Biology of Consciousness

In Witnessing the Brain’s ‘Aha!’ Moment, Scientists Shed Light on Biology of Consciousness

NEUROSCIENCE NEWSJULY 27, 2017

FEATUREDNEUROSCIENCEOPEN NEUROSCIENCE ARTICLES8 MIN READ

Summary: Researchers report becoming consciously aware of a decision conforms to the same mechanism the brain goes through to complete a simple decision.

Source: Zuckerman Institute.

Study in human participants lends insight into one of neuroscience’s greatest puzzles: How the brain transforms unconscious information into conscious thought.

Columbia scientists have identified the brain’s ‘aha!’ moment — that flash in time when you suddenly become aware of information, such as knowing the answer to a difficult question. Today’s findings in humans, combined with previous research, provide compelling evidence that this moment — this feeling of having decided — pierces consciousness when information being collected by the brain reaches a critical level. The results of this study further suggest that this piercing of consciousness shares the same underlying brain mechanisms known to be involved in making far simpler decisions. Importantly, this study offers new hope that the biological foundations of consciousness may well be within our grasp.

This research was reported today in Current Biology./.../