Ramachandran on how "blind-sight" gives us clues about the nature of consciousness

[msnnbc]

Ramachandran is fantastic. Read his books people; they are great.

[KousAB10]

6:46 lol what i it doing? XD

[abdelrahim123]

Vsauce!!

[evg129]

the iguana agreed

[yoyoboy70]

So the visual cortex in the opticical lobe is damaged, so all the information coming to the visual cortex via the optic nerve goes to the other part, i forget the name. It's lower in the brain.

[jeffgrau]

This is a very biased account. Ramachandran calls the blind-sight observer a zombie. But how do we know that the blind-sight observer is a zombie? Just because it is not the "I"ness in our brain, does not mean it is not a fully conscious specialist that shares some of our hardware. There are many players in the theater of the mind. Unless we have MPD, our "I"ness is just one of them. There is no reason to assume the others are zombies.

[marcwagz]

@jeffgrau

because it has no awareness of what is going on which is conciousness as they've defined it. if they wanted to complicate it they could say "it is possible that the reflex sight processor plays a part in what we call conciousness" but it clearly doesn't have conciousness itself, especially not when compared with visual neglect.

[ajnode]

I passed a psych test because of this video caus I couldn't get onto my uni site in the time I had left :D

[shmeepie]

Truly amazing. 

[purifyz]

@KeepStrumming

ok, but my point was different - there is certainly some neurological explanation, but since he IS able to say whether something is moving up or down, he must be having some kind of awareness (or consciousness, no matter how you define it)

cheers

[purifyz]

how they can say he's not aware of anything on right side, while he is able to say whether something is moving up or down? i dont understand

[albertescamilla]

is he the voice for salad fingers?

[bigdogit]

further proof that we understand very little about the brain

[ghostofdayinperson]

He's clearly perceiving something; if its not a visual perception then what the bloody hell is it?!

[qwertypluss]

@ghostofdayinperson Exactly what I was thinking. I think it redefines what it means to be conscious of a sense; that you have to be self-aware and be able to monitor it? I agree with you, I think the very fact he's able to "guess" surely that's some sort of perception. Also, why isn't he conscious of it? Would he be able to see that if he's unconscious?

[RiverKWhite]

if you put a picture of a naked woman would he get aroused

[touprism]

@RiverKWhite Doubt it. My gaydar's going off.

[SaucePhilosophy]

This dude rolls every single R he says.

[wesley111111111111]

(1) i experienced blindsight for about three hours, about 6 hours after an accident. i could tell you what time the clock said, how many fingers you were holding up, i could even tell you what color something was. but i couldn't form a visual picture of it. it started at the center of my vision about a half hour after the accident, i could see things that weren't right in the middle but if i looked at something directly, i couldn't see it.

[wesley111111111111]

(2) then after about four hours or so it started expanding outwards, till i could just see a rim around the edges of my vision, then eventually all of my vision was lost for about three hours. my vision was flooded with rainbows before it, that started at the edges of my vision and moved inwards. it was really comforting actually. you can tell a lot about someone through their voice, just by half a syllable.

[DiGiTaLdAzEDM]

This kind of thing does not surprise me at all. There are many processes which operate at a subconscious (mostly unconscious) level of the mind. Walking is a good example. Once the activity is familiar, the whole chain of events unfolds at an unconscious level--we do not need to think about, or even be continuously aware of the actions being performed. Playing a piece of music can be the same.I believe that our conscious decisions are also preceded and guided by unconscious mental processes.

[Rockstafeller]

@DiGiTaLdAzEDM subconscious mind is a completely different thing.... we have mind, but its just dual, it does nto explain being something, but not being aware of it

[etiennealive]

very very interesting !!!

[toecutterr6]

Very insightful.

[sciencebabe]

I've read Phantoms in the Brain. It was GREAT. "This Is Your Brain On Music" and "Musicophillia" are both also great!!!

[heymrtambourine]

2:00

[karuhime]

Totally awesome... Youtube should have more of these type of videos!

[ninjaneo]

He can see to the left some. But yes, he cannot perceive seeing anything at all to the right, but when you ask him to "take a best guess" of say "where is the light" or "what direction is it moving" he is still able to answer correctly. Thats the whole point of the video -- the brain does some things without us being "aware" of it (being able to see it).

[alexkidd3d]

very fascinating condition.

[JuliatheCoolest]

How many of you guys have read "Phantoms In The Brain"? It's brilliant!

[jsullivan80]

I can't stand lisps

[gustavonarez]

Agüerrrrrrrnes hehe

[briannloo]

haha ramachandran is so animated when he talks

[Imaculata]

@briannloo I love watching and listening to this man. And it's extremely interesting.

[horbergus]

@briannloo animated?

[ajnode]

@horbergus

if youre so retarded that you dont understand the phrase "animated" you shouldn't be trying to understand this video

[horbergus]

@ajnode If you are so retarded that you cant understand that not everyone speaks english as fluid as you do, go fuck yourself

[ajnode]

@horbergus

its fluent, not fluid...

[SeaTownGunner]

The Patient sounds like Hal-9000

[SeekMoksha]

Yeah I know, it's actually a bit creepy.

[daveheet]

its not that weird. the brain is a highly complex system, so if something gets changed a little bit, strange things can happen. Maybe I already know everything though

[PhilStrohmann]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, it's very interesting.

[Facevampire]

thank you, truly fascinating

[nhojmabon]

6 stars, thankyou theinquisitor

[Katalyzt]

Interesting... ★★★★★