Final answer:
Neurobiologists Roger W. Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga conducted the first experiments on split-brain patients in the 1960s, demonstrating the separate cognitive functions of the brain's two hemispheres.
Step-by-step explanation:
The first experiments with split-brain patients were conducted by neurobiologists Roger W. Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga in the 1960s. These groundbreaking studies involved patients who had undergone a surgical procedure to cut the corpus callosum, the main connection between the two hemispheres of the brain, as a treatment for severe epilepsy. Through a series of clever tests, Sperry and Gazzaniga were able to demonstrate how the separation of the hemispheres affected the patients' sensory processing and cognitive abilities. For instance, these patients displayed difficulty verbally identifying objects that were presented to the left visual field because the sensory information could not reach the language centers typically located in the left hemisphere. Remarkably, even if patients could not name the object, they were often still able to pick it up with their left hand, controlled by the right hemisphere, illustrating the lateralization of brain functions.