Our Senses: An Immersive Experience by Rob DeSalle

Author:Rob DeSalle [DeSalle, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780300230192
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2018-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

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BOX 12.1 | HEMISPHERECTOMIES

This operation is an extreme version of the one performed on Henry Molaison. Of course, doctors would not do this operation if it didn’t work, and it is usually performed on children younger than two years who do not respond to repeated drug treatment for epilepsy. Children of this age are preferred for this operation because of the plasticity with which the brain develops in early childhood. Massive disruptions of the wiring of the brain by removal of half of it can be compensated for by neural rewiring as the child develops. Such children lead very normal if not exceptional lives. Either the right or left hemisphere of the brain can be targeted. Some hemispherectomies—ones called anatomical—involve complete removal of the hemisphere. An alternative to this drastic operation is a functional hemispherectomy, where specific parts of the brain such as the temporal lobe are removed and the corpus callosum is severed. The corpus callosum plays a big role in split-brain phenomena. Accidental and operative disruptions of the two hemispheres offer researchers and clinicians a good approach to the clinico-anatomical correlation method to examine sidedness of the brain.

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