Lying brain: do we know why we do what we do?

The brain it is at the base of everything we are and do.

It is the headquarters of our personality, responsible of our emotions, and how we feel during the day; but it is also the organ that enables 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 job for the university, fall in love, choose a church to marry, and thousands and thousands of etceteras. 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 a 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 we consciously process, and there are even times that the mental processes that guide our behavior spontaneously generate lies.

Lying brains and short-circuiting hoaxes

The first thing we must know to better understand why the brain does not have to work from objective information that comes to us through the senses is that the brain is divided into two large structures that are known by the name of 

brain 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 is the seat of analytical understanding, number understanding and logical analysis. Also here is the region responsible for the language.

Right hemisphere: non-verbal and emotional information

The right hemisphere rather deals with processing non-verbal and affective information in 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 an integral way. You get a thorough understanding of what you are observing; we can assure you without a doubt that it is a tulip. We are able to describe it and even remember everything we know about that flower.

But... what does this have to do with deception?

A few years ago, a group of scientists noticed a series of strange phenomena in patients diagnosed with epilepsy and who had recently undergone a known operation with the name of ablation of the corpus callosum.

Epilepsy reveals something important to us

Of course, there are different types of epilepsy and of varying magnitude, most of them controllable with medication. But in severe cases, when the frequency and intensity of the seizures are very high and all possible treatments have been exhausted, there is a last resort.

It is a surgical procedure 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 seizure that starts in one of the cerebral hemispheres take by storm the hemisphere of the opposite lane through the corpus callosum.

But it turns out that the procedure leaves some unsuspected consequences, a series of side effects that are as strange as they are intriguing. When patients were asked why they had taken a determined decision, and depending on which hemisphere processed the information, they could outright lie in their responses, and what was worse, they seemed unaware that they were doing so..

Some examples of 'neurological lies'

If an ordinary person is asked to take a specific action, such as closing his eyes, then he is Ask why he has done it, naturally he will answer that he has simply simply obeyed the order that was given to him. But that expected, sincere and spontaneous response changed dramatically when the neuropsychologist leaned over the patient. recently operated and whispered the order in his left ear, and then asked him about the reasons for his behavior, but in his ear right.

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 assurance of someone who knows himself honest and is telling the truth.

"Raise an arm," she could be commanded to the left ear. "Why did he do that?" The right ear was then asked. "Well, I'm a bit stressed and I needed to stretch," the patient replied most amused.

What was happening?

Let's do a review. The 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 with the rest of the brain, crossing 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 subject a bit, that the right hemisphere of the brain is a dumb hemisphere.

If we combine these two 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 seizure is restricted to one of the hemispheres. But the same will happen then with any information that you enter through the senses..

Any instructions that the experimenter might give the patient were trapped in the right hemisphere. That is, this side of the brain knew the true reasons for performing the requested action, but when the patient was asked, he could not verbalize them, since the language areas are in the other half.

In return, the left hemisphere can speak, but does not know what is happening. Has followed the conduct carried out by the individual, since when the tip of the nose was touched or stopped On one leg, both eyes monitored what he was doing, even though he couldn't figure out why.

However, and here comes the surprising thing, far from humbly admitting his ignorance of him, accepting that he does not have the answer for everything he observes, the left hemisphere ventures to give an explanation, which in principle may sound reasonable, but in reality it is very far from the true motives that gave rise to the behavior.

"Why has he started singing?" The patient was asked after giving the order to the right hemisphere.

"Suddenly that melody came to my mind," responded the left hemisphere. Or: "I think I feel especially happy today."

To the question: "Why is he scratching his head?", The patient with the split cerebral hemispheres looked at surprised the man in the white coat who is evaluating him and replied, with a certain disdain: "Because it itches me, 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 of their actions are the result of the efforts that the brain makes to make sense of what it is observing.

The human brain has evolved to help the individual better understand and adapt to the complexity of a changing world. For this reason, one of its main functions is to interpret reality, formulate and wield theories that can explain the vicissitudes to which we are exposed during the course of our life.

Sometimes these theories are true and fit reality well, but everything seems to indicate that most of the time it is only mere speculations that are nevertheless taken as valid by the person, since its acceptance contributes to create 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, arguments illusions created to meet your own expectations and make this world a little more predictable. 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.

Tailor-made realities... or just lies

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 the rest.

We have an explanation for everything but... Is that the real explanation? Or is it just one possible interpretation among so many others?

Why do we buy one brand of jam and not another? Why do we go to the cafeteria on the other block and not the one on the corner? Why did we opt for a two-door vehicle and not a four-door? 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 are we dating Fulana and not Mengana? Why did we decide to study Law and not Medicine?

These are all questions that we can usually answer with ease, 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, the exact opposite happens: we overestimate factors that are hardly related, giving 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 will help us to feel better about ourselves, or to lose weight, or to control the anxiety that afflicts us, makes us experience a much more important improvement than we could realize objectively. 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 comment on everything and obsessed with arguing about what is happening to us?

Well then, dear reader, now you know that we can't take our own beliefs and thoughts too seriously, and this includes all those "certainties" about oneself and others.

The history of humanity shows the dire consequences of letting ourselves be carried away by fanaticism and seemingly unquestionable ideas. We must always try to keep in mind that our worldview, the way we see the world, is only one possible "interpretation", but not necessarily true or the only one. To the extent that we allow ourselves to doubt and dare to dive into questioning, we will slowly but inexorably approach the truth.