The science of consciousness The geometry of the brain, the dimensions of thought

What it means to be conscious is not just a philosophical question
.
The researchers continue to study how conscious experiences arise
from the electrochemical activity of the human brain.
The answer to this question has important implications for understanding the way brain health, from coma (where a person is alive but cannot move or respond to his or her environment), to surgical anesthesia, to schizophrenia in which thought processes are altered
.

Recent studies have shown that there is no single location in the brain that can cause consciousness, suggesting a network phenomenon
.
However, tracking the various connections between areas of the brain network that cause consciousness and wakefulness has been elusive.

A new method using functional MRI, an imaging technique that allows you to observe and measure brain activity through changes in blood flow over time, provides new insights
into how we describe and study states of consciousness.

Dr.
Zirui Huang, assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, said: "Consciousness is complex, and studying it is like solving a scrambled Rubik's cube
.
" "If you just look at a surface, you might be confused
about how it's organized.
You need to solve the puzzle
from all sides.
”

When it comes to consciousness, these dimensions can include 1) arousal capacity, that is, the brain's ability to wake up; 2) consciousness, or something we actually experience, such as the red color of a rose; 3) Sensory organization, i.
e.
how sight, sound, and sensation are intertwined to create our seamless conscious experience
.

For decades, however, these dimensions have only been conceptually considered, without any mapping
to brain activity itself.
In the study of Professor Huang, Professor and Head of the Department of Anesthesiology, George Mashour, PhD, and Anthony Hudetz, researchers sought to find those dimensions
of the mind in the geometry of the brain.

Typically, brain imaging studies evaluate discrete, well-defined brain regions
.
To understand this, consider Colorado on the map of
the United States.
It is almost rectangular in shape and the borders are very clear
.

However, the borders of Colorado and Wyoming, for example
, are arbitrarily drawn.
In contrast, looking at the topology of the mountains that span Colorado and Wyoming can give you a richer view
of nature.
The researchers did something very similar in this neuroimaging study: Instead of looking at clearly defined brain regions, they looked at the topology, or gradient,
of brain regions.

To create these so-called cortical gradient maps of consciousness, the team used fMRI data from study participants who were awake, anesthetized, comatose, and had psychiatric disorders
such as schizophrenia.

The team then arranged the records from 400 different brain regions into gradients and compared their relationship
to those states or diagnoses.
They found three cortical gradients that seemed to align with the dimension of consciousness, including arousal, consciousness, and sensory tissue
.

"What used to be drawn only as a useful chart of conscious states may now be plotted in the brain itself
.
"

Professor Huang said: "Our research opens up new perspectives
on the connection between consciousness and the brain.
" In addition, he noted that these results have the potential to develop brain-based diagnoses or assessments
for neurological patients.

"This article represents an important contribution to the science of consciousness, consistent with
our mission to achieve deeper understanding while advancing clinical care.
"