Consciousness

While researching the idea of consciousness that we have been discussing in class I came across an article published this summer entitled “Scientists discover the on-off switch for human consciousness deep within the brain.” The consciousness discovered by these neuroscientists (which is still in the very early stages of research) seems slightly similar to what Chalmers would call our “inner-movie consciousness.” They discovered that when a certain area of the brain of a woman was stimulated, the woman lost “consciousness” but was still awake. Where the traditional view of consciousness might be that of being awake or not awake, this part of the brain (the claustrum) certainly points to a more philosophical view of consciousness, which is possibly being controlled by a physiological area in the brain. This discovery, which again is still in its very early stages, seems to point towards property dualism. As a neuroscience major, I hope and believe that more research like this will begin to materialize, and that even the consciousness that Chalmers describes will be able to be explained by a physical entity in the brain. It’s important to understand that brain research is essentially in its infancy, so when Chalmers says that perhaps science will never be able to understand consciousness, that is probably a bit of a stretch.

Here’s a link to the article if anyone is interested: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185865-scientists-discover-the-on-off-switch-for-human-consciousness-deep-within-the-brain

2 thoughts on “Consciousness

  1. I think this would be really interesting if more published works came out supporting this early stage of research. It’s really cool that this type of thing can happen, especially when some philosophers think it could never happen. I actually agreed that this “on/off” switch could not really be possible, like many of the phiosophers did, so it’s pretty awesome that one day it may be proven wrong with scientific evidence. I guess you should never really underestimate the power of science!

  2. I think before someone can support or refute this, more research and information needs to be released. I think it’s fascinating that the mind has a possibility of having the dualist theory and that it can turn on or off based on what it “listens” to but its important to keep in mind that there’s so many things that affect mind states and it seems almost implausible to find a “formula” (reasoning and information along with studies and research) for every single thing.

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