Would a split-brain operation take place today?

Yes. A corpus callosotomy is a recognised surgical procedure and is used to treat severe epilepsy where other treatments have failed.

There was a multi-part documentary series called “Hopkins 24/7” which featured various members of the medical staff and patients at Johns Hopkins Univ. Hospital.

One of the episodes followed Dr. Ben Carson, a renowned pediatric Neurosurgeon and a little toddler with severe epileptic seizures numerous times a day.

This procedure was done as it was deemed a better alternative than the severe brain damage which could occur from the continued seizures.

Since she was so young, the other half of the brain would have enough neuroplasticity to take over for the functions of the missing half.

It was pretty unsettling to see X-rays showing an entirely empty half of the skull. But it worked really well as they followed her progress for a year or two with updates.

Obviously, it’s a pretty drastic step and far from routine but his explanation to the parents and their reaction was really interesting and one of the memorable parts of the entire series.

You might be able to find the series online somewhere as it’s several years old.

Bear in mind that the split is not quite as total as you’ve been led to believe. The corpus callosum isn’t the only way the two lobes of the brain communicate with each other. The two lobes of the brain mirror each other, and both sides have a language centre, though we appear to use only one. The two language centres are connected by a thin bundle of neurons. Julian Jaynes’ bicameral mind theory holds that words developed as a way to transmit information efficiently through this narrowband connection, and that the seemingly unused language centre is where the “gods” reside. Once, prior to the rise of consciousness (about 4000 years ago according to Jaynes), it was the gods which made our moral decisions, and communicated it to us as voices and visions from from the other side of the brain, through the connection between the language centres.

I can’t decide how to answer. I’m of two minds about it.

I’ve heard that when that happens, if you whisper something into the person’s left ear, then go around to the right and asked them to tell you what they said, they won’t remember you saying anything. But if you go back around to the left, they remember. The brain. Fascinating. “What is that lump of gray matter that is aware of its own existence?” ~ Discover Magazine.