Abstract
Testing of split-brain patients over the last 25 years has involved a myriad of procedures, both clinical and experimental. Some were adapted from animal testing, others from clinical neurology, and more from experimental psychology. Of these procedures, some proved cumbersome, others unrewarding, and still others misleading. Those that survived the test of time have been progressively improved by simplification, by the introduction of technological advances, and, above all, by increasing sophistication on the part of the examiners. Experienced split-brain experimenters are often surprised when noted and unquestionably competent neuropsychologists who have a rich experience in testing hemisphere-damaged patients or in assessing laterality effects in normal subjects show themselves initially unequal to the task of testing the commissurotomy patient. The chronic disconnection syndrome is dramatic, widely known, and readily explicable. However, the arsenal developed to assess it is complex, sometimes subtle, and often based on implicit assumptions. This chapter aims to describe that arsenal and make explicit those assumptions. The chapter addresses three interrelated questions: how to find out whether a patient exhibits the disconnection syndrome, how to test hemispheric functions in such a patient once diagnosed correctly, and how to explore the current frontier of extra-callosal communication.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Berlin C. I. (1977) Hemispheric asymmetry in auditory tasks, in Lateralization in the Nervous System (Harnad S., Doty R. W., Goldstein I., Jaynes J., and Krauthamer G., eds.), Academic, New York, pp. 303–323.
Berlin C. and McNeil M. R. (1976) Dichotic listening, in Contemporary Issues in Experimental Phonetics (Lass N. J., ed), Academic, New York, pp. 327–291.
Bogen J. E. (1969) The other side of the brain—I. Dysgraphia and dyscopia following cerebral commissurotomy. Bull. Los Angeles Neurol. Soc. 34, 73–1
Bogen J. E. (1985) Zaidel E., eds), Guilford, New York, pp. 289–30
Bogen J. E. (1987) Physiological consequences of complete or partial commissural section, in Surgery of the Third Ventricle (Apuzzo M. L. J., ed.), Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, pp. 175–194.
Bogen J. E. and Bogen G. M. (1983) Hemispheric specialization and cerebral duality. Behav. Brain Sci. 6, 517–5
Bogen J. E., Schultz D. H., and Vogel P. J. (1988) Completeness of callosotomy shown by Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the long term. Arch. Neurol. 45, 1203–1205.
Bradshaw J. L. (in press). Methods for studying human laterality. In Neuromethods, Vol. 15: Methods in Human Neuropsychology (Boulton A., Baker G. and Hiscock M., eds.), Humana Press, Clifton, N.J.
Bradshaw J. L. and Nettleton N. (1983) Human Cerebral Asymmetry Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Bryden M. P. and Sprott D. A. (1981) Statistical determination of degree of laterality. Neuropsychologia 19, 571–5
Burklund C. W. (1972) Cerebral hemisphere function in the human: Fact vs. tradition]. In Drugs, Development and Cerebral Function (Smith W. L., ed.), C. C. Thomas, Springfield, Ill., pp. 8–36
Butler S. R. and Norsell U. (1968) Vocalization possibly initiated by the minor hemisphere. Nature 220, 793–794.
Campbell A. L., Bogen J. E., and Smith A. (1981) Disorganization and reorganization of cognitive sensorimotor functions in cerebral commissurotomy. Brain 104, 493–511.
Carmon A. and Benton A. L. (1969) Tactile perception of direction and number in patients with unilateral cerebral disease. Neurology 19, 525–532.
Clarke J. M. and Zaidel E. (1989) Simple reaction times to lateralized light flashes: Varieties of interhemispheric communication routes. Brain 112, 849–87
Clarke J., David A., and Zaidel E. (1989) Effects of attention on ipsilateral suppression in dichotic listening. Manuscript in preparation.
Crane H. D. and Kelly D. H. (1983) Accurate simulation of visual scotomas in normal subjects. Applied Optics 22, 1802–18
Crane H. D. and Steele C. M. (1985) Generation V dual-Purkinje image eyetracker. Applied Optics 24, 527–537.
Crawford J. E. and Crawford D. M. (1956) Crawford Small Parts Dexterity Test. The Psychological Corporation, New York.
Cronin-Golomb A. (1986) Subcortical transfer of cognitive information in subjects with complete forebrain commissurotomy. Cortex 22, 499–5
Cullen J. K., Jr. (1975) Tests of a model for speech information flow. Dissertation Abstracts International 36, 1167A. (University Microfilms No. 75-19, 262).
Damasio H. and Damasio A. (1979) Paradoxical ear extinction in dichotic listening: Possible anatomic significance. Neurology 29, 644–6
Davidoff J. B. (1982) Studies with nonverbal stimuli, in Divided visual field studies of cerebral organization (Beaumont J. G., ed.), Academic, London, pp. 30–55.
