Interhemispheric neural summation in the split brain: effects of stimulus colour and task

Abstract

Four split-brained subjects, two subjects with agenesis of the corpus callosum, and 14 normal subjects performed two tasks requiring responses to red or green disks, briefly presented either singly in the left visual field, singly in the right visual field, or simultaneously in both visual fields. In Experiment 1, simple reaction times to these stimuli, regardless of colour, were recorded (the Go-Both Task), and found to be faster to bilateral-redundant stimulus pairs, than to single stimuli. This so-called “redundancy gain” was much larger for acallosal or split-brained subjects than for normal subjects and exceeded the predictions of a race model, implying neural summation. Experiment 2 used the same stimuli, but subjects were required to respond only to stimuli of a designated colour (the Go/No-Go Task). Redundant target stimuli produced neural summation, while stimuli pairs that included a non-target stimulus did not. These results suggest that neural summation in the acallosal or split brain involves the convergence of response-associated activation, and that redundant sensory processes are not sufficient.