Hemispheres of the Brain
As I was reading the text I came upon a section that I thought to be quite fascinating. It talked about people who have a brain that functions like two different people inside of the brain. This is of course the Split-Brain
Personality. As I studied this topic in more detail I found it to be quite broad and yet very detailed. I found that I needed a dictionary to be able to read all of the medical journals and books that are out there, to be able to understand what it was exactly, that I was reading. But with a little study and research I found that this is a precise science that is still largely full of mysteries. The study of hemispheric asymmetry with in the cerebral cortex had long been a fascination with the human race. The ancient Aztec cultures used to perform a type of brain surgery on humans. This is evident from the human remains that we find with incisions and piece's missing of the skull. Whether or not these primitive surgeries were successful is unknown. The earliest way for man to observe the brain was by noticing brain damage to a particular area of the brain that was damaged. Such observations were first recorded some 5,000 years ago (Myers,1995). The most popular case is that of Phineas Gage a railroad worker that had severe frontal lobe damage. This happened when a rail road spike was shot through his head by a piece of dynamite. Miraculously he lived through the experience, but with a severe change in his personality. From this physiologists learned that personality was largely controlled from this point namely by removing a persons inhibitions.
For the most part the brain has been a mystery that is waiting to be opened. The last two decades have witnessed a period of research on the human cerebral functions comparable to the great era of discovery initiated by Broca in 1861(Young, G,. Segalowitz, S,. Corter, C,. Trehub, S,.1983). We have leaned more in the past 20 years about the brain and it's hemispheric asymmetry than we had learned in combined previous history.(Kosslyn, 1993). Most of this new work has been devoted to the study of cerebral functions in adults, but recently there has been a growing interest in infants and young children most especially among the study of hand preference. About 10 percent of the human population in left-handed(Myers,1995). By looking at ancient writings this right-hand preference has seemed to develop right from the start of the human race. It also is apparent that from ultrasound devises that about 9 in 10 fetuses suck
The symptoms of a right-hemisphere stroke are very much similar like the symptoms Mr. Fix-it is experiencing. For example, both suggest that functions on the left side of the body are completely neglected; therefore, the left visual section of the body does not respond effectively to stimuli due to the neglect. Damage to the right occipital lobe is very likely. The patient may have experienced some damage to areas 18 and 19 of the occipital lobe. “Damage to these association areas resulted in the patient’s failure to recognize items even when they have been seen before”, such as Mr. Fix-it’s deficiency to recognize geometric shapes (Carlson, 2010). Moreover, the patient could have also experience damage in the frontal lobe, specifically on area 8, in which it could have r...
...owell, E. R., Thompson, P. M., & Toga, A. W. (2004). Mapping changes in the human cortex
Witelson SF (1995) Neuroanatomical bases of hemispheric functional specialization in the human brain: Possible developmental factors. In Kitterle FL (Ed), Hemispheric communications: Mechanisms and Models. (pp. 61-84) New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated, Inc., Publishers.
Experiments performed on animals and humans are showing that the brain has evolved to shape itself according to what it e...
