(2 points) Gazzaniga\'s experiments with split-brain patients also led him to ad
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(2 points) Gazzaniga's experiments with split-brain patients also led him to advance the notion that the left hemisphere plays a crucial role in helping a split-brain individual reconcile their "split world." In one of these experiments, a split-brain patient saw two images, a winter scene in the left visual field and a chicken's foot in the right visual field, which were flashed very quickly on a divided screen. To test what the patient perceived, he was asked to point simultaneously with each hand to what he saw from a group of images on a board in front of him. The board, among other images, contained an image of a chicken and one of a snow shovel. When so instructed, the patient's left hand pointed to a picture ofa snow shovel while his right hand pointed to a picture of a chicken. (See figure at right.) 3. a. Explain the patient's pointing behavior. When asked to explain why his right hand was pointing at the chicken, the patient said, "The chicken foot goes with the chicken." When asked to explain why his left hand was pointing at the shovel, his talking left hemisphere says, "You need a shovel to clean out a chicken house." While some variation of "I don't know" should have been the likely response, explain the patient's odd answer b.Explanation / Answer
Explain the patient's pointing behavior.
This is the split-brain effect where there is a considerable damage to the corpus callosum that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. The patient's behavior here suggests the problems he faces between visual pairing and reasoning. The patient pointing to the chicken foot with the rights and the shovel with the left indicates that the visual pairing part is clear for the split brain. There seems to be no hindrance in associating things.
While some variation of 'I don’t know' should have been the likely response, explain the patient's odd answer.
Yes. The patient is clear when associating chicken foot with the chicken. But the reasoning part of the need for a shovel to clear the chicken house shows that the reasoning part is missed here and again there is a pairing action going on. Instead of being logical and answering the winter visual scene with the shovel, the association is towards the chicken house perceived in the right visual stream. The left hemisphere is dominant and the person has problems communicating with the right.
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