A poll on Consciousness

[wine]

Everyone Vote! :confused:

[Buffy]

You say "functions" as opposed to simply "storage" which with my CS/Robotics hat on says its distributed. That's misleading though, because the lion's share's in the brain...your definition forces my vote for more than just the brain though...

 

I am also conscious that this is a pole and not a Pole.

 

Carefully parsed,

Buffy

[Tormod]

I think the brain, but I have no clue, really.

[LJP07]

This should have been selected multiple choice poll because I would have chosen option two and three. However, I chose three to inform everyone about the misconception that memories are stored only either in the CNS or Brain. I'll try to explain this as simply as possible.

 

The Heart encompasses Memory, of course the brain too but there are memories stored in the heart. Outside the right ventricle, there are a bunch or neurones that are exactly the same as the brain and obviously are connected. Due to this, it was discovered that the heart has stored conscious memories and events in that persons life. But how do they know?

 

Herat Surgery gave the answer to all their questions. Here is one example. A man who had to have a heart transplant had no interest in writing or no other academic writing achievements unlike his donor. When the heart was transplanted successfully, the man experienced memories from that person and starngely started to write and write and write, he claimed that all he wanted to do was write.

 

This and many many other examples are known, so the heart is much more than just a pump, it's stores memories which, mkae it all the more important.

[Annoying Twit]

I'm not allowed to vote because I'm too new.

 

I would agree that without a clearer definition of what we're talking about, I'd go with the distributed argument. If I scratch my leg, then I am conscious of a sensation in my leg. This is caused by the physical scratching of the leg disturbing nerves, leading to a transmission of information to my brain, and further activity there. The whole procedure is experienced by myself as a conscious experience of being scratched. It could be argued that it's not possible to split up this nervous activity where nerves enter the brain and say that the activity that occurred outside the brain wasn't part of consciousness, but the activity that occurs inside the brain is. And if I had to vote, that would be the reasoning for my answer. While I can't remember the book, I'm sure that I read a psychology book once that talked about a nerve connected to a monkey's eye that acted as a "monkey paw detector". When a monkey's paw passed in front of the eye the nerve would fire. If I remember correctly, when I've discussed this before (not here) it was claimed that this was wrong, and there was no such research. But as a general comment, it might be interesting to look at how much processing is done outside of the brain.

 

A counter-argument to this would be the experience of amputees who experience "phantom pains" in their missing limbs. This could be interpreted as meaning that all of the biological structures involved in conscious experience of the limb are still present, and hence they weren't in the limb itself. If not in the limb, then being in the brain would be a reasonable hypothesis.

[ronthepon]

This and many many other examples are known, so the heart is much more than just a pump, it's stores memories which, mkae it all the more important.

That's new and good info, (new to me, that is) but I gotta ask if you've got some link's that could back up the info, Prolu2007.

[eric l]

As this thread started as "a pole on consciousness" I first thought that it was about that new archbisshop in Poland, and wondered how it got classified under "Biology".

[infamous]

I've always been inclined to believe that consciousness was a product of the total nervous system. That would not be limited to just the brain but in my opinion would include every functioning cell in our bodies. Why do I come to this conclusion you may ask? Simply put, every cell is in one way or another interconnected with the nervous system. Brain, spinal cord, nerve endings, and cell function are just the individual parts of the sum total of our cellular consciousness..........Infy

[wine]

Amazing posts, thank you very much.

It was..very hard to try to word my question properly, and I knew I couldn't be totally accurate,

but,

you guys get the idea.

[InfiniteNow]

Consciousness might be described as the first person experience of the aggregate of everything internal combined with the aggregate of that which is external. In terms of the brain, most have a sense of awareness accompanied by vision, however, I would not posit the "seat" of consciousness being the occipital for the reasons above.

 

It's everything. It's now. It's emphemeral. :D

[HydrogenBond]

The brain is the final filter but some of our conscience awareness is based on a feedback loop between the brain and body. There are reflect actions stored in local nervous tissue that can happen before the brain kicks in. For example, if I pricked someone's big toe with a needle, the leg would twitch milliseconds before the brain felt pain. The toe is alive and sort of conscious enough to excape from the stress. It calls on the brain to get the rest of the body in action to better avoid the pain. In this case the big toe is the master mind here. Much of the body works the same way reacting consciously before the brain gets in gear to take over.

[rocket art]

I believe the concept of Consciousness extends with us and beyond us. The observer-observed phenomenon provides imprint to environments around us at quantum level. Each moment passing stores data that we call as past or memories, and each object may be considered having it's own 'conscious' characteristic, as an inanimate stone 'behaves' what it should be, as hard and heavy object, or a photon may 'act' as both wave and particle. However, we as conscious living beings, have evolved to thinking by ourselves and able to manipulate our movements within our environment, and may be instrumental for the expansion of Consciousness around us.

[ronthepon]

You mean to say that even things that are 'non living' are concious? Aware of things? If so, then how? Just give a brief account of your opinion.

[InfiniteNow]

If I were to guess, the idea implies that the mere act of existence implies consciousness. Unfortunately, if this is the case, that just retargets the question to existence itself.

[Michaelangelica]

;) I definately don't know what consciousness is. :hammer:

 

However i do know that a lot of nerve signals don't get to the brain before they are processed. I believe the stomach has a deal going with the spinal cord

 

Also the chemical soup that the body/brain floats in will affect thought processes.

[wine]

You mean to say that even things that are 'non living' are concious? Aware of things? If so, then how? Just give a brief account of your opinion.

 

Consciousness is not awareness.

 

Think of trees, and how they communicate

Slow, compared to our lightning fast thought.

 

Consciousness occurs within the atom.

Awareness occurs when these atoms group together very densely on some occasions.;)

[Buffy]

Consciousness occurs within the atom.

Awareness occurs when these atoms group together very densely on some occasions.;)

Now ya got me--and I'm sure lots of other people--very confused about your definition of consciousness!

 

If I take this literally, you're saying "atoms are conscious" and I think its fair to say that's way different than most people's definition of consciousness.

 

So what are ya talking about, wine? This is your thread, so you get to lead...

 

Getting strange,

Buffy