The Transcendent Brain by Alan Lightman

Author:Alan Lightman [Lightman, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

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An important strategy in attempting to understand how consciousness emerges from the material brain is to identify outward manifestations of consciousness, what have been called “behavioral correlates of consciousness” (BCC), and to see whether these BCC are modified in people with brain damage, such as traumatic injuries (falls and car accidents), lesions and tumors in the brain, and strokes. One can further look for BCC in lower animals and attempt to trace some kind of evolutionary history of BCC.

Outward manifestations of consciousness include a sense of self, a distinct personality, memory, an ability to imagine the future and plan ahead, an awareness of one’s mortality, a sense of play, an ability to solve problems, and others. Some of these attributes, such as problem-solving ability, might be associated with higher intelligence in general.

Psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscientists have developed questionnaires for patients with brain damage to measure their degree of self-awareness and functioning ability. The questionnaires are administered to three groups: the patient, the patient’s family, and an observing clinician. One such questionnaire, developed by Mark Sherer at the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas McGovern Medical School at Houston, asks such questions as:

• How well does the patient get along with people now as compared to before his/her injury?

• How well can the patient do on tests that measure thinking and memory skills now as compared to before his/her injury?…

• How good is the patient at keeping up with the time and date and where he/she is now as compared to before his/her injury?

• How well can the patient concentrate…?

• How well can the patient express his/her thoughts to others now as compared to before his/her injury?

• How good is the patient’s memory for recent events now as compared to before his/her injury?

• How good is the patient at planning things now as compared to before his/her injury?

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