The brain is split into two hemispheres- the right and the left one. It used to be that people thought the left hemisphere was the dominant one and that the right one was just kind of there. We now know that the right hemisphere isn't as limited as we once thought. In 1961, Philip Vogel and Joseph Bogen thought that major seizures were caused by an amplification of abnormal brain activity between the two hemispheres. They thought that they could reduce seizures if they cut the corpus callosum, which would mean cutting the connection between the two hemispheres.
This procedure was done, and indeed, the seizures were reduced. But there was even more to be discovered. After the procedure, people with "split brains" were left with brains that still functioned, and although they worked a bit differently, they were still right. Something very interesting occurred after the procedure. Both hemispheres functioned but no longer worked together. Here is one example:
When people who had gone through the surgery were shown a picture of a spoon via the right hemisphere, they could not say what they had seen. However, when feeling different objects they could identify the spoon as the object they had been shown.
Your assignment: Pick a question and go!
1) Give other examples of what else happened to patients who had split brain surgery?
2) Has anything else been recently discovered about this procedure?
3) Why do you think this was/is important for the world?
4) Explain why splitting the two hemispheres has an affect and changes certain things?
I think this was important for the world because we found out a lot through this like that the right hemosphere isn't as limited as we thought. It revealed many things about the brain and I think this will help further studies, or if someone gets into an accident and something happens with a part of the brain.
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