Split Brain Syndrome

The split brain syndrome has been performed on humans ever since the late 1930s. The procedure for the split brain syndrome involves severing the corpus callosum which is a thick band of nerve fibers that divides the cerebrum into two different hemispheres, the left and right. The corpus callosum connects the left and the right sides of the brain allowing communication between both hemispheres. The reason the split brain procedure is performed, is to prevent epileptic seizures from spreading from one hemisphere to another. When severing the brain both sides of the brain stop communicating to each other. Many people begin to question whether this also splits consciousness. The split brain procedure does have much disunity that may cause some hardships with reading, writing, etc. on a daily basis. So I would argue that split brain patients do not have a totally unified consciousness.

The original procedure that resembles split-brain procedure is called commissurotary. Commissurotary involves severing many inter-hemispheric tracts which include the anterior commissurotomy, the massa intermedia of the thalamus, and the hippocampal commissure, in addition to the corpus callosum. Later on with more research the other unnecessary severing was taken out. The split brain procedure we know today is called the callosotomy. Through my research I noticed that both the patients of callosotomy and commissurtary are both titled split brained patients so many do not know this difference when it is voiced that way.

After we fully understand the split brained procedure many start to wonder, how many disunities or inconveniences happen to these patients. The split brain data that was collected over time shows that the pa...

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...logical, and scientific manner. Even to this day many people still raise the question about the unity of consciousness. As Elizabeth Schechter stated in her work “This work is about individuating mental tokens from a theoretical or scientific perspective, and about the insights that the split brain studies yield into such individualization. It focuses on two questions about mental tokens in split brain subjects in particular: how many minds they have, and how many streams of consciousness they have.”

After presenting this argument and analyzing various experiments such as the key ring experiment and the dimensional change card sort task, then further understanding the partial unity model and the two streams model, we can see why split brain patients have a disunified conscious.

In conclusion split brain patients do not have a fully unified consciousness.