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Module 1.5a

Many cognitive neurosci-
entists are exploring and map- Figure 1.5-2
ping the conscious functions of Evidence of awareness
the cortex. Based on your corti- When a noncommunicative
cal activation patterns, they can patient was asked to imagine
playing tennis or walking, her
now, in limited ways, read your brain (top) exhibited activity
mind ( Bor, 2010 ). They could, similar to a healthy person’s
for example, tell which of 10 brain (bottom). Such fMRI scans
enable a “conversation” with
similar objects (hammer, drill, some unresponsive patients, by
and so forth) you were viewing instructing them, for example,
( Shinkareva et al., 2008 ). Courtesy of Adrian M. Owen, the Brain and Mind Institute, Western University to answer yes to a question by
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Not for redistribution.
imagining playing tennis (top and
Conscious experience arises bottom left), and no by imagining
from synchronized activity across walking (top and bottom right).
the brain ( Mashour, 2018 ; Vaz
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
et al., 2019 ). If a stimulus activates
enough brain-wide coordinated
neural activity — with strong sig- ®
nals in one brain area triggering AP Science Practice
activity elsewhere — it crosses Research
a threshold for consciousness. A weaker stimulus — perhaps a word flashed too briefly to Neuroscientists could never do a
be consciously perceived — may trigger localized visual cortex activity that quickly fades. A true experiment on unresponsive
stronger visual stimulus will engage other brain areas, such as those involved with language, patients because it would be
attention, and memory. Such reverberating activity, detected by brain scans, is a telltale sign unethical to randomly assign some
participants to be nonresponsive
of conscious awareness ( Boly et al., 2011 ; Silverstein et al., 2015 ). Coordinated activity across and others to be responsive.
brain areas can therefore provide another indication of awareness in unresponsive patients That’s the value of case studies,
( Demertzi et al., 2019 ). How the synchronized activity produces awareness — how matter a non-experimental approach, in
brain research.
makes mind — remains a mystery.

®
AP Science Practice Check Your Understanding

Examine the Concept Apply the Concept
▶ Explain what a cognitive neuroscientist does. ▶ Explain how brain scans provide evidence of awareness.

Answers to the Examine the Concept questions can be found in Appendix C at the end of the book.

Dual Processing: The Two-Track Mind

What is the
evealed by today’s cognitive
being r
dual processing

1.5-2 What is the dual processing being revealed by today’s cognitive
1.5-2

neuroscience?
neuroscience?
Discovering which brain regions become active with a particular conscious experience
strikes many people as interesting, but not mind blowing. If everything psychological is
simultaneously biological, then our ideas, emotions, and spirituality must all, somehow, be
embodied. What is mind blowing to many of us is evidence that we have, so to speak, two
minds, each supported by its own neural equipment.
At any moment, we are aware of little more than what’s on the screen of our conscious-
ness. But beneath the surface, unconscious information processing occurs simultaneously
on many parallel tracks. When we look at a bird flying, we are consciously aware of the
result of our cognitive processing (It’s a hummingbird!) but not of our subprocessing of the

Sleep: Consciousness Module 1.5a 89

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