Information Can Control Behavior Without Creating A Conscious Sensation

One Brain or Two?, Michael Gazzaniga and Roger W. Sperry explore the independent abilities of the two hemispheres in the brain, the left and right, by studying split-brain patients and their responses to certain tests. The tests are designed to examine the mental and perceptual capacities of the split-brain patients. With careful placement of objects or pictures, the first test measures the visual abilities of the patients. The second test measures the tactile cognition abilities of the patients by allowing them to feel an object behind a screen, then asking them to name the object. The third and more challenging test combines the visual test and tactile test to measure the auditory abilities of the patients. Each of these tests shows the different ways that the brain works in split-brain and normal brain humans alike.

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.

BibliographyBooks1.Burt, C. (1962). The concept of consciousness. British Journal of Psychology, 53, 229-2422.Carlson, N., & Buskist, W. (1997). Psychology: The science of behavior (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Neurological evidence points out that people who lose their eye sights accidently or by birth can certainly dream and imagine about things. Consciousness does not require interaction with the environment. This means that interaction, awareness, and emotions do not always fall in the category of consciousness. In this way, machines can be conscious if they acquire just few aspects (Shear, 1997).

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

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

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

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

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.

In the second test, the experimenters found that while both sides of the brain could recognize an object via touch, only the left hemisphere can articulate it into spoken words. The right side can only express through nonverbal means. In the third test, both sides of the brain were able to identify objects that either is what is described or associated to what is described by the experimenter. From these tests and some others, the researchers were able to discover that each hemisphere of the brain is able to act independently within the confines of their confines. Both the left and hemispheres are able to processes the senses and have motor functions. However, each hemisphere has its own particular aspects that it specializes in; for example, the left hemisphere specializes in speech, while the right hemisphere specializes in spatial skills. As a result of this study, many other studies have been performed to determine the extent of the two brain theory. After these studies, the psychology community has adopted the concept that each hemisphere of the brain specializes in certain skills and functions but can also think on its own. This knowledge also has a more practical usage. Medical professionals and rehabilitation centers can utilize the knowledge of what part of the brain controls what to better help individuals recover from brain damage by knowing what to focus on during recovery and

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

For starters consciousness is a mystical network. It has several different extraordinary characters. One David Chalmers says it has a “unified and a differentiated character”, that he feels defines consciousness and makes it simple. But is it really that simplistic?? I mean consciousness is something everyone is aware of at every waking moment of life until death. Never has it been something

Consciousness allows a person to recognize their existence, and subsequently, to form their essence. The

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