Channels of the corpus callosum. Evidence from simple reaction times to lateralized flashes in the normal and the split brain.

Abstract

We studied 75 normal subjects and three commissurotomized patients using unimanual simple reaction times to lateralized flashes as a behavioural estimate of interhemispheric transmission time. Three different versions of the paradigm were performed: (i) the basic task; (ii) a motor task, with an increased complexity of the motor response; and (iii) a visual task, with an increased complexity of the visual stimulus presentation. We tested two hypotheses. First, that the new versions of the simple reaction time task result in shifts in hemispheric specialization for processing motor output (indicated by a main effect of response hand) or visual input (indicated by a main effect of visual field) alone, without affecting callosal transmission. In that case normals and split brain patients would show no significant task by response hand by visual field interaction and no significant task by crossed-uncrossed difference interaction. Secondly, that the new versions of the task affect callosal transfer. In that case, normals, but not split brain patients, would show a significant task by response hand by visual field interaction and a significant task by crossed-uncrossed difference interaction. Results are consistent with the latter hypothesis, showing that the motor task significantly changed the response hand by visual field interaction and the crossed-uncrossed difference, but only in normal subjects, perhaps producing a switch in the callosal channel subserving the interhemispheric transfer.