Consciousness and Cognition

1
Consciousness and Cognition

• Chris Lamonde
• Mr. Chessman
• Nov. 30, 2005
• Hnrs. Bio II

2
Introduction

• Try to think of nothing its hard
• Your mind will start to wonder with feelings,
  ideas, or anything important to you
• Is a difference between your personal experiences
  and experiences
• These operations happen at the prefrontal lobes
  of the brain (Lights Up)

3
Conditions of Consciousness

• 1st is being awake/alert
• The AFR ( ascending reticular formation) is a
  network of neurological circuits located in the
  core of the brainstem and extending upward from
  the medulla to the cortex
• Those neurons transfer and manufacture
  neurotransmitters
• Main purpose of this area is to keep you awake
  and alert
• 2nd is being able to adapt to our surroundings
• This is responding in countless situations that
  are unfamiliar
• Need to make choices/decisions

4
What parts of the brain do for our consciousness

• AFR enables you to wake up
• Hippocampus enables you to remember
• Frontal lobes give you perspective and separation
  between internal and external events
• Anterior Cingulate enables you to focus and
  concentrate

5
Injury that effects consciousness

• Brain injury can effect consciousness in 2 ways
• Mild decease in alertness and wakefulness
• Severe deep and irreversible coma
• People may become unaware and deny their injury
• People may develop amnesia
• Therefore the brain, mind, and consciousness are
  closely connected

6
Relating Infants and Animals

• Tests done to babies that put a rouge on their
  faces and then were put in front of a mirror
• Children less than a year did move
• Children 15-18 months would move their hand
  toward the spot
• Children 2-3 years old would touch
• Monkeys would acknowledge themselves in the
  mirrors
• Chimps moved toward the rogue like the 15-18
  month olds

7
Animals with each other

• Baboons recognize cries of other baboons
• They also understand their family relationships
  and place in the community
• One chimp knew where food was and another that
  did not know followed him around
• The chimp that knew where food was misled the
  other to places where the food wasnt
• Another called its mother to chase away another
  female so he could steal the food

8
More about the brain

• Attention, memory, and sensorimotor coordination
  are not located in just one single part of the
  brain
• Left hemisphere is more involved than the right
• Language is located in the left
• Language is a very important part in our
  understanding of consciousness

9
Dynamics of the brain

• One brain wave ever 12.5 milliseconds
• 40 cycles-per-second
• Occurs between thalamus and cortex
• Neurons work together and in rhythm

10
Conclusion

• Cognition enables you not think about new things
  rather than things learned and in memory
• Consciousness deals with new experiences, ideas
  and information
• The brain and mind form a unity but, knowledge
  about them rely upon our own intangible ideas of
  consciousness