The Split-Brain Study By Michael Gazzaniga And Roger Sperry

The Split-Brain study was conducted by Michael Gazzaniga and Roger Sperry. The motivation for the research to do the study in the first place when Sperry and Ronald Myers made a discovery that when the two hemispheres were incised, they saw that “each hemisphere functioned independently as if it were a complete brain” (Gazzaniga). Before the study was done, what the researchers had known about the topic came from Sperry and Myers discovery, research from animal studies, and humans who had undergone a “brain-splitting” operation. The intent of the study was to determine if the hemispheres could function independently of one another when they were separated, in patients who had epilepsy and undergone surgery. Moreover, regarding the study …show more content…
Also, they found that the corpus callosum somehow can transmit visual scene and complex neural code. Furthermore, the researchers concluded that by separating the right and left hemispheres, it creates for two independent hemispheres of consciousness that could be divided (Gazzaniga, 2005). In terms of the study being generalizable, researchers have only tested and evaluated on animals (such as cats) and humans/patients who had surgery for what their doctors determined was “uncontrollable epilepsy.” The split-brain in man study contains limitations, such as the “hemispheric inequality in the present cases, but it may well be a characteristic of the individuals [they] have studied.” At the time, the researchers only examined four patients with a history of epilepsy, therefore unsure if the results could be applied to other patients who had undergone the surgery or had epilepsy, as well as non-epileptic patients (Gazzaniga, 2005). The article mentions the criticisms of their study. Some critics of the study stated that consciousness cannot be divided or separated. Moreover, other critics states that the information on the right hemisphere designed to automatically follow or respond to a predetermined sequence (“automaton”), meaning that the right hemisphere is set to be reactive (Gazzaniga, 2005). As a result of this, other criticisms of the study have determined the procedure to be invasive and time consuming, especially now when there are other methods that can evaluate these cognitive abilities, such as neuroimaging