The Mystery of Consciousness
Consciousness is a thing which we deal with on a daily basis and yet if asked to describe it, one cannot do so that easily. Several people have spent their entire lives just to find what it is and despite years of analysis by scientists, psychologists, philosophers and physicians it still remains controversial due to its ambiguous nature. Despite all these difficulties, several definitions of consciousness have come up which revolve around mind, thoughts and memories.
The word consciousness is derived from Latin words con (with) and scire (to know). This gives us an accepted definition of consciousness that it refers to one’s awareness of oneself as well as the surroundings. Awareness is in terms of thoughts, memories, feelings and everything that we do. This awareness is unique and keeps on changing with time. At one time we may be thinking about something and at other times maybe something different.
It took a lot of time before consciousness became a significant topic of research as earlier it was viewed with scepticism by most of the scientists. Initially for many years consciousness was studied by philosophers and the philosopher Rene Descartes introduced this concept that mind and body are separate and interact with each other. Several other philosophers such as Karl Marx and John Locke led the earlier advancements in this field to a point now where most of the research is based on observable things by studying brain patterns.
Levels of Consciousness
Conscious vs Unconscious vs Subconscious
We can view levels of consciousness as conscious, subconscious and unconscious. The first level i.e. the conscious state refers to our immediate awareness which may be what we are writing or reading right now at the present moment. This conscious mind is a storehouse of things that we are currently thinking and processing. Subconscious mind contains past experiences and impressions which we remember. These things we are not aware of immediately but can be recovered after thinking. Our unconscious mind is the final level which consists of thoughts that are buried too deep inside us to be aware of. Several past experiences that cannot be remembered can also shape our thoughts and form our unconscious mind.
Low vs High Levels of Awareness / Attention and Consciousness
It is well known that we constantly alternate between high and low levels of awareness. We are constantly receiving information from our surroundings and though it may seem that the information is too much to be aware of, our brain is constantly processing this information which leads to different levels of awareness. For example in an event there may be several things going on but when someone says our name, we can easily hear and process that. So though we are not fully aware of the things in our surroundings, our brain keeps on paying close attention to the various stimuli offered to us. The effect of priming is also based on the fact that we are not fully aware of the things in our mind and is shown by several experiments. One such experiment was that people were made to solve a puzzle related to old people and then made to walk through a hallway and it was noticed that those who had solved the puzzle tended to walk slowly.
Other things that affect our level of consciousness include hypnosis, sleep, drugs etc. These can affect the way we process things in our mind and are thus researched extensively.
Why to Study Consciousness?
Being aware of one’s mental state, emotions and thoughts is important to lead a good life. We can greatly enhance our power and stretch our limitations if we develop to see our consciousness. How we use our awareness greatly determines our daily experiences. For example if we are always thinking and observing bad things around us, then our thought process tends to become dull. But if we learn to see the bright side, we can stay in a happy mood. Thus if we develop our consciousness to such an extent where we control our thoughts, we can always eliminate negative thoughts. Under tough life situations where external conditions are not in our hand, we can always control our mind to stay in an elevated mood. Thus we study consciousness as it helps us to make our lives easier by eliminating negative thoughts and creating positive experiences for ourselves.
Besides this study may also be important to diagnose any conscious related disorders. Psychologists may detect certain disorders based on sudden changes in consciousness which may indicate brain infections, heart diseases, dementia etc. Thus all in all it becomes necessary to explore this topic.
What Psychology and Cognitive Science Have to Offer us?
Current Research Methodologies
Research in this field is a bit slow paced as it is quite difficult to study consciousness. However from the late twentieth century, advancements began in this field. Initially, consciousness was a subject of interest to philosophers. But gradually due to advancements in fields of science and psychology, we came to know a lot more about the topic. Current research is done by examining the participants and trying to map their experiences to certain triggered brain activity. Thus by predicting the brain patterns, researchers aim to discover new facts about consciousness. Modern investigations are based on experiments and case studies where external stimuli results in a particular brain activity.
How to Study?
To study and measure consciousness, researchers study NCC (Neural Correlates of Consciousness) which refers to the relationship between a subject’s experiences and their brain activity that takes place simultaneously when provided with external stimulus. Brain is our major organ which connects the outside world to our nervous system and thus psychologists try to link neural activity to experiences in order to gain more facts about consciousness. This is facilitated by brain imaging. According to some theories different patterns in the brain produce different states of consciousness. Brain waves can be recorded using electroencephalography by placing electrodes on the scalp. Physical activity in the brain can also be measured using fMRI scans to obtain an idea of how different visuals create different stimuli in the brain.
Another way of study is to closely examine differences between conscious and unconscious people. This can be done by noting brain activity differences between a set of people under anesthesia and other sets of people under no such external influence.
Tests and Techniques
Apart from these certain illusions can be used. One such is the “Necker cube” that creates different perceptions in the mind which are then studied and used to identify which brain regions are triggered for a particular perceptual view of the cube.
Another technique is to study verbal reports. Though considered as a reliable indicator for consciousness it has a few concerns associated with it. It is used mainly to study how the subject narrates his/her experiences and then based on that psychologists study their brain activity.
Tests such as the mirror test can also be used to measure self awareness and can even be done on animals.
Limitations
Many theories try to explain why we experience difficulty in studying consciousness. One such theory states that since we are always part of consciousness, we can never gather all the facts that are required to describe it fully. Irrespective of all such theories the topic of how the brain is responsible for our conscious experiences is one of the most challenging tasks today pertaining to several reasons.
The most important one lies in the fact that we don’t have a well defined definition for consciousness and if we are not able to define it properly, we can’t really make much progress in its research. Another problem that arises is that when given similar stimulus, participants usually do not show the same neural activities and thus no fixed theory can be laid down.
Verbal report method also has its own challenges to overcome. Any mistake in verbal reports is not recognised easily. Also these methods cannot be used on animals as they can’t communicate their thoughts like humans. Besides an entity that is totally unaware of the surroundings may give a valid verbal report.
Studying neural correlates is not always fruitful as they do not give a complete picture but only a particular one. For example some correlates may explain only visual consciousness and for explaining others, we require other methods so there is no method to examine complete conscious behaviour.
Conclusion
Since until now we don’t have a clear definition of what consciousness is, the main focus is on understanding what exactly it is. We want to find what all is present in our conscious mind and also to find its relation with brain structure. Though the initial research was slow paced, advancements in science and psychology have increased the development rate. Brain imaging techniques help us to measure our brain’s response to external stimuli which help in understanding more about our conscious mind. Experiences when supported by facts obtained by monitoring neural responses, can be generalised into theories which will lead to more advancements in this exciting field in the coming years.
