ABSTRACT
The higher brain, or cerebrum control is concerned with movement and speech. Numerous objections have been made to such higher brain formulations. It is by no means clear whether criteria for continuous personal identity reside in either conscious activity or in the structures of the higher brain. Higher brain formulations run into difficulties with borderline cases, such as mongolism and severe dementia. Despite the popularity of higher brain formulations with philosophers, very few, if any, physicians are willing to accept them as criteria for human death. Exponents of higher brain formulations have accused exponents of whole brain formulations of inconsistency and irrationality. The location of the critical system is the brain, whose meaningful functioning depends on an intact brainstem. The lower brain, or brainstem, is responsible for generating the capacity for consciousness, that is activating the cerebral hemispheres.
