# What would someone experience if cut in half?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-someone-experience-if-cut-in-half/575148>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-someone-experience-if-cut-in-half/575148 "2011-03-18T13:50:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-someone-experience-if-cut-in-half/575148/21 "2011-03-19T04:48:12Z")

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> [@AaronX](#):
>
> If someone were cut in half from top to bottom, what would they experience? Would their consciousness stick to one half, or split into 2? How would one go about finding this out?

Where did you get this idea from?

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**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-someone-experience-if-cut-in-half/575148/22 "2011-03-19T06:12:44Z")

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> [@Naxos](#):
>
> Where did you get this idea from?

I was wondering which part of the brain consciousness resides in. Does it remain in one location, or does it flit from cerebellum to cerebrum?

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**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-someone-experience-if-cut-in-half/575148/23 "2011-03-19T06:37:20Z")

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> [@AaronX](#):
>
> I was wondering which part of the brain consciousness resides in. Does it remain in one location, or does it flit from cerebellum to cerebrum?

I brought up a hypothetical of slicing up a human in half in another thread… I thought you may have been using it as an excuse…

Your initial question is moronic. Any action that would result in the destruction of the human brain or body in such severe manner, would result in immediate death for the human in question.

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**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-someone-experience-if-cut-in-half/575148/26 "2011-03-19T07:20:46Z")

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> [@AndrewL](#):
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> This might be of some interest to you:
> 
> [Split-brain - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain)

Split-brain patients have had their _corpus callosum_ cut, and perhaps some or all of the other commissures (nerve bundles) that connect the two cerebral hemispheres. However, the lower parts of their brains, the midbrain, the cerebellum, and the brainstem, remain intact. Although I do not think the experiment has ever been tried, I am confident that if those were cut through, death would follow very rapidly. (The cerebellum might not matter so much - it is possible to live without one - but the midbrain and brainstem certainly do matter.)

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**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-someone-experience-if-cut-in-half/575148/27 "2011-03-19T09:59:18Z")

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> [@Naxos](#):
>
> Any action that would result in the destruction of the human brain or body in such severe manner, would result in immediate death for the human in question.

Does it? Decapitation doesn’t, neither does removing parts of the brain. If “immediate” death were so easy, there wouldn’t be debate on humane methods of killing, would there?

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