Researchers have located the mechanism deep in the
human brain that seems to control consciousness -- an on-off switch for
consciousness. A neurologist was able to turn a woman's consciousness off and on
by stimulating her claustrum -- a thin, sheet-like component deep in the brain.
The claustrum has long been suspected as playing a role.
For centuries, both philosophers and scientists have been trying figure out
exactly what "consciousness" is, where it comes from, and how it works.
While they haven't now answered all those questions, researchers have located
the mechanism deep in the human brain that seems to control it -- an on-off
switch for consciousness.
In a new study -- published this week in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior
-- neurologist Mohamad Koubeissi of George Washington University recounted how
he and his colleagues were able to turn a woman's consciousness off and on by
stimulating her claustrum.
The late pioneering neuroscientist Francis Crick and his still-working
colleague Christof Koch, a researcher at the Allen Institute for Brain Science,
previously pinpointed the claustrum, a thin, sheet-like component deep in the
brain, as integral in orchestrating a composite of distinct brain activities --
a combination of thoughts, sensations and emotions that might be defined as
"consciousness."
But Koubeissi and his researcher partners are the first to lend credence to
the hypothesis via hard evidence.
As the new study explains, when GW researchers zapped a woman's claustrum
with high frequency electrical impulses, she subsequently lost consciousness.
The claustrum shocks caused -- as researchers explained -- "arrest of volitional
behavior, unresponsiveness, and amnesia without negative motor symptoms or mere
aphasia."
When shocked, the woman remained open-eyed, but seemingly blank -- staring
ahead, unaware of the world around her.
"I would liken it to a car," explained Koubeissi. "A car on the road has many
parts that facilitate its movement -- the gas, the transmission, the engine --
but there's only one spot where you turn the key and it all switches on and
works together."
"So while consciousness is a complicated process created via many structures and networks -- we may have found the key," added Koubeissi.
