Latest Consciousness Stories
BabyBot, a robot modelled on the torso of a two year-old child, is helping researchers take the first, tottering steps towards understanding human perception, and could lead to the development of machines that can perceive and interact with their environment. The researchers used BabyBot to test a model of the human sense of 'presence', a combination of senses like sight, hearing and touch. The work could have applications in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine perception. The...
By Megan Rauscher NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When faced with a major decision, such as buying a car or a house, it's best to do your homework, and then forget about it for a while and let your unconscious churn through the options. According to the results of a novel study published today in the journal Science, unconscious deliberation may lead to a more satisfying choice than mere conscious deliberation alone, at least for major decisions. Conscious deliberation is fine for the less...
We often make unwise choices although we should know better. Thunderstorm clouds ominously darken the horizon. We nonetheless go out without an umbrella because we are distracted and forget. But do we? Neurobiologists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies carried out experiments that prove for the first time that the brain remembers, even if we don't and the umbrella stays behind. They report their findings in the Oct. 20th issue of Neuron. "For the first time, we can a look at...
MADISON - In the human brain, cells talk to one another through the routine exchange of electrical signals. But when people fall into a deep sleep, the higher regions of the brain - regions that during waking hours are a bustling grid of neural dialogue - apparently lose their ability to communicate effectively, causing consciousness to fade. Writing today (Sept. 30) in the journal Science, a team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychiatry Giulio Tononi...
We would immediately notice if the outside world suddenly went dark every few seconds. But we rarely become aware of our blinks, even though they cause a similar reduction in the amount of light entering the eye. So why are we not aware of the frequent mini-blackouts caused by blinks? In the 1980s, scientists discovered that visual sensitivity begins decreasing immediately before a blink, but the brain mechanisms underlying this process have until now remained unclear. As they report this...
