12/11: Consciousness & the Brain
Quick links:
Brain HQ: https://v4.brainhq.com/
Canvas discussion board: https://sdccd.instructure.com/
Recording:
Miss the class? Or would you like another view of this complex topic? Bridget Wright provides a short lesson. Click here to hear the recording.
Consciousness and the Brain
Each week we discuss various characteristics of the brain and/or methods for optimizing our brain and overall health. Today we continue our journey. We are going to explore the concept of “consciousness”. What does it mean to be aware of ourselves? What does it mean to be conscious of what we are thinking, seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or touching?
Some experts, particularly neuroscientists, believe that our consciousness is the result of brain activity. Without brain activity, we would have no awareness of our experiences. We would cease to exist.
Others, who may include philosophers, spiritual explorers, and even medical professionals, contend that there is ample evidence that our consciousness exists beyond the brain. Indeed, some report being conscious of themselves and their experiences even after their brains seem to have become temporarily inactive.
We will take a closer look at these two very different beliefs. We will also consider the importance of our awareness relative to our health.
Is consciousness in the brain?
Let’s begin by investigating the opinion that the brain is solely responsible for consciousness.
Star light, star bright, do you appear in my dendrites?
Do you float upon brain waves, where you can surf on my encephalogram?
Or are you in my salty neurons? Some of the billions which we all own.
I guess you could be in my axons, giving my brain the thoughts to act on.
Or is it just synaptic fusion that helps create your strange illusion?
Can brain transmitters from the nerves produce the images we observe?
I believe it is the case that you twinkle in phase space! (Walling, 2000).
Imagine gazing at a full moon on a clear night. The light travels from the moon to us in just over 1 second, enters our eyes, is focused on our retinas, and stimulates our photoreceptors. That is as far as the moonlight goes. (Walling, 2000).
At this point, the image of our moon travels through the optic pathways of our cranial waves and further into our brains. Each of us has a brain that weighs about 3 pounds and has upwards of 2 billion neurons and 500 trillion synapses. Without a sound, our brains produce a visual image that is projected back out into space and that image becomes the object of our gaze. This happens so quickly, and it is done so well that we fail to recognize the complexity and consistency of the process. (Waddle, 2000).
The moon now exists in our visual consciousness. Are we aware that we are seeing the moon? If so, where is the location of this awareness of the moon?
It has been proposed that there are 7 features of human consciousness (Churchland, 1996, Seward & Seward, 2000).
Consciousness involves short-term memory.
Consciousness may occur independently of sensory inputs.
Consciousness displays steerable attention.
Consciousness has the capacity for alternative interpretations of complex or ambiguous data.
Consciousness disappears in deep sleep.
Consciousness reappears in dreaming, at least in muted or disjointed form.
Consciousness harbors the contents of several basic sensory modalities within a single unified experience.
Video: This five minute video explores the idea of consciousness
Video: This is a longer, and somewhat more complicated view of consciousness. Meet several scientists and their theories.
Two theories of consciousness
The first is known as the Global Workspace Theory. Neuroscientists have long known that most of the signals that come from our senses never reach our awareness. Have you ever noticed this when doing a BrainHQ exercise? Perhaps the Route 66 sign flashes so quickly that you are not aware that you saw it. Yet, when you “guess” where it is, you are very often correct? That happens because your visual sense noticed the Route 66 sign even though you were not aware of it.
Experiments led by Stanislas Dehaene, a cognitive neuroscientist with the Collège de France in Paris, suggest that we become aware only of signals that reach the prefrontal cortex, a region in the front of the brain. Dr. Dehaene has argued that there are a special set of neurons in the prefrontal cortex that can quickly relay the information across much of the brain, generating consciousness. It’s the prefrontal cortex, and its ability to communicate across the brain that allows us to be conscious and aware of what we are experiencing.
Dr. Melanie Boly, a neurologist at the University of Wisconsin, promotes the Integrated Information Theory. Dr. Boly maintains that specific clusters of neurons process information in particular ways. For example, some clusters are sensitive to the colors or outlines in a picture. Those clusters of neurons, distributed throughout the brain, allow us to be aware of the colors and outlines that we are experiencing. These clusters of neurons are not located only in the prefrontal cortex, rather, they are located throughout the brain. The most complex clusters, according to Dr. Boly, are not in the prefrontal cortex. Rather, the most complex clusters are in the back of the brain.
Experts supporting each of the two theories have a bet that dates back 25 years. To settle the bet, the Cogitate Consortium, consisting of 12 experts in the field, was created to conduct an experiment testing which of the two theories was correct in identifying the location of consciousness.
Finally, perhaps, they could answer the question – Is the Global Workspace Theory or the Integrated Information Theory correct in identifying the location of consciousness in the brain?
