Deck 11: Hemispheric Specialization

Question 1

If you section all of the corpus callosum EXCEPT the splenial region,

A)information about inputs to the left and right ears will be successfully integrated.
B)information about inputs to the left and right hands will be successfully integrated.
C)information about inputs to the left and right visual fields will be successfully integrated.
D)information about inputs to the left hand and the right visual field will be successfully integrated.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is a methodological issue that arises in studies investigating cerebral laterality in split-brain patients?

A)Due to their epilepsy,these people may not have had normal brain organization before surgery.
B)The size of the corpus callosum,and the effects of severing it,are too variable.
C)Sectioning the corpus callosum causes severe behavioral side effects that make research participation difficult.
D)Each person's physiological response to the surgery is different and creates new patterns of brain organization during recovery.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

If a split-brain patient with the typical pattern of language dominance is shown an object briefly in her left visual field,she will be able to indicate what she saw successfully if she is asked to

A)speak its name.
B)point to the object using her left hand.
C)point to the object using her right hand.
D)verbally describe,rather than name,the object.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT true of the Wada test?

A)It entails the injection of amobarbital.
B)It can be used to determine which hemisphere is language dominant.
C)It determines the extent to which the corpus callosum has been resected.
D)It is used before elective surgery for the treatment of epilepsy.

Question 5

Which of the following people would be most likely to receive the split-brain procedure?

A)A person with amnesia
B)A person with schizophrenia
C)A person with aphasia
D)A person with epilepsy

Question 6

A small object,such as a key,is placed in the right hand of a split-brain patient who has her eyes closed.Assuming that this person has left-hemisphere language dominance,which of the following best describes her ability to report information about the object based on how it feels?

A)She will be able to name and describe it verbally.
B)She will NOT be able to name it verbally.
C)She will be able to write out the object's name using her left hand.
D)She will NOT be able to direct focused attention to the object.

Question 7

An anatomical difference between the cerebral hemispheres that may be related to language lateralization is the enlargement of the ________ in the left hemisphere.

A)hippocampus
B)cingulate gyrus
C)planum temporale
D)primary visual pathway

Question 8

Visual information that is presented briefly to the ________ visual field is processed first by the left half of each retina and then by the ________ hemisphere of the brain.

A)right / right
B)right / left
C)left / right
D)left / left

Question 9

The following is a sample stimulus shown briefly to a split-brain patient who has the typical pattern of language dominance.If you ask her to name the object she sees,what will her answer probably be?

A)"Square."
B)"Circle."
C)"Square and circle."
D)"Nothing."

Question 10

Which of the following,if any,describes a proposed function of the corpus callosum?

A)To guide migrating neurons in the prenatal brain to destinations in the opposite hemisphere.
B)To allow each hemisphere to inhibit the activity of the other.
C)To provide structural support for the dorsal and medial portions of the cerebral cortex.
D)None of these describes a proposed function of the corpus callosum.

Question 11

Split-brain research is associated with which of the following?

A)Lobotomy
B)Callosotomy
C)Hemispherectomy
D)Craniectomy

Question 12

One difficulty in interpreting the correlation between asymmetry in the planum temporale and language function that has recently arisen is that

A)the extent of the anatomical differences between the left and right hemispheres may have been overestimated by the techniques used to identify this region.
B)it has been found that the planum temporale is an area of great plasticity that changes in size throughout development.
C)newer studies indicate that the planum temporale is involved not in language function but rather in vision.
D)current studies suggest that fewer people than previously thought have left-hemisphere language dominance.

Question 13

One issue in the study of laterality has been to determine whether children with developmental language disabilities show different patterns of hemispheric asymmetry relative to control populations.MRI studies of dyslexic children have found that

A)the left planum temporale tends to be larger than the right planum temporale in this group.
B)the right planum temporale tends to be larger than the left planum temporale in this group.
C)the left and right plana temporale tend to be symmetrical in this group.
D)their brains are indistinguishable from the brains of control participants with regard to hemispheric asymmetry.

Question 14

Examination of cerebral organization in the left and right hemispheres indicates that

A)there are obvious anatomical differences between the hemispheres but no obvious functional differences.
B)there are obvious functional differences between the hemispheres but no obvious anatomical differences.
C)the two hemispheres are more different from one another in function than they are similar.
D)the two hemispheres are more similar to one another in function than they are different.

Question 15

Which of the following statements best describes the correlation between handedness and hemisphere dominance for language function in humans?

