Split-Brain Research (Biopsychology)

Question 1

Split Brain Overview

Answer 1

• Brain is contralateral
• Each hemisphere of the brain controls the opposite side of the body

Question 2

What does the visual cortex process?

Answer 2

The visual information from the opposite visual field

Question 3

Do the two hemispheres communicate and how are they connected?

Answer 3

Yes they do and they are connected by the Corpus Callosum which is a thick bundle of 200-300 million nerve fibres

Question 4

What is cutting the Corpus Callosum a procedure for and how was this done including what it led to?

Answer 4

Epilepsy

Each hemisphere was isolated from the other reducing epileptic symptoms with limited side effects

However unusual behaviour and a sense of loss of agency led to research

Question 5

Sperry 1968

Answer 5

• Split brain research a quasi experiment using 11 patients who’d undergone corpus callosotomy
• Found information presented to the left hemishpere could be spoken, but not spoken if delivered to the right hemishpere
• However the RH could draw or select the object by using the left hand
• Suggesting the hemishperes are both capable of acting independently

Question 6

Gazzaniga (1983)

Answer 6

• Split Brain research using patients who’d undergone corpus callosotomy
• Found that when each hemishpere of split-brain patients were presented with faces the right hemisphere was much more able to recognise them
• Suggesting that the right hemishpere is specialised for facial recognition

Question 7

(Evaluations for split-brain research) Demonstrated lateralised brain functions

Answer 7

the research was ground-breaking and produced impressive findings
research into the split-brain phenomenon appears to show that the left hemisphere is more geared towards analytic and verbal tasks, while the right is more adept at performing spatial tasks and music
the right hemisphere can only produce rudimentary words and phrases but contributes emotional and holistic content to language

left hemisphere = analyser
right brain = synthesiser

Question 8

Evaluations for split-brain research

Answer 8

Experiments used highly specialised and standardised procedures the method used was ingenious

There were only 11 who took part in all variations of the basic procedure, all of whom had a history of epileptic seizures - generalisable issue