Video 5 is about split brain patients. The cortex is the wrinkly thing that we usually picture when we think about the brain. The cortex orchestrates talents and skills, and is made up of millions of networks of nerve cells.
The brain has two halves- the right and the left. They look the same, but really they aren't. They are asymmetrical. The two sides have different skills and abilities, and each side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body. For example, if you move your left hand it is because of processes and functions happening in the right side of the brain. However, both sides communicate with each other through the corpus collosum, which attaches the two hemispheres.
Sometimes doctors cut the corpus collosum to control seizures in epileptics. We can study split brain people to understand the functions of the two hemispheres.
One patient, Vicky, was tested, and we are shown a video of her testing. Pictures were flashed to her right and left visual fields, and she had to say what the pictures were. When flashed to the right she could identify it, but when flashed to the left she could not (this was a picture of a woman on the phone). She could say a woman, but she could not say phone. When they had her write, with her left hand and her eyes closed, what she saw, she wrote telephone. The image was sent to the right side of her brain beforehand, and so she could only say that she saw a woman. But she wrote out telephone. Then when she saw what she had written, and both hemispheres go the message, the left hemisphere could finally say, "phone."
I hadn't known that she would even be able to say woman. I thought she shouldn't have been able to say woman or phone, but she might be able to write both of them out. I was wrong though. You learn something new everyday.
I think this is so interesting to see how patients react to tests like that. One can really learn so much from their results since that was probably also a way to see which side was in charge of what. I learned about the different areas like the Broca or Wernicks area and that they are incharge of language and speech and I am sure that this discovery helped then understand more fully why the patients were reacting this way.
ReplyDeleteZahava,
ReplyDeleteI too didn't think Vicky would be able to say woman or phone. I guess that sort of plays into what Mrs. Perl kept stressing to us during this chapter, that most of what we say is a bit simplified. Just because you're left brained doesn't mean you have no skill in math, and you're going to fail every math class you ever take. In fact, you can be superb math student! If we could only do the skills that each brain hemisphere enables us, we probably would not be able to function. Everything is not black and white, and it is important to realize that when studying psychology!
I think it's amazing how she was able to only write the word telephone when she was blind folded but was still able to say woman when she couldn't say phone. It is crazy that once she was able to see the picture and connect it to what she wrote she could then say the word. I guess this makes sense to me in a way, but it is so odd . I would think that a split brain patient would have a lot of trouble and would never be able to put two and two together but apparently they can!
ReplyDelete