roland comments on Neuroscience basics for LessWrongians - Less Wrong

84 Post author: ChrisHallquist 26 July 2012 05:10AM

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Comment author: roland 26 July 2012 05:44:47PM 3 points [-]

Do you know Prof. Gazzaniga? He gave a Gifford lecture about the brain in the university of Edinburgh.

The following are two simple questions regarding two of the split brain experiments that are still puzzling me.

I'm referring to the 3rd video in the series(the one about the Interpreter). Immediately after the "snow scene & chicken claw" split brain experiment there are another two(the video is already at the correct mark):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mJKloz2vwlc#t=1108s

  1. J.W.(split brain) sees two words: bell(right brain) and music(left brain) and afterwards when shown several pictures he points to the bell with the right hand which is controlled by the left hemisphere. This puzzled me since the bell was seen by the right hemisphere and I was expecting him to point to the bell with the left hand as was the case in the chicken-claw experiment. Why did he use the right hand and not the left hand?

  2. After that another split-brain man sees the word banana(right brain) and red(left brain), the banana is drawn with the left hand(controlled by the right hemisphere) and he chooses a red pen. I was puzzled again! Why did the right hemisphere choose the red pen and not any other color since the color was only seen by the left hemisphere?