Name: Alma P.

Colico

Cerebral Lateralization of Function: Introduction

 The brain comprises two structures, the left and right cerebral hemispheres, which are entirely separate
except for the cerebral commissures connecting them.
 Although the left and right hemispheres are similar in appearance, there are major differences between
them in function.
 In 1836, Marc Dax, an unknown country doctor, presented a short report at a medical society meeting in
France. It was his first and only scientific presentation. Dax was struck by the fact that of the 40 or so
brain-damaged patients with speech problems whom he had seen during his career, not a single one had
damage restricted to the right hemisphere. His report aroused little interest, and Dax died the following
year unaware that he had anticipated one of the most important areas of modern neuropsychological
research.


 Aphasia is a brain-damage produced deficit in the ability to produce or comprehend language.

 Hugo-Karl Liep mann found that apraxia, like aphasia, is almost always associated with left-hemisphere
damage, despite the fact that its symptoms are bilateral (involving both sides of the body).
 Apraxic patients have difficulty performing movements when asked to perform them out of context,
even though they often have no difficulty performing the same movements when they are not thinking
about doing so.

Sodium Amytal Test

The sodium amytal test of language lateralization (Wada,1949) is often given to patients prior to
neurosurgery. The neurosurgeon uses the results of the test to plan the surgery; every effort is made to
avoid damaging areas of the cortex that are likely to be involved in language.

 During the test, the patient is asked to recite well-known series (e.g.,letters of the alphabet,days of
the week, months of the year) and to name pictures of common objects. Then, an injection is
administered to the other side,and the test is repeated.
 When the hemisphere that is specialized for speech,usually the left hemisphere,is anesthetized,the
patient is rendered completely mute for a minute or two;and once the ability to talk returns,there
 are errors of serial order and naming.In contrast,when the minor speech hemisphere,usually the
right,is anesthetized, mutism often does not occur at all,and errors are few.

Dichotic Listening Test

Unlike the sodium amytal test, the dichotic listening test is non-invasive; thus, it can be ad-ministered to healthy
individuals. In the standard dichotic listening test (Kimura,1961),three pairs of spoken digits are presented
through earphones;the digits of each pair are presented simultaneously,one to each ear.

Functional Brain Imaging

Lateralization of function has also been studied using functional brain-imaging techniques.While a volunteer
engages in some activity,such as reading,the activity of the brain is monitored by positron emission tomography
(PET) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).On language tests, functional brain-imaging techniques
typically reveal far greater activity in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere

Discovery of the Relation between Speech Laterality and Handedness

Two early large-scale lesion studies clarified the relation be-tween the cerebral lateralization of speech and
handedness.

 One study involved military personnel who suffered brain damage in World War II (Russell & Espir,1961),
and the other focused on neurological patients who underwent unilateral excisions for the treatment of
neurological disorders (Penfield & Roberts,1959).
 In interpreting Milners figures,it is important to re-member that sodium amytal tests are administered
only to people who are experiencing brain dysfunction,that earlybrain damage can cause the lateraliza-
tion of speech to shift to the other hemisphere (see Maratsos & Matheny,1994;Stiles,1998),and that
many more people have left-hemisphere specialization for speech to start with.Considered
together,these points suggest that Milners findings likely underestimate the proportion of people with
left-hemisphere specialization for speech among healthy members of the general population.

Sex Differences in Brain Lateralization

 McGlone found that male victims of unilateral strokes were three times more likely to suffer from
aphasia than female victims.She found that male victims of left-hemisphere strokes had deficits on the
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) verbal subtests, whereas male victims of right-hemisphere
strokes had deficits onthe WAIS performance subtests. In contrast,in female victims,there were no
significant differences between the disruptive effects ofleft- and right-hemisphere unilateral strokes on
performance on the WAIS.
 the brainsofmales are more lateralized than the brains offemales.McGlones hypothesis ofa sex
difference in brain lateralization has been widely embraced,and it has been used toexplain almost every
imaginable behavioral difference be-tween the sexes.But support for McGlones hypothesis has been
mixed.
 Some researchers have failed to confirm her re-port of a sex difference in the effects of unilateral brain
lesions (see Inglis & Lawson,1982).
 lthough a few functional brain-imaging studies have suggested that females,more than males,use both
hemispheres in the performance of language-related tasks (e.g.,Jaeger et al.,1998;Kansaku,Yamaura,&
Kitazawa,2000)

The Split Brain

  The corpus callosum -the largest cerebral commissure constituted a paradox of major proportions.
 Its size,an estimated 200 million axons,and its central position,right between the two cerebral hemi-
spheres,implied that it performed an extremely important function;yet research in the 1930s and 1940s
seemed to suggest that it did nothing at all.

Groundbreaking Experiment of Myers and Sperry

 it showed that one function of the corpus callosum is to transfer learned information from one
hemisphere to the other.Second,it showed that when the corpus callosum is cut,each hemisphere can
function independently; each split-brain cat appeared to have two brains.
 In their experiment, Myers and Sperry trained cats to perform a simple visual discrimination.On each
trial,each cat was confronted by two panels, one with a circle on it and one with a square on it.The
relative positions of the circle and square (right or left) were varied randomly from trial to trial,and the
cats had to learn which symbol to press in order to get a food reward.

Myers and Sperry correctly surmised that the key to split-brain research was to develop procedures for teaching
and testing one hemisphere at a time the method they used to isolate visual-discrimination learning in one
hemisphere of the cats

 Myers and Sperrys startling conclusions about the fundamental duality of the cat brain and the
information-transfer function of the corpus callosum have been confirmed in a variety of species with a
variety of test procedures.

Scotoma- an area of Blindness- involving the entire medial half of each retina.

Cross-Cuing

Although the two hemispheres of a split-brain patient have no means of direct neural communication,they can
communicate neurally via indirect pathways through the brain stem.They can also communicate with each other
by an external route,by a process called cross-cuing.

 An example of cross-cuing occurred during a series of tests designed to determine whether the left
hemisphere could respond to colors presented in the left visual field.

Doing Two Things at Once

The two hemispheres of the split-brain patient had learned two different things at exactly the same time.

 On some trials, the right hemisphere dealt with this problem in the only way that it could: The
left hand shot out, grabbed the right hand away from the orange, and redirected it to the pencil.
This response is called the helping-hand phenomenon.
 The special ability of split brains to do two things at once has also been demonstrated on tests
of attention.

Dual Mental Functioning and Conflict in Split-Brain Patients

In most split-brain patients,the right hemisphere does not seem to have a strong will of its own; the left hemi-
sphere seems to control most everyday activities. However,in a few split-brain patients,the right hemisphere
takes a more active role in controlling behavior,and in these cases,there can be serious conflicts between the
left and right hemispheres.