top of page
Writer's pictureHatsuo Yamada

A chain of information in consciousness that occurs like an avalanche.

Updated: May 29, 2022

「Studying the "Study of Consciousness" (Stanislas Duanne) can further deepen your understanding of coaching theory.

I am studying to add a unique flavour to "unconscious rewriting".


This series of blog posts are my study notes. This time, the theme that follows the unconscious and conscious

I will write a "sign of consciousness".


 

When information is unconscious and conscious, large-scale changes occur in the higher visual centres and the activity in the brain is greatly amplified.

In the central area of ​​character recognition, activity in the brain was amplified 12-fold.


In addition, activation occurred in areas where activity was not seen if the information remained unconscious.

These regions are widely distributed in the parietal and frontal lobes and extend to the anterior cingulate gyrus in the middle of the two cerebral hemispheres.


By measuring the degree of amplification of this activity, Stanislas Duanne's work found that amplification, which distinguishes between conscious and unconscious processes, varies between regions along the path of visual input.


In the first stage of the cortex, the primary visual cortex, the activity caused by words that are not visible to the subject is also strong enough to be easily detected. However, as the stimulus information travels further along the pathways within the cortex, it becomes weaker due to unconsciousness.


Flashes words for a short time of 43ms. In the concise term, the image is minimally projected onto the retina.

Nonetheless, the activation was amplified and constantly progressing when the image was conscious, eventually causing large-scale activity in many brain regions. In addition, distant areas were closely connected, and incoming brain waves peaked and retreated at the same time in all areas.


This fact reinforces activity between these areas until an avalanche-like condition is triggered. Messages are being exchanged between neurons.

A chain of information in consciousness that occurs like an avalanche.




They confirmed the first "sign of consciousness" of amplification of brain activity in response to sensory stimuli. Moreover, this sign has been repeatedly found in sensations other than vision.


As with vision, the results are precise for hearing. First, the unconscious sound activates only the cortex surrounding the primary auditory cortex, whereas the sound-conscious trial amplifies this early stage activation. Then, an avalanche of brain activity occurs and spreads to the inferior parietal region and the prefrontal cortex.


There is an experiment called a "no-go" trial.

It is an experiment that "it moves when the target is seen, but it does not move if you see" do not move "just before the target".


Conscious control is exerted on the subject to suppress the strong tendency to cause a "moving" reaction.


In half the trials of this experiment, "don't move" is presented below the threshold. And the other half is presented for as long as you can see. The subject's movements were slightly slowed, even when "Don't move" was presented below the threshold.


This kind of synchrony is much stronger in the conscious case than when the target word stays unconscious.

Therefore, activities involving multiple brain regions can be considered essential in conscious perception.


It shows that the brain is unknowingly exercising restraint, even in part.

Moreover, brain images show that this subliminal suppression depends on two areas involved in the control of motor commands: the anterior supplementary motor area and the anterior insular cortex.


However, in experiments where "do not move" was seen, the activity of these two control areas almost doubled and expanded into an extensive network consisting of the parietal lobe and prefrontal cortex areas.

5 views0 comments

Comments


bottom of page