Latest Consciousness Stories
How many times have you spent hours slaving over an impossible problem, only to take a break and then easily solve the problem, sometimes within minutes of looking at it again? Although this is actually a common phenomenon, up until now the way that this occurs has been unclear. But new research in the September issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, demonstrates the answer is more complex than simply having an "Aha!" moment.The new research,...
By SHN ROSS HUNDREDS of British heart attack patients are to take part in an experiment that could shed light on what happens when people die. Researchers plan to test claims of out-of-body experiences made by some of those who have come close to death. The three-year study, by an international team of doctors and scientists at 25 hospitals in the UK and the US, will examine 1,500 survivors to see if people with no heartbeat or brain activity can actually have such experiences. Some...
Although the idea that instrumental learning can occur subconsciously has been around for nearly a century, it had not been unequivocally demonstrated. Now, a new study published by Cell Press in the August 28 issue of the journal Neuron used sophisticated perceptual masking, computational modeling, and neuroimaging to show that instrumental learning can occur in the human brain without conscious processing of contextual cues."Humans frequently invoke an argument that their intuition can...
By Mirkes, Renee On February 8th, 2007, the Max Planck Society released a statement summarizing the results of a study1 headed up by neuroscience researcher, John-Dylan Haynes. According to the report, the Haynes experiment demonstrated "how and where the brain stores [a person's] intentions." The study's conclusion-"that spatial response patterns in medial and lateral prefrontal cortex encode a subject's covert intention in a highly specific fashion"2-followed from an experimental design...
By Steffan Rhys LIGHTS at the end of a tunnel, spirits floating above their bodies on the hospital operating table, and lives flashing before your eyes. They have all been the most commonly described near-death experiences for as long as the often-doubted phenomenon has existed. But a five-year research project by a Welsh nurse suggests these stories are so common because they actually happen. Intensive therapy nurse Penny Sartori worked closely with critically-ill patients at Morriston and...
Researchers at the University of California say low doses of a commonly-used anesthetic could prevent the formation of painful memories.New Scientist magazine reported that scientists have found that sevoflurane gas stopped patients remembering "emotive" images.Scans showed the gas interfered with signals between two key areas of the brain.This could eventually help eradicate rare instances of anesthetized patients remembering the full horrors of their surgery.Anesthetic drugs are...
A team of scientists has unraveled how the brain unconsciously prepares our decisionsAlready several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain. This is shown in a study by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, in collaboration with the Charité University Hospital and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin. The researchers from the group of...
Whether you are a habitual list maker, or you prefer to keep your tasks in your head, everyone pursues their goals in this ever changing, chaotic environment. We are often aware of our conscious decisions that bring us closer to reaching our goals, however to what extent can we count on our unconscious processes to pilot us toward our destined future?People can learn rather complex structures of the environment and do so implicitly, or without intention. Could this unconscious learning be...
Most of us experience "˜gut feelings' we can't explain, such as instantly loving "“ or hating "“ a new property when we're househunting or the snap judgements we make on meeting new people. Now researchers at Leeds say these feelings "“ or intuitions "“ are real and we should take our hunches seriously.According to a team led by Professor Gerard Hodgkinson of the Centre for Organisational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School, intuition is the result of...
By Hassert, Derrick L Abstract Within neuroethics, functionalism attempts to define personhood by equating the concept with a set of functional, neurological and/ or cognitive criteria. While this approach is often fueled by a desire to identify those traits that are distinctly human, by necessity it often removes the label of "person" from human beings at early stages of development, the developmentally disabled or those who have suffered neurological insults. This approach is...
