Awareness

This webpage is about consciousness, awareness (or consciousness) and free will. It is also seen from a philosophical perspective and updated on the latest scientific research. Therefore, it is subject to change.

I was always bewildered to arrive at my destination while I was not aware that I was driving. How is this possible when it requires rather complicated operations. Also, I had no memory of the drive. Does this mean you don't need consciousness to make decisions? And why can you only remember what you were doing if you are aware of what you are doing. Based on the first phenomenon, I gradually got the idea that you don't make conscious decisions. Does this mean that consciousness is not something you possess, but just something that happens to you? The other phenomenon, that you remember things you were aware of at the time they happened, suggests that it has something to do with when it happened. It seems that an event is stored in your brain with a time component. This would make it possible not just to behave reactively, but to create and execute a plan. This is in addition to how animals store their past experiences and thus react to events in their environment. But this is not to say that you make a plan with your consciousness. Your consciousness can only do one thing at a time and is slow. We all know the eureka feeling when a sudden inspiration for a complex plan bubbles up from your subconscious. Only your subconscious can do multiple tasks at once and does so in a split second. All in all, this has given me the idea that all these things have nothing to do with free will and that free will does not exist.

It seems that other people had similar experiences with unconscious non-instinctive actions. So it seems to occur in similar situations. Of course, that does not make the above statement credible as a hypothesis, but the following might.

Consciousness across disciplines

In biological systems, there is a deep unity between the disciplines of origin, function and structure. You can draw a solid conclusion about consciousness only if you show consistency in one of these disciplines and also pay close attention to the other two. For origin, we will investigate the evolution of the brain. For function, we will examine brain lesions related to consciousness. The structure of the brain and the function of its parts is in the 'Appendix'.

Brain evolution

In this section, I want to find out whether we are governed by consciousness based on the development of the human brain as seen from the evolutionary discipline.

First, lower order animals such as reptiles developed the primitive hindbrain region to control all instinctive and impulsive actions based on signals from the senses. Later, the primary limbic system developed in mammals. This additional higher-order brain region enables them to respond based on experience, i.e. lessons learned, and control instinctive and impulsive drives. The latest development of the brain was the addition of the cerebral cortex. This structure is located in the outer layer of the brain and is unique to higher mammals and especially to humans.

The brain's unconscious system can process many processes simultaneously and in a fraction of a second. But the conscious system can only process one thing at a time and no faster than 1/3 of a second. Therefore, fast movements, such as running away from a predator, must be controlled unconsciously to increase the survival rate of the species. Of course, the predator's brain must also evolve to the high processing speed of its prey. From an evolutionary point of view, this means that the parts of the brain where consciousness resides cannot replace the brain's unconscious functions. This also applies to humans, otherwise you would not be able to drive a car, play tennis, video games, make music or suddenly have a hunch. It is therefore likely that all commands are generated by unconsciousness. But what does the function of consciousness entail? In the next section, we explore whether brain injury can provide an answer.

Brain injuries

Blindsight

People with blindsight experience total blindness, but when asked to point to a spot of light, they can do so flawlessly even when the light is displaced. In other words, they do this without a conscious visual experience. This is because the path to consciousness was corrupted, but not the path to the subconscious. Information about the location of the spot travelled smoothly up to his subconscious (parietal lobes), which in turn directed the hand to move to the correct location. They were even able to describe the shape and colour flawlessly after some hesitation. No consciousness was needed to perform these tasks. But this does not explain the function of consciousness.

Absence of consciousness

There are people who have no consciousness due to brain injury. They can function like normal people, but they cannot set goals and plan. First, this shows that decisions about how you behave in a given situation are not determined by consciousness. Secondly, not being able to set goals and plan indicates that they have no temporal awareness of events they are facing or have faced. In other words, because the NOW is not linked to an event in the moment, only the event is stored in their subconscious brain part without time awareness. As a result, they can only react based on experience, i.e. lessons learned, and control instinctive and impulsive urges. This brain damage also makes them seem unaware that they are alive.

Consciousness across similar situations

Similar situations refer to those tests that neuroscientists perform to investigate whether actions are initiated by our conscious or unconscious mind. The following paragraphs deal with these tests on healthy people.

Test during brain surgery

Tests conducted during open brain surgery show that awareness of sensations lags behind stimuli by about half a second. If that is how long it takes for consciousness to notice something happening in the environment, in many cases it will be too late to react to it. So it is unlikely consciousness initiates actions on the sensations in the test. In these tests, the brain and hands were stimulated with electrodes while their verbal responses were timed and their brain activity monitored.

Tests on initiating actions

EEG scans were used to record subjects' brain activity during the action initiation test, the first of which was conducted in 1970. Subjects were asked to make a voluntary movement. At the same time, the exact timing of their free decision was recorded. It was recorded that the subjects decided to make a movement about 200 milliseconds before the actual movement. However, the EEG recorded electrical charges in the brain building up to the time of movement, which started about 500 milliseconds to 2 000 milliseconds before the movement. The brain apparently started preparing for a movement 300 ms before the subjects had the conscious impulse to move, taking into account the shortest time of 500 milliseconds. Other tests with other people had the same results. This shows that conscious thoughts and actions have unconscious mental processes as a common cause.

