Split brain research

Roger Sperry (1968)

• Roger Sperry researched hemispheric lateralisation - the idea that the two hemispheres of the brain are functionally different - and created a series of experiments to research this
• A unique group of individuals who had all undergone a commissurotomy - their corpus callosum and other tissues connecting the two hemipsheres had been cut to control epileptic seizures, meaning there was no communication between the two hemispheres

Procedure

• Images or words were projected very quickly in the right or left visual field
• In a 'normal' brain, the corpus callosum would immediately share information between to two hemispheres
• Sperry investigated whether patients could describe what they had seen or pick up the item they had seen from a group of objects, which gave an indication as to which hemisphere was responsible for various functions

Findings

• When a picture of an object was shown to a patient's right visual field, the patient could easily describe  what was seen; however, if the same object was shown to the right visual field,…