The research:
The Cogitate Consortium recruited 256 volunteers who looked at a series of faces, letters, and shapes and then pressed a button under certain conditions. For example, in one condition a participant would press the button if any face was presented. In another condition, a participant would press the button if a specific face was presented. Participants were to look at different letters and shapes as well (Cogitate Consortium, et al 2023).
Some of the participants performed the task in an fMRI brain scanner that was measuring the flow of oxygenated blood in the brain.
Other participants performed the task while magnetoencephalography was used to read the magnetic fields in their brains.
And yet another group of participants were preparing to undergo surgery for epilepsy. Implants inserted directly into their brains were monitored.
The researchers looked for common brain patterns to appear as each participant viewed a specific object.
Those supporting the Global Workspace Theory predicted that the strongest signals would come from the prefrontal cortex, because it broadcasts information across the brain.
Those supporting the Integrated Information Theory, predicted that regions in the back of the brain, where the most complex neural connections can be found, would be most active.
Which of the two theories do you think is most correct in identifying the location of consciousness in the brain?
The researchers found mixed results.
In some situations, activity in the prefrontal cortex was strongest.
In other situations, the activity in the back of the brain was strongest.
Both theories were correct, but neither completely explained where consciousness is located within the brain. It seems that the location of consciousness in the brain may change, depending upon what we are experiencing.
From the paper summarizing these two theories: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.23.546249v1.full
An alternative perspective on the experience of consciousness
Is consciousness dependent upon an active brain? Or is there evidence that consciousness may continue even after a brain is found to be inactive?
As we discussed, the prevailing consensus in neuroscience is that consciousness is a property of the brain and its metabolism. When the brain dies, the mind and consciousness ceases to exist. In other words, without a brain, there can be no consciousness.
But according to the decades-long research of Dr. Peter Fenwick, a highly regarded neuropsychiatrist who has been studying the human brain, consciousness, and the phenomenon of near-death experiences for 50 years, this view is incorrect.
What is a near-death experience?
Dr. Bruce Greyson, professor emeritus of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia, School of Medicine, recently published his book, “After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond.”
He writes “Near-death experiences are profound, subjective experiences that many people have when they come close to death, or sometimes when they are in fact pronounced dead. And they include such difficult-to-explain phenomena as a sense of leaving the physical body, reviewing one’s entire life, encountering some other entities that are physically present that they sometimes interpret as deities or deceased loved ones.” “They describe having existed without their physical bodies, when their physical bodies were essentially dead, and yet, they were feeling better than ever.” (Greyson, 2023).
Video: This 10 minute video takes on the near-death experience and the common experiences.
What are some examples of a near-death experience?
NDE Report One: In a 2001 study by renowned cardiologist Pim van Lommel, a man who had been in a deep coma later told a nurse that he recognized her. He told her that he saw where she had placed his dentures during resuscitation efforts, and then described the cart where she placed them. They were there, precisely as he described it.
NDE Report Two:
A man who had an NDE as a child recalled the experience of meeting dead relatives: “There were some presences there. There were some ladies… I didn’t know them at the time… They were so loving and so wonderful, and I just didn’t want to come back… I didn’t see any pictures of them until I was an adult, but then I said, ‘Oh, yeah.’… They were my great-grandmothers who had died years before I was born.”
NDE Report Three:
Often, people relay their near-death-experiences as a review of their life. Though life review experiences cannot be deemed scientifically veridical, they are worth noting. They can have a profound effect on those who report an NDE and sometimes cause them to re-examine their life choices and values.
Below is a doctor’s description of the life review of an NDE patient:
“When he realized that collision was imminent, the patient said that time seemed to slow down as he hit his brakes and went into an uncontrolled slide. Then he seemed to pop out of his body. While in this state, he had a life review which consisted of brief pictures—flashes— of his life. . . His car struck the truck and the truck bed crashed through the window, causing multiple injuries to his head and chest. Medical reports show that he was in a coma and nearly died. Yet he had a vivid sensation of leaving his physical body and entering into darkness. . . He had the feeling of moving up through a dark tunnel toward a point of light. Suddenly a being ‘filled with love and light’ appeared to him. Now he had a second life review [or life review proper], one guided by the being of light. He felt bathed in love and compassion as he reviewed the moral choices he had made in his lifetime. He suddenly understood that he was an important part of the universe and that his life had a purpose.”
NDE Report Four:
Some who share their NDEs report out-of-body experiences, including traveling through walls to the waiting room where they see their relatives and friends. One patient reported traveling through a wall and seeing her young daughter wearing mismatched plaids, which was highly unusual. Another woman traveled through a wall and overheard her brother-in-law in the hospital waiting room talking to a business associate in a very derogatory manner; she was able to report this back to him later.
