Topic Summaries

Hemispheric lateralisation and split brain research

A-Level > Psychology > AQA > A-Level Psychology Topic Summaries > Biopsychology > Hemispheric lateralisation and split brain research
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  • Split brain theory: the brain is split into two halves called the left and right hemisphere. It’s believed that different areas of the brains are responsible for different mental processes.
  • The left hemisphere: receives information from and controls the right side of the body. It receives information from the right visual field. Language is lateralised to the left for the majority of people.
  • The right hemisphere: receives information from and controls the left side of the body. It receives information from the left visual field.It provides the emotional context of speech.
  • Many functions are not lateralised to specific hemispheres; for example, vision and motor areas can be found in both hemispheres. The two hemispheres are joined together by a corpus callosum which allows them to communicate which each other. Patients with severe epilepsy may have their corpus collosum severed. Their hemispheres then became functionally separate.
    • 👥 Sperry and Gazzaniga’s (1967) split brain research examined 11 patients who had all had their corpus callosum severed. He presented information to either their left or right visual field for 1/10th of a second, noting that when information was presented to the left visual field, subjects could draw it but not name it, whereas in the right visual field, they could name the object both in writing and verbally. This supports hemispheric lateralisation as it demonstrates that the hemispheres have different functions.
    • 👥 Danelli et al. (2013) examined a patient called EB – a young boy who had almost all of the left hemisphere of his brain removed at age two and lost complete language abilities. However, this case study also challenges split brain theory as he regained some language ability with other brain areas taking over the function.

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