Split Brain Research

• Sperry and Gazzaniga (1967) were the first to investigate hemispheric lateralisation with the use of split-brain patients
• Aim - To examine the extent to which the two hemispheres are specialised for certain functions
• Method - Split-brain patients who had their corpus callosum cut (as a treatment of severe epilepsy) had to undergo some tasks:

  • What you see: picture presented to either left or right field which had to be described
  • Tactile test: object placed in left or right hand and had to describe what they felt or select a similar object from a bunch of alternative ones
  • Drawing task: presented with a picture from either their left or right visual field and they simply had to draw what they saw
• Conclusion - Highlights a number of key differences between the two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is dominant in terms of language and speech where the right is dominant in terms of visual-motor tasks