6 replies to this topic

[jugoso]

Northoff holds the Canada Research Chair in Neuropsychiatry at the University of Ottawa and he's also part of the Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. As he studies the biochemical basis of mental illness, Northoff believes he's also on the trail of the elusive seat of consciousness, the part of the brain that creates our unique sense of self.
"You always feel like you are yourself. When you got up this morning and looked in the mirror, you weren't surprised by what you detected in the mirror. It was yourself. You immediately recognize yourself," Northoff said.

That complex experience of being 'you' is a feeling that is unique to every individual, but that sense of being special is rooted in brain chemistry and neuronal wiring that neuroscientists are just beginning to understand.
Northoff explains it this way: If you see a picture of the town where you live, a particular area of the brain will become active, especially an area in the middle of the brain, the cortical midline structure. But if you see a picture of another town, with no special personal relevance, the cortical midline structure does not become active.
In other words, researchers believe they now know what the brain looks like when it recognizes 'home.'

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...-dark-side.html

Worth checking out the full article,

Edited by jugoso, 04 January 2013 - 12:43 PM.

[Leave Britney alone!]

I think the seat of consciousness is more like a set of furniture for a room instead of just one seat.

[Babe Ruth]

Now reading David Wilcock's "The Source Field Investigations", my guess would go to the pineal gland, if we're talking biology.

[Hilander]

Some people don't have a conscious.  They do what they want without remorse, caring or thinking about how it will effect others.  They are called sociopaths or psychopaths.  Not all are mass murderers but all do what they want without worrying about the consequences.   Maybe these studies will help with these types.

[Leave Britney alone!]

Hilander, on 04 January 2013 - 04:00 PM, said:

Some people don't have a conscious.  They do what they want without remorse, caring or thinking about how it will effect others.  They are called sociopaths or psychopaths.  Not all are mass murderers but all do what they want without worrying about the consequences.   Maybe these studies will help with these types.

Conscious vs conscience.

[Jinxdom]

That was a downright amazing article.

Only wished they mentioned the differences between a chemically induced mental illness and mental illness from how a person thinks. Learning to differentiate the two from each other would be a great help.

Yeah when you realize you found home, a light bulb goes off, the angels sing, you have an idea, the turkey's done, you become alive... etc. etc. etc.

[HDesiato]

Interesting subject, but this seems out of place for a science article:

Quote

It's part of an effort to understand a mysterious neural network only recently described, called the "default mode network," a stark name for what some believe could ultimately harbour the secrets of the soul.

  I guess it makes it easier for more readers to relate if you put it in a cultural context.
To conclude the revelation of the secrets of the soul seems more along the lines of a "god of the gaps" argument, but no person is quoted to have actually made the statement. Quite to the contrary:

Quote

"It does a lot of important work that we don't know, in the dark. We have no idea at the moment why it exists, this resting state activity, and what it does, what the purpose of it is," Northoff said.