No, not possible
Consciousness emerges from the cooperation of billions of neurons in the brain. But this is still too general. Specifically, how do neurons give rise to consciousness?
The French philosopher of the 17th century had a famous saying: "I think, therefore I am." As can be seen, consciousness has been a topic of philosophical discussion for a long time. Modern science believes that consciousness emerges from the cooperation of billions of neurons in the brain. But this is still too general. Specifically, how do neurons give rise to consciousness? In recent years, scientists have developed methods and tools that allow for the objective study of this most subjective and personal of things, and with the help of brain-damaged patients, scientists have been able to gain a glimpse into the mysteries of consciousness. In addition to figuring out exactly how consciousness works, scientists also want to know the answer to a deeper question: Why does it exist and how did it originate?
Uncovering the Mysteries of the Unconscious
The World Beyond Conscious Thought Every time you close your office door, a certain melody plays in your head. You always prefer Coke to Pepsi. A certain look on your spouse's face can somehow trigger love or anger in you. Also, the reasons you married your spouse in the first place seem so unreasonable now.
These all prove that your unconscious is actively playing a role. Although these examples may seem unrelated on the surface, they all reveal another less rational and rich inner world outside of conscious thinking. Long before Freud taught the world that everything we do depends on the mysterious power of memory and emotion, people are now exploring the depths of the mind and the mind anew. "Most of what we do every moment is unconscious," says neuroscientist Paul Whelan of the University of Wisconsin. "If everything was at the forefront of consciousness, life would be chaotic."
With advanced neuroimaging technology, questions such as "How do we make hasty decisions?" "Why are we upset by unreasonable decisions?" "What satisfies us?" will soon be answered not by studying someone's childhood The secret is to observe nerve impulses in specific parts of the brain. New research on this topic is published almost every week. Pop culture is so obsessed with neuroscience, hence Malcolm. Gladwell's book "In the Blink of an Eye: The Power of Unconscious Thoughts" has remained on the bestseller list for four weeks.
Most of us would like to accept the idea that we make judgments about things through thoughts that occur somewhere out of reach. But now scientists have discovered the neural connections underlying these thought processes, located in never-appreciated parts of the brain. These parts communicate with other parts, trigger neurotransmissions, and lead to our behavior. Clinton Kiltz, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University, said: "Everything you do, your thoughts, your conscious and unconscious, your daily activities, all have neural codes. Our biggest challenge is to figure out how to study and unravel them. These codes. ”
This initial understanding of the human unconscious has profound implications for both individuals and the medical community. The realization that human behavior may not be entirely the result of higher rational thinking may shake our belief in certain cherished values, such as free will, the ability to choose, and a sense of responsibility for those choices. We can never control the rhythm of our heart or the activity of our limbic system. Yet, Gladwell writes, “our momentary judgments and first impressions are reasoned and manipulated… To explain our behavior we must acknowledge that a fleeting thought is as valuable as a long period of rational analysis. ".
Cognitive neuroscientists believe that people are conscious in only about 5% of their cognitive activities, so most of our decisions, actions, emotions and behaviors depend on what is beyond consciousness 95 % of brain activity. From heartbeats to pushing shopping carts to deciding not to harm a litter of kittens, we rely on something called the adaptive unconscious. It's the brain's way of making sense of the world with which our minds and bodies must interact. .
Adaptive pieces unconsciously allow us to drive around a street corner without having to use complex calculations to figure out the precise turning angle, car speed and driving radius. It also enables us to understand the correct meaning of ambiguous sentences.
Business Applications of Unconscious Research Gerald Salzman is a professor emeritus at Harvard Business School, but he thinks about the conscious level like a neuroscientist. He is also a founding partner of Olson Salzman Associates, a consulting firm that coaches companies to better understand their customers' minds. As a marketing professor, Saltzman likes to study what makes people buy one thing rather than another. In the field of neuroscience, this gets to the heart of questions about motivation.
In his work to explore customer awareness, Salzman tried to find a way to bypass the often unreliable panel surveys, avoid the interference of irrelevant factors, and learn the true needs of customers. This will make sales and promotion efforts more productive.
He applied for a U.S. patent for this method, which is called "Salzmann Metaphorical Entrainment Technique" (ZMET). The patent certificate describes it as a technology that "develops interconnected structures that influence thought and behavior. ZMET has been used to create messages that elicit responses from 95% of a client's brain because many of the client's choices are It's driven by this part of the brain. It works by capturing those deep metaphors that people unconsciously associate with a product or feeling.
Language is very powerful, Saltzman said. It is limited and cannot be confused with thought itself. But images are a step closer to capturing a fragment of the complex and contradictory world of unconscious feeling. He asked his subjects to draw something that represented their thoughts and feelings about something. Drawings, even if they can't explain why they are drawn that way. Salzman found that when people did so, they often discovered "a profound metaphor placed in a unique situation." He believes, after conducting research around the world, that these unconscious metaphors are. Categories are limited, and metaphors that express emotions like hope and sadness are universal to everyone.
