Who Are You?

When asked who they are, most will begin by introducing themselves or talk about their personal statement and what they represent.

However, in the larger scheme of things, none of that matters.

American vlogger Hank Green has said that we are ‘a mammalian amniotic tetrapodal sarcopterygian osteichthyen gnathostomal vertebrate cranial chordate’. Science overload? However, it is the reality of our existence. 

We begin our existence as a single cell and fast-forwarding to adulthood, have approximately 37.2 trillion cells with 100 billion of them centred in our brain. These cells are responsible for the various functions performed by our body such as breathing, seeing, walking, talking etc. But does it mean that we consider ourselves to just be a sum total of cells? Yes and no. We are, at a microscopic level, an accumulation of cells but these cells can still survive independently outside our body. An example would be of blood or organ transplant, where a part of you is removed from your body and transferred to another. Does that change who you are or make you any different?

Did you also know that every second between one to three million cells in the body die and are replaced. And what about the cells that are contained in the blood or organ that was transplanted into another body? Are they still a part of your body and your existence? 

So many questions, but at least your conscience remains the same, right? Wrong. Our brain has two halves or hemispheres with the left half controlling the right side and vice versa. A normal person would not feel this dual-control in their actions. But it can be easily felt by people who have had split-brain surgery as a part of epilepsy treatment, where certain nerves linking both the halves of the brain are cut. A person who has undergone such a surgery will feel the duality when making simple decisions like picking up an outfit or deciding on what to eat. Their right hemisphere might disagree with a decision and indicate that by their left hand. The constant disagreement of the right half will be frustrating to the person, but they won’t be able to verbally disagree as the speech centre is located in the left half of the brain.

An experiment conducted on split-brain surgery patients shows this clearly. Patients were asked to face the front with a monitor on each side. It was noticed that any commands given on the right monitor was followed immediately compared to commands given on the left monitor.

There’s more explanation of this duality of the brain on this video: You Are Two

As much as it is strange to think that there are two of you within you, it also makes a lot of sense. There are many instances in our lives when we feel conflicted when making a decision. The conflict is often between the logical and analytical part of you (left brain) and the creative and intuitive one (right brain).

When you take these facts into consideration, you’ll realise that you are not the same person all the time, both metaphorically and literally.

Alyaa Amir Gabir Elbakri is a 20-year-old finalist at the University of Khartoum (UofK), majoring in chemical sciences. She’s exploring writing for the first time, delving into topics of health and sciences.