Human Consciousness: with very little matter (Humans)

by David Turell , Wednesday, August 31, 2016, 14:56 (3005 days ago) @ dhw

This article raises the issue of how does one have a fully functional consciousness with only 10% of a brain:-http://wmbriggs.com/post/19647/-"So this 44-year-old Frenchman—let's call him Jacques—presented for a “mild left leg weakness“. The leg bone being connected to the hip bone, etc., it was eventually discovered that Jacques's “skull was filled largely by fluid, leaving just a thin perimeter of actual brain tissue.” -"And yet the man was a married father of two and a civil servant with an IQ of 75, below-average in his intelligence but not mentally disabled…-"While this may seem medically miraculous, it also poses a major challenge for cognitive psychologists, says Axel Cleeremans of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.-“'Any theory of consciousness has to be able to explain why a person like that, who's missing 90% of his neurons, still exhibits normal behavior,” says Cleeremans. A theory of consciousness that depends on “specific neuroanatomical features” (the physical make-up of the brain) would have trouble explaining such cases. -"To say that explaining this man via current theories of the brain is a “major challenge” is like saying Bill Clinton has a “small problem” with the ladies. According to these theories, the man should be a “vegetable”. It's always vegetable, isn't it? I guess neurologists didn't see the original The Thing. Skip it.-"The missing matter of Jacques's brain was noticed by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The MRI picture above is from the Lancet (under the bland title “Brain of a white-collar worker”). "-Comment: We know that existing an consciousness can be altered by brain damage or brain surgery, but this person had his consciousness develop from birth with this huge material deficit. Brain plasticity? No, consciousness not explained by materially functional brain activity.-The rest of the article discusses the statistical mess behind fMRI and suggests that many of the conclusions are borderline accurate. We still don't know much that is reliable about the most complex organ on Earth.