Describe split-brain surgery, why it is conducted, the effects of this surgery, and why split-brain patients rarely have major problems in everyday functioning after surgery

What will be an ideal response?

Answer will include that in the split-brain surgery, the corpus callosum is cut to control severe epilepsy. The result is essentially a person with two brains in one body. After the surgery, it is possible to send information to one hemisphere or the other. However, after the right and left brain are separated, each hemisphere will have its own separate perceptions, concepts, and impulses to act. Split-brain effects are easiest to see in specialized testing in which a visual image is presented to only one hemisphere. Without the corpus callosum, the brain is unable to transfer information. So, a visual image presented to the left hemisphere through the right eye could be described, while one presented to the right hemisphere through the left eye could not, since the left hemisphere is verbal and the right is not. However, the right hemisphere could direct the left hand to point or draw the object that was presented to it. In everyday life, conflicts between the two hemispheres are rare after the "split-brain" operation because both hemispheres have similar experiences so that if there is a conflict, one hemisphere will usually override the other. Unlike the specialized testing, the "split-brain" patient can avert any conflict by choosing to look at the object with both eyes and use whichever hand they want to in order to complete the real-life activity.