SPLIT BRAIN RESEARCH

Question 1

Describe the split brain experiment?

Answer 1

• A word is flashed briefly to the right field of view and the patient is asked what he saw
• Because the left hemisphere is dominant for verbal processing, the patients answer matches the word
• Now a word is flashed to the left field of view and the patient is asked what he saw
• The right hemisphere cannot share info with the left so the patient is unable to say what he saw but he can draw it

Question 2

How is the cerebrum involved in the research?

Answer 2

The corpus callosum messages to enter the right hemisphere to conveyed to the left hemisphere and vice versa

Question 3

What does the temporal lobe do and where is it located?

Answer 3

Location for the auditory and memory acquisition
Located at the front bottom of the brain

Question 4

What does the frontal lobe do and where does is it located?

Answer 4

The location for for awareness of what we are doing in our environment
Located at the front of the brain

Question 5

What does the parietal lobe do and where is it located?

Answer 5

Location for motor and sensory movement
Located in the middle centre of the brain

Question 6

What does the occipital lobe do and where is it located?

Answer 6

Location for vision
Located at the back middle of the brain

Question 7

Brain scan evaluation
Peterson (1988)

Answer 7

Peterson (1988) used brain scans to show how Wernicke’s area was active during listening exercises and Broca’s area was active during a reading task

Question 8

Neurosurgical evidence evaluation

Answer 8

• Most extreme treatment as it involves the destruction of healthy brain tissue:
• Lobotomy - removal of the brain tissue
• Leucotomy - cutting the connections to a particular part of the brain
• Neurosurgery is used to treat treatment - resistant severe depression and extreme OCD.

Question 9

Evaluation - Karl Lashley

Answer 9

• Argues that higher cognitive function are not localized
• Karl Lashley (1950) suggests that the basic motor and sensory functions were localised, but higher mental functions were not
  laimed that an intact area of the cortex could take over responsibility for specific cognitive functions following injury to the area normally responsible for that function. The effects of damage would be determined by extent rather than the location of the damage
  -This view received some support, humans were able to regain some of their cognitive abilities following brain damage.