Split Brain Consciousness in Action
In the late 1950s, Nobel laureate Roger Sperry and Ronald Meyers discovered Split Brain Consciousness:
Initially they began experimenting with cats, and later proceeded to study monkeys. In 1961 the first human patient was subject to the split brain surgery.
The procedure worked well as a “cure” for patients who suffered from severe epilepsy and did not respond to anti-epileptic drugs. It was soon discovered that patients who had a commissurotomy had some interesting difficulties. Patients were not able to communicate information from one hemisphere to the other, almost as though they now had two separate brains.
Besides popularizing the word “commissurotomy,” Sperry and Meyers made evident that the human brain is actually a marriage of two separate brains — a left brain and a right brain — each capable of functioning alone, each with unique abilities. For example, the right brain excels at recognizing the human face and performing visual-motor tasks, but is a terrible reader. And the left brain has a knack for language and speech.
By the early 1960s, Roger Sperry was performing his most famous experiments into split brain consciousness with one of his students: Michael Gazzaniga.
In the following video, Alan Alda visits the research lab of Michael Gazzaniga, and discovers there’s nothing quite like seeing split brain consciousness in action:
Click the link to watch: Severed Corpus Callosum.
Or watch embedded below:
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This is a richly interesting topic. Check out the fascinating book by Julian Jaynes -The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
If you are new to Julian Jaynes’s theory, start by reading his book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, or his article, “Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind,” which can be found in the Articles by Julian Jaynes section.
“When Julian Jaynes…speculates that until late in the second millennium B.C. men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis through all the corroborative evidence…”"
- John Updike, in The New Yorker
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also this
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/011109_hacking_your_brain/
That’s the first I’ve ever heard of this theory, or Julian Jaynes, and just the comments and book reviews have made me really, really curious, especially for such a radical theory to have such across the board high reviews. It’s going on my “to read” list, which is really backing up…may have to move this one up some, except some of the books on the list are borrowed. Anyway, looking forward to this one. Without having delved into it at hardly at all, it does throw an incredible new twist on old tales, like why eating the fruit of knowledge would automatically coincide with being banished from the Garden of Eden…this could go deep…deep…deep…
The guy who sat behind me in spanish class could look up from his writing with one eye and tell me what time it was, while the other eye remained one his work. Needless to say, I needed to know what time it was several times each class period. True story.
I wonder if alcohol disables one hemisphere? Might explain why I was went home with a dog instead of the beautiful girl I thought I was taking home.
Xman…another explanation is that you went home with a lot of alien shapeshifters ;-)
Since I was an attention-seeking kid I’ve been able to give the quick illusion of moving my eyes separately, which is fun to freak people out at the next table in a restaurant, or standing in line at the movies…here’s how you do it:
Look all the way to your left:
( *) ( *)
Then, cross your eyes…
( *) (* )
Then look all the way to the left again…
( *) ( *)
With practice, you can do this looking straight ahead and keeping the right eye completely stationary while the left eye roams back and forth. You can also then switch sides and look to the right, cross eyes, back to the right…
Anyway, people will swear your eyes actually diverged…but I can’t read the clock and keep writing at the same time ;-)
I’m lucky if I can walk and chew gum at the same time. My wife works with TMS to help people with depression. Amazing the things they can do with magnets. She has had several articles published along this field. La Sirena is another very qualified person in this field.
Joe, have you seen the video of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor? Fascinating.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
Pelmo: I had to do a little searching to figure out what TMS was, but it sounds very interesting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation), and definitely more healthy than the barage of drugs that seem to be the previous best option doctors were throwing at the problem. Apparently the FDA has recently approved this treatment?
Lynne: I love that talk by Jill Taylor. On the subject of different brain states, recently I’ve been reading up (and experimenting with) binaural beats, and found out there’s some pretty cool videos on you tube…I’ll post some in a bit…
If I remember correctly, researchers later found that the two hemispheres seldom independently in practice.
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