Glimmers Of Consciousness Essay

Let us take a journey to understanding the power of the brain. According to Dr. Ramachandran, “The brain has around 100 billion neurons, and is so complex that its calculation possibilities exceed the particles in the universe” (Rawlene, 2014). The mind is a complex machine, which we are still trying to understand today. Dr. Ramachandran, a leading world neurologist, has revolutionized the neurology field with his discoveries in the brain functionality. Dr. Ramachandran has had some fantastic breakthroughs with the study of phantom limb syndrome, blindsight disorder, visual neglect condition, capgras syndrome, and temporal lobe epilepsy.

The article, “Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness,” from the New England Journal of Medicine explains that there is a difference in being in vegetative state and being somewhat partially aware while unconscious through a clinical assessment information such as can the patient benefit from treatments and stimulation. If a patient is considered to be partially aware there can be other options for the patient which could help guide family members in a direction of which care is best for the patient. In probing into how I felt in trying the imagery tasks on my own, how the questions were asked to the study participants and patient, and the importance of the brain function will bring an understanding of brain function.

The conscious mind not only represents only a small part of our brain activity and function, but it also perceives certain behaviors differently when constructed with drugs or damage The process of the unconscious brain activity differs from the conscious part but they both

By comparing conscious and unconscious events, William James focused on the problem of detecting conscious awareness. The method of binocular rivalry analyzes the switch between the two stimuli happening in the brain. It is the idea of turning on the conscious mind by looking at an object such as an apple, and processing the “visual image”, by putting together “feature maps” in different parts of the brain. Thus, creating a visual experience. However, sensory regions are not the only parts of the brain involved. In fact, the author, Bernard J. Baars of “Thinking About Consciousness” goes to explain that our brain is like a parallel processing system that involves the parietal and frontal lobes, limiting moment-to-moment conscious events.

Dr. Anil Seth combines cognitive science, neuroscience, psychiatry, brain imaging techniques and mathematics to explain why consciousness exists at all. He talks about the distinction, which is passed from Descartes, between the “easy problem” and the “hard problem”. The easy problem being to understand how the brain and the body give rise to perception, cognition, behaviour and learning. The hard problem being to understand how and why we have phenomenal experiences or qualia and how all of this should be associated with consciousness at all: why aren’t we just machines, without any inner world/experiences? It is intriguing to think that solving the easy problem would get us nowhere in solving the hard problem, which leaves the brain basis

Cruse et al. (2011) conducted an EEG study requiring the subjects to imagine movements of their right-hand and toes to test whether patients in VS could follow command, and hence, they had conscious awareness. The instructors told the participants to squeeze their right-hand or to move their toes as soon as they heard a beep sound, then relax. During the task, the participants’ EEG responses were measured by using either a 129-channel or a 257-channel electrode caps depending on where the experiment took place. The EEG responses of healthy controls with matching channel electrode cap were compared with the VS patients. The results showed that the patients were able to consistently generate the accurate EEG responses when they were asked to imagine the movements which were very close to the control group when doing the same task (i.e. mean 70% and 68% respectively). Both the patients and the controls had no significant EEG responses in the baseline period. It was concluded that EEG could detect conscious awareness in patients in VS, as the

For quite some time scientists and doctors have been trying to find a way to measure the level of a person’s conscious state. This is important due to two kinds of unconscious behavior: severe disorders and invasive surgery. In The Scientific American, an article is published that examines Giulio Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory.

To define consciousness we must make an assumption, that an equilateral state of being is common throughout all who can express it. Be it a normal waking consciousness, or an altered state of behaviour. To develop a testable parameter we rely on physiological responses, which are relative and subjected, if a persons conscious awareness overrides their physical response objective measures become unreliable and thus invalid. Because of this we have struggled to define consciousness, philosophers such as David Chalmers equate the mind and the body to be distinctive seperate forms of sensory transference. Like a passenger in the vehicle of the body, this dualist method of thinking suggest that the mental state can’t be condensed into physical systems.

