Information Can Control Behavior Without Creating A Conscious Sensation

The brain is considered the most complex organ in the body. It is responsible for controlling motor function, the body’s ability to balance and the ability to translate information sent to the brain by sensory organs. The mind is described as the faculty of consciousness and thought. It’s where our feeling and emotions originate from and defines who we are as a person. The brain is composed of the visual cortex, which is responsible for processing visual information. In blind individuals the feature that makes up visions still exists in the visual cortex. These features are now used to process information received from the other senses. However, blind individuals are able to view the images because what’s in their mind.

The case that we see in the video “Split brain behavioral experiments”, is, in fact, a case of Split Brain Syndrome, in which the two hemispheres of brain, the right and left, are no longer connected, or do not exchange information as effectively as before of the surgery. Based on the information found in the website Psychologytoday.com, the article “Split Brains, Brain’s Processing of Information Affected by Hemispheric Transfer” by Berit Brogaard D.M.Sci., Ph.D, explains how this syndrome affects those who have had a corpus calloscotomy. The author makes reference to the main symptoms, which are in fact a “split personality “, where the left side decides over the goals and aspirations of the person and the right side manifest the “hidden

Another patient of Dr. Ramachandran is Gram Young, who at the age of 8 lost his sight in a road accident that caused brain damage to main visual center which takes up half of the large region in the back of the brain. Gram explained that he would walk into things as big as pillars much like those at a train station because he couldn’t see them, but he can still see. It’s a very rare paradoxical condition referred to as blind sight. This condition allows the patient to detect a thing, but isn’t aware of what it is. Gram can see to the left, but is blind to everything on the right in both eyes. To test this Collin Blakemore an Oxford scientist, used a panel divided by line down the middle, the left side white, while the right side a light blue, of which Gram couldn’t see. When placing something in Gram’s field of vision on the left he can see it if

However, it will be shown that it does not have to do this. Consciousness, as Michael Gazzaniga ( in "Postcards from the brain") put it, is our developing thoughts distributed across our brain, rather then them competing to be acknowledged, and exhibit what is relevant (or seems to be relevant) at the time. This occurs in a way that once one thought process is complete, another begins, and then another, and so on. This is continuous and mainly correlated with humans, as apposed to non-human animals. Additionally, it cannot be described as a process, as it an attribute that in continually develops. This adds to how our consciousness cannot be an accumulation of thoughts that are trying to push their way forward, but rather, an endless stream; just like in the saying: "stream on

Ramachandran is helping to understand is the blindsight syndrome. Blindsight syndrome is when the person is completely blind, but can see. This is a rare syndrome seen in brain trauma patients. Graham Young has had this condition since he was eight years old, due to a horrific traffic accident. Graham can see to the left, but is unable to visualize anything on the right side. He is able to see an object move or the orientation of it, but cannot comprehend the object. Graham lacks the ability to be consciously aware of wait is being seen. People do not only just see objects, but they also interpret the information. According to Dr. Ramachandran, there are two ways the brain visualizes objects (Rawlene, 2014). The cerebral cortex pathway is from the eyeball through the thalamus to the visual cortex of the brain, which allows you to be visually conscious of what you are seeing (Rawlene, 2014). The other pathway to see is through the central core (Rawlene, 2014). The central core is located near the base of the stem of the brain, which is then transmitted to the visual cortex (Rawlene, 2014). The central core is closely related to lower life forms, such as a cat (Rawlene, 2014). This connection is more concern with the survival of the species and necessary reflexes (Rawlene, 2014). Blindsight syndrome happens when there is damage to just the cerebral cortex pathway. Graham Young‘s condition is a prime example of how the brain needs to

The left hemisphere controls the right half of the body that controls language and logical tasks. The right hemisphere controls the left half of the body creativity and emotions. Split-brain reveals that depending on what side of the brain is damaged, the two brain hemisphere may have information sharing problems, due to the separation of the corpus callosum . "a split-brain patient looking at an image through the left eye may not be able to name the picture because the information is only available in the largely nonverbal right hemisphere". Module 3.2 (n.d) The Nervous System.

