The brain and neuropsychology:

Sperry (1968) Hemisphere

Deconnection and Unity in
Conscious Awareness
Learning objective:
The understand the aims, procedures, findings, results and evaluation of the study

Use the iPads to research the role

of the corpus callosum in our brains
 True or False
•Are the following statements True or False?
 True or False
The brain is composed of two cerebral
hemispheres: the left and the right
hemisphere. These hemispheres are
connected in the brain by the corpus
callosum.

TRUE
 True or False
The Corpus Callosum is an area in the
brain responsible for language

FALSE
 True or False
Having a split brain means that
the corpus callosum has been
severed.

TRUE
 True or False
In epilepsy one hemisphere is usually
responsible, when a person has an epileptic
fit, there is an electric storm in one
hemisphere of the brain.

TRUE
 True or False
Patients with severe epilepsy who had
not responded to treatment are offered
surgery where the cerebellum is cut to
help reduce their seizures.

FALSE
 True or False
Sperry’s experiment was conducted in (1958)

FALSE
 True or False
The left hemisphere of the brain is dominant
for language

True
Role of the Corpus Callosum
• It consists of about 200 million axons that interconnect the two
hemispheres.
• The primary function of the corpus callosum is to integrate motor,
sensory, and cognitive performances between the cerebral cortex on
one side of the brain to the same region on the other side
• Allows the two hemispheres to communicate with each other
 Aims - Sperry (1968)
• The aim of the study was to show the
independence and conscious
awareness possessed by each
hemisphere
• In 1968 Sperry studied what effects
could be seen in these patients by
monitoring how they processed
information using their ‘split-brain’
• He was interested to see how the
split-brain compares to a normal brain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMLzP1VCANo&t=3s
 Procedure
• 11 participants who had their corpus callosum cut were part of the
study.
• All the participants were epileptics and had previously had surgery to
deal with their severe epileptic convulsions.
• All participants were those who had had this surgery to severe their
corpus callosum at least 5 years before the study.
• Given various tasks to test how they processed different types of
information in the split brain
 Procedure
• So the left side of each eye would pick up one image (one on the
right) while the right side of each eye would pick up on the other
image (on the left)
• We have two visual fields (this must not be confused with our two
eyes) The left visual field is what we can see with our left and the
right visual field is what we can see with our right.
• Information on the right of the visual field would be passed to the left
hemisphere whilst the left would be passed to the right hemisphere
Procedure: Visual Task
• Participants focused on the centre of a
screen on which information was presented
to the left and right side of the visual field at
the same time
• Two different words or pictures were
presented – one of the left and one on the
right.
• This means that the left side of each eye
would pick up one image (the one on the
right) while the right side of each eye would
pick up the other image (the one on the left)
• Information on the right visual field will be
passed to the left hemisphere and vice versa
• Participants would then be asked to say the
word/picture they had seen on the screen
Procedure: Selecting Task
• Occasionally, rather than say the
word/pictures, the participants
would be asked to point to an item or
picture
• They would be shown a variety of
objects or pictures including the one
they had just been shown
• They would then identify what they
had seen using either the same hand
or the hand on the opposite side of
the body
Procedures: Unseen objects to
be identified
• Other variations included putting unseen objects into one of the
hands and asking them to identify them from touch alone, and
placing different objects in each hand and then asking them to feel
for them in a large pile of different objects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMLzP1VCANo&t=3s
 Results
• Results for the tasks involving reading words or selecting objects
were seen to be different;
• When words were shown to the right visual field, the patients had no
problem repeating the word back to the researcher
• However when words were shown the left visual field (sent to the right
hemisphere), patients had trouble saying what they had seen
• If a word or picture was shown to the left visual filed (right hemisphere), the
participants had little trouble selecting an object that matched what they
had seen. When the word or picture was shown to the right visual field (left
hemisphere) they participants struggled to point to the correct object
 Results
• Similar results were found for objects presented to each hand:
• When objects were felt by the right hand (processed in the left hemisphere),
they could name the object. When objects were felt by the left hand
(processed in the right hemisphere) they found it difficult to name the
object
• When two different objects were given to the participant – one in each hand
– and after they were asked to feel around in a pile of objects for the two
objects, they could only identify each item with the hand that originally held
it. If the opposite hand picked up the item, they could not identify it as the
item they had held before
 Conclusions
• Each hemisphere is capable of working well without being connected
to the other side
• Each hemisphere has its own memories and without the corpus
callosum these cannot be shared between sides
• This can cause some problems
• Left hemisphere is better at naming items as we have language
centres here
• Right hemisphere is better at identifying objects by feeling for them
(feel with left hand if originally held in left hand) as we have motor
movement centres here
 Evaluation
Read the evaluation points and expand
on them to turn them into well
developed evaluation points
Whiteboards
What is the left hemisphere dominant for?

Answer:

Language
Whiteboards
Why could participants say what they could see when something was
presented to their right visual field?

Answer:
Because the left visual field is processed in the right
hemisphere and we don’t have language centres
here so we can’t see what we can see. The right
visual field information is processed in the left
hemisphere which is where we have language
centres so we can say the item
Whiteboards
Why could participants select the object correctly when it was
presented to their left visual field?

Answer:
Because the left visual field is processed in the right
hemisphere and we have motor movement centres
here so we are able to select objects
Whiteboards
What is the role of the corpus callosum?

Answer:
The primary function of the corpus callosum is to
integrate motor, sensory, and cognitive
performances between the cerebral cortex on one
side of the brain to the same region on the other
side
Allows the two hemispheres to communicate with
each other
Whiteboards
How many participants were involved in Sperry’s study and who were
they?

Answer:
11 and they were people who had had their corpus
callosum removed to attempt to control seizures.
This meant that their hemispheres of their brain
could not communicate with each other so it was a
good opportunity for Sperry to see what each
hemisphere is dominant for
Whiteboards
What is a weakness of Sperry’s study

Answer:
11 participants = small sample = not representative
of the whole population = difficult to generalise the
findings
Whiteboards
What does hemispheric lateralisation mean?

Answer:
Lateralisation is the idea that the two halves of the
brain are functionally different and that each
hemisphere has functional specialisations, e.g. the
left is dominant for language, and the right excels at
visual motor tasks.
Whiteboards
What were the 3 main tasks used in the procedure of Sperry’s study?

Answer:
Visual tasks:
Selecting tasks
Unseen object tasks
Homework
• Task 6