Brain Lateralization: The Split Brain

The brain consists of two hemispheres, the left brain and the right brain. There are many myths surrounding the specializations of each hemisphere, and the types of personalities that they produce, so let's put those to rest, while going over some important facts regarding brain lateralization.

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[Emily-ipjj]

If I don't retain anything from this semester, the one thing i will never forget: "He knows a lot about the science Professor Dave explains!"

[davidbaz]

Teacher: What’s your name?
Student: *We are Timmy.*

[userjoao]

This is so deeply unsettling to me and idk why. I keep imagine if i somehow got my brain split, which half would my stream of counsciousness continue into??? like would i be 2 people each with half my memories, likes and dislikes etc???? GAAAHHHH

[haniakhan]

note to self:
- brain has two cerebral hemispheres - connected by cerebral commissures
- certain brain functions are localised largely in one hemisphere
- shocking recent realisation - brains can function independently and have almost completely different identities
research was done due to separating both hemispheres
- done on patients suffering from severe epilepsy
- no major function is lost
- now since the hemispheres cannot communicate = one hemisphere cannot know what the other one learnt
- speech is locaalised in the left brain - both hemispehres may have different responses
roles of each hemisphere
- nothing is completely lateralised it is only that one hemisphere is preffereend for one function over the other
- left - speech reading writing arithmetic
- right - spatial reasonling, rotating objects in the mind, discerning direction or distance
many or most actions involve multiple cognitive activities - cannot be limited to one hemisphere
- some pep[le have specializations reversed - (typically left handed)

[explainous]

The best thing is these guys can play rock, paper, scissors with themselves.

[Lucy-vkel]

It's cool that our brains do teamwork. Makes me want to high five the other half of my brain and say thanks for the info sis.

[yvonnerangel]

his explanation regarding the visual pathway is flipped. Correct explanation: input that hits the right side of the left eye gets processed in the right hemisphere, while the input that hits the left side of the left eye does not cross and instead gets processed in the same hemisphere where its located (left hemisphere). For the right eye, input that hits the left side of the right eye crosses over and gets processed in the left hemisphere, while the input that hits the right side of the right eye does not cross and thus gets processed in the same hemisphere where its located (right hemisphere)

[kennyleung]

Brain： Why are you watching this video ? What are you planing to do ?

[williamhornabrook]

I just read up on a TINY analysis of six adults that underwent hemispherectomies as children. All of these had one hemisphere completely removed between ages 1 and 11. This was a MRI experiment so I didn't really comprehend the results beyond concluding that they effectively were 'normal.'

In some aspects the scans showed typical activity but also showed that the communication between 'regulatory networks' was stronger than normal.
Perhaps one could conceptualise this as being compensatory for the removed components.

You might be more susceptible to strokes and lesions with less 'redundancy' to fall back on is probably the biggest drawback of living with half a brain.

Even really mild epilepsy is a hassle where you aren't allowed to drive. These debilitating severe cases do call for

[Aloyzn]

I can't imagine that, like your speaking part doesn't see the object, but you see that object, it is in your brain and you're still unable to say what you see?
wild

[EricJPrice]

I have been in 11 inpatient psyche hospital visits in my life for existential psychosis. I say as fact that delusions and psychosis are a function of misalignment between the duality consciousness, and if you don't perceive it this way, it can create extremely dangerous, non-logical truths by passing false logic with an emotionally true signature from one half to the other. Understanding the split brain is the key to creating a model that contains structure that a psychotic can use to pull themself back to reality. Many mental health conditions will benefit through exploration of this aspect of the mind.

[jaztheman]

So when you clap, it's actually a right brain-left brain high five

[Chuube]

it’s all fun and games until right brain starts attacking your setup while you’re on call and you can only watch and describe as you destroy your own things with no way to stop yourself

[linkbluu]

This is gonna help me a lot with a certain part of a story I'm writing. Thanks a lot, Professor Dave!

[drummerjosh]

I wonder if this concept has been tested with ai systems, i.e. having two ai systems running in parallel that have separate specializations which generate a singular output. I’ve also wondered if they have worked with a type of subconscious or what may be a self initializing algorithm which would keep it active rather than waiting on a command request.

[OuterRimPride]

This might have been the most interesting one we've seen so far. We were particularly interested in the split brain 'experiments'.

[danielliu]

Hi Professor Dave, do you have any cited research for the statements around 3:24, that each separate hemisphere seems to have its own sense of self, displaying different beliefs and personalities?

[germanshepherd]

So what would happen in a split-brain person if they go blind in their eye? In terms of vision and stuff… would they be essentially “consciously blind”?

[JimzAuto]

3:30 the brain image should be reversed. The frontal and prefrontal cortex elements should be toward the front, making the ‘red’ side Right, ‘blue’ side Left.

[JHeb_]

2:30 in the experiments, the images are shown to both eyes. It's the visual field that is divided between the hemispheres, not the eyes.