Scientists believe that they found the brain area that regulates conscious perception

Team Scientists brain It is activated when the person becomes aware of himself and his ideas. This mysterious process appears to be controlled by the hypothalamus, which is a central area of ​​the brain that is already known as its function as a candidate between sensory signals and the cerebral cortex, and part of the brain that governs operations with a higher level such as memory, thought and personality.

Conscious perception is the ability of humans to perceive the incentives that their senses received. It is a different case from just waking up, as sensations are treated automatically and not receding. Instead, a conscious perception requires a detailed and consolidated analysis of external stimuli. For example, we can breathe automatically, but we can also be aware of our breath and adjust its rhythm. Likewise, when listening to a song, we can pay attention to the tools it composes and distinguish.

Recently, neurologists began to find a part of the brain as this change in perception occurs. Researchers were traditionally suspected that this function should be controlled by the cerebral cortex, as it occurs advanced brain treatment. The hypothalamus has never been excluded from participating in the conscious perception, however, he was usually assigned a simple role as a candidate that is sensual information to the shell. A new study recently published in sciences This offer is redefined, mode the mulch as an active participant in the conscious perception.

Most of the awareness studies that involve the ulcers have doubts, either because it lacks the main monitoring data in the work at work, or, if it is proven by data, due to the controversial method obtained is likely to be obtained. To find out whether the patient’s brain area is “illuminated” with activity when conscious attention to something, it is necessary that this patient be aware of the stimulants – that is, it is aware – at the same time a survey of their brain with gas sensors.

But in this new research, a team from the Elder University of Beijing in China turned into a group of people who already have thin poles that were entered into their brains as part of experimental headache therapy, bypassing the moral question about whether this type of research justifies a gas process.

The researchers managed to test the visual perception of these patients. A flashing object has been shown on a screen, which would hide itself for half of the test time. These characteristics mean that patients had to pay attention to the object, control their eyes, and focus to continue watching it, instead of just taking into account the screen without analyzing it. Thus this conscious perception facilitated, with already planted poles and then recording the brain activity that accompanied this.

The researchers say that this is one of the first simultaneous records of conscious perception, and the information they recorded, as they say, providing strong evidence of the hypothesis that the Mahd area behaves a kind of conscious perception portal. “The results indicate that the intransigent and human nuclei regulates conscious perception. This conclusion represents a great progress in our understanding of the network that is the basis of visual awareness in humans,” the authors write.

This story was originally appeared on Wireless En español It was translated from Spanish.