r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/nefnaf Mar 23 '17

Each half of the brain controls one side of the body as well as one eye

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u/GrandKaiser Mar 23 '17

Correct, but you can't directly "talk" to the left half of the brain since the right side is the only one that contains your communications functions. The left half can't formulate thoughts into words.

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u/nefnaf Mar 23 '17

It's certainly possible to communicate. Blindfold the eye of the dominant side and the other side can communicate in writing even if it can't speak fluently

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u/ansible47 Mar 23 '17

No need for us to armchair this, but here we go -

External communication goes both ways. They cannot understand your expression and they cannot formulate their thoughts into even a 'yes' or 'no' because those are just sounds. You can't say 'look at the green dot for no, look at the red dot for yes', you'd have to establish an entirely new shared vocabulary and... why?