I remember the woman shown in one of the video series ("The Brain"?) who had
had her corpus callosum cut. Her name was Vicky and she said that sometimes
one hand will reach in her closet and pick out a blouse that she doesn't
really want. And her other hand will put it back.
One thing that I haven't been able to find the answer to - but I'll bet
someone on TIPS knows - is why, in severe epilepsy or seizure disorders,
sometimes the corpus callosum is cut and sometimes - in the cases I've seen
it was in children - a hemispherectomy is done. Cutting the corpus callosum
seems so much less radical than removing some or all of one of the
hemispheres of the brain. Obviously, neither is wonderful, but what are
indications for one over the other?
Beth Benoit
Granite State College
Plymouth State University
New Hampshire
-----Original Message-----
From: Shearon, Tim [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 4:07 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: RE: [tips] Split-Brain question
Susan- In addition to the normal functioning of several known cases, we
should add that indeed some folks do have what could appear to be
adjustment problems following the surgery (usually short term). But it is
far more likely that their functioning in jobs, etc. would improve than that
they'd show any difficulties. As Chris has said, these "problems" show up
when isolating the visual information in rather artificial research
settings. Of course, some similar things could happen, theoretically, in
unusual situations in their everyday lives but it seems highly unlikely-
certainly not in a situation like driving, preparing food, etc. Remembering
that these are people showing rather advanced and intractable epilepsy
before surgery, I don't know of any who weren't more functional after
surgery even if some problems that were present before surgery do remain
(i.e., the surgery does not remove the foci in most cases). Surely, given
the vagaries of surgery, complications, etc. and especially given surgery on
the brain, there may be cases where that does happen but it would not be due
to the "split brain" procedure per se.
Tim
_______________________________
Timothy O. Shearon, PhD
Professor and Chair Department of Psychology
The College of Idaho
Caldwell, ID 83605
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
teaching: intro to neuropsychology; psychopharmacology; general; history and
systems
"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." Dorothy Parker
-----Original Message-----
From: Shapiro, Susan J [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sun 4/13/2008 12:20 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: [tips] Split-Brain question
A student question:
Do people who have had split-brain surgery have trouble with tasks such as
driving a car?
What about their employment? I know they are paid for their participation in
research.
Do they have higher degrees or complex types of jobs?
Thanks
Susan J. Shapiro
Associate Professor/Psychology
Indiana University East
2325 Chester Blvd.
Richmond, IN 47374
(765) 973-8284
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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