#split-brain

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Women Started Shaving, Universal Features of Music, and “Split-Brain” Studies

Learn about why music really is universal to humans; what studying “split-brain” patients taught scientists about the brain; and when in human history society decided that women should shave their bodies.

In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how studying “split-brain” patients taught scientists strange things about the brain: https://curiosity.com/topics/studying-split-brain-patients-taught-scientists-strange-things-about-the-brain-curiosity 

Additional sources:

Universal features of music around the world | ScienceDaily — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191122113300.htm 

Universality and diversity in human song | Science — https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6468/eaax0868 

The world in a song | Science — https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6468/944

Caucasian Female Body Hair and American Culture | Journal of American Culture — https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/brundage13/files/2013/09/Caucasian-Female-Body-Hair-and-American-Culture.pdf 

The History of Female Hair Removal | Women’s Museum of California — https://womensmuseum.wordpress.com/2017/11/22/the-history-of-female-hair-removal/ 

Why women are growing out their body hair and what razor companies are doing about it | USA Today — https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/09/07/women-body-hair-why-more-women-shaving-less-beauty-trend/2195286001/

A Nick In Time: How Shaving Evolved Over 100,000 Years Of History | Gizmodo — https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/03/a-nick-in-time-how-shaving-evolved-over-100000-years-of-history/ 

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Debate: Do split-brain patients have two minds?

I went to the NYU Consciousness site this morning hoping to see if the recent debate on the relationship of prefrontal activity to consciousness had been posted yet.  It hasn’t, and based on what I can see, it might be a while.

But I did find this interesting debate from last year on whether split brain patients have two minds.

Just a reminder: split-brain patients were people who, in order to…

Split-brain is a lay term to describe the result when the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres of the brain is severed to some degree. It is an association of symptoms produced by disruption of or interference with the connection between the hemispheres of the brain. The surgical operation to produce this condition (corpus callosotomy) involves transection of the corpus callosum, and is usually a last resort to treat refractory epilepsy. Initially, partial callosotomies are performed; if this operation does not succeed, a complete callosotomy is performed to mitigate the risk of accidental physical injury by reducing the severity and violence of epileptic seizures. Before using callosotomies, epilepsy is instead treated through pharmaceutical means. After surgery, neuropsychological assessments are often performed.

A particular type of epilepsy has been treated by cutting the corpus callosum, the tracks of nerves connecting the two hemispheres of the cerebrum. The result had very little side effects on the patients. However, with closer experimental studies, the nature of the split brain was examined. Only the left hemisphere spoke and so only stimuli presented to the left visual field resulted in spoken…