Dimond S. J., Bures J., Farrington L. J., and Brouwers E. Y. M. (1975) The use of contact lenses for the lateralization of visual input in man. Acta Psychologica 39, 341–349.
Emmorey K. and Zaidel E. (1989) Morphological complexity and hemispheric specialization. Manuscript in preparation.
Eviatar Z. and Zaidel E. (1989) The effects of word length and emotionality on hemispheric contribution to lexical decision. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Eviatar Z., Menn L., and Zaidel E. (in press) Concreteness:Nouns, Verbsand Hemispheres. Cortex.
Foldi N. S., Cicone M., and Gardner H. (1983) Pragmatic aspects of communication in brain-damaged patients, in Language functions and brain organization (Sigalowitz S. J., ed.), Academic, New York, pp. 51–86.
Francks J. B., Smith S. M., and Ward T. B. (1985) The use of goggles for testing hemispheric asymmetry. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 23, 487–488.
Gardner H. and Brownell H. (1986) Right hemisphere communication batteny. Psychology Service, VAMC, Boston, MA.
Gazzaniga M. S. (1970) The Bisected Brain (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York).
Gazzaniga M. S., Volpe B. T., Smylie C. S., and Wilson D. H. (1979) Plasticity in speech organization following commissurotomy. Brain 102, 805–81
Hamilton C. R. (1982) Mechanisms of interocular equivalence, in Advances in the Analysis of Visual Behavior (Ingle D., Goodale M., and Mansfield R., eds.), Cambridge, MA, MIT, pp. 693–717.
Hamilton C. R., Nargeot F., and Bogen J. E. (1986) Right hemisphere reading. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 12, 721.
Harshman, R. (1980) The meaning and measurement of differences in degree of lateralization. Paper presented in the Symposium on Methodological and Statistical Issues in Neuropsychological Research, chaired by S. A. Berenbaum, Eighth Annual Meeting, INS, San Francisco, January 29-February
Harshman R. A. and Lundy M. E. (1989) Can dichotic listening measure “degree of lateralization”?, in Handbook of Dichotic Listening: Theory, Methods and Research (Hugdahl K., ed.), Wiley, New York, pp. 215–282.
Heap M. and Wyke M. (1972) Learning of a unimanual motor skill by patients with brain lesions: an experimental study. Cortex 8, 1–
Ingvar D. H. and Lassen N. A. (eds.) (1977) Cerebral function, metabolism and circulation. Acta Neurol. Scand. 56,( Suppl. 64), 1–5
Johnson L. E. (1984) Vocal responses to left visual field stimuli following forebrain commissurotomy. Neuropsychologia 22, 153–1
Kashdan B. (1979) Speech perception and cerebral asymmetry. Honors undergraduate thesis, Dartmouth College, Department of Psychology.
Kutas M., Hillyard S. A., and Gazzaniga M. S. (1988) Processing of semantic anomaly by right and left hemispheres of commissurotomy patients: Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Brain 111, 583–576.
Le Doux J. E., Wilson D. H., and Gazzaniga M. S. (1977) Manipulo-spatial aspects of cerebral lateralization: Clues to the origin of lateralization. Neuropsychologia 15, 743–750.
Levy J. and Trevarthen C. (1976) Metacontrol of hemispheric function in human split-bram patients. J. Exp. Psychol. [Hum. Percept.] 2, 229–3
Levy J., Nebes R., and Sperry R. (1971) Expressive language in the surgically separated minor hemisphere. Cortex 7, 49–
Levy J., Trevarthen C. B. and Sperry R. W. (1972) Perception of bilateral chimeric figures following hemispheric deconnexion. Brain 95, 61–78.
McConkie G. W. and Rayner K. (1976) Asymmetry of perceptual span in reading. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 8, 365–368.
Menn L., Ragman J., and Zaidel E. (1989) Lateralized noun/verb decision: Part of speech, functor context, and two models of the concreteness effect. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Milner B. and Taylor L. (1972) Right-hemisphere superiority in tactile pattern-recognition after cerebral commissurotomy: Evidence for nonverbal memory. Neuropsychologta 10, 1–15.
Myers J. J. (1984) Right hemisphere language: Science or fiction? Am. Psychol. 39, 315–320.
Myers J. J. and Sperry R. W. (1982) A simple technique for laterahzing visual input that allows prolonged viewing. Behavior Research Methods and Instrumentation 14, 305–308.
Myers J. and Sperry R. W. (1985) Interhemispheric communication after section of the forebrain commissures. Cortex 21, 249–260.
