PSYB65H3 Chapter 15: Human Brain and Behaviour-Ch.15 Notes
Document Summary
The corpus callosum is severed to prevent the spread of seizures from one brain hemisphere to the other. The procedure is medically beneficial for many epileptic patents, leaving them seizure free with minimal effects on their everyday behaviour. However there are some cases in which the effects are more apparent: When a subject with split brain was asked to perform a task with his right hand, the subject experienced great difficulty. When a subject with split brain was asked to perform a task with his left hand, the subject performed the task rapidly and accurately. Thus this showed that the right hemisphere, which controls the left hand, has more visuospatial capabilities that the left hemisphere does not. Split brain: surgical disconnection of the two hemispheres in which the corpus callosum is cut. Studies of split brain patients reveal that the left and right hemisphere engage in fundamentally different types of thinking.
