Split Brain

M.S. Gazzaniga, 1967, studied the split brain in people. He wanted to see how the two halves of the brain functioned by themselves. It was not until other discovered that cutting the corpus callosum actually stopped severe epileptic seizures that it was possible for Gazzaniga and Sperry to study them that made it okay. Gazzaniga found that the test peoples personality, intelligence and emotions did not change in any way. We use each half of our brains for specific skills. Three different tests were designed to check mental capabilities. It was found that the left “brain” is much better at math, writing, reading, and speaking, and the right “brain” is much better at recognizing faces, understanding spatial relationships, symbolic

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 the excerpt “Right Brain Rising”, Daniel Pink tells his experience in depth detail of an intriguing brain scan beneficial both to his curious mind, and the world of science. He then goes on to inform readers of the two distinct halves resting in our skulls; following up with the past inferiority associated with the human right brain, thought to be due to years of evolution. After acknowledging the disproved theory, Pink delves into information pertaining to psychology’s six

They also have trouble learning to perform new tasks that require interdependent movement of each hand, like playing the piano. This finding helped conclude that the corpus callosum helps in transfer of information and it is the co-ordination between the two hemispheres that lets us perform activities smoothly. The split of the two hemispheres ultimately made it so you cannot access information the other side of the brain controls. Now, Gazzaniga works at University of California, Santa Barbara teaching psychology so he can pass on knowledge to his students. Gazzaniga and his team of researchers are testing information transfer using a MEG, which maps the brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brain. Unlike split-brain surgery these techniques are non-invasive. He has made many books explaining his work and making information about brain function more accessible to the public. Gazzaniga deserves to be in the Hall of Fame due to his amazing contribution to psychology, his continued efforts in the field, and his willingness to share his findings to educate

Describe how an understanding of both a normally functioning brain and a split brain enables us to better appreciate the fact that most information processing takes place outside of

As shown in the chart, the split brain has a low correlation than the intact brain, which has a higher correlation. This proves that a person with a split brain cannot process information to the left and right. Face recognition is in the right side of the brain while vocabulary and reasoning in the left side of the brain. When comparing face and reasoning it only gave a low correlation same with face and vocabulary. Vocabulary and reasoning is in the left hemisphere, therefore, being a bit more stronger than the rest of the results. In the intact brain reasoning, vocabulary, and face are being processed to the left and right showing that they are laterized.

When a traumatic brain injury happens to the frontal “zone”, it is striking the brain’s largest lobe. The frontal lobe is anterior to the left and right cerebral hemispheres, this lobe is in charge for conscious thinking, voluntary responses, and personality traits. When someone is trying to find the right word or phrase to say, it is this part of the brain he or she may rely on. Destruction to this crucial lobe can create destruction to a person’s brilliance, attention span, and organizational efficiency, as well as the failure of

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.

This paper identifies HRB as the preferred tool to establish John's current level of cognitive function. The HRB shall start by assessing the pre-morbid level of functioning with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Wechsler, 1958), Information, Comprehension, Similarities subtest (Reitan & Wolfson, 1986). The battery incorporates several other tests and sub-tests as illustrated in Table 1 for more detailed description and what they aim to measure. Extensive studies support the validity of HRB (Boll, 1981, Franzen, 1989) and as per Dean (1985) this is one of the most often employed battery in the United States. It had been found potent for diagnostic purposes, is able to pinpoint lesion or tumour in many cases at the front, rare, left or right side of the hemisphere (Reitan, 1968). Justification of use includes that it is a notably reliable tool to classify brain damaged patients (Reitan, 1955), which were cross validated by other studies (Vega & Parsons, 1967) and it is suitable for clinical environments. As per Lezak (1995), the biggest advantage of the test is that it prompts the necessity to measure several behavioural and cognitive functions by psychologists when dealing with neuropsychological

The brain is one of the most complicated things ever researched. Typically the brain is split into two halves. The left side of a person’s brain is used for critical and analytical thinking. When the brain is faced with a serious problem the left brain

Yarnell’s response to her friend made me stop and think if it is just that simple, to think differently. When I get stressed out over something and let my emotions take over I usually just let them control me. Now after hearing Dr. Yarnell, every time and become emotional I am going to remind myself to just move into the left side of my brain. Hopefully by doing that I will be able to think more logically. I have heard of this concept before, but I did not have a full understanding on what it really meant. I thought that when some one said you were left brained or right brained, it was just a silly saying. I found it very surprising that it is actually a true concept. I is really amazing how the brain works and the many different functions of it. We discussed many other parts of the brain and how they work also. I just found that when discussing the brain, most of the parts were not as interesting as the two hemispheres. After class, I actually went home and used the terms of the hemispheres all night on my parents. My mom is a psych nurse so she understood, but when it came to my dad, it took a lot of explaining. After a few attempts, he was able to understand how fascinating the brain really can

Mead & Hampson (1996) developed a study involving the divided visual field paradigm and a phonological rhyme/non-rhyme task to test the speed and accurateness of either side of the brain. This study was used to investigate functional asymmetry between the left and right hemispheres in phonological processing. The research was taken out equally on 15 male and 15 females London Metropolitan University students ranging from ages 18 – 35 years old. They were all specifically chosen to be right–handed and had English as their first language thus providing a fair experiment to see whether our left hemisphere (left side of the brain) or the right hemisphere is faster and more accurate. In conclusion using the mean and standard

Left-right brain dominance is about the fact that the distinct hemispheres influence thinking. The left hemisphere is associated with logical, analytical thinking and a linear approach to problem solving. The right hemisphere is associated with creative, intuitive and value-based thought process. It is important to note that everyone uses its both hemispheres, but to varying degrees. Four quadrants of the brain, related to different thinking style, have been identified:

directly due to either being left brain or right brain. What is left brain or right brain you ask?

For many decades people have been considered to be either right or left side dominant in regards to brain function which came with defined roles such as “creative” or “analytical”. This thinking tends to be over-simplified as most people use their entire brains daily (Jensen, 2010). On the other hand people do use different parts of their brain for different tasks according to how they perceive those tasks.