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Mike or me? Self-recognition in a split-brain patient
David J Turk1, Todd F Heatherton, William M Kelley
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Moore Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA. david.j.turk@dartmouth.edu
Abstract:
A split-brain patient (epileptic individual whose corpus callosum had been severed to minimize the spread of seizure activity) was asked to recognize morphed facial stimuli--presented separately to each hemisphere--as either himself or a familiar other. Both hemispheres were capable of face recognition, but the left hemisphere showed a recognition bias for self and the right hemisphere a bias for familiar others. These findings suggest a possible dissociation between self-recognition and more generalized face processing within the human brain.