Split Brain Experiments

[garnetsilver]

Roger Sperry’s Split Brain Experiments (1959–1968) | Embryo Project Encyclopedia

In the 1950s and 1960s, Roger Sperry performed experiments on cats, monkeys, and humans to study functional differences between the two hemispheres of the brain in the United States. To do so he studied the corpus callosum, which is a large bundle of neurons that connects the two hemispheres of...

embryo.asu.edu

 

[Lynne]

Interesting, I didn't realize this info was just being discovered in the 60's. I sure hope the brain experiments were done humanely on the animals.

 

[Red_desert]

I've know about this for a number of years. Like the English walnut the human brain has 2 hemispheres. The part connecting them generally, is slightly larger one gender than the other. Thus the interaction between the 2 brain sides, tends to speed up the mental compute process. However, if you could do a study on axion nerve transmitters, there is hope for the other gender. Let's use physical exercise for an example. You learn a new sport, after a few weeks these nerve transmitters begin to coat over with a protein which acts as an insulator. This results in the increase of brain mass for that part of the brain. If the other gender can think more often, the bridge between brain hemispheres should increase (at least in protein coated nerve insulation).

 

[Roffin]

"From that, Sperry concluded that the cats remembered two different scenarios with two different hemispheres. He suspected that the cats technically had two different brains, as their hemispheres could not interact and acted as if the other one did not exist."

I'm hoping to have a cat as a pet one day so I find this as relevant but don't really understand what it means. Does that mean that if a cat saw things with the left eye covered and then later saw things with the right eye covered then the cat cannot synchronize the different memories?

 

[7Critter]

Does that mean that if a cat saw things with the left eye covered and then later saw things with the right eye covered then the cat cannot synchronize the different memories?

I believe that is correct. The two brain hemispheres process objects differently and remember two objects verses the same object.