NDE Report Five:
Some people who are blind have reported being able to see during their NDE. Psychiatrist Brian Weiss tells the story of a blind, elderly woman:
“[She] suffered a cardiac arrest during her stay in the hospital where I [Weiss] was the chairman of the psychiatry department. She was unconscious as the resuscitation team tried to revive her.
According to her later report, she floated out of her body and stood near the window, watching [the resuscitation]. She observed, without any pain whatsoever, as they thumped on her chest and pumped air into her lungs. During the resuscitation, a pen fell out of her doctor’s pocket and rolled near the same window where her out-of-body spirit was standing and watching. The doctor eventually walked over, picked up the pen, and put it back in his pocket. He then rejoined the frantic effort to save her. They succeeded.
“A few days later, she told her doctor that she had observed the resuscitation team at work during her cardiac arrest. ‘No,’ he soothingly reassured her. ‘You were probably hallucinating because of the anoxia [lack of oxygen to the brain]. This can happen when the heart stops beating.
’But I saw your pen roll over to the window,’ she replied. Then she described the pen and other details of the resuscitation. The doctor was shocked. His patient had not only been comatose during the resuscitation, but she had also been blind for many years.”
NOTE: In searching for visuals, I turned to AI. Using an online service valled midjourneyai.ai, I asked it to create an image with this description:
"an image of what is in a person's mind during a near death experience, including many of the common aspects (a light, out of body experience, meeting others from the past, a review of life, intense emotions, reluctance to return to life, peacefulness and warmth"
Do you think that this reflects a near-death experience?
How common are Near Death Experiences?
In the U.S, about 9 million people have reported having an NDE (Magiscenter, 2022).
Despite initially being highly against any support for the existence of NDEs and related phenomena, Fenwick now believes his extensive research suggests that consciousness persists after death. In fact, Fenwick believes that consciousness actually exists independently and outside of the brain as an inherent property of the universe itself like dark matter and dark energy or gravity (Lazarus, 2019).
According to Fenwick, the brain does not create or produce consciousness; rather, it filters it. As odd as this idea might seem at first, there are some analogies that bring the concept into sharper focus. For example, the eye filters and interprets only a very small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the ear registers only a narrow range of sonic frequencies. Indeed, the eye can see only the wavelengths of electromagnetic energy that correspond to visible light. But the entire EM spectrum is vast and extends from extremely low energy, long-wavelength radio waves to incredibly energetic, ultrashort-wavelength gamma rays. So, while we can’t actually “see” much of the EM spectrum, we know things like X-rays, infrared radiation, and microwaves exist because we have instruments for detecting them.
Similarly, our ears can register only a narrow range of sonic frequencies, but we know that a huge number of others imperceptible to the human ear exist.
When the eye dies, the electromagnetic spectrum does not vanish or cease to be; it’s just that the eye is no longer viable and therefore can no longer filter, be stimulated by, and react to light energy. The energy it previously interacted with remains nonetheless. And so too when the ear dies, or stops detecting sound waves, the energies that the living ear normally responds to still exist. According to Fenwick, so it is with consciousness. Just because the organ that filters, perceives, and interprets it dies does not mean the phenomenon itself ceases to exist. It only ceases to be in the now-dead brain but continues to exist independently of the brain as an external property of the universe itself.
Whatever our beliefs about where consciousness may reside, it seems that there may be health benefits to having a conscious approach to aging.
Let’s consider conscious aging and why it is important.
(Piedmont, 2023)
Conscious aging positively affects our physical, mental and emotional health says Angela Buttimer, MS, NCC, RYT, LPC, a licensed psychotherapist at Cancer Wellness at Piedmont. Ms. Buttimer details conscious aging in an interesting interview.
“When we stay connected to our lifeforce energy and feel vibrant and radiant at every age, our immune system responds positively, as does our sense of well-being,” according to Buttimer. She cautions against telling yourself stories like, “When my grandmother was my age, she had this health condition.”
“When we do this, we will believe our own negative stories and step away from our vitality,” says Buttimer. “We have to be careful of the stories we tell ourselves because they can empower or defeat us.”
Conscious aging: How to accept and enjoy life at every stage
What if you could look at the aging process with joy and expectancy? The concept of conscious aging teaches us to accept ourselves as we age, live with a sense of purpose, and let go of what society deems “appropriate” for our stage in life.
“Conscious aging is accepting the aging process and the fact that we are all getting older – because that’s the plan,” says Buttimer, “It means not buying into a cultural myth of what a certain age should be like, feel like or act like.”
Conscious aging is countercultural
“We have a billion-dollar antiaging industry in the United States,” Buttimer explains. “We herald youth, but really, it’s okay to get older. The goal is to find that balance between accepting that we are getting older without succumbing to the cultural beliefs of who we should be at age 50, 60, 70 and beyond.”
Why are we afraid of getting older?
