Split brain patients

Question 1

Language production and comprehension

Answer 1

Most lateralised of human cognitive functions (mostly left)

Broca (mr Leborgne (tan)) and Lelong, suffering from aphasia

Question 2

Corpus callosum

Answer 2

Connection of the two halves. Used tot think it was just to hold shape, bc lesion didn’t seem to do a lot (no personality/intellect/sensory change)
More connections:
- Anterior commisure
- Posterior commisure (subcortical nuclei)

Corpus callosum consists of
- Rostrum
- Genu
- body
- Splenium

Question 3

WADA test

Answer 3

test used to check where language lateralisation sits.
- anasthetise one half, check if it results in aphasia (inability to speak/comprehend)

Left hemi can’t remember what the right did after it regains consciousness.
Right hemi can remember but can’t put it into words

Question 4

Protagonists (split brains)

Answer 4

Van Wagenen performed the first for epilepsy

Bogen first to do full split

Sperry and Gazzaniga discovered the phenomenon

Question 5

Main findings

Answer 5

Left hemi dominance for language and speech

Presenting to one half, fixation is important to only get information to one half of the brain (lateralisation)

Posterior part of the callosum still allows abstract info about the stimulus to cross to the other side

Question 6

Remaining capabilities for ‘ unseen ‘ stimuli

Answer 6

Drawing
Selecting, pointing
Matching objects to words
Simple semantics (what goes on it, saddle on horse)
Recognizing family (Sperry)
Recognizing famous people (eg matching FFA stronger on the right)
Emotional response (eg bad w hitler

Question 7

Left vs right hemi

Answer 7

Left tries to seek patterns and sequences, eg tries to match in the Iowa gambling task. Tries to make sense of the world. Due to Left dominance, we tend to always search/see patterns (even in completely random things) (brain interpreter)

Right hemisphere is more analysing, down to earth, would always maximise