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Physiology & Medicine / Where in Our Brain does Consciousness Lie?
« on: 27/09/2012 20:29:53 »
Hi,
Here's another "Where in Our Brain..." question. I know this is inherently a very speculative topic, but I read somewhere a few years ago about an experiment where they had some rats memorize a maze. Then they started to progressively lesion the rat's brain after each test to see when the rat would no longer be able to remember the maze. It seemed that even after a significant portion of the brain was removed and it couldn't properly move its limbs, it still knew where to go. The admittedly speculative and likely self-serving point it was trying to make was that memory, once past the hypothalamus, is actually stored 'in a different place' and brought in QM to its defense. I know, meta-physics through and through.
But it made me wonder, has consciousness been defined in any clear way yet by science? And can we say that it lies in any particular part of the brain?
P.S. If anyone can point towards or against the validity of the experiment mentioned, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've never been able to track any reference of this experiment down though.
Here's another "Where in Our Brain..." question. I know this is inherently a very speculative topic, but I read somewhere a few years ago about an experiment where they had some rats memorize a maze. Then they started to progressively lesion the rat's brain after each test to see when the rat would no longer be able to remember the maze. It seemed that even after a significant portion of the brain was removed and it couldn't properly move its limbs, it still knew where to go. The admittedly speculative and likely self-serving point it was trying to make was that memory, once past the hypothalamus, is actually stored 'in a different place' and brought in QM to its defense. I know, meta-physics through and through.
But it made me wonder, has consciousness been defined in any clear way yet by science? And can we say that it lies in any particular part of the brain?
P.S. If anyone can point towards or against the validity of the experiment mentioned, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've never been able to track any reference of this experiment down though.