While scientists have long struggled to understand the nature of the human consciousness that exists in our waking state, a team of European researchers may have come closer to answering this question, according to the Daily Mail. In their study, they found evidence suggesting that during wakefulness, our consciousness stems from the neural network of our brain operating at its highest level of connectedness.
Consciousness is typically described as the ability to have subjective experiences, although this definition does not account for our unique "voice" of self or the different states of consciousness when asleep, awake and partially awake. In order to examine consciousness deeper, the research team observed 12 volunteers who were given propofol, a drug used during surgical procedures, which rendered them unconscious. During this state of unconsciousness, the researchers examined their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans.
The scans revealed that when the participants where conscious, there was an increased amount of activity between the brain's various neural networks, while when they were unconscious, their brains possessed less interconnectivity and variability.
"Loss of cortical integration and changes in the dynamics of electrophysiological brain signals characterize the transition from wakefulness towards unconsciousness," the researchers wrote in a press release. "In this study, we arrive at a basic model explaining these observations based on the theory of phase transitions in complex systems. We observed that during unconsciousness activity in frontothalamic regions exhibited a reduction of long-range temporal correlations and a departure of functional connectivity from anatomical constraints."
The team claims that these findings, which they believe are universal, point to consciousness as a state of heightened brain activity that stems from an increased level of connectivity between its many neural networks.
The findings were published in the Jan. 27 issue of the Journal of The Royal Society Interface.
