creators_name: Morin, Alain type: journalp datestamp: 2002-09-26 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:00 metadata_visibility: show title: The Split-Brain debate revisited: On the importance of language and self-recognition for right hemispheric consciousness. ispublished: pub subjects: psy-bio subjects: neuro-psy subjects: cog-psy subjects: phil-mind full_text_status: public abstract: In this commentary I use recent empirical evidence and theoretical analyses concerning the importance of language and the meaning of self-recognition to reevaluate the claim that the right mute hemisphere in commissurotomized patients possesses a full consciousness. Preliminary data indicate that inner speech is deeply linked to self-awareness; also, four hypotheses concerning the crucial role inner speech plays in self-focus are presented. The legitimacy of self-recognition as a strong operationalization of self-awareness in the right hemisphere is also questioned on the basis that it might rather tap a preexisting body awareness having little to do with an access to mental events. I conclude with the formulation of an alternative interpretation of commissurotomy according to self-awareness — a “complete” one in the left hemisphere and a “primitive” one in the right hemisphere, date: 2001 date_type: published publication: The Journal of Mind and Behavior volume: 22 number: 2 refereed: TRUE citation: Morin, Alain (2001) The Split-Brain debate revisited: On the importance of language and self-recognition for right hemispheric consciousness. [Journal (Paginated)] document_url: http://cogprints.org/2475/1/JMB.PDF