Brain activity was seen:
What does that tell you?
This is, in effect, shutting down the brain. That doesn’t mean the mind is shut down, but its ability to perceive anything, including pain, is cut off.
Right, when the patient followed the instructions and imagined one of the two scenarios there was brain activity. So, the mind that was present, aware, listening, and responding, none of that could be seen. Only the response.
That’s why this exercise was necessary. They couldn’t just see brain activity that showed his mind was conscious and aware. Only when the mind used the brain to imagine could it be confirmed he was conscious.
If the mind were a product of the brain then they wouldn’t need to do this exercise to determine if he was conscious/aware. There would be physical brain activity creating the conscious mind. There wasn’t. Only when he responded in this way could they tell.
fMRI measures changes in activity. There is still baseline activity throughout.
Yes, true. But you’re missing the point. If that “baseline activity” was the physical activity of the brain generating the mind, then it could be determined from that that the patient was conscious/aware.
The patient was aware of where he was, the date, the name of his doctor, the brain is still perceiving information. It’s still operating the heart/lungs. There is “baseline activity” for all of that.
But if the mind were a product of the brain then it would be simple through fMRI to determine it. It could be seen. There’d be a specific region that was “lit up” as it generated the mind.
I don’t see why that is true. If there is brain damage that prevents the temporal lobe communicating with other parts of the brain then you won’t see a reaction if the brain is the producing the mind.
That claims needs some support. From everything I have read, fMRI would read the brain generating the mind as the baseline activity.
Then why could they only determine the patient was conscious/aware when they responded through imagining the given scenarios? Wouldn’t that baseline activity be enough for a trained neurologist to make that determination if that were the case?
If the mind were generated by the brain then it would be a simple matter of comparing the baseline activity of a conscious/aware mind to one that is unconscious/unaware.
The neurologist wasn’t able to make that determination until the patient responded as instructed.
From my limited knowledge, it is not enough. It’s like your phone being in stand-by mode until it receives information information from the outside world. They are measuring changes in the temporal regions of the brain where processing occurs.
Are there any neurologists in this community?
Here, let’s try it this way.
Don’t you think if the mind was a product of brain activity that it would take something more than “baseline activity” to achieve it?
Yes, there’s always going to be brain activity. For you or I to actually experience the phenomenon of thought means there’s physical activity creating that sensation for us to physically experience. But is there enough activity to actually account for all we are as conscious/contemplative individuals?
Here’s this patient who demonstrably is conscious and fully aware. He knows who he is, where he is, how long he’s been there, his doctor’s name, the hockey game on tv. Seemingly as conscious and aware as you or I are now. Yet it couldn’t be determined by a neuroscientist who has full 3D access to the activity of his brain whether or not he was conscious.