Hemispheric Lateralisation

• Define hemispheric lateralisation.


  Certain mental processes and behaviours are controlled or dominated by one hemisphere rather than the other (as in the example of language).

  
• Corpus callosum


  A band of neural fibres that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

  
• Split-brain studies.


  Corpus callosum cut in patients with severe epilepsy, allowing researchers to investigate the extent to which brain function is lateralised.

  
• Describing what you see.

  Pictures shown to RVF could be described but not those to LVF because no language centres in left hemisphere (connected to RVF).

  
• Recognition by touch.


  Could not describe objects projected to LVF, but able to select a matching object from a selection of different objects using their left hand.

  
• What is Hemispheric Lateralisation?


  - Two hemispheres are not exactly the same, each has its own functional specialisations

  - Left is dominant for language and speech, right for visual-motor tasks
• What is Split-Brain Research?

  - When the bundle of fibres making the corpus callosum are cut, the connection between the 2 hemispheres is severed