applied to vampire stories. When you study the literature extensively, you identify that the story
The corpus callosum binds the left and right hemispheres of the brain together, both physically and communicatively. After this operation has been performed, there was a remarkable development with how we perceive things and some of the results showed how much we rely on the connection between the two halves of our brain. There are also advantages of having a split brain. A study performed by Rogers et al, 2004 found that when you have two halves of a brain then it increases your ability to both look for food and watch for predators at the same time. Possibly demonstrating that the connections between our ancestors’ brain hemispheres were less developed. Another advantage is having the ability to read two pages at once. Of course, there are more disadvantages than advantages of having a split brain. An example of one is the most famous split brain study of all time, Sperry, 1968. In this study each participant, all having two halves of a brain, was shown two different images. One in each visual field and when asked to draw the image they had just seen they would draw the image they saw on the left but they would describe it as the image they saw on the right. This shows that the left side of the brain, which controls the right visual field, contains the information to be able to describe an object when seen
The brain has four major lobes. The frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the occipital lobe, and temporal lobe are responsible for all of the activities of the body, from seeing, hearing, tasting, to touching, moving, and even memory. After many years of debating, scientist presents what they called the localization issue, Garret explains how Fritsch and Hitzig studied dog with conforming observations, but the cases of Phineas Gage’s accident in 1848 and Paul Broca’s autopsy of a man brain in 1861 really grabbed the attention of an enthusiastic scientific community (Garret 2015 p.6)
The corpus callosum binds the left and right hemispheres of the brain together, both physically and communicatively. After this operation has been performed, there was a remarkable development with how we perceive things and some of the results showed how much we rely on the connection between the two halves of our brain. There are also advantages of having a split brain. A study performed by Rogers et al, 2004 found that when you have two halves of a brain then it increases your ability to both look for food and watch for predators at the same time. Possibly demonstrating that the connections between our ancestors’ brain hemispheres were less developed. Another advantage is having the ability to read two pages at once. Of course, there are more disadvantages than advantages of having a split brain. An example of one is the most famous split brain study of all time, Sperry, 1968. In this study each participant, all having two halves of a brain, was shown two different images. One in each visual field and when asked to draw the image they had just seen they would draw the image they saw on the left but they would describe it as the image they saw on the right. This shows that the left side of the brain, which controls the right visual field, contains the information to be able to describe an object when seen
Young, A. W., Newcombe, F., Haan, E., Small, M., & Hay, D. C. (1993). Face perception after brain injury. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, Vol. 116, pp. 941-959.
Roger Sperry is one of the big Neurobiologists in the 1950’s. Sperry studied the relationship of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. In one of his experiments he flashed the word “Fork” in front of the patient. If the patient was asked to say the word he could not but if asked to right the word he would start to right the word “Fork”. This happed when the two brain hemispheres were disconnected from each other. At an another experiment he placed a toothbrush in the patients left hand and blind folded the patient and was asked to identify it they could not do it. But if placed in the right hand the patient would know right away what it was. That is just one of the types of study he did in his time.
In physiological terms, Broca's aphasia and Wernicke's aphasia occur in the left hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for controlling the right side of the body along with speech and language abilities. Broca's aphasia affects the frontal lobe adjacent to the primary motor cortex, and Wernicke's aphasia affects the posterior portion of the first frontal lobe (3). A general distinction made between the two disorders are that Broca's aphasia limits speech, while Wernicke's aphasia limits comprehension.
Nowadays, it is widely known that the right and left hemisphere have different functions. The two hemispheres are equally important in a daily life basis. Nevertheless, in the 1960’s this was not common knowledge. Even though today the importance of the brain hemispheres is common knowledge, people don’t usually know to whom attribute this findings. One of the people who contributed to form a more defined picture about the brain hemispheres and their respective functions was Roger Wolcott Sperry, with the split brain research. Roger Sperry did more contributions than the split brain research, but this is his most important and revolutionary research in the psychological field. Thanks to the split brain research, Sperry proved that the two hemispheres of the brain are important, they work together and whatever side of the brain is more capable of doing the task is the hemisphere that takes the lead.
Organizational Behavior. Because collaboration is key to organizational success, understanding how different personality types function will help me to become a better employee, co-worker, and manger.
In the video "Powerful Stoke of Insight," Dr. Taylor share a personal story of how she experienced when she had a stoke years ago. She vividly illustrated the distinct functions of left hemisphere and right hemisphere. Since her stoke occurred in the left hemisphere, she had a hard time to process language during the tragic event happened. She was paralysis and could not understand any of the word from 911 telephone operator when she finally reached the phone. According to Dr. Taylor, "Our right human hemisphere is all about this present moment, [and] our left hemisphere thinks linearly and methodically." Due to the reason that her stoke damaged her left hemisphere, she could not think logically at the moment. This presentation thoroughly explain the concept of lateralization in biological psychology research method. I find it very interesting because I never learn that each hemisphere do in charge of different functions that affecting our
...re of the brain is just half of the brain so why is it the only half being explored in school? This failure to confront the other hemisphere causes weakening in the right hemisphere since the right hemisphere isn?t being exercised.