After investigating spatial cognition and the construction of cognitive maps in my previous paper, "Where Am I Going? Where Have I Been: Spatial Cognition and Navigation", and growing in my comprehension of the more complex elements of the nervous system, the development of an informed discussion of human perception has become possible. The formation of cognitive maps, which serve as internal representations of the world, are dependent upon the human capacities for vision and visual perception (1). The objects introduced into the field of vision are translated into electrical messages, which activate the neurons of the retina. The resultant retinal message is organized into several forms of sensation and is

First of all, consciousness is a state of wakefulness and awareness of your surroundings. Whereas sentience is the ability to feel and perceive experiences exclusively. Having a combination of these two is the first half of what I believe makes me human. Although, we can start to break each of theses opinions down further to better understand this belief. If consciousness were a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup then sentience is the split banana and cherry on top in the sense that they both compliment each other completing this proverbial sundae. Consciousness forms the base while sentience is the rest. Now for humans, having a consciousness is essential to living life. It allows us to interact with

The human mind is a slide projector with an infinite number of slides in its library, all gathered from our daily visual experiences. With an instant retrieval system and an endlessly cross-referenced subject catalog interconnecting our visual perception with our cognitive response. Typically our eyes work together with the brain as a unified, grandiose system. But what happens when the eyes fail to function? In his book, “The Mind’s Eye” author Oliver Sacks illustrates the life changing process of a few individuals who have transitioned into blindness.

When a word or picture falls to the left of the point, the information goes to his disconnected right half brain. Joe is unable to name it but he can draw the picture with his left hand which gets its major control from the right half brain. Even though he can’t name it his left hand can draw the picture of the picture or word presented to his right half brain. In patients like Joe with split-brain syndrome the right hemisphere, acts independently of the left hemisphere and the person’s ability to make rational decisions. This can results in split consciousness whereby the left hemisphere give orders that reflect the person’s rational goals whereas the right hemisphere issues conflicting demands that reveal hidden behaviours

The suddenly stop in blood flow to the brain from strokes can result in varying degrees of damage to the brain as seen a patient Ellen. Post stroke, Ellen ate only from the right side of her plate and will only dress and put makeup her right side. She completely neglects her left side of her body and external world. This condition is a common neurological syndrome called hemi-neglect seen in post right brain stroke patients like Ellen, especially affecting the right parietal lobe. These patients often manifest sets of odd behaviors. They report not seeing anything on their left side, but are not blind and can receive visual input from both eyes. Sometimes they even notice things in their neglected side when their attention is drawn to it. What is peculiar about a neglect patient is that he was unconsciously recognizing differences in the images, yet verbalized the images were the same. He was given 2 pictures of the houses: one on fire in the left side and the other was intact. He said they were identical, but when forced to choose, he picked the intact house over the one on fire. Another patient would roll her wheel chair in huge circles to the right to see the neglected side rather than simply turning left.

Blindsight phenomenon suggests that the brain can sense the presence of an object without actually seeing it. Blindsight is defined as those who are cortically blind (caused most often by blood flow loss to the occipital cortex, where we process our conscious visuals) due to lesions in their striate cortex, or V1, having the ability to respond to visual stimuli that is not consciously seen. Patients reportedly have blindness, but respond to visual stimuli. The studies are mainly conducted on patients who are "blind" on only one side of their visual field. The articles I have had assistance in choosing are; Seeing without Seeing? Degraded Conscious Vision in a Blindsight Patient and Unseen Facial and Bodily Expressions Trigger Fast Emotional

According to the online Princeton Wordnetweb dictionary, consciousness is “an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation”

When the word consciousness is used regarding human beings, the word itself usually implies that those individuals are conscious of being conscious. Many individuals assume that the mind, the brain, and the body react as one. But the idea of the mind is not related to the concept of the brain or the body. These differences allow philosophers to determine a people’s consciousness in the world around them. Individuals derive the concept of consciousness from their experience because consciousness itself comes from one’s youth. Consciousness can be described as an individual’s ability to become aware of his or her surroundings including both the external and internal world which they are present in. The idea of consciousness can be explained by obtaining something simple and changing it into something complex, also known as the emergent property. The process of emergent property can be achieved in two steps that allow philosophers to determine who and what possess consciousness.

In the study of the person known as LN, the subject was still able to avoid objects when walking through a hall with obstructions in his path, although he was reported to be incapable of seeing. This remarkable behavior is associated to the superior colliculus, which is part of the visual system, but is not active in cognitive vision. There are also other properties associated with blindsight, including lines, simple shapes, movement, color, the orientation of a line, and emotion (de Gelder, B. 2010). When there is damage to the visual system, the parts of the visual system still functioning play a role in which property is still able to be recognized. One part of the visual system that is associated with Blindsight of