Cerebral Hemispheres : Connection And Separation

The human brain is a wondrous invention that has many scientists and researchers very busy to this very day. There are numerous qualities about the brain humans know about, yet there are still a great number of mysteries to the brain and how it functions left to be discovered and shared. Some facts scientists do know about the brain is that it is divided into to primary sections, called hemispheres. Each person has a left and right hemisphere of the brain. Each hemisphere is in charge of specific abilities, tasks, and functions. This paper will review what each hemisphere is responsible for and describe ways that each hemisphere is predisposed to learn.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor describes her experience of a stroke in her left hemisphere on December 10, 1996 causing her to lost the ability to move or talk, as well as her self awareness. Throughout her presentation, she mentions the basic functions of the two hemispheres of our brain: right and left hemisphere. Taylor argues both sides of the brain functions differently and process various of information. Taylor defines the right hemisphere of the human brain is about the “present moment” or “right here, right now”, it processes with pictures and learn physically based on our movements. She compares the right hemisphere to a “parallel processor”, whereas she compares the left hemisphere as a “serial processor”. Taylor defines the left hemisphere

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the correlational method as a means for examining the relationship between functions of the left and right hemispheres. I will compare the performance of people with intact brains with the performance of so-called split-brain patients. In many ways, the brains of these two groups are very similar. 1a. The brain stem is found in the deepest part of the brain. The brainstem controls the automatic survival functions of the body, such as breathing. There are no differences between the function of the normal brainstem and the brain of a split brain patient. The brainstem will still supply the automatic survival functions of the body. 1b. The hippocampus is found in the limbic system along with the amygdala, the hypothalamus. The hippocampus is in charge of allowing the body to process information into memories. Without the hippocampus, there is no way for new memories to be created. There is no anatomical difference between the hippocampus in the normal brain and a split brain. 1c. The corpus callosum is found in the center of the brain. The role it plays as a part of the brain is it connects both the left and right hemispheres of the brain, allowing them to work and interact together as a whole system. The difference between the anatomy of the corpus callosum in a split brain patient versus someone without a

* In split-brain surgery the bundle of fibers that connects cerebral hemispheres (the corpus callosum) is cut to reduce the severity of epileptic seizures.

This article is about splitting two brains or what if right brain doesn’t communicate with the left side and vice versa. Sperry and Gazzaniga did a research of split brain and related studies are often cited in psychology texts. They said that to understand the whole concept of the split brain you also need a knowledge of human psychology. It is very fascinating the methods they use to explain how our right and left side of brains collaborate. Corpus Callosum is the connection between the two brains it is made of nerve fibers. If this is damaged than you communication between the two brains is disrupted and they have to work individually.

Using a real human brain, Dr. Taylor explained the separation of the brain’s right and left hemispheres. The two cerebral cortices are completely separate from one another, but maintain communication via the corpus callosum. She described the right hemisphere as a parallel processor, thinking in images and learning from body movement. The right hemisphere is responsible for gathering sensory input, in the form of energy, from the environment around us. The left hemisphere, according to Dr. Taylor, is a serial processor, interpreting the sensory information gathered by the right hemisphere. The sensory information is analyzed and categorized by the linear and methodical thinking of the left hemisphere. Dr. Taylor believes the left hemisphere is responsible for interpretation of the past and future, as well as, an individual’s self-awareness. The

The results of this study show us the brain is not in fact symmetrical and the two hemispheres in the brain work in different ways. The left hemisphere is known to play the dominant role, which is in control of all complex behavioural and cognitive processes as for the right hemisphere it only plays a minor role. This report will further analyse how different the two hemisphers is the dominant side of the brain.