Nettleton N. C, Wood R. G., Bradshaw J. L., Thomas D. L., and Donahoo K. B. (1983) A moving video window or mask yoked to eye movements: A system to permit free ocular scanning within areas of the visual field. Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation, 15, 487–496.
Plourde G., and Sperry R. W. (1984) Left hemisphere involvement in left spatial neglect from right-sided lesions: A commissurotomy study. Brain 107, 95–106.
Pollatsek A., Bolozky S., Well A. D., and Rayner K. (1981) Asymmetries in the perceptual span for Israeli readers. Brain Lang. 14, 174–180.
Preilowski B. F. B. (1972) Possible contribution of the anterior forebrain commissures to bilateral motor coordination. Neuropsychologia 10, 267–277.
Rasmussen T. and Milner B. (1977) The role of early left-brain injury in determining lateralization of cerebral speech functions, in Evolution and lateralization of the brain. (Dimond S. J. & Blizard B. A., eds.) Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 299, 355–369.
Rayman J. and Zaidel E. (1989) Rhyming and the right hemisphere. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Rosenzweig M. R. (1951) Representation of the two ears at the auditory cortex. Am. J. Psychol. 167, 147–1
Schweiger A., Zaidel E., Field T., and Dobkin B. (1989) Right hemisphere contribution to lexical access in an aphasie with deep dyslexia. Brain Lang. 37, 73–
Sergent J. (1987) A new look at the human split brain. Brain 110, 1375–1392.
Sidtis J. J., Volpe B. T., Wilson D. H., Rayport M., and Gazzaniga M. S. (1981) Variability in right hemisphere language functions: Evidence for a continuum of generative capacity. J. Neurosa. 1, 323–331.
Silverberg R., Bentin S., Gaziel T., Obier L., and Albert M. (1979) Shift of visual field preference for English words in native Hebrew speakers. Brain Lang. 8, 184–190.
Sivak B., Sivak J. G., and MacKenzie L. (1985) Contact lens design for lateralizing visual input. Neuropsychologia 23, 801–804.
Sperry R. W. (1974) Lateral specialization in the surgically separated hemispheres, in Neurosciences: Third Study Program (Schmitt F. O. and Worden F. G., eds.) Cambridge, MA, MIT, pp. 5–19.
Sperry R. W. (1982) Some effects of disconnecting the cerebral hemispheres. Science 217, 1223–1226.
Sperry R. W., Gazzaniga M. S., and Bogen J. E. (1969) Interhemispheric relationships: The neocortical commissures; syndromes of hemisphere disconnection, in Handbook of Clinical Neurology, vol. 4 (Vinken P. J. and Bruyn G. W., eds.) Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 273–290.
Sperry R. W., Zaidel E., and Zaidel D. (1979) Self recognition and social awareness in the disconnected minor hemisphere. Neuropsychologia 17, 153–166.
Teng E. T. and Sperry R. W. (1973) Interhemispheric interaction during simultaneous bilateral presentation of letters or digits in commissurotomized subjects. Neuropsychologia 11, 131–140.
TenHouten W. D., Hoppe K. D., Bogen J. E., and Walter D. O. (1986) Alexithymia: An experimental study of cerebral commissurotomy patients and normal control subjects. Am. J. Psychiatry 143, 312–316.
Tiffin J. (1968) Purdue Pegboard. Science Research Associates, Chicago, Illinois.
Trevarthan C. and Sperry R. W. (1973) Perceptual unity of the ambient visual field in human commissurotomy patients. Brain 96, 547–570.
Trope I., Rozin P. and Gur R. C. (1988) Validation of the lateral limits technique with a callosotomy patient. Neuropsychologia 26, 673–684.
Volpe, B. T., LeDoux, J. E., Fraser, R. A., and Gazzaniga, M. S. (1979) Spatially oriented movements in the absence of proprioception. Neurology, 29, 1309–1313.
Woodworth R. S. and Schlosberg H. (1954) Experimental Psychology. Revised Ed. Holt, New York.
Wyke M. (1971) The effects of brain lesions on the performance of bilateral arm movements. Neuropsychologia 9, 33–42.
Zaidel D. W. (1988) Observations on right hemisphere language function, in Aphasia (Rose, F. C, Whurr R., and Wyke M. A., eds.), Whurr Publishers, London, pp. 170–187.
Zaidel D. W. (in press) Memory and spatial cognition following commissurotomy, in Handbook of Neuropsychology. (Boiler F. and Grafman J. eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Zaidel D. and Sperry R. W. (1973) Performance on the Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices test by subjects with cerebral commissurotomy. Cortex 9, 34–39.
