What is consciousness?

by Laura

*Consciousness= Theory, reality, imagination, is it in your brain, is it something biological, is it a person, does it has something to do with your soul, can you feel it, can you see it????

*Consciousness = Mystery for scientists, philosophers and any human being.

Philosophical Definition= 2 meanings

• 1.- Acknowledgement of the “self” (Essence that every human been has)

• 2.- Knowledge of GOOD vs EVIL “Moral Consciousness”

• First meaning has 2 other meanings:

• Philosophical: Consciousness= Perception of the self by itself

• Epistemological: Refers to consciousness as a subject of knowledge>

• EPISTEMOLOGY- STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE

Scientific Definition

• Consciousness= By product of matter.

• Could be found in an specific part of the human brain and is related to it

• Relation between consciousness and Free will

Contradictions

• Consciousness= By-product of matter.

• Could be found in an specific part of the human brain and is related to it

• Relation between consciousness and Free will

Personal Opinion

• Consciousness can be analyzed by different point of views

• The nature of consciousness is so complex and vague the ways to approach it are several.

• I do not think human been would be able to completely know or understand what does the word consciousness really

means

• Is a mystery and goes beyond our possible knowledge

• I don’t think there a specific part of your brain that tells you to be conscious or not.

• I do not believe on the biological definition of consciousness

Summary of Memory

by Alejandro Olguin and Ricardo Peña

There are three parts in the memory: encoding, storage and· retrieval.

Encoding is how we memorize the material.

There are 3 types:·

i. phonemic encoding (sound),

ii. visual and

iii. semantic.

2. Memory storage is how the memory holds the information received.·

a. There are 4 types of storage: sensory storage, short-term memory, long-term memory and flashbulb memories.

i. Sensory memory is the memory your brain perceives from a sense. It· doesn’t last long.

ii. Short-term memory stores information for a short time, it lasts· about 20 to 30 seconds and even a day.

iii. Long-term memory is the opposite of short-term memory, it has a· limited capacity of storing information and can last a really long time.

iv. Flashbulb memory is a memory where you remember how you felt in a· specific time.

Retrieval is how humans retrieve the information stored in the· brain.

People have problems retrieving information for different types of· reasons.

i. Ineffective encoding,

ii. interference and

iii. retrieval failures are some of the problems that people may have in the memory.

Ineffective encoding is a problem that people have for distraction,· people didn’t pay much attention to the material and that’s why they forget what they learned.
Interference is another problem is a problem that people have when· they mix the materials, when they try to learn two or more things at a time, they get confused and can’t retrieve the correct information.
Retrieval failure is another problem that people have because they· can’t retrieve the information. They have this problem because they have a bad connection in the brain. Ronald Reagan had this problem, because he thought he did something he saw in a movie.
There are also diseases that can affect the memory, one disease is· called amnesia.

There are two types of amnesia: retrograde and anterograde.·
Retrograde amnesia is when the person looses the memory of the· events that took place before the injury.
Anterograde amnesia is when the person looses the memory that took· place after the injury

8. All the senses are involved with memory in our brain. Throughout the senses we remember different types of actions, such as acoustic, visual, touch, smell, taste and proprioception.

The hippocampus is related to the memory in our brain

the hippocampus is the part of our brain that is responsible for our feelings.
Whenever we want to remember a feeling, the hippocampus connects to the memory and we remember the feelings we want to remember.

i. Example: The love a mother has for her child will always be there and pass through the hippocampus.

10.       As you get older, the neurons start to die and the memory starts to decay, as well as all the senses.

What are emotions?

by Orit and Eli

-           We have four fundamental emotions; love, fear, anger, and desire. This is what scientist say emotions are  made off although other people can agree or disagree.

-           Emotions are generated in the brain

The most studied emotion is fear

-           we need fear to be able to survive

-           Fear relies on pathways that involve a structure deep in our brains called the amygdala

The limbic system

-The forebrain is the biggest division in the brain

-The limbic system is found in this part of the brain.  It is a group of brain structures that play a role in emotion,

     memory, and motivation

- The limbic system is the oldest parts of the brain in evolutionary terms

-Parts of the limbic system: thalamus, hippocampus, hypothalamus, amygdala

Amygdala

Responsible for emotions

    mostly fear

-Looks like an almond

-Receives projections from parts of the limbic system

-Considered to be the key part to the limbic system

-When you recognize danger, or feel afraid, you are

    using the amygdala

-It stores feelings of memory

Thalamus

-The thalamus is responsible for storing new memories and emotions

Hippocampus

- The hippocampus is responsible for the two different kinds of memory

   The long-term memory and the short term memory.

Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus regulates your temperature in your body.

Evolution of the Brain study guide

by Debora and Jhonny

Fish Brain

The brain has a long history of development, it all started in the water with the fish brain. The fish had formed a tube that would be used to send nerves from any part of their body to a specific point. What the nerves would do was to gather all over the spine and then they would go to different places becoming specialized modules.

Reptilian Brain

Many of these specialized modules became our smell brain, and formed our eyes because the modules became very sensitive to many different things for example light.

The eyes were then connected with the cerebellum which allowed the eyes to move. This is called the reptilian brain.

Modules kept on developing and formed the thalamus. The thalamus is very important because it lets sight, smell and hearing work at the same time.

The Mammalian Brain / Limbic System

The amygdala and hippocampus were created with the purpose of becoming a memory system. Although memory wasn’t very developed, it still was a great advance for the evolution.

