Split Brain Research

Question 1

Who carried out split brain research

Answer 1

Sperry and Gazzaniga

Question 2

What are split brain patients

Answer 2

individuals with epilepsy whose surgeons cut their corpus callosum to prevent the violent electrical activity spreading from 1 hemisphere to the other

Question 3

what did participants in the Sperry and Gazzaniga experiment do

Answer 3

participants would focus on a dot whilst an image was presented on the left or right visual field then be asked to make responses either w their hands or verbally without being able to see what their hands were doing

Question 4

what principle was the Sperry and Gazzaniga experiment based on

Answer 4

the human body being contralateral and verbal responses being controlled by the left hemisphere

Question 5

what were Sperry and Gazzaniga’s findings

Answer 5

if the image was in the right visual field, participant could answer verbally but if the image was in the left visual field they but couldn’t

Question 6

how can Sperry and Gazzaniga’s findings be explained

Answer 6

information from the left vf is processed in the right hemisphere but there is no language centre there therefore there is no verbal response. the left hemisphere can respond verbally but can’t receive information from the left vf therefore participants can’t say what they saw

Question 7

what does Sperry and Gazzaniga’s experiment provide evidence for

Answer 7

localisation and lateralisation and the importance of connectivity between the two hemispheres