A)The correlation is high,such that for language almost all right-handers have left-hemisphere dominance and almost all left-handers have right-hemisphere dominance.
B)The correlation is high only for right-handers,who almost all have left-hemisphere dominance for language,whereas left-handers do not generally have a particular language-dominant hemisphere.
C)The correlation is high only for left-handers,who almost all have right-hemisphere dominance for language,whereas right-handers do not generally have a particular language-dominant hemisphere.
D)The correlation is low,such that almost all people have left-hemisphere language dominance,regardless of handedness.

Question 16

What are homotopic brain areas?

A)Regions of the cortex that are organized according to spatial maps of the environment
B)Areas in corresponding locations in the two cerebral hemispheres
C)Areas in the brain that are organized according to spatial and auditory frequency
D)Regions of the cortex found within the same cerebral hemisphere

Question 17

Assessment of the visual processing carried out by each hemisphere in split-brain patients usually involves the brief simultaneous presentation of different stimuli to each visual field while the participant fixates on a central point in space.Why is it necessary to ensure that stimulus presentation is brief?

A)If the stimuli were presented over longer intervals,information would be transferred between the hemispheres through the corpus callosum.
B)Brief presentation prevents participants from focusing attention on the stimuli.
C)The short presentation time is necessary to prevent eye movements,which would redirect information across the visual fields.
D)Increasing the presentation time increases task difficulty for split-brain patients.

Question 18

Based on what you know about the neurophysiological and microanatomical differences between the right and left hemispheres,choose the option here that correctly lists the properties of cortical tissue samples taken from the left hemisphere.

A)Relatively long dendrites,relatively dense packing of cortical columns
B)Relatively short dendrites,relatively dense packing of cortical columns
C)Relatively long dendrites,relatively loose packing of cortical columns
D)Relatively short dendrites,relatively loose packing of cortical columns

Question 19

The main mass of fibers that carries signals from the cortex in one cerebral hemisphere to the other is called the

A)anterior commissure.
B)corpus callosum.
C)arcuate fasciculus.
D)planum temporale.

Question 20

Which of the following is NOT an anatomical or physiological difference between the cerebral hemispheres?

A)The planum temporale is larger on the left side.
B)The Sylvian or lateral fissure is steeper on the left side.
C)Parts of the thalamus are larger on the left side.
D)Left-hemisphere neurons tend to have longer dendrites than right-hemisphere neurons.

Question 21

A general function that is associated with RIGHT-hemisphere activity in most people is

A)language production and comprehension.
B)comprehension and memory for meaningful gestures.
C)the word superiority effect.
D)visuospatial processing.

Question 22

Delis and colleagues (1986)used not only letter stimuli with their patients but also nonlinguistic hierarchical shape stimuli such as the example here.How did the results differ from those obtained with hierarchical letter stimuli?

A)The results were the same regardless of whether letter stimuli or shape stimuli were used.
B)Neither patient group showed any local impairments when shape stimuli were used instead of letters.
C)Neither patient group showed any global impairments when shape stimuli were used instead of letters.
D)Neither patient group showed global or local impairments when shape stimuli were used instead of letters.

Question 23

The results of studies investigating the processing of local-global figures and sinusoidal spatial-frequency gratings can be tied together within the spatial-frequency hypothesis by which of these facts?

A)Local structure is conveyed by lower spatial frequencies,and global structure is conveyed by higher spatial frequencies.
B)Local structure is conveyed by higher spatial frequencies,and global structure is conveyed by lower spatial frequencies.
C)Local structure and low spatial frequencies are both processed more efficiently by the right hemisphere.
D)Global structure and low spatial frequencies are both processed more efficiently by the left hemisphere.

Question 24

Studies of the production of facial expressions suggest that although ________ can generate spontaneous facial expressions,________ can generate voluntary facial expressions.

A)only the left hemisphere / both hemispheres
B)only the right hemisphere / both hemispheres
C)both hemispheres / only the left hemisphere
D)both hemispheres / only the right hemisphere

Question 25

When Sergent (1982)presented lateralized local-global stimuli to control participants,she found that

A)identification of local targets was performed more quickly by the right hemisphere than the left hemisphere.
B)identification of global targets was performed more quickly by the right hemisphere than the left hemisphere.
C)identification of local targets was faster when a stimulus was presented in the left visual field rather than the right visual field.
D)identification of both global and local targets was faster when stimuli were presented in the right visual field rather than the left visual field.

Question 26

Based on what you have learned about laterality,which of the following statements is most accurate?

A)"Left-brained" people are generally more creative and artistic.
B)"Right-brained" dominant activities include artistic ability and creativity.
C)Both hemispheres play a role in most tasks in all people,working in concert with each other.
D)The hemispheres are functionally identical.

Question 27

The term ________ refers to the idea that a complex perceptual stimulus can be described on multiple levels of detail.

