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Severance Exposed: Neuroscience Uncovers What’s Real and Fake!

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By Cameron Aldridge

Severance Exposed: Neuroscience Uncovers What’s Real and Fake!

Photo of author

By Cameron Aldridge

This article is shared with approval from The Conversation, an online platform exploring new research insights.

The Apple TV+ series “Severance,” which explores a scenario where personal and professional lives are distinctly split through surgery, is gearing up for its second season. Although the premise seems like a stretch from reality, it delves into some compelling aspects of neuroscience, posing the question: Is it really possible to surgically divide a person’s mind?

Interestingly, the existence of “split-brain” patients dates back to the 1940s. These individuals underwent procedures to separate their brain’s hemispheres in an effort to manage severe epilepsy symptoms, a practice that continues in some cases today.


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Further studies on these surgeries reveal that each hemisphere of a split-brain patient can independently process information, suggesting the unsettling notion that one brain might harbor two distinct consciousnesses.

In the first season of “Severance,” the character Helly R (played by Britt Lower) experiences internal conflict between her ‘innie’ (work life) and ‘outie’ (personal life). This mirrors real-life conflicts observed in split-brain patients.

Typically, when interacting with split-brain patients, communication is primarily through the left hemisphere, responsible for speech. However, some patients can express thoughts from the right hemisphere using alternative methods like writing or using Scrabble tiles.

In one instance, a young patient was asked about his future career aspirations. The left hemisphere opted for a technical drawing office job, while the right hemisphere arranged letters to spell “automobile racer.”

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These patients sometimes experience “alien hand syndrome,” where one hand seems to move independently. This phenomenon indicates that two separate conscious entities might coexist within the same brain, often with conflicting intentions.

The fictional “severance procedure” in the series, however, allows both the innie and outie to speak, suggesting a more intricate partition of the brain’s networks than what is observed in real-life split-brain scenarios.

A particularly complex case involved Neil, a teenager who suffered from a rare form of amnesia following a pineal gland tumor in 1994. Despite his memory challenges, Neil managed to keep up with his schooling. Researchers discovered that while Neil couldn’t recall details of a novel he was studying, he could write down specific memories related to the book when asked to do so, yet he couldn’t read what he had written.

In “Severance,” a character named Irving (John Turturro) accesses memories of his work environment by painting scenes he should not remember. This suggests that the severance procedure might block conscious access to memories similar to Neil’s situation.

Exploring the Hippocampus’s Role

In the context of the show, the hippocampus could be a key area targeted by the severance procedure. This brain region not only aids in recalling daily work events but also helps in spatial orientation within one’s environment.

This dual function implies that the hippocampus could feasibly play a role in the fictional procedure. For instance, the transition between the innie and outie phases occurs at the office elevator doors, hinting at a phenomenon known as “the doorway effect,” where new spatial boundaries prompt memory lapses.

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Although the doorway effect is a subtle real-world phenomenon, it doesn’t cause one to forget significant personal details like having children, unlike the dramatic shifts seen in “Severance.”

There are, however, notable issues with the idea that a simple modification to the hippocampus could facilitate such a procedure. Not only does the severance divide episodic and spatial memories, but it also separates semantic knowledge and emotional experiences, which involve broader neural networks beyond just the hippocampus.

Furthermore, memory is intricately linked with other cognitive functions like perception, attention, and language, making it unlikely for memory to be completely bifurcated. Nonetheless, exploring these theoretical possibilities makes “Severance” an intriguing narrative to ponder.

Originally published on The Conversation.

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