Human Consciousness - A Portrait of the Brain

1414 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Abstract about human consciousness

Human Consciousness
A Portrait of the Brain
Through Theories and Discussion
A hemispherectomy is a surgical process in which the brain of a patient is halved and one of these parts is then removed. The procedure is only ever carried out on individuals who are very young, as their brains are still flexible, pliable enough that the remaining portion will then take on the functions of the half that had been removed. Though this process is rather rare, only carried out when the child in question is experiences dramatic seizures that can only be halted in this way, it brings a crucial element to the table, far beyond the medical benefit for one. Hemispherectomies prove that patients can survive with only half of the brain, and thus, if the single mind could be partitioned into two separate bodies, producing a pair of similar living organisms - which patient would be the original? This very question has basis in the complex phenomena known as consciousness.
Human consciousness can be rather elusive to define, as there are differing theories as well as opinions as to what the state is as a whole, and what it can then be boiled down into. Morgan Kelly (2014) claims that most people consider consciousness to be the complete, “non-physical mental package” that composes an individual, such as the personality, memory, experiences, and notably, emotion. Awareness, then, is also taken to be more focuses, as in the specific items noted in the conscious. Scientists who study consciousness hold the belief that if an explanation can be reached on how the brain becomes aware of something, the larger phenomenon of consciousness can likewise be explained. According to Kendra Cherry (2013) the functioning definition of this awareness from a p...

... middle of paper ...

...s between different actions, forming a bridge between the conscious and subconscious.

Works Cited

Cherry, Kendra (2013). Consciousness - Psychology Definition of the Week.
Psychology - About.com. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/b/2013/01/18/consciousness-psychology-definition-of-the-week.htm
Kelly, Morgan (2014). Unpacking the Toolkit of the Human Consciousness
Princeton University Office of Communications. Retrieved from http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S38/91/90C37/index.xml?section=featured
Seth, Anil (2012). Consciousness: Eight Questions Science Must Answer
The Gaurdian.com Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/mar/01/consciousness-eight-questions-science
Thornton, Stephen P. (2014). Solipsism and the Problem of Other Minds
Internet Encyclopedia of Philisophy Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/solipsis/#H5

Show More
Related

  • Derek Parfit And The Non-Identity Problem

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    Derek Parfit, one of the most important defender of Hume, addresses the puzzle of the non-identity problem. Parfit claims that there is no self. This statement argues against the Ego Theory, which claims that beneath experience, a subject or self exists. Ego Theorists claims that the unity of a person’s whole life including life experiences is also known as the Cartesian view, which claims that each person is a “persisting purely mental thing.” Parfit uses the Split-Brain Case, which tells us something interesting about personal identity, to invalidate the Ego Theory. During the Split Brain procedure, there are neither ‘persons’ nor ‘persons’ before the brain was split. Within the experiment, the patient has control of their arms, and sees what is in half of their visual fields with only one of their hemispheres. However, when the right and left hemisphere disconnect, the patient is able to receive two different written questions targeted to the two halves of their visual field; thus, per hand, they write two different answers. In a split brain case, there are two streams of consciousness and Parfit claims that the number of persons involved is none. The scenario involves the disconnection of hemispheres in the brain. The patient is then placed in front of a screen where the left half of a screen is red and the right half is blue. When the color is shown to one hemisphere and the patient is asked, “How many colors do you see,” the patient, with both hands, will write only one color. But when colors are shown to both sides of the hemisphere, the patient with one hand writes red and the other writes blue.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Ted Talk

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    The textbook mentioned how it is possible to live with one side of the brain (Lilienfeld et al., 2016). However, I was still a bit confused on this concept because I have always thought that you need both hemispheres working together to function properly. As I watched the TedTalk, I was further able to change my understanding of the concept that you can live with one hemisphere, you would just lose some functions associated with that hemisphere, as Jill explained (Taylor, 2008). Not only that, but from the textbook I never understood how you would feel without one of your hemispheres not functioning properly, I personally thought that you would lose some abilities and it would be difficult to survive. However, the TedTalk changed this understanding of mine because, like Jill, although she lost some functions, she lost all her stresses, and she felt peace, as she states, “So here I am in this space, and my job, and any stress related to my job - it was gone. And I felt lighter in my body. And imagine all of the relationships in the external world and any stressors related to any of those - they were gone. And I felt this sense of peacefulness” (Taylor, 2008). It gave her a whole new world and it never occurred to me that this could happen, so it really expanded on the knowledge obtained from the

    Read More

  • Ap Psychology Chapter 4

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chapter 4 discusses the several states of consciousness: the nature of consciousness, sleep and dreams, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. Consciousness is a crucial part of human experience, it represents that private inner mind where we think, feel, plan, wish, pray, omagine, and quietly relive experiences. William James described the mind as a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of changing sensations, images thoughts, and feelings. Consciousness has two major parts: awareness and arousal. Awareness includes the awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences. Arousal is the physiological state of being engaged with the environment. Theory of mind refers to individuals understanding that they and others think,

    Read More

  • How Flexible is the Brain's Circuitry?

