Finding: The button that connects and disconnects consciousness

New studies carried out at George Washington University (D.C.) have recently managed to access the switch that allows to activate and deactivate the state of consciousness of a woman with episodes of epliepsia. This has been made possible by stimulating a brain area with electrical impulses.

Turning Consciousness On and Off: New Studies

The research findings indicate that it is highly probable that consciousness is the product of the integration of activities of the different brain areas, the result of the combination of all perceptual stimuli in a single experience.

Years ago, the British researcher Francis Crick he argued that the brain area known as cloister could be the epicenter of consciousness, integrating all the information that the various neural networks send uninterruptedly.

Stimulation in some areas of the brain

New research provides new evidence that Crick's hypothesis could be true. The study reached this conclusion by stimulating tests of different regions of the brain of a epilepsy patient and monitoring the resulting activity to be able to specify which was the epicenter of the crisis.

It was reported that stimulation with electricity (an electrode located in the right cloister and the cortex of the anterior cingulate) caused the patient to go from conscious to unconscious state. His motor activity was interrupted, his breathing slowed down, and he did not respond to questions from the doctors.. The moment the researchers stopped the electrical stimulation, the woman regained consciousness and had no memory of what happened.

The key is in the cloister

The research, published in Epilepsy & Behavior, showed that despite the fact that consciousness is a complex process in which different structures, regions and networks, the cloister could be in charge of centralizing the product, and therefore so much would be found in this the brain switch of consciousness.

The study has only been carried out for the moment in a single person, and it will be necessary to verify the results with a larger sample to be able to confirm the relevance of this discovery. If so, it could mark a before and after in understanding the functioning of human consciousness.

Bibliographic references:

• Original study: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329762.700...