The Lying Brain: Do We Really Know Why We Do What We Do?
The brain is at the base of everything we are and do.
It is the seat of our personality, responsible for our emotions, and how we feel during the day; but it is also the organ that allows us to chew gum, kick a ball, go out for coffee with a friend, read a book, plan where we will go on vacation, prepare a practical project for university, fall in love, choose a church to get married. , and thousands and thousands of etcetera. From the seemingly smallest and most trivial action to the most sophisticated mental processes
To be able to do all this, it would be logical to think that the human brain is an organ perfectly prepared to rationally and consciously process all the information that comes to us from the environment. However, The brain does not always work on the information that we consciously process and there are even times when the mental processes that guide our behavior generate lies spontaneously.
The first thing we need to know to better understand why the brain does not have to work from the objective information that comes to us through the senses is that the brain is divided into two large structures that are known as cerebral hemispheres. .
The left hemisphere and the right hemisphere are, in appearance, morphologically the same, as if one were the mirror image of the other. They are found on both sides of the head, slightly separated by an external fissure, but connected inside by a thick bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum.
Left hemisphere: the rational and analytical part
The left hemisphere It is the seat of analytical understanding, numerical understanding and logical analysis Also here is the region responsible for language.
Right hemisphere: non-verbal and emotional information
The right hemisphere Rather, it is concerned with processing the non-verbal and affective information of language such as the tone of the voice, the rhythm and the emotional meaning of what you are hearing.
The corpus callosum is responsible for complementing both hemispheres
As can be seen, these differences are complementary. The two hemispheres make up a whole; the brain works as a unit, and it is precisely the corpus callosum that allows permanent communication and interaction between both structures. Another fact that is not minor: the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, and the right hemisphere controls the left side.
Let’s see a simple example. If we close right and look at the photograph of a tulip, the stimulus travels preferentially to its left hemisphere, and from there it crosses to the right hemisphere through the corpus callosum. In this way, our brain perceives the image in its different aspects but in a comprehensive way. You gain a thorough understanding of what you are observing; We can assure without a doubt that it is a tulip. We are able to describe it and even remember everything we know about that flower
A few years ago, a group of scientists noticed a series of strange phenomena in patients diagnosed with epilepsy and who had recently undergone an operation known as epilepsy. corpus callosum ablation
Epilepsy reveals something important to us
Of course, there are different types of epilepsy and of different magnitude, most of them controllable with medication. But in severe cases, when the frequency and intensity of the attacks are very high and all possible treatments have been exhausted, there is a last resort
It is a surgical intervention in which the corpus callosum is sectioned, leaving the cerebral hemispheres permanently disconnected. Of course, this does not cure the disease, but at least it prevents the epileptic seizure that begins in one of the cerebral hemispheres from taking the hemisphere on the opposite side by storm through the corpus callosum.
But it turns out that the procedure leaves some unexpected consequences, a series of side effects that are as strange as they are intriguing. When patients were asked why they had made a certain decision, and depending on which hemisphere processed the information, They could openly lie in their answers, and what was worse, they seemed not to be aware that they were doing so
Some examples of ‘neurological lies’
If an ordinary person is asked to perform a specific action, such as closing his eyes, and then asked why he did it, he will naturally respond that he was simply following the order given to him. . But that expected, sincere and spontaneous response changed drastically when the neuropsychologist leaned over the recently operated patient and whispered the order into his left ear, and then asked him about the reasons for his behavior, but into his right ear.
Then, To everyone’s surprise, the patient gave a false answer
“My head hurts a little, and I need to rest my eyes,” he could say calmly, with the confidence of someone who knows he is honest and is telling the truth.
“Raise one arm,” the left ear could be ordered. “Why did you do that?” he was then asked in his right ear. “Well, I’m a little tense and I needed to stretch,” the patient responded as casually as possible.
What was happening?
Let’s do a review. Information collected by one side of the body travels to the contralateral hemisphere, on the opposite side. If certain data enters through the left eye or ear, it travels to the right hemisphere, and then integrates into the rest of the brain, crossing through the corpus callosum.
We also know that language is a well lateralized function, and that it is located, to a large extent, in the left hemisphere. It can be said, simplifying the matter a little, that the right hemisphere of the brain is a mute hemisphere
If we combine these two pieces of knowledge, we have the answer to the problem.
