The "switch" of consciousness in the brain and the way to control the will have been found by researchers at George Washington University.
According to techgear.gr, the discovery was made accidentally during their research into the brain of a patient with epilepsy, which they were examining with the aim of seeing how conscious awareness arises.
As part of the study, the researchers placed electrodes in various parts of the brain to record electrical signals and see where the seizures were originating. One of these electrodes was placed in the truncal nucleus, which until now had never been subjected to electrical stimulation despite the fact that Francis Crick and Christof Koch considered it to be the most likely control center of consciousness.
Finally, the researchers noticed that as soon as they sent electrical signals to the striatum, the patient suddenly stopped reading and stared into space without reacting to vocal or visual stimuli, while her breathing also slowed down. As soon as they stopped the electrical stimulation, the patient immediately “reactivated” without remembering that she had lost consciousness. The experiments continued for another two days and each time had the same results.
According to Professor Mohamad Koubeissi in New Scientist, "Think of a car. When it's on the road there's a combination of things that allow it to move, like petrol, an engine, etc., but all of these are activated when the driver turns the key. So consciousness, too, may be a very complex process created by the combination of many structures and networks, but we've probably found the switch.".
Certainly, more extensive research needs to be done to officially prove this, probably in healthy brains (the patient is epileptic and has had a piece of her hippocampus removed for her treatment).
Source: karfitsa.gr
