Psychology I / Hemispheric Lateralization
Practice question · Put in order

Order the causal chain for why a split-brain patient cannot name a word shown in the left visual field.

Hints
  1. Trace the image from visual field to hemisphere, then to the blocked crossing.
  2. The naming failure and the successful pointing are two sides of the same disconnection.
Show the answer
  1. A word is flashed only in the left visual field.
  2. The image is routed to the right hemisphere only.
  3. With the corpus callosum cut, the right hemisphere cannot pass it to the left.
  4. The left, language-dominant hemisphere never receives it, so the patient cannot say it.
  5. Yet the left hand, controlled by the right hemisphere, can point to the matching object.
Why

Left visual field to right hemisphere, blocked at the cut callosum, so the left speech hemisphere never gets it (no naming) - yet the right hemisphere still drives the left hand to point. Naming fails and pointing succeeds for the same reason.

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