Question

Split brain OR blindsight. Describe the phenomenon that you chose together with its neural basis and behavioral aspects. What is the significance of the phenomenon for consciousness research?

Answer 1

Roger sperry who won nobel prize for depicting the different activities and functions performed by the right and left hemisphere of the brain is known to be the pioneer in the research of split brain activity. Sperry disconnected the corpus callosum in different animals like cats and monkeys to study the function of each side of the brain. He found that if hemispheres were not connected, they functioned independently of one another, which he called a split-brain. The split-brain facilitate animals to memorize double the information. He was actually looking for the cure of epilepsy. The experiments are done to find this in which message is send to only one side of the brain, which s possible due to connecting tissue called corpus callosum.. in an experiment if a picture of face or ball is flashed to the left side of the screen, the image of the ball will be sent to the left occipital lobe. The person will be able to say that he or she sees a ball. If picture of a hammer is flashed to the left side of the screen the person will not be able to verbally identify the object. But if the left hand is used the person can point to the hammer. These researches help the researchers to find that left hemisphere is responsible for language, speech, handwriting, calculation or any kind of analysis. On the other hand right hemisphere is responsible for perception, visualization, spatial perception, recognition of faces, emotions, melodies, etc. It comprehends language but is not responsible for speech. the difference in processing between the left and right hemispheres of the brain are extremely subtle compared with, say, the larger differences between the function of the frontal lobes, involved in planning and decision making, and the posterior areas of the brain, involved in early visual processing. Comparing with the distinction between the cortex and the limbic system, or between the right hemisphere and the elbow. The patient in whom the corpus callosum is removed do not show the split consciousness so we can signify that split brain system do not result in split consciousness which is unified only, when sperry and Gazzaniga in their earlier work found that split-brain patients can only respond to stimuli in the right visual field with their right hand and vice versa. This was thought to be the evidence that corpus callosum is important factor which causes both hemispheres to gain their own consciousness. But work by many researchers like pinto shows the unity of consciousness in split brain patients.