When neuroscientists first made direct contact with the right hemisphere of the brain, during neurological tests of "split brain" human subjects, it was as if they had found intelligent, albeit speechless, life on Mars. At a time when brain imaging techniques were crude or nonexistent, the only way to observe and communicate with the brain's right hemisphere unimpeded by the left hemisphere was by testing split brain subjects (1). The right hemisphere, previously supposed mute, illiterate, mentally retarded, and completely subordinate to the left hemisphere, had a mind of its own (1). While it could not speak, it could respond to commands and questions via its contralateral control of the left hand. It had different abilities and even opinions and emotional states than the neighboring left hemisphere (2). These discoveries led to a model of hemispheric specialization of normal human brain function, with an analytic, verbal, problem solving left hemisphere and a visuospatial, synthetic, creative right hemisphere (1, 2). The formation of this model in turn offers insight into the brains of the observers as well as the observed. The observers' behavior supported some of their own hypotheses about the human brain, split or unsplit.
The term "split-brain" is commonly used to describe a person whose corpus callosum has been surgically severed (3). The corpus callosum, comprised of approximately 200 million neuronal fibers connecting the left and right hemispheres of brain, exists only in mammals' brains, and is largest in human brains (1, 3). Until the 1960's neuroscientists were unsure what purpose the corpus callosum served (3). By observing deficits in split brains' functions, scientists could better assess the corpus callosum's function (1).
Roger Sperry and his colleagues pioneered the operation severing the corpus callosum, known as callosal commisurectomy, in the 1960s, as a last ditch effort to control the seizures of life threateningly severe epilepsy by creating a fire wall to prevent electrical impulses from traveling between hemispheres (1). This treatment was successful, and after recovering from the surgery, the split-brain patients appeared normal in every day interactions and even during a routine physical exam (1). However, Sperry and his colleagues, after extensive and specific neurological tests of split brain patients, posited that the corpus callosum communicated stimuli and responses between the two hemispheres, each specialized for different cognitive functions (1).
Using a tachistoscope, Sperry delivered visual stimuli to a single visual field of the subject (1). He discovered that, with the exception of olfactory stimuli, the hemispheres of the brain receive sensory stimuli and exercise motor control contralaterally (1, 3, 5).
The concept about the split-brain cases is two hemisphere separate apart, where means the left side focus on the left side, the right side focus on the right side (Parfit 378). He thinks that the concept of the split-brain and the normal brain are both true. Parfit denies that there are no person involved, also the ego theory doesn’t exist. He believes that once the brain has split apart, it has two separate streams of consciousness (Parfit 378). So, he claims that instead of asking “what happened to the original self?,” he says there is no ‘self’ (Parfit 379). Even though there are different events happened at the same time, that is not equal to different egos. “There are not here two different possibilities, one of which be true. These are
Scientists are on the brink of doing the unthinkable-replenishing the brains of people who have suffered strokes or head injuries to make them whole again. If that is not astonishing enough, they think they may be able to reverse paralysis. The door is at last open to lifting the terrifying sentence these disorders still decree-loss of physical function, cognitive skills, memory, and personality.
One of the most memorable case studies I read about in high school psychology was the procedure of removing large portions, sometime half the brain, to treat young children with epileptic seizures. This procedure, called hemi-spherectomy, was developed in the 1920's but rarely performed due to complications (8). With the advances in medicine today, it has become a more common practice in treatment severe epilepsy. At first, though the procedure was expected to stop the seizures, doctors did not expect these children to ever function normally. After all, with so much of the brain missing, it is hard to expect much of the mental functions of these children. Surprisingly, these children often retained much of their personality, memories and sense humor (8), awing their doctors with the flexibility of the brains to adjust after such invasive surgery.
The cerebrum consists of two hemispheres, separated by a deep fissure called the Corpus Callosum, the hemispheres are divided into four lobes; the frontal, partials, occipital and temporal.
With the rising sea level it has already submerged a northwest island in the Hawaii region. This island goes by the name of whale skate. This island has disappeared and the rest of the islands up in that region are at steak for being under water. The islands are housing wildlife that are found nowhere in the world except these islands and most of these animals are endangered.
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
...ther people are undoubtedly do to the uniqueness of the human brain. However, the statements suggesting causality and global functioning of mirror neurons are misleading. Mirror neurons are only one important piece of a very complex puzzle.
Historically, cognitive psychology was unified by an approach based on an resemblance between the mind and a computer, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). Cognitive neuroscientists argue convincingly that we need to study the brain while people engage in cognitive tasks. Clearly, the internal processes involved in human cognition occur in the brain, and several sophisticated ways of studying the brain in action, including various imaging techniques, now exist, (Sternberg and Wagner, 1999, page 34).Neuroscience studies how the activity of the brain is correlated with cognitive operations, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). On the other hand, cognitive neuropsychologists believe that we can draw general conclusions about the way in which the intact mind and brain work from mainly studying the behaviour of neurological patients rather than their physiology, (McCarthy and Warrington, 1990).
...stantly lately and once the current dominant fantasy ceases to work the alternative fantasy will replace it.
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
... Parsons, L.M., Bower, J., Xiong J., Li J., & Fox, P. (1996). Cerebellum Implicated in Sensory Acquisition and Discrimination Rather Than Motor Control. Science, 272, 545-547.
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.
I decided to read the book by David Harley called Viruses Revealed. This book goes into great detail about the different kinds of viruses and virus mechanisms, the solutions to these viruses, studies on different cases of viruses and then the social aspects of viruses. In the first part of the book, Harley talks about the problems with viruses. A virus is a program that infects other programs to modify them. “Infecting means that a virus will insert itself into the chain of command” (Harley). The virus structure was defined into three different parts: Infection, Payload, and Trigger. The infection is defined as the way or ways in which the virus spreads. The payload is defined as what the virus does besides duplicating itself. Trigger is defined as the procedure that decides whether or not the payload is necessary. Harley also talks about the difference between damage versus infection. The major difference between the two is that many users have infected documents or applications on their computer. Whether or not those applications are run is the difference between the two. In part one Harley also converses about Trojan Horses. Trojan horses are normally known as a virus, but he shoots that down. Harley says that Trojan Horses are normally not viruses, but just a worm that goes from computer to computer. After talking about different kinds of viruses and worms, he goes into Anti-Virus softwares. There are two different kinds of anti-viruses. One being virus-specific. Virus-specific means that every time a virus is found on your computer, it is identified but not detected. Generic scanners do the opposite. Generic scanners detect viruses but do not identify them.
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.