A recent NOVA special sparked debate about the human mind, suggesting that there could be two separated minds inside a skull due to the split-brain phenomenon. However, neuroscientists like Michael Gazzaniga and Michael Miller argue that this is not the case.
The split brain procedure is used in cases of intractable epilepsy, where neurosurgeons sever the corpus callosum to prevent seizures from spreading across the brain. Patients who undergo this procedure typically recover well and lead normal lives with fewer seizures. These individuals are not two separate minds; instead, their single mind compensates for any subtle perceptual disabilities.
Roger Sperry’s Nobel Prize-winning experiments on split-brain patients revealed a perceptual handicap that was only discovered by preventing subjects from using their usual coping mechanisms. This shows that the patient’s single mind can easily adapt to compensate for the disability.
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor stresses that the persistence of normal behavior despite the brain being split is evidence for the unity of the human mind. He argues that immaterial things like spirits or souls cannot be split in two, and this concept implies the actual existence of the mind.
A review of decades of split-brain research by neuroscientist Yair Pinto and colleagues concluded that split-brain patients have split perception but unified consciousness. This confirms the unity of the human mind.
Source: https://evolutionnews.org/2024/09/split-brain-research-confirms-unity-of-the-human-mind/