Taylor, a scientist studied the biological and chemical variants in mental illness (Taylor, 2013). Her interest in schizophrenia arose from desire to understand the inner workings of her brothers’ brain. Prior to her stroke Taylor (2013), was a researcher in the department of psychiatry at Harvard as well as advocate for the National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI) In 1996, at the age of 37-years-old she was able to analyze her stroke through scientific and personal perspectives (Taylor, 2013). As result of her stroke and education, Taylor (2013) theorizes that the right hemisphere and left hemisphere function differently from one another. Specifically, that the right hemisphere is an energy connected to the

My understanding of both a normal function brain and split brain allows us to appreciate the fact that much of our processing takes place outside of conscious awareness is that since our brain keep working and keep processing the information, even though some of us have split brain due to some disease call epilepsy (seizure), it allow us to realize that it won’t stop the brain to work from having a split brain but maybe it will give us some kind of abilities to do something that a normal function brain person can’t do. We only have one brain but for those who have seizure, the corpus callosum are being cut to make it go way. The cerebral hemispheres are divide into two hemisphere right and left and they communicate with each other through some

I decided to write my literature after going through one of the textbooks in my physiological psychology course and remembered about the cerebral hemispheres, which receives sensory information from opposite sides of the body. This got interested in the topic of cerebral hemispheres and sensory information after a split brain operation. The split brain procedure is a surgical operation that’s used for people that have severe epilepsy that can’t be controlled by the drugs they take. In the brains of people with severe epilepsy, the nerve cells on one side of the brain are overactive and the overactivity is relayed to the other side by the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerve cells that connect certain parts of one side of the brain to the other. The corpus callosum enables the left and right side of the brain to share information so that both sides knows what the other is doing and perceiving. Both sides of the brain engage in out of control activity that stimulate each other, causing stereotypical seizures that recur throughout the day preventing the person from living a normal life. Neurosurgeons have discovered that severing the corpus callosum greatly reduces the often recurring seizures.

Walter Dandy, an American neurosurgeon unintentionally paved the way into research on split-brain patients in the 1930s. Split-Brain refers to patients who have had their corpus callosum severed to some extent or in whole. This procedure was mainly used as an extremely invasive surgical procedure within patients suffering from intractable epileptic seizures. The corpus callosum consists of over 200 million nerve fibres connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain and enables corresponding regions to communicate. During one of Dandy’s surgeries, he had to cut through corpus callosum of a patient in order to get to an underlying pineal tumour. Following surgery, Dandy observed and performed psychological and cognitive tests and concluded that splitting the corpus callosum did not cause any changes in cognitive behaviour

The brain is divided down the middle into two hemispheres; each hemisphere is responsible for performing certain types of tasks. These tasks and types of thinking tend to be more associated with a particular region of the brain. The right and left halves of the brain are joined by fibers called the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum delivers messages from one side to the other. The left half of the human brain, which controls the right side of the body, is known for having more logical and objective- based qualities and characteristics. This half of the brain is active when carrying out analytical skills and methodical duties that involve language, logic, critical thinking, numbers, and reasoning.

As discussed in our book the loss of an entire cerebral hemisphere is survivable because the functions for survival are duplicated in both the right and left hemispheres. However, the loss of a cerebral hemisphere does not mean that the person’s ability to function will not be impaired. The loss of a cerebral hemisphere could result in several things including: motor, language, visual, sensory, and cognitive difficulties. Furthermore, as the book states “…it would cause unilateral paralysis, blindness, and loss of somatic sensation, and could cause a loss of speech or language comprehension.” The hypothalamus is much more sensitive as we learned in Anatomy one. This is the area of the brain that is referred to as “indispensable to life”. It

This operation is called a hemispherectomy. This operation has no known effects on patient’s body. A hemispherectomy is performed when a person may have a mental illness or a seizure disorder. ”Nowadays, the surgery is performed on patients who suffer dozens of seizures every day…” ("Strange but True: When Half a Brain Is Better than a Whole One.”

Without the corpus callosum, communication between the two hemispheres would not be able to happen, no messages would be carried. But if we were to split Mr. Cava's brain in two,destroying the corpus callosum, he would barely change. The way he perceives information would differ. Hand-eye coordination would be a disaster.