Page 6 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition
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6 Blindsight: A Neurological Condition
Blindsight: A Strange In another case, a man with blindsight with it. Studies have shown that naked
(let’s call him Rick) was put in front of a pictures of attractive people can draw our
Neurological Condition screen and told to guess (from several attention, even when we are completely
Could Help Explain options) what object was on the screen. unaware of them. Other studies have
Rick insisted that he didn’t know what demonstrated that we can correctly judge
Consciousness
was there and that he was just guessing, the colour of an object without any
yet he was guessing with over 90% conscious awareness of it.
Blindsight: A Strange accuracy.
Neurological Condition Could Blindsight Debunked?
Help Explain Consciousness Into the Brain
Blindsight has generated a lot of
Blindsight results from damage to an area controversy. Some philosophers and
by Henry Taylor of the brain called the primary visual psychologists have argued that people
cortex. This is one of the areas, as you with blindsight might be conscious of
might have guessed, responsible for what is in front of them after all, albeit in
Imagine being completely blind but still vision. Damage to primary visual cortex a vague and hard-to-describe way.
being able to see. Does that sound can result in blindness – sometimes total,
impossible? Well, it happens. A few years sometimes partial. This suggestion presents a difficulty,
ago, a man (let’s call him Barry) suffered because ascertaining whether someone is
two strokes in quick succession. As a So how does blindsight work? The eyes conscious of a particular thing is a
result, Barry was completely blind, and receive light and convert it into complicated and highly delicate task.
he walked with a stick. information that is then passed into the There is no “test” for consciousness. You
brain. This information then travels can’t put a probe or a monitor next to
One day, some psychologists placed through a series of pathways through the someone’s head to test whether they are
Barry in a corridor full of obstacles like brain to eventually end up at the primary conscious of something – it’s a totally
boxes and chairs. They took away his visual cortex. For people with blindsight, private experience. []
walking stick and told him to walk down this area is damaged and cannot properly
the corridor. The result of this simple process the information, so the
experiment would prove dramatic for our information never makes it to conscious
understanding of consciousness. Barry awareness. But the information is still
was able to navigate around the obstacles processed by other areas of the visual
without tripping over a single one. system that are intact, enabling people
with blindsight to carry out the kind of
Barry has blindsight, an extremely rare tasks that we see in the case of Barry and
condition that is as paradoxical as it Rick.
sounds. People with blindsight
consistently deny awareness of items in Blindsight serves as a particularly
front of them, but they are capable of striking example of a general
amazing feats, which demonstrate that, in phenomenon, which is just how much BEAUTIFUL MIND COFFEE
some sense, they must be able to see goes on in the brain below the surface of The Coffee That Your Brain Will Love
them. consciousness. This applies just as much www.beautifulmindcoffee.ca
to people without blindsight as people
