#splitbrain

Acapella. As I've said before, moods like these make it hard to write. But I need an outlet. I can't bottle this shit in.

People don't realize my rhymes are a giant part of what keeps me alive

Makes me think twice before wanting a cops gun, grab that bitch for assisted suicide

I'm pissed everything in existence for me is always do or die

And there's no middle ground

Just constant ultimatums dropping me, dragging me, then bringing me down

Why did I keep digging this chasm that I now lay trapped in

I could've climbed out if it wasn't for the dragon on my back and

It's fiery whispers saying, "yo drugs will fix this"

Motherfucker I know I'd die first, ain't hardly no one who listens

I'm an addict, an asshole

I've already understood the substances lack substance, and provide no sustenance, go from feeling like Goliath to a tadpole

Some days I feel done with this, but selfish thoughts only hurt yourself and burn the love from it,

Your life and legacy, can't be dreams if your nightmares press in your head obscene

After I commented on an article about Henry Molaison on my paper’s social media page, It was suggested that I write a post in more detail describing my thoughts. At first I was hesitant about this, the topic is strongly related to the brain and my stomach doesn’t sit well with discussing internal organs and other medical information. Instead I have tried to cover the topic from a conceptual level without looking to closely at the biological processes.

There exist some interesting cases where through condition, accident or operation, people have had significant shifts in their cognitive perception and functioning. These cases have implications for a theory of consciousness.

Dittrich (2016) describes the tale of a man named Henry Molaison, after an operation intended to treat epilepsy, Henry was struck with a severe form of amnesia. Although his previous memories appeared mostly intact, Henry could not retain any new information for more than half a minute.

Even though Henry had this condition, he would appear mostly normal (Dittrich, 2016). Not all the information that Henry received was completely lost, Henry showed improvement on hand-eye coordination tasks even though he could not remember previous attempts (Dittrich, 2016). One may wonder what it would be like to have a condition such as Henry’s. It is possible that life would be less stressful without memory. Although it is easy to imagine that experience itself is not drastically different. Many people are aware of the feeling of not knowing something or effortlessly forgetting about something. It is not impossible to imagine that this feeling could be constant.

Another type of case comes from patients who have had a callosotomy.

The patient describes that he doesn’t feel any different to himself from before the operation. This seems rather surprising and harder to imagine, considering the two sides of his brain are separated. It would be essential for a theory identifying consciousness to address this phenomenon.