The Mysteries of Consciousness

Consciousness is something we all experience constantly, yet it’s difficult to define or measure. You can’t see it, hold it, or taste it; it simply is. Consciousness is our awareness of ourselves and our environment, allowing us to process and organize information from various sources simultaneously.

Psychologists like William James have described consciousness as a continuously shifting stream, while others liken it to a spotlight that moves from one focus to another. This constant shifting means that our conscious experience is never static. For example, while you’re reading this, your mind might also wander to unrelated thoughts, like something you need to do later or an itch that suddenly appears.

Consciousness is not just about our immediate surroundings; it allows us to think about abstract concepts like life, the future, or the universe. It also enables us to reflect on the past and plan for what’s ahead. Essentially, consciousness is both a familiar and mysterious part of our lives.

Scientists have learned a lot about the brain through observation, but modern technology now allows us to see brain activity in real-time, thanks to neuroimaging. Cognitive neuroscience, the study of how brain activity is connected to mental processes like thinking and memory, relies on these technologies. Different types of neuroimaging can show the brain’s structure or its activity, helping researchers link specific brain regions to conscious experiences. However, these technologies are still new, and there is debate about how to interpret their findings.

Our consciousness isn’t just a single, straightforward process. Some theories suggest that we have multiple layers of consciousness. While one part of your mind is consciously aware of something, like noticing a squirrel, another part is subconsciously processing details about it, like its color and movement.

With all the information our senses take in every second, it’s impossible to focus on everything at once. This is where selective attention comes in. It allows us to concentrate on specific stimuli while ignoring others. For example, you might be focused on reading, not noticing the feel of your socks or the sound of distant traffic, until something shifts your attention.

Selective attention can also lead to inattentional blindness, where you fail to notice something obvious because your attention is focused elsewhere. A famous example is the “Invisible Gorilla” experiment, where people focused on counting basketball passes often fail to see a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene. This phenomenon is also exploited by magicians through techniques like misdirection.

Change blindness is another related concept, where people fail to notice changes in their environment, such as when a person in an experiment is swapped out for someone else, and half the participants don’t notice.

These aspects of consciousness—selective attention, inattentional blindness, and change blindness—show that we are often less aware of our surroundings than we think. And this is just when we’re awake! Next time, we’ll explore what happens to consciousness in other states, like sleep or under the influence of substances.

In summary, consciousness is a complex and ever-changing experience. Through advancements in neuroimaging, we’re beginning to uncover how the brain supports this experience, but much remains to be understood.