ABSTRACT
This is a test, named after its developer, that allows one to anaesthetize one cerebral HEMISPHERE. Anaesthetic—SODIUM AMYTAL has typically been used—is injected into the branch of the carotid artery, left or right, that serves one or the other hemisphere. This effectively inactivates that hemisphere temporarily, allowing psychological tests to be used to assess the functions of the non-anaesthetized hemisphere. The test was originally developed as an aid to neurosurgery: if a patient was to receive a UNILATERAL LESION of a structure (destruction of one TEMPORAL LOBE for the relief of EPILEPSY, for example) it would be important to know that the same structure on the CONTRALATERAL side could function normally.
