Enock Balthazar*
One of the most controversial topics in neuroscience surrounds the Nobel Prizewinning split-brain experiments of Sperry and colleagues. Their experiments were carried out on patients who had undergone a callosotomy, which is a surgery that removes the corpus callosum-one of the commissures that connect the cerebral hemispheres. After years of research that have allowed us to address some of the major concerns regarding this work, scientists remain doubtful about the validity of Sperry’s findings. This is due, in part, to the number of other commissures that also allow for communication between the hemispheres, including the anterior commissure, hippocampal (Fornix), septum pellucidum commissure, the interthalamic adhesion (intermediate mass), the habenular commissure, and the posterior commissure. Therefore, the original assumption made by Sperry, that severing the corpus callosum divides the brain, is an exaggeration of reality: while there is no doubt that the corpus callosum plays the largest contribution in the passage of information from one hemisphere to the other, it is not the only route. After reading and consulting the bibliography of this article, I hope that you will be able to formulate your own opinions about these questions.
