PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Phineas Gage, Frontal Lobe, Phantom Limb
12 Jun 2018
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Assuming that the brain creates consciousness…
Where is consciousness done in the brain?
How is it done?
Is there something special about it or could a computer be conscious?
WHERE IS CONSCIOUSNESS DONE IN THE BRAIN
Yes in terms of maintaining the brain
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But maybe also in creating consciousness
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Do you need a blood supply?
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Yes, maintaining the brain and thus consciousness
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Do you need oxygen?
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No, as consciousness can still operate?
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e.g. phantom limb
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Don't need a hand to be conscious of having a hand
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But what about if we need toes or fingers to be conscious of having toes or fingers (representation in the
brain)
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Do you need toes? Fingers?
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Enabling factors - what our body needs to create consciousness
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Rather than trying to get stuck in the problem of how a neuron could create consciousness - they look for
correlates (patterns, amount of activity) that predict being conscious
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Does not mean that neural activity is causing consciousness but correlates with it
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Isolating NCC - prove consciousness?
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Looking first at correlation and then causation
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The Neural Correlate of Consciousness (NCC)
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Light hits retina activating neurons and into the visual cortex
What happens when you see something
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Blind people - if they never had the experience of seeing --> how do they know if they are
seeing or not
Even if one can't see --> someone can still stimulate the visual cortex and have a conscious
experience
Some people also don't have visual imagination even when they can see
While they might be related - doesn't mean the eye is processing the consciousness
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Thus no, eyes are not crucial in consciousness
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do we need our eyes to be conscious? Can you still have visual experiences?
Closing your eyes
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The Eye
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Our experience of the environment is formed from all five senses:
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A pole struck and pierced through the skull and in the frontal lobe damage - missing frontal
cortex
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Gage could still do things consciously and be conscious
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However, he couldn't plan and his memory was wonky
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Phineas Gage (1848)
This showed the different sections of the brain and what roles they have
Frontal lobe damage
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First cortex which gets information from the eyes
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If you damage it, lose part of your visual experience
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Visual area one (V1)
Primary Visual Cortex
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Damage to the brain
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Visual parts of the brain
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6C - Consciousness
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
2:53 PM
PSYCH 1001 Page 1
Document Summary
Enabling factors - what our body needs to create consciousness. But what about if we need toes or fingers to be conscious of having toes or fingers (representation in the brain) e. g. phantom limb. Don"t need a hand to be conscious of having a hand. Rather than trying to get stuck in the problem of how a neuron could create consciousness - they look for correlates (patterns, amount of activity) that predict being conscious. Does not mean that neural activity is causing consciousness but correlates with it. Our experience of the environment is formed from all five senses: Light hits retina activating neurons and into the visual cortex. While they might be related - doesn"t mean the eye is processing the consciousness. Blind people - if they never had the experience of seeing --> how do they know if they are seeing or not.
