split brain research

• involves severing the connection between right and left hemisphere mainly the corpus collosum used to reduce epilepsy. during epileptic seizure brain experiences excessive electrical activity travelling from one hemisphere to another
• procedure: 11pps split brain. image set up so rvf same/ diff image projected to lvf. normal brain corpus collosum share info between hemispheres but split brain info cannot be transferred
• findings: picture of object shown to rvf pps could describe image but when lvf unable to describe. eventhough couldnt give verbal signs coukd match to same object
• conclusions: observations show how certain functions are lateralised in the brain and support5s lh is verbal and rh silent and emotional
• +research support. gazzainga 1989 showed that split-brain ppl perform better than connected brain ppl on certain tasks they were faster at identifying the odd one out in a row of objects than normal controls. in normal brain lh better cognitive strategies are watered down by rh. supports sperrys findings that the hemispheres are distinct
• -casual relationships hard to establish. behaviour of sperrys split brain pps compared to neurotypical group. issue is that none of the control group had epilepsy which is a confounding variable as any difference observed may be a result of the epilepsy rather than split brain. means that some of the functions such as cognitive abilities may be due to epilepsy
• split-brain operation not performed for the purpose of research so pps not deliberately harmed . all procedures were explained to pps and gained full informed consent. but the trauma of the operation may mean that pps didnt fully understand the implications of what they had agreed, and each of the pps were subject to repeated testing pover time which can be stressful