Zaidel D. and Sperry R. W. (1974) Memory impairment after commissurotomy in man. Brain 97, 263–272.
Zaidel D. and Sperry R. W. (1977) Some long-term motor effects of cerebral commissurotomy in man. Neuropsychologia 15, 193–204.
Zaidel E. (1973) Linguistic competence and related functions in the right cerebral hemisphere of man following commissurotomy and hemispherectomy (Doctoral Dissertation, California Institute of Technology). Dissertation Abstracts International 34, 2350B. (University Microfilms No. 73-26,481.)
Zaidel E. (1975) A technique for presenting lateralized visual input with prolonged exposure. Vision Res. 15, 283–289.
Zaidel E. (1976) Auditory vocabulary of the right hemisphere following brain bisection or hemidecortication. Cortex 12, 191–211.
Zaidel E. (1978) Concepts of cerebral dominance in the split brain, in Cerebral Correlates of Conscious Experience (Buser P. & Rougeul-Buser A., eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 263–284.
Zaidel E. (1979a) On measuring hemispheric specialization in man, in Advanced Technobiology (Rybak B. ed.), Alphen aan den Rijn, Sijthoff and Noordhoff, pp. 365–403.
Zaidel E. (1979b) Long-term stability of hemispheric Token Test scores following brain bisection and hemidecortication. In Auditory Comprehension: Clinical and Experimental Studies with the Token Test (Boiler F. and Dennis M., eds.), Academic, New York, pp. 135–159.
Zaidel E. (1980) The structuring of language: Clues from hemispheric specialization, in Signed and Spoken Language: Biological Constraints on Linguistic Form (Bellugi U. & Studdert-Kennedy M., eds.), Dahlem Konferenzen, Weinheim/Deerfield Beach, FL/Basel, Verlag Chemie, pp. 291–340.
Zaidel E. (1983) Disconnection syndrome as a model for laterality effects in the normal brain, in Cerebral Hemisphere Asymmetry: Method, Theory and Application (Hellige J., ed.), Praeger, New York, pp. 95–151.
Zaidel E. (1985a) Right hemisphere language. In The Dual Brain. Hemispheric Specialization in Humans (Benson D. F. and Zaidel E., eds.), The UCLA Medical Forum Series. Guilford, New York, pp. 205–231.
Zaidel E. (1985b) Callosal dynamics and right hemisphere language, in Two Hemispheres—One Brain? (Lepore F., Ptito M., and Jasper H. H., eds.), Alan R. Liss, New York, pp. 435–459.
Zaidel E. (1987) Hemispheric Monitoring, in Duality and Unity of the Brain (Ottoson D. ed.), Macmillan, Hampshire, pp. 247–281.
Zaidel E. (1989a) Long term stereognosis in the split brain: Hemispheric differences, ipsilateral control, and sensory integration across the midline, unpublished manuscript. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Zaidel E. (1989b) Lexical decision and semantic facihahon in the split brain. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Zaidel E. (in press) Language functions in the two hemispheres following cerebral commissurotomy and hemispherectomy, in Handbook of Neuropsychology (Boiler F. and Grafman J., eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam
Zaidel E. and Frazer R. E. (1977) A universal half-field occluder for laterality research. Caltech Biology Annual Report 137–138.
Zaidel E. and Peters A. M. (1981) Phonological encoding and ideographic reading by the disconnected right hemisphere: Two case studies. Brain Lang. 14, 205–234.
Zaidel E., Clarke J., and Suyenobu B. (in press) Hemispheric independence: A paradigm case for cognitive neuroscience, in Neurobtology of Higher Cognitive Function (Scheibel A. and Wechsler A., eds.), Guilford, New York.
Zaidel E., Spence S., and Kasher A. (in preparation) Performance of commissurotomy patients and normal subjects on the Right Hemisphere Communication Battery.
Zaidel E., White H., Sakurai E., and Banks W. (1988) Hemispheric locus of lexical congruity effects: Neuropsychological reinterpretation of psycholinguistic results, in Right Hemisphere Contributions to Lexical Semantics (Chiarello C., ed.), Springer, New York, pp. 71–88.
Zaidel E., Zaidel D. W., and Sperry R. W. (1981) Left and right intelligence: Case studies of Raven’s Progressive Matrices following brain bisection and hemidecortication. Cortex 17, 167–186.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1990 The Humana Press Inc
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Zaidel, E., Zaidel, D.W., Bogen, J.E. (1990). Testing the Commissurotomy Patient. In: Boulton, A.A., Baker, G.B., Hiscock, M. (eds) Neuropsychology. Neuromethods, vol 17. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-133-0:147
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-133-0:147
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-133-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-622-5
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols