DOWN <-- --> TOP
(Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers)

Copyright © 1997, Jay Ligda.  All rights reserved.  Published by Humans in the Universe and Jay Ligda.

Split Brain Patients

      The cortex of the brain is divided into two hemispheres.   The left hemisphere is responsible for language based skills such as reading, writing speaking, and analytical skills.   The right hemisphere is responsible for sensory information and spacial relations.   The hemispheres communicate through a bundle of nerves called the corpus callosum.

      It was found that severing the corpus callosum in people with severe epilepse would ease their seizures (Jaynes, 1976).   This operation is called commissurotomy or split-brain operation.   The following is what we can learn from these people.

      In an experiment, a person who has undergone a split-brain operation is shown two different pictures with each eye (Jaynes, 1976).   Information received from the right eye processes in the left hemisphere of the brain while information received from the left eye processes in the right hemisphere.   The person is then asked to draw, without looking at the drawing, what they seen.   The person will draw what was shown to the left eye and processed by the right hemisphere.   If asked what they have drawn, once again without looking at the drawing, the patient will insist they have drawn what was seen in the right eye and processed by the left hemisphere (Jaynes, 1976).   There is a gap in the patient's perception.   These patients would behave relatively normal.   An outside observer would not see anything peculiar and the patients themselves would not feel any different after adjusting to their new condition (Jaynes, 1976).

      In another experiment, a patient was shown a series of photographs flashed into the different visual fields.   When a photo of a nude girl was flashed into the left visual field, the patient (who was probably male) would grin, giggle, and blush.   When asked what he saw he would say it was nothing but a flash of light (Jaynes, 1976).   This patient's body is reacting to something that he is not aware of and cannot articulate in speech.

by Jay Ligda

(This work is a all or part of an original work first published/written for John F. Kennedy University: Final Integrative Project, Mar1996.)


DOWN <-- --> TOP
(Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers)

References


  • Jaynes, J. (1976).  The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.  Boston, MA:  Houghton Mifflin.

MAIL

E-mail Comments and Suggestions



DOWN <-- --> TOP
(Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers)