A Giant Neuron Can Be Responsible for The Consciousness

INNUENDO
INNUENDO
Aug 26, 2017 · 2 min read

For the first time, scientists have detected a giant neuron wrapped around the entire circumference of a mouse’s brain. This recently discovered neuron is one of three that have been detected for the first time in a mammal’s brain. Oddly enough, all three giant neurons happen to emanate from a part of the brain that’s shown intriguing connections to human consciousness in the past — the claustrum, a thin sheet of grey matter that could be the most connected structure in the entire brain, based on volume. Almost every region of the cortex sends fibres to the claustrum. It is suggested that it connects all of our external and internal perceptions together into a single unifying experience.

Back in 2014, a 54-year-old woman checked into the George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates in Washington, DC, for epilepsy treatment. This involved gently probing various regions of her brain with electrodes to narrow down the potential source of her epileptic seizures, but when the team started stimulating the woman’s claustrum, they found they could effectively ‘switch’ her consciousness off and on again.

Helen Thomson reported for New Scientist:

“When the team zapped the area with high frequency electrical impulses, the woman lost consciousness. She stopped reading and stared blankly into space, she didn’t respond to auditory or visual commands and her breathing slowed.

As soon as the stimulation stopped, she immediately regained consciousness with no memory of the event. The same thing happened every time the area was stimulated during two days of experiments.”

It also was found that claustrum damage is associated with the duration, but not frequency, of loss of consciousness, suggesting that it could play an important role in the switching on and off of conscious thought, but another region could be involved in maintaining it.

The discovery is an intriguing piece of the puzzle that could help up make sense of this crucial, but enigmatic region of the brain, and how it could relate to the human experience of conscious.

The information was taken from ScienceAlert.

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INNUENDO

A medical student interested in Consciousness, Science, Technology, Education, Entrepreneurship, Psychology, Space, Future, AI, Health, Art & Unicorns.

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