Split Brain And Lateralisation Flashcards
1
Q
Hemispheric lateralisation
A
- the idea that the two halves of the brain are functionally different and that certain mental processes and behaviours are mainly controlled by one hemisphere rather than the other
2
Q
Left brain activities
A
- analytical tasks
- control of right side of the body
- emotional content of language
3
Q
Right brain activities
A
- recognition
- drawing
- music
- face
- spatial tasks
4
Q
Corpus callosum
A
- a bundle of nerve fibres that connect the two hemispheres
- in rare cases of extreme epilepsy the surgeon may cut the corpus callosum to seperate right and left hemispheres
5
Q
Sperry
A
- split brain patients where shown an image to their right visual field, they were able to describe in words what they saw -> however when shown to the left, they weren’t able to describe what they saw
-> this may be because visual info from the left side is processed in the right and language processing primarily occurs in the left hemisphere - so the visual data in the right hemisphere could not be shared to the left to describe what they saw
- despite not being able to use words to describe the image shown to the LVF they could use their hands to pick up objects associated with the image
- left is controlled by right as motor cortex is contra lateral image shown to the left would have been processed in the same right hemisphere
6
Q
Strengths of hemispheric lateralisation + split brain
A
- a mixture of quasi and case studies so are able to provide both quantitative and qualitative data
- highly specialised and standardised procedures
- produced an impressive and sizeable body of research
7
Q
Limitations of hemispheric lateralisation + split brain
A
- pop-psychological literature overemphasises and oversimplifies the functional distinction between the hemispheres based on split brain research
- modern neuroscientists contented that the actual distinction is much messier than verbal and non-verbal distinctions