In 2008 and later, similar but more extensive tests were carried out with more accurate fMRI scans. These gave the same outcome. However, the outcome of a decision can be encoded in the brain activity of the prefrontal and parietal cortices not up to 2 seconds before it enters consciousness, but 10 seconds. This delay presumably reflects the operation of a high-level network of control regions that begin preparing for an upcoming decision long before it enters consciousness.

fMRI scans in 2022 and beyond show that conscious awareness is preceded about a third of a second by unconscious processes in the brain. In other words, decisions are not made consciously. Decisions are made unconsciously and then become conscious. So consciously initiating decisions is an illusion. This is not what you experience, but you are deluded because of the following. The response determined by the part of the brain that houses the subconscious simultaneously goes to the motor part of your brain and the part of your brain that houses your consciousness. So it seems like your consciousness determines what you do or say, but it doesn't. That the nerve impulses from your subconscious go to your consciousness and your motor part has been scientifically established.

Function of consciousness

This section shows the processes in your brain based on the above information and other research.

Sensory input:: When an event activates nerves, they each send a signal through neural pathways to the part of your brain which relays it to the appropriate parts of your unconscious brain. This is where the present moment in time, the now, of the event is realised. This is where the present moment in time, the now, of the event is realised. After a third of a second, we have a conscious experience of the event. This is sent back through neural pathways to the unconscious part of your brain where the message of the event came from and stored. What matters is that the moment in time of the current event is linked to the relative moment in time of previous related events. This information allows the unconscious part of your brain to plan and set goals (in time). Along with previous experiences, the actions to be carried out are determined by your brain, where your unconscious is located. How this action control is further processed is described below.
Action control:: As described above, action control is initiated from an unconscious functional part of the brain by action control massages. A command is sent through neural pathways to the part of the brain that translates it into muscle movements and sends those commands to your muscles. A copy of the command is sent via another neural pathway to the parts of the brain where consciousness functions are located. Because it takes time to send the commands to your muscles and arrives earlier where the functions of consciousness are located, it looks like you gave the command consciously. The command and the consequences of your action are processed as mentioned in the section on sensory input above.

Let me recap here what the function of consciousness entails. It adds a notion of relative time to your other actions and perceived events in your environment. This is the only way you can remember what happened at a later time. In terms of survival, it allows you to socialise better. But perhaps more importantly, it enables your unconscious part of the brain to plan for the future and set future goals. This understanding of relative time can only be inferred if you are aware of the action at the time it took place. This is how we perceive consciousness or awareness.

Conclusion

The conclusions are:

Conscious decisions are preceded by unconscious processes in the brain by about a third of a second.
In other words, decisions are not made consciously. Decisions are made unconsciously and then become conscious.
Conscious initiation of decisions in an illusion.
Consciousness only adds the now time component to an event
The now time component of an event of is stored in your brain
The stored information can be used for planning and setting coals by the unconscious parts of the brain.

Based on the above, you can also conclude that free will is an illusion. Actions are based on previous perceptions if they are still present in your brain. How they are processed depends more or less on the physical development of your brain.

APPENDIX - The human brain structure and functions.

Brainstem [10]: This is the thickening on top of the spinal cord and is divided into the three lobes medulla ^[11], pons ^[12] and midbrain ^[13].
Medulla [11]: It is a part of your brainstem ^[10], which connects your brain to your spinal cord. Some of the functions are the control vital functions like breathing, blood pressure, and body temperature but also automatic processes like coughing, sneezing, swallowing, vomiting and maintaining your balance.
Pons [12]: It is the second-lowest section of your brainstem ^[10], and links your brain to your spinal cord. It influences your sleep cycle, manages pain signals and a key connection point to your cerebellum ^[20]. It also works cooperatively with other parts of your brainstem ^[10] that manage your breathing.
Midbrain [13]: It is located below the cerebral cortex ^[50] and at the topmost part of the brainstem ^[10]. It functions involve movement of the body and head and transmitting sensory stimuli from the head and body. It also controls your motor movement and reflexes.
Cerebellum [20]: Sits on the roof of the pons ^[12] and controls the fine coordination of movements and is also involved in balance, gait, and posture. It is the Latin word for little brain.
Thalamus [30]: Surrounds the top portion of the brainstem together with the basal ganglia^[40]. It’s known as a relay station of all incoming motor (movement) and sensory information — hearing, taste, sight and touch (but not smell) — from your body to your brain.
Basal ganglia [40]: Surrounds the top portion of the brainstem together with the thalamus ^[30]. They are a key part of the network of brain cells and nerves, which can approve or reject movement signals that your brain sends, filtering out unnecessary or incorrect signals.
Cerebral cortex [50]: It is the outer layer of a mammalian brain. Each cerebral hemisphere is subdivided into four lobes: occipital ^[51], temporal ^[52], parietal ^[53], and frontal ^[54].
Occipital [51]: It is at the back of your brain and this lobe is mainly concerned with visual processing.
Temporal [52]: This lobe is located between your frontal ^[54] and occipital ^[51] lobes and below your parietal ^[53] lobe. The temporal lobe is specialized for higher perceptual functions, such as recognizing faces and other objects and linking them to appropriate emotions. A part is for comprehension of meaning and the semantic aspects of language.
Parietal [53]: This lobe is located between your frontal ^[54] and occipital ^[51] lobes and above your temporal ^[52] lobe. The parietal lobe is primarily involved in processing touch, muscle, and joint information from the body and combining it with vision, hearing, and balance to give you a rich “multimedia” understanding of your corporeal self and the world around it.
Frontal [54]: This lobe is at the front of your brain behind your forehead. The frontal lobe also perform several distinct and vital functions. Is is involved in issuing simple motor commands, planning actions and keeping goals in mind long enough to follow through on them. There is another small part of the frontal lobe that is required for holding things in memory long enough to know what to attend to. This faculty is called working memory or short-term memory.