“In general, we don’t treat older people very well in our country compared to other countries,” says Buttimer. “We set them aside and don’t honor their wisdom. We send a message that as you get older, you become less valuable or even irrelevant. That’s a huge fear many people have about getting older.”
How to view aging in a more positive way
According to Ms. Buttimer, there are several ways to view aging in a more positive light:
Practice self-acceptance. “Take your power back by making choices that are authentic to you.” “There are so many opinions out there, such as ‘never color your hair’ or ‘you need to color your hair if you have grays.’ But it’s your choice.”
Live with a sense of purpose. The key to conscious aging is having a sense of purpose, whether it’s a career, volunteer position or hobby.
Make friends with people of all ages. “We often get to a place where we only hang out with friends who are in our own decade.” “Having a broad range of friends is really helpful.” Have friends who are 20 and others who are over age 90 years.
Prioritize learning. Audit a college class or pick up a new hobby. The key is to keep your mind engaged by trying new activities and learning about different topics.
Stay active. Exercise helps keep your mind and body in a peak state.
Define your own path. “You don’t have to succumb to what people think life should be like at your age or what people have done in the generation before you.” “With conscious aging, you become your own pioneer.”
Summary
Each of us recognizes that there are times when we are very conscious, or aware, of what we are experiencing. We know if we have just tasted a most delicious piece of cake or a cup of coffee that is unusually bitter. It is true. We are often very conscious of many of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. And yet, we cannot explain our lack of consciousness relative to many of the activities conducted by our brains. To what extent are we aware of each message from the brain that keep our hearts beating, our eyes blinking, or our immune system fighting back against infection.
If consciousness is in the brain, where is located? Some experts point to the prefrontal cortex, while others believe that consciousness rests in the back of our brains. Empirical evidence seems to suggest that both views may be accurate, depending upon what we are experiencing. And then there are those experts who contend that consciousness exists beyond the physical brain.
Wherever consciousness exists, we can feel confident that we can make conscious choices about our perceptions and responses to aging. When we choose to view aging in a positive way we are more likely to optimize our health and happiness. How conscious of your views on aging are you?
Works cited
Churchland P. M. (1996). The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey into the Brain. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press; 213.
Cogitate Consortium, Ferrante, O., Gorska-Klimowska, U., Henin, S., Hirschhorn, R., Khalaf, A., Lepauvre, A., Liu, L., Richter, D., Vidal, Y., Bonacchi, N., Brown, T., Sripad, P., Armendariz, M., Bendtz, K., Ghafari, T., Hetenyi, D., Jeschke, J., Kozma, C., Mazumder, D. R., Montenegro, S., Seedat, A., Sharafeldin, A., Yang, S., Baillet, S., Chalmers, D. J., Cichy, R. M., Fallon, F., Panagiotaropoulos, T. I., Blumenfeld, H., d Lange, F. P., Devore, S., Jensen, O., Kreiman, G., Luo, H., Boly, M., Dehaene, S., Koch, C., Tononi, G., Pitts, M., Mudrik, L., & Melloni, L. (2023). An adversarial collaboration to critically evaluate theories of consciousness. bioRxiv, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Downloaded November 24, 2023 from https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.23.546249v1
Greyson, B. (2023). Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). Division of Perceptual Studies, School of Medicine, University of Virginia. Downloaded on November 26, 2023 from https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/our-research/near-death-experiences-ndes/
Hale, L. (2022). How a Near-Death-Experience Can Change the Way You Live. NPR, KPBS. Downloaded on February 20, 2023 from https://www.npr.org/2022/07/25/1112563553/near-death-experience-research
Lazarus, C. N. (2019). Can consciousness exist outside of the brain? The brain may not create consciousness but “filter” it. Psychology Today, Neuroscience. Downloaded November 26, 2023 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-well/201906/can-consciousness-exist-outside-the-brain
Magiscenter (2022). 5 Credible Stories of Near Death Experiences (Peer Reviewed), August 17, 2022. Downloaded February 16, 2022 from https://www.magiscenter.com/blog/credible-near-death-experience-stories
Piedmont (2023). Conscious aging: How to accept and enjoy life at every stage. Living Real Change, Piedmont. Downloaded November 26, 2023 from https://www.piedmont.org/living-better/conscious-aging-how-to-accept-and-enjoy-life-at-every-stage#:~:text=Why%20is%20conscious%20aging%20beneficial,%2Dbeing%2C%E2%80%9D%20says%20Buttimer.
Sewards T. V. & Sewards M. A. (2000). Visual awareness due to neuronal activities in subcortical structures: a proposal. Conscious Cogn. 9, 86–116.
Walling, P. T. (2000). Consciousness: A brief review of the riddle. Proc (Baylor University Medical Center), 13(4), 376-378.