The real cognitive neuroscience behind ‘severance’

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break upwhich imagines a world where a person’s work and personal life are surgically separated, returns Friday for its long-awaited second season. Although the concept of this fascinating piece of science fiction is far-fetched, it touches on a question that neuroscience has been trying to answer for decades: Can a person’s mind really be split in two?

Notably, “split-brain” patients do exist Since the 1940s. To control epileptic symptoms, these patients underwent a surgery to separate the left and right hemispheres. Similar surgery It will happen today.

Research later Such surgery has shown that the separate hemispheres of split-brain patients can process information independently. This raises the uncomfortable possibility that the method creates two separate minds inhabiting one brain.

in one season break upHayley R. (Brit Lauer) faces a conflict between her “In” (the side of her mind that recalls her work life) and her “Out” (the side outside of work). Similarly, There is evidence Conflict between the two hemispheres in true split-brain patients.

When talking to split-brain patients, you are usually communicating with the left hemisphere of the brain, which controls speech. However, some patients can communicate from their right hemisphere by writing, for example, or arranging Scrabble letters.

A young patient In one study He was asked what job he would like to do in the future. His left hemisphere chose an office job creating technical drawings. But his right hemisphere arranged the letters to spell “automobile racer.”

Split-brain patients have also reported “Alien hand syndrome,” where one of their arms is supposed to move of its own accord. These observations suggest that two separate conscious “people” can coexist in one brain and have conflicting goals.

In break upHowever, both Ini and Outi have access to speech. This is an indicator that the hypothetical “separation procedure” must involve a more complex dissection of brain networks.

An example of complex division of functions is described Neil’s case reportIn 1994. Neil was a teenage boy who had many difficulties due to a pineal gland tumor. One of these difficulties was a rare form of amnesia. This means that Neil cannot recall the events of his day or report what he learned at school. He was unable to read, although he could write, and he was unable to name objects, although he could draw them.

Amazingly, Neil was able to continue his studies. Researchers became interested in how he was able to complete his schoolwork despite having no memory of what he was learning. They asked him about a novel he was reading at school, Cider with Rosie By Laurie Lee. In conversation, Neil couldn’t remember anything about the book—not even the title. But when a researcher asked Neil to write down everything he could remember about the book, he wrote “bloodshot geranium windows cedar with rosy geraniums smelling of damp paper (sic) and mushroom growth” – all words associated with the novel. Unable to read blue, he had to ask the researcher: “What have I written?”