Blind-sight is when the patient is legally blind but can perform tasks of everyday life as if they were able to see perfectly. Ramachandran believed this syndrome came from damage to the specific part of the visual cortex that corresponded with vision but also function. Therefore:
This daring interpretation carries with it an extraordinary implication – that only the new pathway is capable of conscious awareness (“I see this”), whereas the old pathway can us visual input for all kinds of behavior, even though the person is completely unaware of what is going on. Does it follow, then, that consciousness is a special property of the evolutionarily more recent visual cortex pathway? If so, why does this pathway have privileged access to the mind?
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Some people with this syndrome are able to function by using the other senses to determine what objects are and what they should be doing with those objects. This ability is evident in the case of Diane. Ramachandran challenged her to grab a pencil out of his hand. She was able to do this task with unfailing ability to do so like she was able to see what she was doing the whole time. He also tested her by asking her the orientation of a mailing slot but just told her it was a slot and not what it was meant for. She was unable to identify the direction of the slot and got very frustrated with the doctors methods of figuring out what was wrong with her. Then he told her to mail a letter through the slot and she was able to do the process without any …show more content…
Ramachandran was more interested in the Neurological Theory and thus did some more tests and proved that:
All this was verified by videotaping the approaching arm and conducting a frame-by-frame analysis of the tape. Again, it was though there were an unconscious “zombie” inside Diane carrying out complicated computations that allowed her to move her hand and fingers correctly, whether she was posting a letter or simply grabbing objects of different sizes. The “zombie” corresponded to the how pathway, which was still largely intact, and the “person” corresponded to the what pathway, which was badly damage.
This means that because the brain was damage in a specific place that the syndrome was a neurological problem. Therefore the Neurological Theory is the best explanation of this syndrome. Though out of the three theories the Neurological is the best for this syndrome it still is not the total answer for why the patients are able to be the way they are with this syndrome. There is still much research to be finished before this can be fully understood why it
In the magic of the mind author Dr. Elizabeth loftus explains how a witness’s perception of an accident or crime is not always correct because people's memories are often imperfect. “Are we aware of our minds distortions of our past experiences? In most cases, the answer is no.” our minds can change the way we remember what we have seen or heard without realizing it uncertain witnesses “often identify the person who best matches recollection
To begin, it seems the cliché phrase of “mind over matter” really connects to a lot of the experiences and symptoms that Sarah suffered from her Left Neglect. In reality, an individual experiences two sides to the world, the left and the right. The traumatic brain injury sustained from the accident caused Sarah’s mind to completely disassociate from the left. Sarah’s whole left side became non-existent. It didn’t matter what actually was in front of Sarah, what mattered is what her mind brought attention to. It seems like Genova tore a page straight from the Twilight Zone, for initially one could only imagine this disorder existing in th...
Although he believes that awareness is “purely a functional notion,” he also argues that awareness is directly linked to having conscious experience, P-consciousness, which superblindsighters don’t have. But although he believes that awareness is very closely related to experience, he also says that the explanation of awareness can be related to the most basic form of consciousness, which is A-consciousness. Superblindsighters have A-consciousness, which is strictly functional, and part of Chalmer’s argument is that awareness can be only functional. I think Chalmer is arguing that although awareness should include a-consciousness and P-consciousness, it can be limited to only A-consciousness, which means in Chalmer’s sense of awareness, a superblindsighter can have
The ‘where visual pathway’ is concerned with constructing three dimensional representations of the environment and helps our brain to navigate where things are, independently of what they are, in space in relation to itself (Mishkin & Ungerleider & Macko, 1983).... ... middle of paper ... ... The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
explanation of where our minds, or consciousness, came from and how we are able to
unknown. (2011, october 27). inside the human brain. Retrieved january 19, 2014, from nia.nih.gov: http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/part-1-basics-healthy-brain/inside-human-brain
Historically, cognitive psychology was unified by an approach based on an resemblance between the mind and a computer, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). Cognitive neuroscientists argue convincingly that we need to study the brain while people engage in cognitive tasks. Clearly, the internal processes involved in human cognition occur in the brain, and several sophisticated ways of studying the brain in action, including various imaging techniques, now exist, (Sternberg and Wagner, 1999, page 34).Neuroscience studies how the activity of the brain is correlated with cognitive operations, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). On the other hand, cognitive neuropsychologists believe that we can draw general conclusions about the way in which the intact mind and brain work from mainly studying the behaviour of neurological patients rather than their physiology, (McCarthy and Warrington, 1990).
Renner, T., Feldman, R., Majors, M., Morrissey, J., & Mae, L. (2011). States of Consciousness. Psychsmart (pp. 99-107). New York: McGraw-Hill.
For years philosophers have enquired into the nature of the mind, and specifically the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. (O’Brien 2017) One of these mysteries is how a material object, the brain, can produce thoughts and rational reasoning. The Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) was devised in response to this problem, and suggests that the brain is quite literally a computer, and that thinking is essentially computation. (BOOK) This idea was first theorised by philosopher Hilary Putnam, but was later developed by Jerry Fodor, and continues to be further investigated today as cognitive science, modern computers, and artificial intelligence continue to advance. [REF] Computer processing machines ‘think’ by recognising information
Brugger, P., & Taylor, K. I. (2003). Extrasensory Perception or Effect of Subjective Probability? Journal of Consciousness Studies , 10 (6-7), 221-246.
The documentary, “Amazing Secrets About the Human Brain” presented by the History Channel, explains how the brain works to people with little to no academic knowledge on the subject. The brain is “the most complicated device” humans have found, so it is certainly a topic of interest to many. In the past few years, knowledge of the brain has grown significantly. The documentary’s goal is to describe the complexity of the brain and how it influences various human behaviors, such as fear, sexual arousal, sports performance, and psychic mediums. With a minor shortcoming, the documentary does a sufficient job of introducing the complexity and workings of the brain to people with little knowledge of the topic.
Speculations on the origin of the mind have ranged from ghosts to society. Each new theory brings about more speculation and disagreement than the last. Where the mind resides, where it came from and if the brain has any involvement with the concept are common questions that fuel theory paradigms. Those questions are also the foundation of the debate about the roll of experience versus the existence of innate capacities. Steven Pinker theorizes the mind as a computing system created by the brain to fill the gap between innate capacities and capacities missing using common sense and learned critical thinking skills.
One can say or try and dissect the brain and try to figure what’s going on inside of it and that’s what Philophers today try to do that. Why is that why must the brain be dissected? This question is raised for the simple fact that Philophers really want to know why whats going on the human brain. This can also go back to “knowing” and believing in something. We will also take a look into emotion with a emphisis on facil expressions. Reading the human face could be a difficult task. Last but not least I will talk about the Philosphy of life and why it is important to have an outreach like that in life, futhermore this has an emphese on belief. Learning a lot this busy semester the topics above will be though out and discussed so that we can get a better understand of each of them.
The human body is divided into many different parts called organs. All of the parts are controlled by an organ called the brain, which is located in the head. The brain weighs about 2. 75 pounds, and has a whitish-pink appearance. The brain is made up of many cells, and is the control centre of the body. The brain flashes messages out to all the other parts of the body.
Blakslee, S. (1993, August 31). The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from www.nytimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/31/science/seeing-and-imagining-clues-to-the-workings-of-the-mind-s-eye.html