Consciousness: only half brain needed (General)

by David Turell , Sunday, November 24, 2019, 20:43 (1824 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: A new study on six folks with half the brain removed in childhood to stop severe epilepsy:
https://www.livescience.com/hemisphere-removed-brain-plasticity.html?utm_source=Sellige...

QUOTES: In this way, it seems the brain is able to compensate for the loss of brain structure…

“There are many other cases in the literature that document the brain's amazing ability to adapt to an unexpected situation. For example, a young boy had a third of his right hemisphere removed, which included the part of the brain responsible for sight. But a few years after his surgery, neuroscientists found that the left side of his brain started taking on the missing left side's visual tasks, and he could still see just fine, according to a previous Live Science report.”

"Another recent study found a small group of women who could smell despite missing their olfactory bulbs, the region in the front of the brain that processes information about smells. Though it's unclear how this happens, researchers think that it's possible another part of their brain took on the task of processing smells, according to another Live Science report."

DAVID: this degree of adaptive plasticity comes built in. And note full consciousness with a half brain. Consciousness is not related to a whole substrate. it seems any portion of the brain will have it. Egnor has noted fully functional folks with a sliver of rind for a brain. We know substances that alter brain function alter consciousness. But a normally functioning half a brain is all that is needed. Obviously the brain does not make consciousness, which is Egnor's point.

dhw: Although I remain neutral on the subject of materialism v dualism, I am mystified as to how you (and Egnor) can use these cases to argue against materialism. The proposal is clearly that the remaining cells cooperate to compensate for the loss, thereby “taking on the…visual tasks” or the “task of processing smells”. This suggests that the cells of the brain know precisely what they are doing (= they are conscious). How does that “obviously” mean they don’t "make consciousness?

There is another side to this discussion. Have you forgotten that split brain folks also have one intact consciousness. We both agree the brain neurons know how to change brain connections. That is built in and of no issue. You seize on smell and vision to support your theory and I am discussing only at the level of immaterial whole consciousness with parts of a brain always able to produce it. I'm with Egnor and the evidence. How does that happen if consciousness comes only from a material brain? Unless you can define your materialism differently, you make no sense.