Practice Exercises-Language and the Brain I

1. Lateralization and Hemispherectomy

Hemispherectomy is an operation in which one hemisphere or part of one hemisphere is removed from
the brain, performed on people with severe seizures.

(a) Imagine you perform hemispherectomy on a right-handed adult patient and remove the left
hemisphere. Do you think the patient would experience difficulty with language? If so, what would he be
unable to do?

Since language is said to be in the left hemisphere for right-handed individuals, the patient would
experience difficulty with speaking and processing complex sentences, but some comprehension would
still remain.

(b) Imagine you perform hemispherectomy on a right-handed adult patient and remove the right
hemisphere. Do you think the patient would experience difficulty with language? If so, what would he be
unable to do?

The patient would still have some trouble understanding jokes/metaphors and might assume literal
meanings of sayings, even though language is left-lateralized.

(c) Imagine you perform hemispherectomy on a right-handed young child patient and remove the left
hemisphere. Do you think the child would experience difficulty with language? Why or why not?

Yes they would because language is left-lateralized, and also because they are young and the rate of
language development within them is much faster therefore the effects of the hemispherectomy would
be more significant.

2. Split-brain studies
Normally the two hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum, but for certain kinds of
severe epilepsy, the corpus callosum used to be surgically severed.
A (right-handed) split-brain patient is blindfolded, and a common object is placed in one of his hands.

(a) When an orange is placed in his right hand, will he be able to identify and name it? Why or why not?
Yes, because the orange was placed in his right hand, he can still identify it because the right hand is
connected to the left hemisphere

(b) Will he be able to draw the orange? If so, with which hand(s)?
Only if he is right-handed, because the left hemisphere controls the right hand and as a split brain patient
his right hemisphere is muted.

( c) When an apple is placed in his left hand, can he identify and name it? Why or why not?
No, since the right hemisphere cannot transfer the info to the left hemisphere because the corpus
callosum has been removed.

(d) Will he be able to draw the apple? If so, with which hand(s)?
Only if he is right-handed, because the left hemisphere controls the right hand and as a split brain patient
his right hemisphere is muted.

Now we remove the blindfold from the patient and we present a picture on a screen in front of
the patient.

(e) When a picture of an orange is presented to his right visual field, will he be able to name it?
Yes, because his left hemisphere would control the right visual field.
(f) Will he be able to draw the orange? If so, with which hand(s)?
Only if he is right-handed, because the left hemisphere controls the right hand and as a split brain patient
his right hemisphere is muted.

(g) When a picture of an apple is presented to his left visual field, will he be able to name it?
No, since the right hemisphere cannot transfer the info to the left hemisphere because the corpus
callosum has been removed.

(h) Will he be able to draw the apple? If so, with which hand(s)?
Only if he is right-handed, because the left hemisphere controls the right hand and as a split brain patient
his right hemisphere is muted.