Human callosal function

Abstract

A commissurotomy patient, with MRI-revealed sparing of some rostral and splenial fibers of the corpus callosum, judged whether pairs of words rhymed. We presented one word in each pair to her left visual field and the other to her right visual field. The 2 words in each pair either sounded and looked alike (R+L+), sounded alike but looked different (R+L—), sounded different but looked alike (R—L+), or both sounded and looked different (R—L—). Although in previous studies the patient has demonstrated little or no ability to transfer information between her brain hemispheres, she was able to perform the rhyming judgment significantly better than chance when the words both looked and sounded alike. However, her accuracy did not differ from chance in the other 3 conditions, or when she was asked to indicate if 2 letters presented to her opposing visual fields were the same or different. A second commissurotomy patient, with an MRI-verified full callosal section, performed at chance in all conditions, and normal control subjects were significantly better than chance in all conditions but R+L—. We discuss the results in terms of the specificity of the information carried by groups of callosal fibers.