How does cognitive thinking lead to the perception of self? In other words, how does the brain recognize the body's identity and character everyday without fail? The brain has been studied for ages and it continues to leave professionals struggling to understand its complete ability. More specifically, how the brain acknowledges the reality of self or, in other words, one's consciousness. Thankfully, due today's age technology gives us the ability to visualizes the neuron pathways within the brain. These pathways relay messages to and from the left and right hemispheres. The messages sent contain all sorts of information. For example, pain, emotion, the current state of the body, health, how fast the heart should beat, body actions, etc. Interestingly enough new brain connections are formed every time a memory is made. It is what sparks these pathways, though, that specifically give the body the ability to regain consciousness after awaking from a deep sleep.
In order for the brain to re-identify one's self it must go through the same discovery process everyday. Once the brain and body fall into a deep dreamless sleep the realization of self is lost. The brain loses the ability to make mental images which results in temporary memory loss of self. People are able to awaken from a deep sleep because of the process typically called "regaining consciousness". To begin, the retina receives ⟲an image. This image is then sent ➥to the frontal cortex, which basically gets the brain up and running 🔛. The frontal cortex then sends⇒ messages through the neural pathways to the➜ rest of the brain that interprets the image. The neurons then are able to evaluate what you are seeing, the last time you saw this image before going to bed, where you are, and eventually follows to the ending million dollar question, who you are. This process takes part within the left and right hemispheres. It begins in the right hemisphere which acknowledges present moment and present time. The messages are then sent through the left hemisphere which is responsible for remembering the past and focusing on the future. After the brain has acquired the past knowledge and memories from the left hemisphere neurons travel back to the right hemisphere to focus on the present moment and relay to you your identity. It is truly astonishing to imagine this process takes place at least once a day.
However, as you may know, there are incidents which leave the brain unable to recognize self. Pictured below is the brain stem. Within the brainstem is the tectum. Damaging of the tectum results in temporary or permanent coma or leaves the body in a vegetative state. When one of these outcomes takes place you are unable to access feelings of your own existence. This results in the disappearance of one's self. The brain does not recall memories and ultimately doesn't regain complete consciousness because it is unable. When a coma occurs, both your left and right hemispheres shut down. When you are in a vegetative state then your left hemisphere is shut down but your right hemisphere continues to function. This means past and future are irrelevant. The brain only focuses on the present.
As explained, the way the body and brain identify self is quite extravagant and intricate. The work your mind goes through just to remind you who you are is not the easy cycle I had previously thought of before acquiring this knowledge. I had always assumed that the idea of self was always embedded in the mind. I imagined, like a file cabinet, there was a drawer specific to one's self. Or that there was a pocket in the brain that contained only this information. Boy was I wrong. There much to regaining consciousness than pulling out a file. However, to wrap up, I'm going to leave you with this quote by neuroscientist Anil Seth, "Without consciousness there would be no access to true happiness and even to the possibility of transcendence."
If you happened to be as fascinated as I was with this knowledge then definitely consider viewing these websites to receive more information on this topic!
https://interestingengineering.com/35-year-old-man-in-vegetative-state-regains-consciousness-after-15-years
https://www.ted.com/talks/antonio_damasio_the_quest_to_understand_consciousness?utm_campaign=BeepBeepBites%20-%20Nieuwsbrief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--bAgBKS5Bl54fx_gbHA5wyekpzYxpUVyJMxBiTZaU86_kexEeMvmqxtaP5omwxGwMnET3c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjfaoe847qQ
If you happened to be as fascinated as I was with this knowledge then definitely consider viewing these websites to receive more information on this topic!
https://interestingengineering.com/35-year-old-man-in-vegetative-state-regains-consciousness-after-15-years
https://www.ted.com/talks/antonio_damasio_the_quest_to_understand_consciousness?utm_campaign=BeepBeepBites%20-%20Nieuwsbrief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--bAgBKS5Bl54fx_gbHA5wyekpzYxpUVyJMxBiTZaU86_kexEeMvmqxtaP5omwxGwMnET3c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjfaoe847qQ
Taryn! Your blog post was so fascinating and I really did enjoy reading it. I am so glad that we get to study the brain because every time that happens I always tend to find out something very interesting that I did not know. Like you, I simply thought that we knew everything about ourselves from a little file that was hidden somewhere in the depths of our brain. The whole process you described was so incredible and blew my mind! Thanks for sharing all of your information!
ReplyDeleteVery well written Taryn!
ReplyDeleteTaryn,
ReplyDeleteYour post has a lot of interesting details of how our brain functions. Your post taught me a lot about realization to self which is a topic I am not very familiar with. I liked the images you used in your post to demonstrate different brain connections. I was amazed to learn that once you fall asleep, you are loss to self which you described as a temporary memory loss. You did a great job explaining your post and I enjoyed reading it.
How the brain acknowledges the reality of self and how brain connections are formed every time a memory is made, this becomes an inexhaustible world of possibilities!
ReplyDeleteSome studies, such as those carried out by Lloyd and Margaret Peterson on cognitive psychology, have shown how short-term memory turns out to be much shorter than one might think. The study showed how people having to remember a set of three letters like GBD after 3 seconds remembered 80% and after 18 seconds, they could only remember 10%. That happens to me!
That was very informative. It is truly amazing how complex the human brain is. To think of the functions that it does without us having to even think is amazing. It has the ability to detect danger, control our homeostasis, tell us the difference between pain and comfort, and so on. After barely scratching the surface of the brain has me intrigued, I am interested to look further!
ReplyDeleteI am extremely impressed with the amount of information you wrote about and how much detail you were able to go into. It is interesting to believe that something so small in our body is so complex in how it works that we still do not fully have an answer to that question. I can not wait to read more of your blogs in the future!
ReplyDelete