A)dichotomania
B)hierarchical structure
C)generative assembling device
D)heterotopic mapping

Question 28

Robertson and colleagues (1988)investigated possible asymmetries in the processing of hierarchical figures by people who had suffered unilateral brain injuries.They found that patients with injuries to the left hemisphere had difficulty in identifying ________ elements,and patients with injuries to the right hemisphere had difficulty in identifying ________ elements.

A)the global / the local
B)the local / the global
C)the local / both local and global
D)both local and global / the global

Question 29

The idea that the visual system carries out information processing similar to Fourier analysis is supported by the observation that

A)horseradish peroxidase staining studies have shown that neurons in the visual cortex are organized according to local-global structure.
B)single-cell recording studies of the visual cortex have revealed the presence of sinusoidal gratings in the brain.
C)many visual neurons have receptive fields that are maximally excited by bars of light of particular widths.
D)most neurons in the visual cortex have receptive fields that are maximally sensitive to low-contrast stimuli.

Question 30

Although there is a general consensus that the right hemisphere is superior on some tasks that require visuospatial processing,such as the block design task,the findings on this topic are also somewhat inconsistent.One explanation for this inconsistency is that the block design task

A)involves many cognitive operations,and not all of them may be lateralized to the right hemisphere.
B)has many verbal components that may emphasize left,rather than right,hemisphere function.
C)requires fine motor coordination,which is regulated by the right hemisphere.
D)is too simple a task to demonstrate strong laterality effects.

Question 31

When participants in a dichotic listening task with word stimuli are asked afterward to report as many items as possible,they consistently produce the words that were presented to the right ear much more frequently than the words that were presented to the left ear.This phenomenon is called

A)binaural integration.
B)the word superiority effect.
C)the right-ear advantage.
D)the frequency hypothesis.

Question 32

The word superiority effect can be documented

A)in only the left hemisphere because this effect stems from the auditory lexicon.
B)in both hemispheres because this effect stems from the auditory lexicon.
C)in only the left hemisphere because this effect stems from the visual lexicon.
D)in both hemispheres because this effect stems from the visual lexicon.

Question 33

The phenomenon of global precedence described by Navon (1977)is that when hierarchically structured stimuli are presented,

A)global shapes are extracted before local shapes.
B)local shapes are easier for the visual system to extract than global shapes.
C)global shapes take longer to process than local shapes.
D)local shapes can interfere with the perception of global shapes.

Question 34

Based on the work of Navon (1977),which of the following types of stimuli would probably produce the longest reaction times if participants were required to detect the presence of an "L" in the figure?

A)
B)
C)
D)All reaction times would be roughly the same.

Question 35

Here are a hierarchical letter figure and a copy of this stimulus drawn by a person with a unilateral brain injury.Where is the most probable location of this injury?

A)The right dorsolateral frontal lobe
B)The left temporoparietal cortex
C)The right fusiform gyrus
D)The left occipital lobe

Question 36

One advantage to studying cerebral laterality from an information-processing perspective rather than a task-based perspective is that the information-processing approach

A)is a less parsimonious approach to describing laterality effects.
B)focuses on how each hemisphere works independently of the other.
C)emphasizes that the two hemispheres may work in concert to perform a task.
D)minimizes the role of evolution in hemispheric specialization.

Question 37

Despite the generalization that the left hemisphere is dominant in language function,one important aspect of language that is associated primarily with the right hemisphere is

A)reading.
B)writing.
C)prosody.
D)lexical processing.

Question 38

To which of the following aspects of language does the right hemisphere seem to make the SMALLEST contribution,if any?

A)Generative syntax
B)The mental lexicon
C)Prosody
D)Idiomatic expressions

Question 39

Kitterle and colleagues (1990)examined laterality and spatial-frequency processing in neurologically intact people.These researchers showed that relatively high-spatial-frequency gratings were identified faster when presented to the ________,and relatively low-spatial-frequency gratings were identified faster when presented to the ________.

A)right eye / left eye
B)right visual field / left visual field
C)left eye / right eye
D)left visual field / right visual field

Question 40

Split-brain patients are asked to detect targets that appear briefly on a computer screen.On some trials,the targets are preceded by cues that correctly indicate their upcoming location.The detection advantage produced by the cues

A)occurs only if the cue and subsequent target are shown in the same visual field.
B)occurs only if the cue and subsequent target appear in the left visual field.
C)occurs only if the cue and subsequent target appear in the right visual field.
D)occurs regardless of which visual field contains the cue and target.

Question 41

Shown here is an example of a stimulus used by Kosslyn and colleagues (1989)in experiments asking participants to judge whether the dot should be categorized as being above or below the line.It was found that performance on the task was faster when the stimulus was presented in the right visual field.Although one interpretation may be that the left hemisphere is specialized for categorical processing,an alternative explanation is that this task

A)may require the analysis of relatively high-spatial-frequency information.
B)is easy,and the left hemisphere is specialized to complete relatively easy cognitive tasks.
C)selectively involves the processing of global structure.
D)involves abstract shapes rather than linguistic stimuli.

