Breakdown information and notes on Brain research into hemispheric lateralisation.
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Split - Brain research into hemispheric lateralisation
KEY WORDS :
● Hemispheric Lateralisation - the idea that 2 halves (hemispheres) of the brain are
functionally different and that certain mental processes and behaviours are mainly
controlled by one hemisphere rather than the other, as in the example of language
(which localised as well lateralized)
● Split - Brain research - a series of studies which began in the 1960 (and are still
ongoing) involving epileptic patients who had experienced a surgical separation of
the hemispheres of the brain. This allowed researchers to investigate the extent to
which brain function is lateralized.
SPLIT - BRAIN RESEARCH:
● Hemispheric lateralisation -
➔ Ability to produce and understand language is controlled by the left
hemisphere for most people
➔ Language is subject to hemispheric lateralisation. The specialised areas
associated with language are found in one of the brain’s hemispheres rather
than both
➔ Roger Sperry et al conducted experiments to investigate if other neural
processes are organised in the same way the language is organised. His
experiment was also known as “split-brain research”
➔ He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1981
● Split -Brain studies -
➔ Sperry’ study included a unique group of individuals, all undergo surgical
procedures
➔ The operation is called a commissurotomy - in which the corpus callosum and
other tissues which connect the 2 hemispheres were cut down in the middle
to separate the 2 hemispheres and control frequent and severe epileptiz
seizures.
➔ The main communication line between the 2 hemispheres for these split-
brain patients was removed
➔ Ther realised that the 2 hemispheres were specialised for certain functions
and whether the hemispheres performed tasks independently of one another
● Procedure -
➔ Sperry divided a general procedure where an image or word could be
projected to a patient’s right visual field (processed in left hemisphere)
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