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Originally Posted by Myst
Anyone have a link to the movie that has an interview with the man that had the connection to the 2 sides of his brain cut?
Our prof showed it today to us in class, spooky shit. basically the man had epileptic seizures, starts in one hemisphere, moves to the other. so they cut the corpus callosum to prevent this (connection between two halves)
and basically so the left side cant communicate with his right. the man had 2 independant brains in one body. if u try and draw a circle with one hand, a square in the other, without looking, its very very hard to do. but this man could do it with no trouble at all, as if his 2 hands worked independantly of each other. words he saw with one eye would not be interpreted by the opposite side of his brain. hed have to say what he saw out loud so his other part of the brain would know what he had seen
ridiculous
anyway, anyone have the link to that movie? its online somewhere
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that is a treatment sometimes for epileptics... the spheres are still connected by the hypothalamus, but the bundles of nerves in the the corpus callosum are cut (they leave only a small section in tact) which disrupts a great deal of communication between both spheres... which would normally exist. these people are referred to as "split brain" patients and the procedure as "split brain operations".
it commonly happens where there are "combative hand movements" where for example, one side of the brain wants a pair of pants because they are red or for some abstract reason and the other side does not want them because they are too small or whatever. so as one hand tries to put them on, the other hand will try to stop it, as both spheres are inable to communicate effectively.
but my understanding is that it is not always the case and that many people do not have this problem.
i have this book - which discusses it in great detail and is a really good read if you have an interest in the subject.
"Left Brain, Right Brain : Perspectives From Cognitive Neuroscience"