Talk:Dual brain theory

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This sounds like a crock of shit to me... Only one source?
 * Ah, it gladdens the heart to read such an eloquent scientific examination and such faultless logic! Or not.  Getting back to reality, Schiffer's book Of Two Minds has roughly 100 references in the back.  And he is or was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, so he is probably not a complete idiot.  If you follow the link to Wada test you will get some idea of why there may well be something in it. Man with two legs (talk) 18:13, 3 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Sarcasm aside, phrases like "In this manner a patient, through counseling, might begin a rapport between hemispheres in order to lead a more balanced and fruitful life" seriously undermine the NPOV and quality of the article. It sounds a lot like the "electric universe" crockpots.  And just because you cite a bunch of sources doesn't mean that they actually agree with you, or that you're interpreting them right, or even that they're relevant (citation: the US declaration of independence, Nature Magazine January 2003, and the McDonald's dollar menu).  Has anyone else in the field actually referenced his research, or used it as a jumping off point? Eoseth (talk) 01:48, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

I would like to address Eoseth's comments. First, it seems that you have not read my work, and I think you might have a much better opinion if you did. My work consists of a clinical method described in OF TWO MINDS and in a paper, Schiffer F: Can the Different Cerebral Hemispheres Have Distinct Personalities? Evidence and Its Implications for Theory and Treatment of PTSD and Other Disorders. The Journal of Trauma and Dissociation 2000;2:83-104. It also is an hypothesis about the hemispheres and their possible relationship with psychopathology. I would suggest the following papers (all of which can be downloaded at www.schiffermd.com): Schiffer F, Zaidel E, Bogen J, Chasan-Taber S: Different psychological status in the two hemispheres of two split-brain patients. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology 1998;11:151-156; Schiffer F, Teicher MH, Papanicolaou AC. Evoked potential evidence for right brain activity during the recall of traumatic memories. J Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 1995;7:169-175;Schiffer F: Affect changes observed with right versus left lateral visual field stimulation in psychotherapy patients: possible physiological, psychological, and therapeutic implications. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 1997;38:289-295; Schiffer F, Anderson CM, Teicher MH: EEG, Bilateral Ear Temperature, and Affect Changes Induced by Lateral Visual Field Stimulation. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 1999;40:221-225; ; Schiffer F, Teicher MH, Anderson C, Tomoda A, Polcari A, Navalta CP, Andersen SL: Determination of hemispheric emotional valence in individual subjects: A new approach with research and therapeutic implications.Behavioral and Brain Functions 2007, 3:13; Schiffer F, Johnston AL, Ravichandran C, Polcari A, Teicher MH, Webb RH, Hamblin MR. Psychological benefits 2 and 4 weeks after a single treatment with near infrared light to the forehead: a pilot study of 10 patients with major depression and anxiety. Behav Brain Funct. 2009 Dec 8;5:46.

You are correct that the work has not caught on in the Academy, but it has been cited a respectable number of times. The work has been supported by an fMRI study (Schiffer F, Mottaghy F, Vimal RL, Renshaw PR, Cowan R, Pascual-Leone A, Teicher, Valente E, Rohan M. Lateral Visual Field Stimulation Reveals Extrastriate Cortical Activation In The Contralateral Hemisphere: An fMRI Study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 2004;131:1-9) and it has predicted the clinical responses of patients with depression to transcranial magnetic stimulation in 2 studies (Schiffer F, Stinchfield Z, Pascual-Leone A.: Prediction of clinical response to transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression by baseline lateral visual-field stimulation. Neuropsychiatry Neuropsychol Behav Neurol. 2002 Mar;15(1):18-27; and  Schiffer F, Glass I, Lord J, Teicher MH: Prediction of clinical outcomes from rTMS in depressed patients with lateral visual field stimulation: a replication. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 2008 Spring;20(2):194-200)Fschiffer (talk) 23:38, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Are eyes split in half each and not a whole eye for each hemisphere?
I always thought each eye went to one hemisphere, so that when someone had their brain split in half (surgicly or otherwise) whichever part of the brain is the one they consider being them (like in alien hand syndrome) would not be aware of what the other side was seeing (so for example, they could receive different written instructions on each eye and each of their hands would perform the respective task ignoring the existence of the other set of instructions) --TiagoTiago (talk) 22:49, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

It is well established that in mammals each eye goes to both hemispheres. The medial half of each eye sends its information to the opposite (contralateral) hemisphere and the lateral half of each retina sends its information to the hemisphere on the same side as the eye (ipsilateral). In a split brain patient if the experimenter shows an image to the extreme left side of the patients field of view. then the image is received only by the medial aspect of the left eye's retina and the lateral aspect of the right retina, both of which send the visual input to the mute right hemisphere. The mute right hemisphere can respond to the image non-verbally, for example, with hand signals, but the left hemisphere, the speaking part of the person will report that he did not see the image.--Fred Schiffer — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fschiffer (talk • contribs) 14:43, 3 December 2011 (UTC)