Question 42

According to Corballis's (1991)The Lopsided Ape,the left hemisphere is specialized to generate complex representations from a small vocabulary of primitive units,such as phonemes,articulatory gestures,or words.This left-hemisphere mechanism is called the

A)general speech processor (GSP).
B)generative assembling device (GAD).
C)hierarchical structure device (HSD).
D)language acquisition device (LAD).

Question 43

Studies of cerebral laterality in nonhuman species indicate that hemispheric differences

A)are found in many species,and the specific functions involved are quite similar.
B)are found in many species,but the specific functions involved often differ.
C)are typically found only in humans and other primate species,and the specific functions involved differ from species to species.
D)have been strongly documented in humans only.

Question 44

In neurologically intact people,we can restrict information to only the left hemisphere by presenting it visually in the right visual field.

Question 45

In an experiment testing their views about hemispheric specialization,Wolford and colleagues (2000)presented the visual fields of split-brain patients with red stimuli on 75% of the trials and with green stimuli on 25% of the trials.The predictions made by the patients concerning whether a red or green stimulus would occur on the next trial suggested that the ________ hemisphere tends to take a ________ strategy,which in this case meant guessing red on every trial.

A)left / matching
B)left / maximizing
C)right / matching
D)right / maximizing

Question 46

Support for the view that the left hemisphere is specialized for categorical information processing is that there is a ________ hemisphere advantage for processing information about ________.

A)left- / prototypes
B)right- / prototypes
C)left- / prosody
D)right- / prosody

Question 47

Many callosal projections link homotopic areas in corresponding locations in the two hemispheres.

Question 48

One theory of the relation between language and handedness suggests that both speech and dexterity have strong generative components.

Question 49

In speech,the relatively high-frequency components carry information necessary to identifying the ________ in a sentence.

A)syntactic structure
B)words
C)prosody
D)spatial frequencies

Question 50

Lesions of the right hemisphere disrupt perception of ________ in visual stimuli and ________ in speech,according to the frequency hypothesis of hemispheric asymmetry.

A)global structure / prosody
B)global structure / formants
C)local structure / prosody
D)local structure / formants

Question 51

Asymmetries in language-associated brain regions have been documented at the level of individual neurons that make up the cortical columns.

Question 52

Describe a visual field experiment involving a patient who has undergone the split-brain procedure.In your answer,provide at least one example of a question this person would not be able to answer under these conditions.Would this pose a problem for this person in his or her daily life? Why or why not?

Question 53

Brain asymmetries are restricted to the cerebral cortex and are not found in subcortical structures.

Question 54

You hear someone utter the sentence "Cognitive neuroscience is fascinating." Your ability to infer whether the speaker intended to convey her genuine interest in cognitive neuroscience or to make a sarcastic comment indicating just the opposite depends on your ability to process the ________ components in the speech signal.

A)relatively low-auditory-frequency
B)relatively high-auditory-frequency
C)relatively low-spatial-frequency
D)relatively high-spatial-frequency

Question 55

The right hemisphere is more important than the left for both the perception and production of facial expressions.

Question 56

Drawings of hierarchical figures by people with left-hemisphere lesions are likely to focus on local elements while missing global structure.

Question 57

According to Kosslyn (1987),the left hemisphere is more efficient in processing ________ information about objects and the right hemisphere is more efficient in processing ________ information about objects.

A)coordinate / sequential
B)sequential / categorical
C)categorical / coordinate
D)categorical / sequential

Question 58

The dichotic listening task has been used to show a left-ear advantage for remembering dichotically presented words,consistent with the idea that the left hemisphere processes language.

Question 59

The spatial-frequency hypothesis suggests that the representation of spatial frequency might be the computational basis for hemispheric asymmetries in visual perception.

Question 60

There appear to be two mental lexicons,one in each hemisphere.

Question 61

The spatial-frequency hypothesis explains a variety of findings using visual local-global stimuli.How might an auditory version of this hypothesis explain cerebral asymmetries in language?

Question 62

Speculate about the relationship between language lateralization and handedness in the human species.In your answer,describe Corballis's notion of the generative assembling device.

Question 63

How do the two hemispheres differentially process the local and global elements of visual hierarchical stimuli? How does the spatial-frequency hypothesis explain this?

Question 64

Why might the left hemisphere be more important for the production of facial expressions while the right is more important for perception of the same expressions? In your answer,consider the computational requirements of producing and perceiving expressions.