Saturday, October 21, 2017

Consciousness, "I", a "person"



I do believe that we cannot be ourselves with our store of memories, attitudes, beliefs, fears, apprehensions, exhilarations, sadness, happiness, relationships, puzzlement, amazement, confusion, wonderment, and a whole host of other things, without our physical Brain. Not having a properly functioning physical brain is like having a computer without its processor and memory. I, therefore, believe that the physical brain is a sine qua non for consciousness and self-awareness. I base this on our knowledge of how we change when parts of our brain are damaged by injury or disease. The range of effects seen are enormous and dependent on which areas are affected. It can be just a loss of memory of varying degree to a total change of personality so that the person "now" is totally different from the person "then". But both are conscious in the sense that they are alive and aware with all the bodily functions, responds to questions and exhibit behaviours. They sleep, they wake up, they laugh, they cry, they show happiness and sadness but they could be totally different although the physical likeness is preserved. We, therefore, have a body in which there appears to be now a virtually totally different person. We see this in frontal, fronto-temporal and hippocampal damage for example. Or take a disease like Alzheimer's which can be so devastating in change of personality. To me, this means that our brains when functioning as a whole organ give us a sense of being a "person" and the notion or person is conditioned by what is stored in our brains and what is produced in the brain by the various neuronal circuits interacting with each other. In this case, the sum is greater than the addition of individual parts. A symphony is a collection of music on different instruments but the effect it produces is above and beyond its parts. There is absolutely no evidence that the person who "was" before the cerebral insult is lurking somewhere within him trapped in a physical form beyond his control. If this is the case, this sad person has a "hidden original me" with a "new me" that arose within the same body after the damage. I don't think that is possible. 

But slightly digressing, the concept we have of being a person is so dependent on what goes on in our brains at any one time that even a "person" can be different "persons" at different times depending on situations, time etc. In a way, there is no "person" as such but a succession of experiences of being a person. We think we are the same because the change is gradual and occurs within a physical body we can see and feel. but we need to only take our minds back a few years and find that in many ways, we are now different, and in some cases, massively so.

So to sum it up, our functioning brain continuously informs us that there is an "I" (consciousness, awareness) and this I believe functions even when we are asleep but as sleep shuts us off from experiencing impulses from  our "outer senses" (such as vision, touch, smell, hearing), we are not aware or "conscious" as in the wakeful state but we are there, and our brains are working producing all sorts of activity which can even result in playback of a "video" constructed from true past life experiences and totally "computer generated" images of things which never really happened and we call this dreaming.

"I" arises from brain activity giving us a self-awareness. No brain - no self-awareness -no consciousness!

Just to complicate matters, if we blow up any living being through a zoom with massive capability, you will just see at first a collection of cells and then as you zoom further you will see  molecules -->  atoms --> fundamental particles --> wave forms and within all this, as much as 90% is empty space!

I hope my article will stimulate an useful and interesting discussion. I have purposely kept Religion away from it although this may have resulted in an incomplete view.

Speedy

BA's note: (The writer - Dr. Mahendra Gonsalkorale is a Neurologist cum Geriatrician)

6 comments:

  1. That's the best explanation of 'Consciousness' I have read. At a time of sad happenings and loss of a dear friend, your article helped and my brain started to work overtime and consciousness somersaulted! Now a question or two. 1. In the same way as you explain 'dreams' can you throw some light on 'near death experience'? 2. What happens in hypnosis? and why is it so easy for someone to take control of another's consciousness? 3. When we make a person 'unconscious' in anaesthesia, where does 'consciousness' go? Does it go out of the body or is it temporarily killed?
    It's just that this is a subject which is as fascinating as it is puzzling and in my entire training no one else really addressed this subject. So I am truly grateful to you. Zita

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  2. Well!.. ,reminds me of lead balloons by the manner this provoked comments or rather, the absence of it! Haven't lost hope though and Zita, I shall respond to your probing questions after the weekend as I am away.

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  3. It's me Zita, again, turning up like the bad penny! I hope many other batch mates will take part in this discussion of Consciousness. It is one where a lot of time is needed. So let us take our time but eventually come out with some yet unthought of points. I had a communication from a friend which is quite high flown. So I shall paraphrase and give the gist of it soon. Zita

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  4. Hello!Zita,
    Last few weeks,I have been fossicking through Texts and Journals to extract relevant information to answer your queries.
    Most of our readers are aware of"Hypnotism",is a calm state of altered consciousness,that allows a person to recall memories or guided to change of behaviour.In other word,it is an artificially induced state of consciousness,characterised by heightened suggestibility&receptivity to direction.One has to volunteer to be hypnotised.
    2.Consciousness under anaesthesia.
    Under anaesthesia,consciousness is switched off and following surgery,is restored.Some patients with brain trauma,consciousness flees away for days,weeks or longer.
    Reference.Detecting Consciousness-by Christof Koch-Scientific American-Nov 2017-vol 317-Number 5
    I look forward for the comments from Mahendraji and your high flown-Omniscient(Vibhu)

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  5. Hi AHTS! Now that is something very plausible, pardon me, I am sure it is exactly what happens. It is just that we do not address 'what exactly goes on' under certain altered states of consciousness which we as doctors always met with. Thanks for the reference. I am visiting this article today 23rd December so I'll be looking it over in the next couple of days. This is a thought provoking subject and I hope the discussion can go on. Thanks again, from Zita

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  6. Hi!Zeta, haven't you heard anything from your aficionados, about the consciousness.
    Hope to see a reply

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