As defined in our psychology book, consciousness is our subjective experience of the world, our bodies, and out mental perspectives. In other words, consciousness is our awareness of self, of our environment, and of our thoughts. The BBC video, The Secret You, seeks out what consciousness truly is and where it resides in our brain. How does consciousness work, and where is it located? According to this video consciousness begins in the reticular activating system. This is located in the brain stem and is made up of diffuse nerve cells. The reticular activating system then sends projections to the thalamus, which acts as a sort of relay system. From the thalamus, the projections are sent throughout the entire cortex. Constant activation of the cortex is what activates consciousness. The question of where consciousness resides lead me to do a little more research. I read an article from TIME called, "The Mystery of Consciousness." This article asks what consciousness is, and goes into the science of consciousness. From this article, I have found that there are no concrete answers. Consciousness is located in the brain, and it is caused by activation of the cortex. However when is someone out of consciousness? How do we know this? How can we see this in the brain? Is there scientific evidence? These are all questions that can leave consciousness a mystery, and was addressed in the article I read, but gave no definite answers.
Where does consciousness reside?
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Where does consciousness reside? - Psychology 1001 Sections 10-11 Spring 2012 Read More
I read the article and liked the "astonishing hypothesis" which says, "that our thoughts, sensations, joys and aches consist entirely of physiological activity in the tissues of the brain", meaning that everything we are aware of can be attributed to some kind of brain activity. Not only when you dance and sing, but when dancing gives you a rush of joy or when you sing a hymn and feel a connection to god. These events that we are aware of, without fulling understanding them necesarily, are products of "simple" neural communication and hold the potential to be observed.
But within this observable activity: the "easy question" asks what seperates awareness from physiological function that keeps us alive but we are not aware of. It seems interesting to me, because like many psychologists have found in research: the brain is not a simple organism it is the foundation for everything we do. For this reason, we are delving into a multi-faceted complex that is the source of our ability to ask the questions we begin with. Cool post.