Consciousness

Question 1

List four ways that people use the term “consciousness”

Answer 1

Big C: humans have consciousness but ants dont (philosophical)

Little c: the patient has regained consciousness (medical)

Attention: be conscious of potential bear run-ins

Awareness: are you conscious of that loud humming?

Question 2

Default Mode Network

Answer 2

The brain areas commonly identified as functionally connected during the resting state activity.

Question 3

Resting state activity

Answer 3

The activity of the brain when you are doing nothing.

Question 4

Resting-state functional connectivity

Answer 4

The correlated resting state
the activity of two or more brain areas

Question 5

Parts of the DMN

Answer 5

medial prefrontal cortex

hippocampal formation

temporal cortex

posterior cingulate cortex

inferior parietal lobule

Question 6

Salience network

Answer 6

Detection of stimuli (Bottom-up attention)

Question 7

Parts of Salience network

Answer 7

Dorsal anterior cingulate

Insula

Amygdala

Question 8

Control network

Answer 8

Sustained attention (Top-down attention)

Question 9

Bottom-up Attention (exogenous):

Answer 9

Automatic capture of attention by stimuli that “pop out”

Question 10

Top-down (endogenous):

Answer 10

Goal-directed, often effortful

Question 11

Parts of Control Network

Answer 11

Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Posterior parietal cortex

Question 12

Overt Attention

Answer 12

Paying attention by orienting your sensory organs (directly looking)

Question 13

Covert Attention

Answer 13

paying attention without orienting (peripheral)

Question 14

Hemispatialnegelect

Answer 14

reduced awareness of one side of space (typically left), often without damage to primary sensory systems

Question 15

Describe the effects of attention on neuronal activity

Answer 15

Attention can boost neural activity

More likely to fire, can go from un-selective to selective

When you are paying attention, neural activity boosted

Question 16

Major brain areas often implicated in Hemispatialnegelect

Answer 16

inferior parietal lobule
* temporo-parietal
junction
* superior temporal gyrus
* inferior and middle
frontal gyri

Egocentric neglect (Patient neglects to trace the left face)

Allocentric neglect (Patient neglects to draw the left side of either face)

Question 17

Neural correlates of consciousness and at least two types of tests researchers might use to study them in the lab using control subjects

Answer 17

Provide a stimuli, and measure the brain when it notices a detail in the stimuli.

Bistable illusions (Young Thug album cover)

Binocular Rivalry (Seeing how the eyes witch between perceiveing stimuli)

Question 18

The neural correlates of
consciousness

Answer 18

The minimum neural change necessary to become aware of something

Question 19

List at least three major hypotheses about where in the brain consciousness might reside

Answer 19

Front of the Brain:
Activity when subjects think about themselves vs someone else.

Back of the brain:
comparative brain activity beween minimmal consciousness & vegetative state

Claustrum:
Humans with claustrum damage report:
* Confusion
* Delusions
* Hallucinations
* Delirium

Question 20

Evidence that consciousness is in the front of the brain

Answer 20

Associated with Big C Consciousness (philosophical)

When subjects think about themselves vs. someone else

We see activity in M PFC, Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Question 21

Evidence that consciousness is in the back of the brain

Answer 21

When looking at brain activity while awaking from dream vs nothing and minimally conscious state vs vegetative state

Activity in the back of the brain was seen

Question 22

Evidence that consciousness is in the Claustrum

Answer 22

Claustrum damage reports:
Confusion
Delusions
Hallucinations
Delirium (disorders of consciousness)

Electrical stimulation of the claustrum:
Results in cognitive impairment