Science Memes

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We're all a little crazy (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It is proposed that it is possible that a person may develop two separate conscious entities within their one brain after undergoing a corpus callosotomy.

So unless you've had your brain cut in half to treat your epilepsy then you're probably alright

No conclusive evidence of the proposed phenomenon has been discovered.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

ooo theres a video where they experiment on a guy that had this procedure, like trying to show different objects to different halves of his brain. its freaky and interesting, wish i could find it.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The one thing I can think of that approaches support for the idea is "Joe, the split-brain patient"'s case. You can show him stuff on the right side of his visual field, and he'll tell you what it is. Show him something on the left side of his vision, and he can draw it and react to it, but can't name it. The speech center of his brain is disconnected from the right hemisphere due to that procedure.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

A disconnect doesn't necessarily imply two separate conscious entities though, right?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

In those experiments, the speaking portion of Joe has no clue what the other side is experiencing. Like they show it to him on the wrong side and say "can you see this?" "No". Then they ask him to draw it, and to his amazement he does. It's not just being unable to vocalize certain thoughts - they're not even there to vocalize at all to that part of the brain. But the other half is happily chugging away with that info

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This video by CGP Grey goes into it a bit more, but split brain patients have even had their two halves disagree. For example the conscious hand picking out something to wear then the other hand batting it away and picking something else. It's quite fascinating to read about.

https://youtu.be/wfYbgdo8e-8?si=lGDXs9-3P49wyhfL

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It's definitely a fascinating subject! I guess the big question is whether we all have two consciousnesses already or that situation only develops after the split. It seems to me that healthy brains have both sides working so well together that they're essentially one unit, and they only start behaving separately once their forced to.