What Is Consciousness?
Consciousness refers to one’s personal knowledge and perception of their thoughts, memories, emotions, bodily sensations, and surroundings. It essentially encompasses one’s self-awareness and awareness of the external environment.
Your consciousness is subjective and personal to you. Anything that you can articulate and put into words from your experiences is considered part of your consciousness.
Your consciousness is always dynamic, and it keeps changing as your experiences and surroundings change. You may be engrossed in reading this article one moment, and the next, your consciousness might shift to a conversation you had with a co-worker earlier. Then you may become aware of the discomfort in your chair or start planning dinner in your mind.
Your stream of thoughts is constantly changing, and these changes can be abrupt, yet your experience of it appears seamless and natural.
Types of Consciousness
The different states of consciousness include but are not limited to:
- Dreams
- Hallucinations
- Hypnosis
- Meditation
- Sleep
- States induced by psychoactive substances
To put it differently, there are two primary states of awareness: consciousness and unconsciousness. However, there can also be altered states of consciousness, which are often a result of medical or mental conditions that affect or modify one’s level of awareness.
Altered types of consciousness include:
- Coma
- Confusion
- Delirium
- Disorientation
- Lethargy
- Stupor
Healthcare providers utilize different evaluation methods to determine and measure consciousness levels. They use the scores obtained from these assessments to make informed decisions about diagnoses and treatment options.
Functions of Consciousness
Consciousness serves various biological and social functions, such as information processing, decision-making, learning, and adapting to new information.
Without consciousness, self-awareness is impossible, making it a crucial element in philosophy, spirituality, and religion.
Changes in Consciousness
Comprehending the various levels of consciousness can aid healthcare providers in identifying indications of problems. Some of these changes arise spontaneously, while others are due to factors like drugs or brain injury. Alterations in consciousness can also lead to modifications in perception, cognition, comprehension, and interpretation of the environment.
Alterations in consciousness may indicate an underlying medical condition or signify an urgent medical emergency.
For example, sudden changes in consciousness might be a sign of:
- Aneurysm
- Brain infections
- Brain tumor or injury
- Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease
- Drug use
- Epilepsy
- Heart disease
- Heatstroke
- Lack of oxygen to the brain
- Low blood sugar
- Poisoning
- Shock
- Stroke
History of Consciousness
Structuralists employed introspection to analyze and report conscious sensations, thoughts, and experiences. This method involved trained observers examining the contents of their own minds. While subjective, it helped to inspire further research into the scientific study of consciousness.
Structuralists employed introspection to analyze and report conscious sensations, thoughts, and experiences. This method involved trained observers examining the contents of their own minds. While subjective, it helped to inspire further research into the scientific study of consciousness.
William James, an American psychologist, compared consciousness to a stream that remains unbroken and continuous despite the constant shifts and changes in it. On the other hand, Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst, focused on understanding the significance of the conscious and unconscious mind. Although psychology’s research focus shifted to purely observable behaviors during the first half of the 20th century, research on human consciousness has significantly increased since the 1950s.
Although much of the research in psychology during the first half of the 20th century centered around observable behaviors, there has been a significant increase in research on human consciousness since the 1950s.
Theories of Consciousness
The study of consciousness faces a challenge in that there is no widely agreed operational definition for it. Descartes’ idea of cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) proposed that the act of thinking proves one’s existence and consciousness.
Today, the general definition of consciousness is the awareness of oneself and the surrounding world. Nonetheless, there are still ongoing discussions and debates on various facets of this awareness.
To gain a better understanding of our conscious experiences, research has centered around the neuroscience behind consciousness. In fact, scientists have employed brain-scanning technology to identify neurons that might be associated with different conscious events. Currently, two major theories of consciousness exist: integrated information theory and global workspace theory.
Integrated Information Theory
In this approach, researchers aim to understand consciousness by exploring the underlying physical processes that give rise to our conscious experiences. They seek to measure the integrated information that forms consciousness, with the level of integration representing the quality of an organism’s consciousness.
This theory is mainly concerned with determining whether something is conscious and the extent to which it is conscious.
Global Workspace Theory
According to this theory, consciousness is seen as a workspace where information is integrated and shared among different brain systems.
The brain selects and prioritizes certain information to be broadcasted to other parts of the brain, creating a global workspace. This enables us to access, interpret and act upon information in a flexible and integrated way.
Unlike integrated information theory, global workspace theory aims to explain how consciousness functions and how it allows us to interact with the world.
Sources
- Patti L, Gupta M. Change in mental status. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing.
- Anderson JR. Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications. 7th ed. Worth Publishers; 2010.
- Tononi G. Integrated information theory of consciousness: An updated account [published correction appears in Arch Ital Biol. 2012 Dec;150(4):291]. Arch Ital Biol. 2012;150(2-3):56‐90. doi:10.4449/aib.v149i5.1388
- Baars BJ. The global workspace theory of consciousness. In S Schneider, M Velmans (Eds), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Second Edition. 2017. doi:10.1002/9781119132363.ch16