Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Split Brain and the Bundle Theory
The next chapter of the book talks about personal identity and whether we survive death or not. One theory, the Bundle Theory, states that who we are as people is only dependent on the physical chemistry of our bodies. Once our bodies no longer exist, our identities cease to exist as well. Split brain cases where patients have had their corpus callosums severed are good testimonies for the Bundle Theory because the brain is acting like it has two streams of consciousness while at the same time working as one piece in one person. Here is an interesting video about split brains.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is a really interesting observation. However, I wonder if these results could be extrapolated to predict the outcome of our brains becoming more connected.
ReplyDeleteBrain Computer Interfacing may seem like something completely out of science fiction but recent advances are showing that this technology just may be possible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interface. What if this technology, once it was refined of course, was used to connect two active human brains. Would they become one individual?
My initial thought to this was that, unlike patient observed here, the two brains would contain duplicate centers for every function including whatever part/parts of the brain are involved in decision making. So has long as these duplicate centers existed they could still be called unique individuals.
However, the brain has been found to be very adaptable: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity. If, given enough time, the visual cortex can adapt to provide a sense of echolocation, why can't the brain adapt and merge areas that provide the same function?
I realize that may seem a bit out there, but maybe the Borg collective consciousnesses phenomenon isn't completely science fiction.
That is a very interesting. According to Bundle Theory, because the two brains would be connected, and each person would experience that same thing, they should be considered one individual. However, our own intuition still tells us that the two patients are still considered separate entities. There must be something else, something besides our physical bodies and experiences that determine who we are. Even if their brains adapted and merged, the patients would be viewed as Siamese twins, or similar. While they are, undoubtably, always connected. they are two separate people. It will be interesting to see if science can ever catch up to science fiction.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thread Jeff and Megan. You might find this article interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://courses.media.mit.edu/2003spring/mas963/Gallese-goldman.pdf