split-brain

In the 1960s, Gazzaniga began conducting experiments in split-brain patients whose corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres, was absent.

Although it gives a good conceptual footing for Erickson’s split-brain mystery, the whole severance thing doesn’t bear much inspection.

Last, consider what we know from split-brain work.

Much of this knowledge is thanks to the work Gazzaniga did in the 1960s with Roger Sperry on split-brain patients who had their cerebral hemispheres surgically disconnected, leading to, among other discoveries, the revelation that the two sides are able to function independently, like two autonomous minds.

Though split-brain research is closer to consciousness research than is genomics, coming up with a theory of consciousness would be the greatest challenge Gazzaniga ever faced.