In 2017, two scientists did
tests with split brain patients, and even with the left and right hemisphere severed, there still seemed to be a unified consciousness. Here is the actual study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28122878/
Here is an article which ellaborates on it
http://theweek.com/articles/728869/medical-mystery-splitbrain-patients
Would love to get some insight.
Ratburn
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
Well first off I have to ask: what evidence for souls currently exists? Because I don't know of any, and your question seems to imply that it exists.
@Nyarlathotep, there isn't any "real" evidence, but I would like to see some opinions on the latest research
Before I read the research, let me ask you a question:
You are allowed to make up any experiment and also make up the results of that experiment. Now what I'd like you to do is make up an experiment to test for the existence of a soul. Or rephrased: is there any experiment that could potentially give evidence for the existence of a soul? If so; please describe that experiment. If not: why do you think the one you cited does something that can't be done?
How does anything at all to do with the brain relate to a soul? You have to define a soul and then indicate some way of validating its existence independent of a brain. For those of you that are religious, go to your bible and explore the evolution of the soul. OT soul simply means breath. Even animals that breath are souls. It is only the modern Christians that attach an eternal living essence to the idea of breath.
We are constantly learning more and more about our physiology...we know much more now than we did 50 years ago, but the physical and chemical workings of the human brain are still being understood. I see this study providing no contribution to the presence of a soul, but rather as another data point in our constantly evolving understanding of our bodies.
@Nondescript Humanist did you read the link I provided?
I did - the article anyway. While yes, it's interesting that there were some as-yet unexplained cooperations between the two halves...maybe it's possible that a neural pathway could have been formed via other ways. The nervous system is vastly complex. To me, it's neat science, but contributes nothing (to me) to any evidence for a soul.
@Nondescipt Humanist
I was thinking, they would still be connected via the spinal cord, maybe there is some other connection or maybe it simply is something we cannot explain, but yes, I agree. It doesn't consistute proof of a soul
What soul? What in the hell are you talking about? You have to define your concepts before you can assert them to be true. You can not simply assert something into existence.
Previous studies of split brain patients showed the exact opposite. Two consciousnesses battling it out in one body, completely unaware of what the other consciousness was doing, quite literally, in one case: the right hemisphere not only didn't know what the left hemisphere was doing, it didn't like the results and undid them. I'll try and find the account of it for you later and post it..
http://theskepticalzone.com/wp/split-brain-patients-and-the-dire-implica...
The different results now can be put down to the fact that split brain surgical interventions are a thing of the past. There aren’t any new patients. The split brain individuals who are still around acquired the injury long ago and the brain heals, creates new neural pathways to allow left/right hemisphere communication.
@susisnake, makes sense, I know the two men that were used the study had their brains altered over 20 years ago so they could have partially healed
@Ratburn
Yep. But you keep asking these questions, Ratty. I applaud you for taking ALL of it on as you work your way from credulity to scepticism.