The Man With Two Minds

W.J. was a soldier who'd suffered a head injury and later had the connection between the two hemispheres of his brain severed. Whilst unfortunate for the poor soldier, it did make him the perfect test subject for neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga. The left and right sides of W.J.'s brain could no longer communicate properly, yet what Gazzaniga discovered was fascinating - when the right hemisphere triggered an action, the left hemisphere would often invent a perfectly plausible explanation for why he'd done it. In other words, W.J. would do something for a reason he couldn't actually know... then confidently make one up. Gazzaniga called this the brain's "interpreter" - a system in the left hemisphere that stitches together a coherent story, whether it's true or not. This raises an important, but frightening question - how much are we really in control of our own minds?