Split brain patients

[Glockmeister]

I get confused by this stuff too...
So if they were shown an object in their right visual field....it would be processed by their right hemisphere and they would be able to pick it up with their left hand?
But they wouldn't be able to name it...right?
Oh god. Lol.

no, information from the right visual field is received by the left half of each eye, and the left half of each eye transmits visual information to the left occipital lobe and as the left hemisphere controls speech, were it presented to their left visual field they would be able to name it. however were it presented to their left visual field they could point to it but not verbally identify it

Yep that's correct. Sometimes images are better to show this information, so here's this in picture form



Ignore the bodies and tract and such (that's not in VCE Psych). What's important is the lines. Stuff in the left visual field (the blue) go to the RHS (right hand side) of the Visual cortex, whilst stuff in the Right visual field (the orange), go to the LHS (Left hand side) of the Visual Cortex.

Now lets think about this for a moment. To be able to name an object, what has to happen. Visual information needs to go to your eye through the optic nerve into the Visual cortex. From there were does it need to go? Memory, you need to remember what that object is. This is done via the ventral pathway. Probably. Anyway you don't need to know that. From there, what happens. It needs to go to the auditory areas of the brain. That's Broca's and Wernicke's Area, generally in the LHS of the Brain.

Remembering how the hemispheres is interconnected mostly through the Corpus Collosum, what happens when you disconnect that. Well, info from the Visual Cortex in the Left Hemisphere is fine, as the LHS Visual Cortex is not disconnected to the language areas. However, you have problems in the RHS Visual Cortex, as the 'bridge' to the LH has been severed. Since LHS Visual Cortex get info from RHS Visual Field, and RHS Visual Cortex gets info from LHS Visual Field, then you can say that if an object is presented at the RHS Visual Field, it will go to the LHS Visual Cortex, and everything is fine. Objects at the LHS of the visual field, will go to the RHS Visual Cortex and you'll have problems geting to the Left Hemisphere.