Insects have similar structures in their brains as do we, and that might mean that have a basic form of consciousness.
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Articles on Consciousness
Displaying 61 - 77 of 77 articles
The idea of non-human consciousness raises a host of philosophical questions.
Consciousness is one of the most puzzling phenomena in science. How does the electric and chemical activity in your brain produce your subjective experiences; the colour red or the taste of chocolate?
Consciousness is one of the most mysterious phenomena we know of. But evidence is emerging that it might just be a very special kind of information processing.
Measuring certain kinds of brain activity may help doctors track and predict how patients will react to anaesthesia before going under for surgery, our research has found.
As machines get ever more complex as we strive to make them complete more complex tasks, it’s time to ask again: will they ever be able to think? But what is thinking anyway?
Is genuine artificial consciousness possible? Should we protect jobs from automation? Your questions on AI and robots answered here.
Your eye movements may be changing the images in your dreams when you sleep.
Will we ever have a scientific measure of consciousness? This was the essay topic I set my student a few months ago – only days before I went on maternity leave for the recent birth of my baby Joe (more…
Take the screen on which you are reading this article. When you look at it, you see one complete scene, but you know that this scene is composed of millions of pixels that only come in three colours: red…
We have no entirely satisfactory explanation for why a relentless stream of experiences normally fills your mind. On close examination, consciousness can seem truly miraculous and hopelessly ineffable…
Consciousness is one of the most fascinating and elusive phenomena we humans face. Every single one of us experiences it but it remains surprisingly poorly understood. That said, psychology, neuroscience…
When patients suffer from a brain injury and are unresponsive, we often don’t know whether they have suffered irreversible damage from which they will never recover, or whether the damage is a temporary…
A serious illness or brain injury can put a person into a coma: a sleep-like or a vegetative state where they are awake but unaware. These disorders of consciousness are sometimes not accurately diagnosed…
Are animals conscious? Notoriously, the famous 17th century philosopher René Descartes thought they were not. He believed that possession of a soul was necessary for rational thought and for consciousness…
Until 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting…
Understanding what is special, if anything, about the human brain is a scientific problem of such magnitude it has defied all manner of investigation for centuries. And human consciousness, our experience…
Top contributors
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Professor of Philosophy, Durham University
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Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University
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Emeritus Professor of Psychology, UCL
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Professor of Neuropsychology (Hons), Cardiff University
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Professor, School of Philosophy, Australian National University
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Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, University of Cambridge
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Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University
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Lead, Cognition and Consciousness Imaging Group, Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge
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Affiliate Guest in Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara
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Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Education; Curriculum Director, UQ Critical Thinking Project, The University of Queensland
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Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Melbourne
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Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
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Professor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, The University of Melbourne
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Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Research Fellow, Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
