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UCLA psychologists report new insights on human brain, consciousness

UCLA psychologists have used brain-imaging techniques to study what happens to the human brain when it slips into unconsciousness. Their research, published Oct. 17 in the online journal PLOS Computational Biology, is an initial step toward developing a scientific definition of consciousness.

“In terms of brain function, the difference between being conscious and unconscious is a bit like the difference between driving from Los Angeles to New York in a straight line versus having to cover the same route hopping on and off several buses that force you to take a ‘zig-zag’ route and stop in several places,” said lead study author Martin Monti, an assistant professor of psychology and neurosurgery at UCLA. (more…)

First Measurements Made of Key Brain Links

By Guest PostDecember 5, 2012Scienceamalia gonzalez, axons, barry connors, behavioral significance, brain scientists, brown university, consciousness, cortex cells, excitatory cells, fundamental functions, inhibitory neurons, margot elmaleh, mental arousal, milliseconds, nonspecific thalamus, omar ahmed, optogenetics, outermost layer, prefrontal cortex, saundra patrick, scott cruikshank, sensory signals, tanya stevens, thalamic signals, thalamocortical partnership

Until now, brain scientists have been almost completely in the dark about how most of the nonspecific thalamus interacts with the prefrontal cortex, a relationship believed to be key in such fundamental functions as maintaining consciousness and mental arousal. Brown University researchers performed a set of experiments, described in the Journal of Neuroscience, to explore and measure those circuits for the first time.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Inside the brains of mice and men alike, a relatively big football-shaped region called the thalamus acts like a switchboard, providing the prefrontal cortex, the part that does abstract thinking and decision-making, with most of its information. The thalamus’s responsibility even includes helping the prefrontal cortex to maintain consciousness and arousal. (more…)

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UCLA psychologists report new insights on human brain, consciousness

First Measurements Made of Key Brain Links