Scientists discovered that a tiny, but powerful area of the brain may enable consciousness

[mateuszc70]

https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/tiny-area-of-the-brain-could-enable-consciousness

[RHC]

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(20)30005-2

[Martin Helmer]

This is interesting. 

Quick thoughts:

From BK's metaphysical point of view, it localizes the extrinsic expression of (awake) consciousness to a small part of the brain. (Apologies if I've misunderstood/ misrepresented)

From a (current) scientific point of view, I wonder what implications it has for the different theories that are out there; 

* Tononi is probably calculating (or trying to calculate) the thalamus' contribution to integrated information, to see if it contributes materially. (If it doesn't his IIT is in danger)

* Consciousness as an emergent phenonenon seems less likely, but will probably survive.

* The idea of Consciousness as an evolved trait is strengthened. They can now point to a specific functional part.

* ORCH/OR & Microtubili (Penrose / Hameroff) I'm not sure. Probably depends on the degree/configuration of micrutubili in the thalamus.  The frequency used (50Hz) is gamma brainwave range (affected by meditation among other things) , and I don't think that frequency interacts with microtubili so maybe that weakens the Orch/OR theory a bit. 

* Consciousness <-> quantum wave? 50Hz is far away from the quantum realm. Not sure what to make out of it. 

[Sci Patel]

I'd think we'd need to understand How Anesthesia Works as to make conclusions of how consciousness is enabled we'd also need to explain how it is disabled.

Until then this seems like one more interesting data point being exploded to extreme significance...

[Finch]

Isn't this kind of to be expected on monistic views?

[Bernardo]

Very interesting and promising, exciting stuff. Thanks for posting.

On Friday, February 14, 2020 at 12:08:59 AM UTC+1, mateuszc70 wrote:

https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/tiny-area-of-the-brain-could-enable-consciousness

[George Merc.]

What the scientists are turning on and off in this experiment isn't Consciousness itself, but simply one aspect of the monkey's mind.

So they aren't really "ENABLING CONSCIOUSNESS" itself so much as enabling wakefulness or attentiveness.

(This may be helpful in reviving comatose patients.)

[Bernardo]

Exactly.

[Jim Cross]

Not much to see here.

All sensory input (except smell) goes through the thalamus so probably the electrical stimulation is just nullifying the anesthetic depressing the sensory input. 

[Jeff Falzone]

Keep in mind that what Jim calls sensory isn't fundamentally being sensed. It is made of unconscious properties. Calling it sensory is a sort of archaic shorthand.

[Jim Cross]

It's sensed.

From the get-go, the team expected they might be able to wake animals up with this technique because past studies show brain stimulation can arouse humans and animals, as well as treat diseases like Parkinson's, dementia and multiple sclerosis.