your brain organizes sensory information to create your perceptions of the world; and how all of this affects your body and behavior.
Who pioneered the early scientific research on the effects of splitting the brain into two separate hemispheres?
Roger W. Sperry (1913-1994), who is considered to be the founder of split-brain research.
Which structure in the brain is made up of 200 million nerve fibers and enables constant communication between the two hemispheres of your brain?
The corpus callosum.
By surgically severing this structure, one can study the specialized ability of the brain’s two hemispheres.
What were the three abilities tested in Gazzaniga and Sperry’s experiments with split-brain patients?
- Visual
- Tactile
- Auditory
“Evidently, the left hemisphere was completely divorced, in the perception and knowledge, from the right.”
:-bd
“The right hemisphere is able to comprehend language, although it does so in a different way from the left: in a nonverbal way.”
:-bd
“When a verbal response was required, the right hemisphere was unable to speak.”
:-bd
TRUE OR FALSE: It was found through Sperry and Gazzaniga’s research that visual tasks involving spatial relationships and shapes were performed with greater proficiency by the left hand.
TRUE.
The participants (all of who were right-handed) who copied three-dimensional drawings were much more successful when using the left hand.
“Although the right hemisphere could not describe what it had seen, the sight nevertheless elicited an emotional response like the one evoked in the left hemisphere.”
TRUE.
“The overall conclusion drawn from the research reported in this article was that two different brains exist within each person’s cranium, each with complex abilities.”
:-bd
“Gazzaniga and Sperry, after years of continuous work in this area, suggested that each hemisphere of your brain really is a mind of its own.”
:-bd
TRUE OR FALSE: As proposed by Gazzaniga, in people whose brains are normal and intact, the two hemispheres are always in complete communication.
FALSE.
“Jerre Levy… claims that it is precisely because each hemisphere has separate functions that they must integrate their abilities instead of separating them, as is commonly believed. Through such integration, your brain is able to perform in ways that are greater than and different from the abilities of either side alone.”
:-bd
So… did she go against this study, because this study claimed two brains exist?
In conclusion, it seems that plenty of research supports the idea that our two brain hemispheres have separate, yet distinct, functions and influences.
TRUE.
