split brain research with hemispheric lateralisation

Question 1

what is liberalization?

Answer 1

two hemispheres are functionally different and certain processes are controlled by certain hemispheres

Question 2

what is split brain research?

Answer 2

• began in the 60’s
• started with research into epileptic patients to see how lateralised brain function was after splitting the hemispheres

Question 3

what was Sperry early research with monkeys (68)?

Answer 3

• split hemisphere of monkeys and found no transfer of info between hemispheres and no noticeable different in behavior

Question 4

what was the procedure of Sperry’s 1968 split brain study?

Answer 4

• split the hemispheres by cutting corpus callosum of 11 epileptic patients
• projected image or word into RVF (LH) and a different image into LVF (RH)

Question 5

findings: describe what you see

Answer 5

• when image shown to LVF, person couldn’t describe what was there due to lack of language centers in RH

Question 6

findings: recognize by touch

Answer 6

• although they couldn’t describe object from LVF, they could pick it out using the left hand

Question 7

findings: composite words

Answer 7

• if 2 words presented, one to each visual field (key on left and ring on right)
• left hand select the key (LVF to RH to left hand) and right hand select the ring

Question 8

findings: matching faces

Answer 8

• RH dominant in face recognition

- asked to match face from series of faces - images seen by LVF and processed by RH (consistently detect right face)

Question 9

+ demonstrates laterlaisation

Answer 9

• Sperry research produce lots of findings , mainly that LH is analytical and verbal, and right is better at spatial tasks
• right can produce basic words but contributes most to emotional content of language

Question 10

+ strengths of methodology

Answer 10

• highly standardized procedure like presenting visual info to one hemisphere at a time for less than a second to stop other visual field seeing (controlled procedure)

Question 11

• issues with generalization

Answer 11

• sample of patients only 11
• all had history of seizures that could have caused changes to the brain, influencing findings
• some of the patients may have experienced for hemispheric disconnection due to the surgery