hemispheric lateralisation

• lateralisation

  some functions of the brain are more dominant in one hemisphere than the other
• what connects the two hemispheres

  corpus collosum
• left hemisphere specialised for

  language
• right hemisphere specialised for

  facial recognition and navigation
• who completed split brain studies

  sperry
• Sperry brain studies outline

  natural experiment on epileptic patients who had their corpus collosum cut

  
• AO3 - differences found

  differences were found between the left and right hemispheres

  • left for speech + language
  • right for visuospatial processing and facial recognition
• AO3 - lateralisation has been criticised

  suggested that early findings were incorrect or incomplete

  e.g. split brain research suggests that the right hemisphere is unable to handle any language functions but case studies have found this to be untrue
• AO3 - right hemisphere Turk

  studied patient JW

  developed the capacity to speak using the right hemisphere

  however, no confirmation wether the corpus collosum was completely cut because of no brain scans - residual fibres could still be connecting
• AO3 - methodological validity 


  no baseline data in the patients mental capacities before the operation

  only subjective data from the patients themselves

  lowers validity
• AO3 - population validity


  split brain procedure is rarely carried out nowadays