Split-brain confabulations

Neurologist Michael Gazzaniga and colleagues at Dartmouth worked with split-brain patients (whose left and right hemispheres had been separated to prevent the spread of epileptic seizures). Researchers projected instructions to only their right hemispheres, unbeknownst to their language-dominant left hemisphere.

When instructed to laugh, they laughed on cue

When asked why they were laughing, they reported that it was because the “researchers were funny”

When instructed to wave, they waved on cue

When asked why they were waving, they reported that it was because they thought “ they saw someone they knew.”