Joe's Consciousness

Consciousness is the state of awareness, reflecting on the environment of external and internal stimuli. The sensory system operates by sending information from the right side of the body, to the cerebral left hemisphere of the brain for processing and vice versa. The corpus collosum is an enormous collection of neural fibers that connect the two halves of the brain. In “healthy” individuals the two hemispheres work together as one to compliment our overall consciousness. The right hemisphere specialises in judgements, it is believe to be nonverbal, emotional and creative. Whereas, the left hemisphere can describe its perceptions in words, it is believed to be linear, verbal and logical. In order to alleviate epileptic seizures, Joe had a
The expected results were for him to reveal the hidden behaviours not readily presented in the dislocated part of his right brain. A series of pictures were flashed across a screen whereby, a dot represented the focal point for differentiating between the right and left side. During the examination, we witnessed that Joes left and right hemispheres appear to work independent of each other. Joe demonstrated the inability to articulate when a word or picture (stimulus) appears to the left of his visual field, because the information is processed by his right cerebral hemisphere which is disconnected and mute. Even though he is unable to verbally name it, upon closing his eyes, he accurately draws the picture with his left hand. Joes, vision appears to operate without conscious awareness. A stimulus in his right visual field can be reported with the right hand alone and also verbally; Dr Gazzinga believes this is because language is located in the left hemisphere of the brain, and the left hemisphere receives visual input from the right visual field. In a healthier individual the two sides communicate. Joe is neither right nor left "brained", but rather “split
These agents can carry on a vast number of activities outside of our conscious awareness. The separations of hemispheres are comparable to have two distinct consciousnesses in one body. By observing the behavior of split-brain patients like Joe, it offers us a deeper understanding of the corpus callosum’s crucial role of integrating the information in both hemispheres to create a coherent understanding of our surroundings. It is conceivable that the role that the left hemisphere plays in split-brain patients, gives us an idea of how our unconsciousness influence thoughts of ourselves and the world, thereby enlightening our knowledge of consciousness. I am in agreement with Dr Gazzaniga theory that the final information processing system is located in the left hemisphere, because it appears to be least affected, by the severing of the Corpus Callosum. However, despite this separation, I believe that the brain still has unified awareness, but it presents the information to us differently. For example, if a bridge that connects two points was removed, a boat, an airplane could be used to cross these points. Likewise, even with the corpus callosum severed the brain can compensate for the missing link by firing extra neurons or enhancing other areas. Take for example; if someone loses their sight but developed a heightened sense of hearing. Dr. Gazziniga’s believes the left hemisphere