Scientists identify the brain structure that filters consciousness
Our conscious perception can be dominated by the deep structure of the brain.
MRI image of the human brain.
Alain Jocard/AFP through Getty Images
Neuroscientists first observed how the deep structure of the brain is activated when the brain knows his thoughts as conscious perception.
The brain is I was constantly bombed There are sights, sounds and other stimuli, but people know, for example, the taste of chocolate, the voice of someone’s voice, and the silver of the surrounding world. Researchers know for a long time that the external layers of the brain, called the brain cortex, participate in this experience of knowing a particular idea.
It was much more difficult to explain because the involvement of deeper brain structure could only be approached by invasive surgery. Experimental designs to test the concept of animals are also difficult. But researching this area can expand the theory of consciousness beyond the external packaging of the brain, researchers say.
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“chairman Consciousness Liad Mudrik, a neurological scientist at Tel Aviv University, says scientists use more and more systematic and strict methods. Investigate consciousnessShe says.
Awareness
In the published study science Today, Mingsha Zhang, a neuroscientist at Beijing Labor University, focused on the awards. This area at the center of the brain is involved in handling sensory information and work memory and is thought to play a role in conscious perception.
Participants were already undergoing serious and continuous treatment. headacheThey deeply injected thin electrodes into the brain. This allowed Zhang and his colleagues to study brain signals and measure conscious perception.
Participants were asked to move their eyes in a particular way, depending on whether the icon found a flash on the screen in front of the screen. The icon is designed so that participants only know about half of them.
During the work, researchers recorded nerve activities in many areas of the brain, including awards and cortex. Christopher, a system neurological scientist at Sydney University in Australia, said that this is the first time that such a simultaneous recording has been made in those who do business related to conscious science. He said, “It’s amazing,” he said because he could see how the period of neurological activities in other regions was different.
gatekeeper
When I knew the exterior of the icon, the participants’ awards and the frontal lobe cortex were significantly different from the activities. When I knew the icon, the activities appeared earlier and became stronger in the awards, and seemed to be adjusted across the two areas. Mac Shin, a system neuroscientist at Sydney University, says the awards act as a filter and control the control.
Previous animal research supports these results. In 2020 paper, researchers used magnets to move individual mouse beards so that the mouse could notice about half of the time. The animals were trained even if they licked in the water snout when they felt movements. The researchers found that when the mouse was found to be projected into a deeper brain region, including the award, the mouse was activated.
Mudrik said, “The latest research is one of the most sophisticated and extensive investigations of the role of awards in consciousness, but there is still a question of whether this task has truly captured neurological activities related to conscious experiences or whether it has tracked interest in the unconscious stimuli.
Zhang plans to conduct more experiments to people and investigate brain activities in a monkey monkey.
This article was reproduced with permission and did First publication April 3, 2025.
