 |
| the switch of consciousness, 2014 |
i took the photo
“the switch of consciousness” in the halls of the old secondary school (progymnasium,
called progr) in berne as a part of a private project i’ve been pursuing for
the past four years.
switch of consciousness
i’m
referring to blog 6 on the topic of creativity, blog 9 about neurochemical
connections and blog 10 on the topic of memory and conscious and subconscious
storage.
brain
research is trying to solve one of the last big mysteries: consciousness. but neither consciousness from a philosophical point
of view nor a certain part in the brain for consciousness exist, just like
there is no place for the soul in our body.
consciousness
is a state of deliberate experience
that i can tell people about.
background consciousness is based on my emotional experiences and shows me that this body is my body and
that i have my own identity. i can also differentiate between reality and my
thoughts and intentions. in short: i know that it is (only) me who thinks,
feels, experiences or even decides and acts.
actual consciousness means that i, on the one hand,
notice occurrences in the environment or in my body through my senses and, on
the other hand, experience emotions and needs, i.e. hunger. this also includes
purely mental activities such as thinking and remembering.
most of the
daily happenings, however, don’t require consciousness as our brain can process
many things that don’t even reach our consciousness. this is called implicit perception – implicit learning.
the explicit operation mode of consciousness
is required when it comes to learning
new things – this is even fostered by consciousness! learning new things is
achieved by creating neuronal lanes and
groups (nerve cells are created and organized in new groups). the working memory (=cortex) plays a key
role in this process. after the “roads” (lanes) have been developed, strengthened
and automated, the activity of the
working memory is being reduced. with automatization, actual consciousness
turns into nothing but a limiting factor – everything is done unconsciously –
we can even do it in our sleep.
since
sensations reach us faster than we can process them, we need a working memory
to buffer data. this is done with the help of the neurotransmitter dopamine which i introduced to you when
talking about creativity in blog 6.
this
information is stored in the cortex for a short amount of time until it has
been analyzed, classified and compared to
previous experiences.
dopamine
therefore ensures a slow, cognitive
processing of information in the cortex.
the stress
hormone noradrenaline is released in
the locus coeruleus (blue core) in
times of stress and prevents the effect of dopamine. this causes the working
memory to turn itself off in favor of parts of the brain that are not part of
the cortex. noradrenaline thus fosters fast,
analog processing of information that is not accessible by our
consciousness.
stress and the release of noradrenaline thus lead to
a shift in the brain from a
conscious, slow mode to a fast and subconscious one. noradrenaline is
incidentally a chemical precursor of dopamine – both are of importance for the
development of psychological illnesses.
the stress hormone noradrenaline in the blue
core plays an important role for shifting between consciousness and subconsciousness.
(noradrenaline is
also produced in the adrenal glands, where it leads to bodily stress reactions
in combination with adrenaline).
unconsciously working brain structures, located deeply in the brain and
particularly in the limbic system, come
into effect in this way. switching off the working memory complicates or
precludes the learning process and with that our receptiveness and also
creativity. stress kills the ability to
think as well as creativity.
among many
other structures, the amygdala
(almond core – memory for fear and feelings), the mesolimbic pathway with the nucleus accumbens (luck and reward
system) and the hippocampus (sea horse
– the declarative, episodical long-term memory) are part of the limbic system.
it is thus
not astonishing that our stress plagued society is severely suffering from
psychological and physical diseases, as though it seems that we turn off our
conscious control through our behavior and are thereby making way for automated
and morbid brain processes.
i will
continue talking about findings from stress and trauma research in future blog
posts. this will allow insights into how we are experiencing the world, how we
are guided and what possibilities we have to steer our boat ourselves. according
to findings in brain research and quantum physics, the extent of these possibilities
is, however, far from certain.
sources:
gerhard roth, klaus grawe