The hypothalamus also was formed, and it was very important because it helped the organism to react to much more different things. This called the Mammalian brain, that also is known as the limbic system. The limbic system has a big role when it comes to emotions because they happen there

Many of the sense modules during the mammalian evolution became thin cells. Forming a type of skin which later became the cortex. This allowed the brain size to grow.

Mammals that evolved to humans, developed a much more larger cortex, because the cerebellum pushed the brain to the back, also allowing the forehead and skull to be much bigger so the brain has space to fit in perfectly.

The evolving brain had a big enlargement period about 1 and a half million years ago, many of the skull bones were pushed out, which created a big flat forehead that is an important characteristic that help us difference from primates.

The areas of the brain that expanded, are the sections that thinking, planning, organizing and communicating are.

When humans developed from hominid, about 40% of the frontal lobes of the brain expanded creating new and more neo-cortex on the brain.

The frontal lobes pop out straight from the brain, which pushed the forehead and frontal dome of the head forward giving the skull the modern shape.

Mind and Body

by Dennise

The mind and body problem happens because states of consciousness interact with states of body. Many people believe that what happens in your body happens independently from what happens in your mind.

Rene Descartes was a French philosopher who enclosed the metaphysical divide known as the mind-body dualism.

What is dualism?

It is the metaphysical proposal that no problem exists because mind and matter are entirely independent. Descartes believed that states of consciousness couldn’t be in contact with or be reduced to matter. This believe of a mind not linked to a body opens the possibility of a mind existing without a body (in the case of reincarnation), a mind occupying two or more bodies, or one body with more than one mind (in the case of a possession).

Other dualists believed that God solved the mind and body problem via miracles, e.g.: If you thought about raising your hand, then it was God miraculously that raised your arm. In the other hand Spinoza, not a dualist, believed that the act of will and the act of the movement of the body were ONE, but seen under different aspects. He believed in only one reality with two attributes: The thought and the extension.

Contributions of science

Scientists are now learning that in fact the mind and the body are not that different, what happens in the liver can directly affect our brain and disorders of the brain can send out chemical shock waves that disturb the body.

Our mind clearly acts on our body

o          We control our appetite

o           A ghost story produce gooseflesh

o           A cardiovascular patient who “gives up” is not

               likely to recover.

o          Thoughts about sex have physical results

Involuntary activities in your body e.g. heart beating; formation of urine can all be affected by your mental efforts. Your brain orders your body to release certain hormones that make your heart beat faster.

Our body clearly acts on our mind…

•           Alcohol

•           Coffee

•           Air pressure

•           Bodily posture

•           Breath control

can all affect our mind. Drugs also have mental results e.g.: Sedatives, hypnotics anesthetics, analgesics, psychedelics and antidepressants.

Here is one example of how does stress affect our mind and body.

A stress response starts in the brain:

•           The brain detects a threat.

•           The hypothalamus, amygdala and the pituitary gland go on alert.

•           They exchange information with each other.

•           They send signaling hormones and nerve impulses to the rest of the body.

•           To: prepare to fight or to flight.

…..the body releases of flood of hormones……

•           So the adrenal glands react to the alert

•           The heart starts beating faster

•           The lungs work harder to flood the body with oxygen

•           The muscles tense

•           Digestion shuts down

….all of this can cause significant damage….

•           When stress passes the level of released hormones drop

•           If the danger comes too often they damage the arteries

•           Chronic low level stress lead to a weakened immune system

•           Loss of bone mass

•           Suppression of reproductive system

•           Memory problems.

More and more doctors and patients recognize that mental states and physical well-being are intimately connected.

An unhealthy body can lead to an unhealthy mind. An illness of the mind can worsen diseases in the body and fixing the problem in one place can often help the other.

Summary-

Many people believe that your mind and your body are not connected, and that your body acts independently from your mind; this is known as the mind and body dualism. Scientists can prove how your mind and your body are in fact intimately

connected. One way to show this is by explaining a very common problem like stress. There are many things that happen in your mind and can affect your body and vice versa.

Teen Brains are Different

by Vesna

Cerebellum

•Coordinates muscles and physical movements

•Thinking and processing

•Undergoes growth and change

Corpus Callosum

•Connects hemispheres of the brain

•Involved in creativity and problem solving

•Changes and grows

Amygdala

•Emotional responses

•Teens use this instead of the frontal cortex

•Trouble adjusting emotional responses

Frontal Cortex

•CEO

•Planning, strategizing, judgment

•not yet developed

•The frontal lobe of the brain has to do with planning, organization, and emotional controls

•MRI tests show us that adult emotions and planning etc are controlled by the frontal lobe but teen brains mainly control these things with their amygdala

•the frontal lobe is Matured at the age of 18

•teens process information with the amygdala

•adults think with the prefrontal cortex

•This is the explanation of why preteens and teens for example can’t remember to do their homework.

Until recently, Most brain experts believed that human command center stopped growing at around 18 months and that neurons were pretty much set for life by age 3.

•The limbic system deep inside the brain

•associated with gut reactions, sparking instant waves

•prefrontal cortex adjust these reactions

•The prefrontal cortex behind the forehead

•The prefrontal cortex is in charge of telling the limbic system to pipe down

the prefrontal cortex “act like an adult”

teens are manipulated by the wild ideas of the amygdala

The amygdala is the home to feelings

•http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tee nbrain/work/anatomy.html

•http://www.lcsc.edu/ps205/inside.htm

•http://familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,20-18205,00.html

•http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=2 7&did=1000