Unified response to bilateral hemispheric stimulation by a split-brain patient.
Surgical sectioning of the corpus callosum in epileptic patients has provided a unique opportunity to study separately the competence and processing capacities of the two cerebral hemispheres, each of which is able to perceive, think, memorize and learn independently and essentially outside the realm of awareness of the other. While research has focused on this 'disconnection syndrome', split-brain patients nonetheless behave as unified individuals in their normal environment, and the present study investigated this aspect of their behaviour in an experimental setting. The two hemispheres of a callosotomized patient were simultaneously presented with information associated with conflicting responses, and the subject was requested to produce a single response. In all combinations of hemisphere stimulation and hand responding, the subject was capable of perfect accuracy, suggesting that he could integrate and resolve the conflicting information before the production of his response, and that his two disconnected hemispheres were simultaneously aiming at the same goal.
D000328:Adult; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000502:physiology* / Q000601:surgery; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000601:surgery; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male