The studies discussed above suggest that the late global ignition of a neural network of high-level brain areas accompanies conscious access. Still, these studies have little to say about why exactly one piece of information gains conscious access, while the other does not. Or put differently, because there is a limit to the content that can be consciously represented at a particular point in time (Dehaene & Changeux, 2011), the question is then what determines what exactly enters this limited capacity of consciousness. According to a recent proposition within the predictive processing framework, it is the unconscious perceptual inference that determines the content of consciousness (Hohwy, 2013). Specifically, conscious perception was proposed to be an “upshot of unconscious perceptual inference” (Hohwy, 2013, pp.

Wilbert’s model of “Body”, an entire organism, and “body”, separates the brain from the body, parallels well with William James’ questions of “is it me and my body?” or “Is my body me?” (Combs. 113). A common theme discussing the uncertainty of what, how, and where is the consciousness pinpointed. Kak believes “Self-awareness is an emergent phenomenon which is grounded in the self and the associations stored in the brain” (2). The Thomas theorem describes the location and the emergence of consciousness philosophically, “If something is defined as real, it is real in its consequences” (Walden. Lecture. 8/24/16). In Comb’s sixth chapter, he touches on how mind altering substances, chemicals effecting the brain, alter consciousness and mental state(s). He also concludes that the brain impacts the physical body. The example of marijuana changing one’s “…sense of time, body perception, and the senses” shows how the mind, brain, body and even self are all interconnected (52). The questions of where consciousness is located and emerges and what are, if any, the limits of consciousness in these respects are still high disputed and unresolved in my opinion.

The emergence of human consciousness is a highly debated subject matter. Some people argue that either consciousness existed in other human beings, or it emerged at some instance during the process of evolution. It is pertinent to note that the proponents of the idea of emergence of consciousness during evolution believe that it was one of the adaptive features developed by humans in order to survive in the changing environment. This has been the most common view. Human consciousness is an integral section defining the abilities of a human being. As an adaptive feature in human beings, consciousness has a number of roles necessary for human survival. Adaptability in human beings is an outcome of the struggle to survival in a dynamic environment. The conventional theory on the emergence of consciousness is the development of a complex neural network in the brain. This is related to the pattern of the neural networks in the brain. However, within this theory, there are subsets of thoughts that explain the synchronous oscillations in the neural networks. With evidence, this study will seek to show the superior and complex nature of human consciousness compared to other organisms (Rychlak, 1997).

Humans are spiritual beings even when wisdom and evidence points in another direction humans believe in a higher power. However, as researchers look for answers and they find new questions. Opening a Pandora's box spirituality and religiosity create questions that open up vast amounts of discussion on cognitive ability and spirituality. Finally, neurobiologists and neuropsychologist are researching and looking at spirituality and meditation to determine answers to questions about brain activities during spiritual processes. Through the use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI,s), these researchers are looking at the physiological effects upon the brain and body during processes of spirituality. Nevertheless , researchers are trying to

Processes and ideas are constantly changing, even evolving. This occurs across the entire spectrum of most all environments with dynamics natures; within society, within religion, and within science. More specifically, both the study and observation of consciousness and the scientific processes allocated towards those ends have changed profoundly over time. It can also be observed that the evolution of the study of consciousness parallels the development of the scientific method, to the extent that an evaluation of the former can indicate the developmental position of the latter. This is clearly evidenced throughout Miller 's essay on the former topic, and the essay itself can be interpreted as a chronology of the latter topic when approaching it from this viewpoint. The chief elements that serve towards this end—indicating the development of theories on consciousness and the scientific processes behind them—are societal and religious pressures, two elements that are exceedingly prevalent in Miller 's work.

I begin by adopting Block’s distinction between access-consciousness and phenomenal consciousness as I consider this a requirement for conceptual clarity and it will enable me to distinguish between problems that biology faces with regards to consciousness. The problems with a biological account are then highlighted briefly by contrast to the phenomenological, Nagel’s explanatory gap, and the hard problem of consciousness. While biology is equipped to deal with the easy problems of consciousness, it is the hard problem where it falters. Finally I look at neural correlates of consciousness as a potential solution to the hard problem but conclude that it too fails to provide a satisfactory solution. I end by discussing why I think biology does matter in a theory of consciousness despite its current inability to provide a resolution to the phenomenological challenge.

Latest medical research results indicate the possibility that many brain-injured people have more activity in their minds than anyone previously knew.