Worms, a Trowel, and My Brain(s)

When you where a child, did you ever cut an earthworm in half with a trowel? I don’t think I ever did, but I’m certain we all heard the urban legend: “If you cut a worm in half, both halves will grow back.” While untrue for earthworms, there are species (like the flatworm) that can do this.

The human consciousness is a concept that, at first blush, has nothing in common with flatworms. For a majority of us, our conscious experience is a seemingly continuous flow between each sleep cycle. And implicit to these assumptions is the underpinning assumption that we are each one, singular consciousness.

But learning of the existence of the corpus callosotomy procedure has challenged my acceptance of that notion.

A surgery typically used to help with severe surgical conditions, the corpus callosotomy acts to sever a a large portion of interhemispheric tissue, largely separating the halves of the brain.

Outside of reducing the severity of seizures (its intended usage), this procedure can have deeply intriguing side effects. They are myriad and I encourage you to take a deep-dive on Wikipedia to learn more about them, and the very interesting studies performed with their patients, but today I want to focus on the implications of one side effect in particular:

Alien Hand Syndrome.

A relatively rare effect, Alien Hand Syndrome occurs when the two hemispheres attempt to act out of sync with each-other. If my left brain wanted to put on my pants, but my right brain does not, one hand may confound my attempt to put on said pants. One thinks immediately of a certain Dr. Strangelove scene…

Alien hand syndrome poses a problem of categorization. We intuitively categorize the brain as the seat of consciousness for one person alone. But if the hemispheres of the brain are acting in opposition to each other, is that not evidence of more than one intellect (or at least will) being present?

For sake of argument, let us say that it is theoretically possible to divide a human mind very precisely into more than one person, in a manner vaguely analogous to the division of flatworms.

Delving into the realm of what might mildly be called “mad science,” what if we took a pair of twins (to maximize genetic compatability), and exchanged their left brains? Memory is a bihemispheric affair—how would it be effected? Would new memories be imagined in order to make sense of the disparities, or would the resultant hybrid-brained person be completely impaired by the conjunction of the hemispheres? Would the hybrid-persons articulate a body-swapping experience, since we moved their left brains specifically?

Stepping back to reality, let’s imagine a far more plausible scenario: could a relatively normal-functioning corpus callosotomy patient (one who isn’t suffering from alien hand syndrome or similar) have such a syndrome induced by process of indoctrination?

Let me explain. In some real experiments, researchers have given instructions to one hemisphere (“Walk across the room”) but not the other hemisphere. After the patient walked across the room, the researchers would question the other hemisphere. (“Why did you walk across the room just now?”) Reportedly the patient would then articulate an invented reason (“Oh, I wanted to pick something up from over here.”) and not be knowingly lying; their brains would simply rationalize the inexplicable actions.

Could a less-than-ethical researcher induce a personality conflict or alien hand syndrome in a person by, over a larger period of time, feeding in significant amount of data to the right brain that would never be given to the left brain? Does the right brain have sufficient conscious activity to diverge in personality and will from the left? I suspect so.

I think it very likely that the human mind is not a singular entity, but rather a collective of portions. After all, it is largely acknowledged that we have not merely conscious minds, but semi-conscious and unconscious faculities as well.

There are so many philosophical questions posed by this area of study… if I don’t digress now, I’ll be stuck here all day.

I’ll leave you with a personal anecdote: when I was boy (6 or younger, I think) I recall lying in bed late one night, and becoming aware of a horrifying realization: An arm was creeping up over the edge of the bed! I lay completely still, paralyzed by the certain fear that I was, at long last, about to meet the horrible monster-things that hide under children’s beds at night. After what felt like hours of excruciating deliberation I finally resolved to act. With my left hand I seized the arm, just at the same moment as it seized my right! Terror shot through me like lightning and I wrestled desperately for a brief moment before I finally realized that I had grabbed (you guessed it) my own arm which had, presumably, fallen asleep.

A Surplus of Words…

It is the height of hubris to speak when you have nothing to say.

Ergo, I must be full of myself.

This blog has no grand theme beyond that which interests me. I use it to opine on matters philosophical, aesthetic, and otherwise jibber-jabber as I please.

If these vapid musings are of interest to you—by all means subscribe to it.