Saltzman found that even metaphors had practical uses when an architecture firm asked him to help design one. The new children's hospital manages to make the hospital environment less unbearable for hospitalized children, their parents and hospital staff. With the help of ZMET technology, children, parents and staff draw the hospital. The researchers then questioned them about the images for nearly two hours, exploring their thoughts, feelings and associations. Although the expressions and emotions varied widely, the core theme emerged. For this children's hospital, the primary metaphor was transformation, and the supporting metaphors were control, communication, and energy.
How these themes are embodied. When the hospital was completed in 2008, patients and families were surrounded by butterflies, a symbol of transformation, and the wards were more like home rooms, giving children some control over their personal space. A large garden, visible from all wards, symbolizes transformation, but also communication and energy. “Before, design was a gamble, and success or failure depended on luck,” said one designer. We now know that the hospital's deepest theme must be about transformation.
Of course. Saltzman wasn't the only one to study the minds of his customers. In "In the Blink of an Eye," Gladwell describes Coca-Cola's costly mistakes. The Coca-Cola Company The drink's recipe was changed based on data from blindfold taste tests, but "New Coca-Cola" flopped in the market. In fact, despite not being as popular as Pepsi, Coca-Cola remained the leader in soft drinks at the end of Gladwell's book. A new study released later may explain it.
Researchers at Baylor University School of Medicine asked 67 Coca-Cola and Pepsi supporters to choose between them. But when they were blinded, they preferred Pepsi. When they saw the company logo before drinking, three-quarters preferred Coca-Cola.
Researchers scanned the subjects' brains during the test and found that the Coca-Cola logo triggered intense activity in parts of the brain related to memory and self-image; Pepsi, although it tasted better to most people, had little effect on these areas. regional impact. Reed of the Brown Foundation Human Neuroscan Laboratory at Baylor University when the study was released last October. Montagu explained this: "The Coca-Cola trademark powerfully affects activities in the human brain related to behavioral control - flashes of memories and self-image."
The key, he said, is that the brain makes "a response that affects behavior". Strangely enough, this response has nothing to do with conscious preferences. A preliminary understanding of unconscious thinking. A dog will come up and sniff you. If it remembers you and is in its mind, If you're a good person, he'll immediately start wagging his tail, maybe licking your wrist, but he'll also stay away from you, associate you with food, or give you a quick bite. Connections are triggered by a sniff. People are actually the same as dogs in this regard.
Malaspina said: "A smell is not just a symbol, it includes a wide range of content. "He explained that olfactory information is unique because it is the only sensory information among the five human senses that does not stay in the brain's relay station - the thalamus - but directly reaches the anterior cerebral cortex. The sense of smell does not require relay or filtering. A big hit to the frontal cortex. Without us realizing it, researchers have found that the sense of smell plays a role in choosing a mate. The menstrual cycles of women who live in the same house tend to align because they don't. The smell of smell activates its endocrine system, Marasduna said: "Our brain begins to develop in the fetus, but it is destined to give up control to the sense of smell.
But what happens if the sense of smell doesn't work properly? Malaspina and other researchers are studying the sense of smell in people with mental disorders and have come to some intriguing conclusions. Although schizophrenia Schizophrenia is seen as a disorder of hallucinations and delusions, but one of the more obvious and disruptive symptoms of the disorder is social impairment. Some people with schizophrenia are unable to take in social cues and deal with social relationships. Hallucinations and delusions can be noted. It is controlled with medication, but basic social impairment makes it more difficult for patients to cope with daily life.
Research shows that many patients with schizophrenia also suffer from "clinically significant olfactory impairment." These include dysfunction of the parietal lobe, which is responsible for synthesizing sensory information to make sense of something, such as taking in social cues or integrating them. Since a breath can instantly evoke a picture of a specific time and place, The lack of this ability will cause a person to lose the basic communication and emotional support in life, Malaspina said: "We are gradually realizing that smell is a good way to study the unconscious basis of social ability and social interest. ”
A patient with brain damage is lying on the bed. He is not completely unconscious or in a coma, but the spark of consciousness will only be fleeting. Only subtle movements prove that he or she is still alive or knows about relatives and friends. Right next to you. In medicine, these patients are called minimally conscious. It is estimated that 100,000 to 300,000 Americans are in this state.
The journal Neurology published a report. Shocking research report: Researchers used MRI equipment to study the brains of two minimally conscious people, and then compared them with the brains of seven healthy men and women. The scans showed that the brain activity of the minimally conscious patients was less than 10%. - half of the others. The researchers then played tapes recorded by their family members or friends to the subjects, describing pleasant past events or similar experiences. His message. The results were striking: all the people scanned, including the least conscious ones, showed similar brain activity, and some also showed activity in their visual cortex.
Despite evidence that the unconscious is widespread in everyday life in both damaged and healthy brains, even an ardent believer in unconscious thinking like Saltzman advises against assuming it. Make a conclusion. “I don’t think we know yet what percentage of thinking is purely rational versus what seems to be purely intuitive thinking.” The balance between the two, the known and the unknown, the conscious and the unconscious, the 5% and the 95%, is what pioneers in the vast and complex world of the mind will continue to explore. But we'll probably never get to the bottom of it. After all, the mystery of consciousness and the mystery of the brain will always be the ultimate mystery of what makes people "human"