Today in my Biology class we were discussing the two sides of the brain and what they control. The discussion eventually wandered to the 1940's when a doctor, to try to contain seizure to one side of the brain, basically cut the nerves connecting the two sides. It proved successful but twenty years later a scientist named Roger Sperry studiet the "split brain" patients and observed strange behavior from the patience who received this treatment. When they held an object in their left hand they were able to name the object, but were not able to describe it. Alternatively, when they held the same object in their right hand they were able to describe the object, but not name it. He also found that they could write with their right hands, but not with their left. And they could draw with their right, but not with their left.
What do you guys think about it? I think that it's very interesting. And even though it's morbid, this could become a way to control people. If another Hitler came along, it wouldn't be a bad idea to cut the sides of the brain apart and then amputate one of the person's arms so that they would be incapable of doing something related to that arm.
Well, the brain is split into two parts, as we know. The reason for this I would imagine is because the sides control the opposite side. So, for instance, you get a stroke in the left side of your brain, your right side will get effected. And vice versa.
What do you guys think about it? I think that it's very interesting. And even though it's morbid, this could become a way to control people. If another Hitler came along, it wouldn't be a bad idea to cut the sides of the brain apart and then amputate one of the person's arms so that they would be incapable of doing something related to that arm.
That's not just morbid it's really psycho too. Wow how did you come up with that? <.<
It's a cool little subject and I have heard a few things on this. Like that the left brain is more artistic and the right brain is more mathematical. No doubt if you separated the sides of the brain you could get this result.
Actually, the left brain is the more logical, mathmatic, etc. and right is artistic, creative, etc.
My bad, you're right. Also I tend to have a more dominant mathematical sense than creative one. A while back there was an optical illusion thread that utilized a rotating dancer to help you see which side brain you were Here it is At the bottom of that page is the dancer.
Many people are a mix between both, I would be one of those people.
But back to the original topic, what do you think of those results and how do you think that they could be further implemented to help or hurt people in the future?
What do you guys think about it? I think that it's very interesting. And even though it's morbid, this could become a way to control people. If another Hitler came along, it wouldn't be a bad idea to cut the sides of the brain apart and then amputate one of the person's arms so that they would be incapable of doing something related to that arm.
now that is science fiction, to do that we need to decipher what an electric pulse in the brain means.... So therefore that situation is a little bit out of hand...
now that is science fiction, to do that we need to decipher what an electric pulse in the brain means.... So therefore that situation is a little bit out of hand...
But it is possible, it was shown in the 1960's that those people were not able to right with their right hands, or draw with their lefts. Even the inability to write would be very disabilitating to people both physically and psychologically.
what do you think of those results and how do you think that they could be further implemented to help or hurt people in the future?
I don't think there is much in the way of help that can be obtained from this. You brain is really sensitive and doesn't tend to heal very well if at all. It's complexity is based quite largely on the tens of thousands of connections that each nerve in the brain has to other parts. To go in and slice it down the middle seems more like a sadistic way of crippling someone, as you said in the beginning, more than anything else. Maybe you could pinpoint the origins of certain abilities in the brain more easily but only at the expense of the patient. I imagine this kind of research is probably illegal for the most part.
Nice job on your test. When you say year 11 do you mean a junior in high school? If thats the case then how did you do the math in your head...unless you in geometry.
could you phrase this better? I'm not understanding this at all.
What I mean is that you can't control someone through their brain that is all. like what you said with Hitler coming back made little sense to me.
What I mean is that you can't control someone through their brain that is all.
Not controlling someone's brain but inhibiting it in an indirect way essentially. If their brain was separated and they lacked the use of let's say the right arm, they would no longer be able to write. This relates to people like Hitler because it sounds like something crazy he would have done.
Not controlling someone's brain but inhibiting it in an indirect way essentially. If their brain was separated and they lacked the use of let's say the right arm, they would no longer be able to write. This relates to people like Hitler because it sounds like something crazy he would have done.
false, what about the people who resisted Hitler's "charm" they ended up helping hundreds of jewish people escaping from Hitler's dystopia.
false, what about the people who resisted Hitler's "charm" they ended up helping hundreds of jewish people escaping from Hitler's dystopia.
I don't think he's implying Hitler used mind control. What he's getting at is that when you sever connections in the brain you can permanently impair someone and prevent them from performing certain tasks that we take for granted every day. He only mentioned Hitler because it's a psycho thought and to actually perform the action of crippling someone's brain requires a psycho's touch.
I have looked into Sperry's study into split-brain patients a while ago for psychology. When you say it was 20 years later 9 0f the 11 participants in the study had had the operation done recently to cut the corpus callosum. (first if the sample is to small to generalise, all of the people had epilepsy so it may not show how non-epilieptics behave and their recovery from the surgery may be a confounding variable)
To go into more detail than Green12324 the first task was a visual task. The controls were that it had to be done in silence (preventing information crossing between hemisheres) the images were flashed, one eye was covered with an eyepatch. these wre to make it easier to keep the image in one part of the eye. An image was flashed in the left visual field and then went to the right hemishere. The participants could draw the image (blindfolded) to prevent data exchange to the left hemisphere. If the task was repeted but for the right visual field the participants had no recolection of seeing it before.
In task 2 (tactile task) the participant was sat behind a barrier with several shapes behind it. An image of a ring was flashed in the right visual field (going to the left hemisphere). When the aprticipant was aked to find the object the right hand would search for it but if the left hand picked up the ring it would reject it.
These tasks were done under special circumstaces set up so that one hemishere was "left in the dark" in real situations split brain patients would be able to use both visual fields by turning their head or using sound. So ecological validity was low. It is hard to generalise the results of this study to the wider population so it would be hard to say how it could be used but people with split brains can lead perfectly normal lives. I don;t find it morbid at all it helped to understand how the brain works.
