Learning Objectives
This course will help you …
understand psychological and brain theories about consciousness.
By the end of this course, you will have an advanced understanding of conscious cognition and its many roles in the brain.
learn about basic neurobiology, sensory pathways, connectivity and neural signaling.
You will also advance your understanding about the conscious and unconscious workings of the mind and brain.
investigate the many misunderstandings in the popular media outside the sciences.
It’s important to review empirical findings from the author’s original research.
understand some of the brain methods used to study conscious and unconscious functions.
We discuss electroencephalogram (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and electrocorticography in open brain surgeries in awake, epileptic patients.
examine supporting evidence by leading scientists.
Along with the historical origins and current evidence supporting GWT, you will expand your knowledge of the scientific study of mind and brain.
know how both the inner mental life of human beings and the outside perspective are vital for the whole story.
recognize the information flow in the living brain.
The “connectome” gives us the city map of the brain, and modern recording methods give us the traffic flow over that map. Together, the map and the traffic tell us a great deal.
learn some of the brain regions associated with conscious, voluntary and unconscious events in the brain.
Two major regions of the brain are very different with respect to consciousness. The cortex and the cerebellum look different, and they have comparable numbers of neurons, but cortex enables conscious experiences, while the cerebellum does not. Why is that?
understand how thalamus & cortex make up a single system.
The visible anatomy of the brain shows two different looking pieces of the puzzle. The cortex is large and shaped like a helmet, and inside there are two egg-shaped structures we call the thalamus. Thalamus and cortex look separate but they are part of the same, tightly coupled system that enables the conscious mind.
understand how thalamus & cortex interact.
The thalamocortical system is viewed as a “unified oscillatory machine” (Steriade, 1999). A city is more than its structures, it is also the human traffic that works to keep the city alive and well.