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the most memorable case studies I read about in high school psychology was the procedure of removing large portions, sometime half the brain, to treat young children with epileptic seizures. This procedure, called hemi-spherectomy, was developed in the 1920's but rarely performed due to complications (8). With the advances in medicine today, it has become a more common practice in treatment severe epilepsy. At first, though the procedure was expected to stop the seizures, doctors did not expect these children to ever function normally. After all, with so much of the brain missing, it is hard to expect much of the mental functions of these children. Surprisingly, these children often retained much of their personality, memories and sense humor (8), awing their doctors with the flexibility of the brains to adjust after such invasive surgery.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Double Consciousness And The Veil

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    In W.E.B Du Bois’s “Double-Consciousness and the Veil”, he talks about the Negro’s viewpoint in the emancipated world. He illustrates the way that black people are able to view themselves from two perspectives. He shows the struggle that black people have to balance out in order to make it in society. I will be explaining what the theory of double-consciousness is and what Du bois felt like it meant for black people.

    Read More

  • Why Are Consciousness Essay

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    The notion of Consciousness took various definitions through time and even today it still doesn’t have a general accepted definition. A more universal one would be that Consciousness is a state of awareness of one’s surroundings, of the external objects around, or being aware of oneself. From a more psychological perspective, Consciousness represents a state characterized by perceptions, sensations, emotions, thoughts, where the individual is aware of what he sees, feels, thinks and observes himself, those around him and the environment.

    Read More

  • Metaphysics Of Consciousness

    3101 Words  | 7 Pages

    Consciousness is a very common and much used word used to describe the condition of being awake and aware. In other words, being conscious means responding to the environment, in contrast to being asleep or in coma. But in philosophical terms, consciousness is defined as the state in which humans are able to clearly distinguish between themselves and all other

    Read More

  • The Link between Creativity and Mental Disorder

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    Human mind is still a mystery to us all. It is hard to conclude on what

    Read More

  • Rosenthal's Higher Order Thought Theory

    2137 Words  | 5 Pages

    I will commence by defining what makes a mental state conscious. This will be done aiming to distinguish what type of state we are addressing when we speak of a mental phenomenon and how is it, that can have a plausible explanation. By taking this first approach, we are able to build a base for our main argument to be clear enough and so that we can remain committed to.

    Read More

  • Understanding Brain Chemistry

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is it that makes us human? Is it our actions, our sense of purpose, or our ability to keep our mind on as well as perform complex tasks? Is it that we analyze our own mental processes, as well as the processes of others? What exactly is a mental state, and what creates it? Is it a level of attentiveness, an impulse, or an emotional state? What is it that allows us to experience these things? The answers all lie within our brains.

    Read More

  • Personal Identity by Derek Parfit

    1917 Words  | 4 Pages

    Division Parfit uses a famous case of division (or fission), as imagined by Wiggins (1967), to illustrate his claim that identity is not what matters in survival. When A’s brain is split into two parts, each housed within two separate, brainless bodies (B and C), it seems that we have three options. We either believe that or not. 1. What is the difference between a. and a A has ceased to exist; 2.

    Read More

  • Roger Sperry

    1874 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sperry, R. W. (1982, September 24). Some Effects of Disconnecting the Cerebral Hemispheres. Science Megazine, 217, 1223-1226.

    Read More

  • Physicalism Essay

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    In philosophy, the majority of studies relate to the mind. Whether it is the main subject or just a helpful side topic to move the main subject along, this term is used often. Defining the term mind is difficult, and is a topic that is popularly studied and debated among philosophers. These qualified and knowledgeable people try to determine whether or not the mind is who people are or if they are their body or a combination. Although they have learned many helpful truths and defined other useful terms, the debate is still evident in the philosophical community today. Learning about how the mind relates to the body, and whether the mind and the brain are the same thing are other ways to look at the many options of how to discern

    Read More

  • Psychology: The Five Levels Of Consciousness

    864 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Consciousness is defined as everything of which we are aware at any given time - our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions of the external environment. Physiological researchers have returned to the study of consciousness, in examining physiological rhythms, sleep, and altered states of consciousness (changes in awareness produced by sleep, meditation, hypnosis, and drugs)” (Wood, 2011, 169). There are five levels of consciousness; Conscious (sensing, perceiving, and choosing), Preconscious (memories that we can access), Unconscious ( memories that we can not access), Non-conscious ( bodily functions without sensation), and Subconscious ( “inner child,” self image formed in early childhood).

    Read More

  • Importance Of Self Awareness Essay

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Self-awareness is a psychological state in which people are aware of their traits, feelings and behaviour. Alternatively, it can be defined as the realisation of oneself as an individual entity.” (Crisp & Turner, 2010). In other words, self awareness is recognising one’s personality which includes strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs and emotions.

    Read More

More about Human Consciousness - A Portrait of the Brain

Open Document