When the hemispheres are disconnected from each other…
If the bridge that connects the two halves of the brain is dynamited, the epileptic seizure is restricted to one of the hemispheres. But the same will happen then with any information that enters through the senses
Any instructions the experimenter could give the patient were trapped in the right hemisphere. That is, this side of the brain knew the true reasons for carrying out the requested action, but when the patient was asked, he could not verbalize them, since the language areas are located in the other half.
In contrast, the left hemisphere can speak, but it is unaware of what is happening. He has followed the behavior carried out by the individual, since when he touched the tip of his nose or stood on one leg, both eyes monitored what he was doing, although he could not explain why.
However, and here comes the surprising thing, far from humbly admitting his ignorance, from accepting that he does not have the answer to everything he observes, the left hemisphere ventures to give an explanation which in principle may sound reasonable, but in reality is very far from the true reasons that gave rise to the behavior.
“Why did you start singing?” the patient was asked after giving the order to the right hemisphere.
“Suddenly that melody came to mind,” the left hemisphere responded. Or: “I think I feel especially happy today.”
To the question: “Why are you scratching your head?”, the patient with the split cerebral hemispheres looked surprised at the man in the white coat who is evaluating him and replied, with some disdain: “Because it itches, what else?” could be?”.
Beyond the anecdote
In light of these discoveries, it is legitimate to think that one of the many functions of the left hemisphere is the interpretation of reality. The justifications that these people make for their actions are the result of the efforts that the brain makes to find meaning in what it is observing.
The human brain has evolved to help the individual understand and adapt as best as possible to the complexity of a changing world. For this reason, one of its main functions is to interpret reality, formulate and put forward theories that can explain the vicissitudes to which we are exposed during the course of our lives.
Sometimes these theories are true and fit well with reality, but everything seems to indicate that Most of the time these are just speculations that are nevertheless taken as valid by the person, since its acceptance contributes to creating certainty in a world full of mysterious phenomena. Thus appears the feeling of control over the uncontrollable.
In this way, the left hemisphere is a tireless manufacturer of rationalizations, illusory arguments created to satisfy one’s own expectations and make this world a slightly more predictable place. And what is valid for external stimuli, that is, everything that enters through the sensory channels, is also valid for internal stimuli, that is, thoughts.
The brain collects information from the world through the five senses, but it is also true that it does not need sight or hearing to generate thoughts. And thoughts, furthermore, are the raw material for mental representations, that accumulation of explanations with which we justify everything we are and do, both to ourselves and to others.
We have an explanation for everything but… Is that the real explanation? Or is it just one possible interpretation among many others?
Why do we buy one brand of jam and not another? Why do we go to the coffee shop on the other block and not the one on the corner? Why do we opt for a two-door vehicle and not a four-door vehicle? Why do we like Mozart and not Beethoven? Why do we prefer Mar de las Pampas to go on vacation instead of the mountains of Córdoba? Why do we get married with Fulana and not with Mengana? Why did we decide to study Law and not Medicine?
These are all questions that we can usually answer easily, but are our answers reliable?
We don’t really know why we do what we do and what is worse, we underestimate the external influences that may have pushed us to do this or that thing.
On other occasions, exactly the opposite happens: we overestimate factors that are barely related, attributing to them a weight or power that is not such. This is what often happens when we undergo a certain treatment, with a certain amount of positive expectations.
The simple fact of believing that a therapy is going to help us feel better about ourselves, or lose weight, or control the anxiety that afflicts us, causes us to experience a much more important improvement than we could objectively realize. And the greater the time and money invested, the more convinced we will be of the benefit obtained.
In conclusion
How can we be sure, after knowing these experiments, that the explanations with which we go through life are nothing other than the resulting product of a part of our brain willing to give an opinion on everything and obsessed with arguing about what we are told? is it happening?
Well, dear reader, Now you know that we cannot take our own beliefs and thoughts too seriously and this includes all those “certainties” about oneself and others.
The history of humanity shows the disastrous consequences of allowing ourselves to be carried away by fanaticism and apparently unquestionable ideas. We must always try to keep in mind that our worldview, the way we see the world, is only a possible “interpretation,” but not necessarily true or the only one. To the extent that we allow ourselves to doubt and encourage ourselves to delve into questioning, we will slowly but inexorably get closer to the truth.
