consciousness

A new tool that could help us measure awareness in comatose patients

One of the more frustrating aspects of treating patients who are in a vegetative or minimally conscious state is that we really have no idea just how conscious or unconscious they really are. As a consequence, medical practitioners are left guessing about how to best treat their patients, while family members struggle to understand how…

io9 George Dvorsky

The Science You Need to Lucid Dream

If you’ve always wanted to lucid dream but never yet managed it, don’t fear: here are some scientific tricks you can use to help train your brain and body. You’ll be controlling your dreams in no time. There are different levels of influence, of course: some subtle, others much more complex. And a little scary.…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Neuroscientists take aim at Naomi Wolf’s theory of the “conscious vagina”

Well, if Naomi Wolf wanted to draw attention to herself through the publication of her new book, Vagina: A New Biography, she has certainly succeeded — though it may not be the kind of attention she was hoping for. A number of commentators have taken exception to her unfortunate foray into neuroscience, particularly her claim…

io9 George Dvorsky

Prominent scientists sign declaration that animals have conscious awareness, just like us

An international group of prominent scientists has signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in which they are proclaiming their support for the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are — a list of animals that includes all mammals, birds, and even the octopus. But will this make us stop…

io9 George Dvorsky

Rare neurological patient shows that self-awareness does not require a complex brain

Neuroscientists who study consciousness have suggested that self-awareness depends on the presence of very specific “higher order” regions of the brain. In turn, that means that any serious impairment to these critical areas would virtually eliminate any sense someone has of themselves as a separate person. At least, that’s how the theory goes. But now,…

io9 George Dvorsky

The Internet Has Feelings, Too—Maybe

Over at the Atlantic, Steve Paulson has a fascinating interview with “romantic reductionist” neuroscientist Christof Koch, about the science of consciousness and the possibility of a sentient Internet. Riffing on the workings of the brain, Koch explains that it is not so much what the brain is made of, but the “relationship of that stuff…

Tech News Molly Oswaks

This man can read the minds of vegetative patients

Neuroscientist Adrian Owen estimates that 20 percent of patients in a so-called “vegetative state” are, in fact, capable of communicating with the outside world. This is not a delusion. Using brain imaging techniques like fMRI, Owen — pictured above — has provided some remarkably compelling evidence that “non-responsive” and “unreachable” patients are often surprisingly cognizant…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Do these conjoined twins share consciousness?

Susan Dominus has penned a remarkable piece for the New York Times about Krista and Tatiana Hogan, the 4-year old conjoined twin girls from British Columbia who are attached at the head. Scans show that the two girls have brains that are interconnected by a never-seen-before “thalamic bridge,” an indication that they might share conscious…

io9 George Dvorsky

Anesthesia unlocks a more primitive level of consciousness

If you’ve ever been put under anesthesia, you might recall a disoriented, almost delirious sensation as you wake back up. That feeling is more than simple post-surgery confusion: it’s actually the brain reverting to a more primitive evolutionary state. That’s the finding of researchers from UC Irvine and Finland’s University of Turku, who used positron…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Why zoning out reveals the evolutionary origins of consciousness

Letting your mind wander allows you to be introspective, and to think in abstract ways most other animals cannot. And yet rats possess the same brain structures we use for introspection — which suggests deeper evolutionary roots for introspection and, by extension, consciousness itself. The default mode network, or DMN, is a network in the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Measuring Consciousness One Bit at a Time

We all know what it is to be conscious, just as much as we don’t know exactly what that means, or how to measure it. But one researcher thinks the first step is to view our brains as computers. The NY Times takes a long look at Dr. Giulio Tononi, who’s chosen a seemingly impossible…

Tech News Brian Barrett

Charlie Kaufman takes you inside your own mind

On Saturday, Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich, came to New York to talk to us about the nature of consciousness. Here’s what he had to say. The event was part of New York City’s annual World Science Festival, which often pairs groundbreaking scientists with brilliant…

io9 Kelly Faircloth

Vegetative Patient Answers Yes and No Questions With His Brain

Raising questions about the definition of a vegetative state as well as what to do with people in them, a new study observed the brain of an unconscious patient responding to yes and no questions just like normal. Of the 54 test subjects in the New England Journal of Medicine study, one man who had…

Health Kyle VanHemert

Where Is My Silicon-Based Life?

Click to viewWelcome back to Ask a Biogeek, a biweekly column where UC Berkeley biology researcher Terry Johnson answers your questions, no matter how weird. Reader Mike asks: Can you speculate on what a silicon based lifeform might look like? What would an “organic chemistry” look like for silicon, instead of carbon? Life on earth…

io9 Terry Johnson

Your Consciousness Is Ten Seconds Behind the Present

The time it takes for sensory input to travel along nerves and get processed by the brains means we’re always living in the past. Okay, no problem — we can live with a few lost milliseconds. But ten seconds? A new study shows that once our brains make a decision (like “push this button”) it…

io9 Michael Reilly

I Was Programmed by Tetris to be a Better Person

At a young age, my brain was hijacked by the game of Tetris. Now it helps me navigate through life. When I was in the sixth grade, my friend Chiyo and I used to play this addictive puzzle game—developed in 1985 by a Russian engineer—for hours on end with a single 100 yen coin at…

io9 LISA KATAYAMA

A new tool that could help us measure awareness in comatose patients

The Science You Need to Lucid Dream

Neuroscientists take aim at Naomi Wolf’s theory of the “conscious vagina”

Prominent scientists sign declaration that animals have conscious awareness, just like us

Rare neurological patient shows that self-awareness does not require a complex brain

The Internet Has Feelings, Too—Maybe

This man can read the minds of vegetative patients

Do these conjoined twins share consciousness?

Anesthesia unlocks a more primitive level of consciousness

Why zoning out reveals the evolutionary origins of consciousness

Measuring Consciousness One Bit at a Time

Charlie Kaufman takes you inside your own mind

Vegetative Patient Answers Yes and No Questions With His Brain

Where Is My Silicon-Based Life?

Your Consciousness Is Ten Seconds Behind the Present

I Was Programmed by Tetris to be a Better Person

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