How does the Split Brain approach differ from other approaches?

            Split Brain was a term given to a surgery given to individuals who had their Corpus Callosum (piece of cartilage holding the two halves of the brain together) severed so it would prevent their epilepsy.  After severing the Corpus Callosum scientists did not only notice that the seizers stopped, but that the patients had a difficult time functioning within society.  The patients appeared normal, but ones you joined a conversation with them you realized something was a little different and slightly frustrating.

            This surgery is only done in part now.  Instead of removing all of the Corpus Callosum they only cut a small part of it.  This is usually a final result for epileptic patients.  I am sure however, this surgery is the first thing recommended for the more severe cases of epilepsy though.  Some things that are important to know about the brain is that our left brain hemisphere controls the right side of our bodies and the right brain hemisphere controls the left wide of our bodies.  Therefore, whatever we see in our left eye goes to the right brain hemisphere and whatever we see in our right eye goes to our left brain hemisphere.

            The result of this surgery is that when these patients look at something on the left side of their body they cannot speak it and they claim to have not seen it, but their body registers physically towards it but they are not aware of why they moved.  They are also not able to figure out any arithmetic higher than simple addition.  Now, if they look at something on their right side, they can tell you the general picture that they are looking at, but they are unable to affiliate it with anything they are familiar with.  An example of this would be from the game that we played; he saw a picture of one of the scientist, Gloria, but all he recognized was that it was a face and when he attempted to look for a face behind the screen he was unable to find it even though there was a Gloria doll.  Split brain patients also appear to be free of emotion when processing things from the left hemisphere which would mean that affiliations and emotions are controlled by the right hemisphere of our brain and not the left hemisphere.

            The fact that this surgery seems so simple and yet so complex can be very perplexing, especially to the families of the patients who undergo this surgery.  The families will have to learn to show the patients things on their right side and just talk to them and remember not to get upset if they appear distant at times.  Most of the time they will not mean to appear distant, but since the right hemisphere controls our emotions it will be difficult for them to affiliate emotions if they are attaining their information in their left brain hemisphere.

            This approach is different because it is not only a mental approach, but it is also a physical approach.  After being physical it is then a mental process to try and figure out what to do and how to process what they are viewing and attaining information wise in the different hemispheres.  In the end it is possible for these people to function in society it is just slightly difficult and requires patience from them, their family and the people around them.