Which parts of the brain are most responsible for consciousness?
Whenever somebody makes an absent minded mistake such as putting cereal in the fridge then soon realizing it was a mistake, whi... More7 ANSWERS
Originally Answered: Which part of brain responsible for consciousness?
Challenge 1 : Can a physical system generate consciousness (the awareness of self and others and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
It is very difficult to define consciousness objectively. Stuart sutherland has contributed much to the definition part of it.
Picking up the question straight away, we study anything in clinical sciences either through case studies or experimentation. Couple of neurological and psychiatric disorders that were pivotal in research :
Amygdala, hypothalamus, temporal lobe structures (The religiosity and neuroscience by wizard Sapolsky), cingulate cortex were suspected most.
The central problem that sits and mock scientists is the concept of "QUALIA" - the subjective feeling. How can the same sodium and potassium ions following through similar circuits generate this unique sensations. Let me quote VSR and make things clearer.
Assume I am from Pluto (Our dude who faced most tortures regarding solar family issues) and have no idea what colors mean. I am just binary yo yo from Pluto. I see black and white, that's it. Now you earthling shows me an apple and tell me it's red.
I will be like : Yo, wasss red yo
Earthlings who are pretty good at neuroscience now insert a cable to it's own brain and connects the other end to my visual cortex.
Boom, ta da; I am seeing or perceiving a new thing all together. This is the only way to do research on subjectivity or qualia.
Godfather of neuroscience
Oops, not him, the guy below
Santiago Ramón y Cajal proposed that qualia is associated with "psychic neurons" in the lower sensory layers of cortex. Qualia and self are two sides of the same coin with the thin section/rim of the coin being neural structures.
This question of consciousness is most challenging in neuroscience.
Read "Phantoms in the Brain: Human Nature and the Architecture of the Mind: V. S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee, Oliver Sacks: 9781857028959: Amazon.com: Books" last chapter, Do Martians see red.
It is very difficult to define consciousness objectively. Stuart sutherland has contributed much to the definition part of it.
Picking up the question straight away, we study anything in clinical sciences either through case studies or experimentation. Couple of neurological and psychiatric disorders that were pivotal in research :
- Anosognosia - Deficit of self awareness
- Locked-in syndrome
- Schizophrenia
- Cotard delusion- Person thinks he is dead
- Klüver–Bucy syndrome - Hypergraphia, hypersexuality, hyper orality, visual agnosia
- Capgras delusion - Imposter syndrome
Amygdala, hypothalamus, temporal lobe structures (The religiosity and neuroscience by wizard Sapolsky), cingulate cortex were suspected most.
The central problem that sits and mock scientists is the concept of "QUALIA" - the subjective feeling. How can the same sodium and potassium ions following through similar circuits generate this unique sensations. Let me quote VSR and make things clearer.
Assume I am from Pluto (Our dude who faced most tortures regarding solar family issues) and have no idea what colors mean. I am just binary yo yo from Pluto. I see black and white, that's it. Now you earthling shows me an apple and tell me it's red.
I will be like : Yo, wasss red yo
Earthlings who are pretty good at neuroscience now insert a cable to it's own brain and connects the other end to my visual cortex.
Boom, ta da; I am seeing or perceiving a new thing all together. This is the only way to do research on subjectivity or qualia.
Godfather of neuroscience
Oops, not him, the guy below
Santiago Ramón y Cajal proposed that qualia is associated with "psychic neurons" in the lower sensory layers of cortex. Qualia and self are two sides of the same coin with the thin section/rim of the coin being neural structures.
This question of consciousness is most challenging in neuroscience.
Read "Phantoms in the Brain: Human Nature and the Architecture of the Mind: V. S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee, Oliver Sacks: 9781857028959: Amazon.com: Books" last chapter, Do Martians see red.
No particular part of the brain is responsible for consciousness. The brain works together as a whole and sometimes it glitches in various ways. If putting cereal in the fridge is a marked departure from the past behaviour of a particular individual this may indicate general deterioration in the cerebrum which as a whole is responsible for planning and judgement. (See: Cerebrum) A mistake or lapse in judgement is not a sign of a lack of consciousness, but it could be a sign of early Alzheimer's or some other brain wasting disease.
Yes?
All of it?
There is no good definition of consciousness on which to base an answer for this question.
I consider it reasonable to believe that consciousness is a function of all our brain, from the oldest (brainstem) to the newest (neocortex).
All of it?
There is no good definition of consciousness on which to base an answer for this question.
I consider it reasonable to believe that consciousness is a function of all our brain, from the oldest (brainstem) to the newest (neocortex).
Ok, I’m going to abandon my usual standpoint of trying to enforce the division between Brain and Mind and relay the best mechanical answer I have heard:
To be conscious, you need the rostral dorsolateral pontine tegmentum (DPT), the ventral anterior insula (AI) and the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) to all be normally functional. They seem to be a Cerebral Holy Trinity.
Hi, friend. Consciousness involves both alertness and awareness. The ascending reticular activating system is ultimately responsible for alertness. Multiple receptors including the eyes, ears, and tactile receptors contribute to awareness. The cortex processes all of this input and results in perception of the environment. What's important during this processing is filtering out certain sensory information and allowing others to bypass. Without this, sort of club bouncer, we lack attention. With it, we can focus on what's important. The selected information enters our working memory, which affects our current actions and decisions. Of course, other forms of memory are also important, included learned behavior. All of the current and already existing information is synthesized at the prefrontal cortex, and we then are able to exhibit cognitive control. Overall, I think there are multiple areas along the process I just described than can contribute to the error you described in your question. More often than not, the problem lies at poor attention and that can be due to over stimulation from the environment, depression, stress, lack of sleep, etc.
It’s not possible to accurately answer your question in terms of the brain itself (or if it is, I am unaware of how), but one imagines that it is a moment where the precedence of a habitual process temporarily overrides the evaluative processes that would ordinarily interrupt it long before execution. This sounds to me like a more or less executive faculty that is operating without some degree of its ordinary inhibition. This surely involves specific brain anatomy, but is also a process that we might consider from the standpoint of the various faculties of consciousness.
This is the kind of question I hate.
First, it is the old idea of phrenology still refusing to die - that the brain has specialised parts and there is a place for everything and everything in its place. Although it is true that the brain delegates specialised tasks to specific areas of the brain, they are not hard and fast and can change depending on injury. The important thing is the task not the area of brain that carries it out.
The second thing is Victorian Imperialism which is also refusing to die. Consciousness is not the sole domain of humanity sitting on top of the evolutionary pyramid, lording it over the rest of nature. It is an essential aspect of all living cells - even bacteria. A bacteria has to be conscious of its external environment in order to detect food and avoid predators; and it has to be conscious of its internal environment so that it knows when it has been invaded by a virus.
So in answer to your question, consciousness takes place in every cell in your body as it does for every living thing.
Thanks for the A2A, Steven
First, it is the old idea of phrenology still refusing to die - that the brain has specialised parts and there is a place for everything and everything in its place. Although it is true that the brain delegates specialised tasks to specific areas of the brain, they are not hard and fast and can change depending on injury. The important thing is the task not the area of brain that carries it out.
The second thing is Victorian Imperialism which is also refusing to die. Consciousness is not the sole domain of humanity sitting on top of the evolutionary pyramid, lording it over the rest of nature. It is an essential aspect of all living cells - even bacteria. A bacteria has to be conscious of its external environment in order to detect food and avoid predators; and it has to be conscious of its internal environment so that it knows when it has been invaded by a virus.
So in answer to your question, consciousness takes place in every cell in your body as it does for every living thing.
Thanks for the A2A, Steven
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