Define a brain structure that filters scientists consciousness
Our conscious awareness can be managed by a structure in the depths of the brain
MRI image of the human brain.
Alain Jocard/AFP through Getty Images
When neuroscientists became aware of their own thoughts, known as the brain conscious perception, they first observed how they were activated in the depths of the brain.
Brain constantly bombed With eyes, sounds and other stimuli, but people are aware of a lane of the world around them – for example, the taste of a piece of chocolate or the sound of someone. Researchers have long known that the outer layer of the brain, called cerebral cortex, has played a role in the experience of being aware of certain thoughts.
It has been much more difficult to explain to the participation of deeper brain structures, because they can only be accessed by invasive surgery. It is also difficult to design experiments to test the concept in animals. However, researchers say that examining these regions will allow researchers to expand their theories of consciousness beyond the brain’s outer packaging.
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“Field Consciousness Studies It has aroused a lot of criticism and skepticism because it is a very difficult phenomenon to work, Li says Liad Mudrik, a neuroscientist at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel. But scientists are increasingly systematic and meticulous methods. Investigate awarenesssays.
Be aware or not
In a published study Science Today, Mingsha Zhang, a neuroscientist at Beijing Normal University, focused on Talalamus. This region in the center of the brain plays a role in the processing of sensory information and working memory and is thought to have a role in conscious perception.
Participants were already treated violently and permanently headacheThey had thin electrodes injected into the depths of their brains. This allowed Zhang and his colleagues to examine brain signals and measure conscious awareness.
The participants were asked to move their eyes in a certain way, depending on whether they noticed a symbol flash on a screen in front of them. The icon is designed to be aware of only half of the appearance of the participants.
During the tasks, researchers recorded neural activity in many parts of the brain, including Talamus and cortex. Christopher Whyte, a system neuroscientist at the University of Sydney in Australia, says that such simultaneous records were made for the first time in people who work on the science of consciousness. “Really remarkable,” he says, because the team let the team look at how the timing of neural activity in different regions has changed.
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When they were aware of the appearance of the icon, the activity of the participants in the Talamus and Prefrontal Cortex was significantly different from the activity when they were not. The activity that the icon was aware of has emerged before, and in the Talamus sections, it seemed more powerful and coordinated in two areas than the cortex sections. This shows that the talmus served as a filter and Mac Shine, a system neuroscientist at the University of Sydney, shows which thoughts have reached awareness and check which.
Previous animal studies support these findings. In the 2020 article, researchers used magnets to move individual mouse mustaches. The animals were trained to get a licking from a water spray when they felt the movement. The researchers found that there were mice in the cerebral cortex when they realized that the mustache Flick was reflected in deeper brain regions, including Talamus.
The latest study, “one of the most detailed and comprehensive research of the role of the sawdust in consciousness, Mud says Mudrik. However, there is still a question about whether the task has really captured neural activity associated with conscious experience, or whether it draws attention to a conscious stimulus.
Zhang plans to experiment more in humans and investigate brain activity in detail in monkeys.
This article has been reproduced with permission and First published On April 3, 2025.
