And in other cases people have neurological conditions that can have an impact consciousness in different and various ways, for example, some people can have issues understanding their emotional state, I have issues recognizing my own emotions.
@Ψ Interesting perspective. This is such a complex subject. One thing I'd ask based on your comment though, what is "taking something for granted"? The definition of the term is expecting someone or something to always be available or serve without thanks or acknowledgement or recognition, by that definition, our expectations, which come from our conscious brain could lead one to think that consciousness takes itself for granted, expecting itself to just always exist. Just a thought.
_Blindsight_ is also the title (and core concept) behind a hard science fiction first contact novel by Peter Watts. Very imaginative, kind of frightening, and some exceedingly neuroatypical characters. Highly recommended.
I had a weird episode when I was three where I thought I was blind for a few minutes and started to freak out. I stumbled downstairs with my hands out feeling my way and stumbled over shoes by the front door. I was screaming and crying that I couldn't see but I could. I just thought and acted like I couldn't and it was really scary. I have no idea why this happened but this video reminds me of that.
I would prefer to go blind to going deaf. Having had like 20/500 uncorrected vision since preschool, relying on senses other than sight is far easier to adapt to than being unable to hear anything.
@@NotHPotter But you've got used to doing that, hence it doesn't seem as scary to you. Do you think someone with severely compromised hearing might say the opposite i.e. that they'd prefer to lose all their remaining hearing to losing their still intact sight, as they've gotten used to world with little sound?
@@ArawnOfAnnwn I'd contend that deafness would be worse overall. Sound plays a huge role in shaping our understanding of environment in very subtle ways.
This reminds me of that guy who could clearly see, but his brain wasn't able to connect the lines to separate objects or humans. He just learned to recognize line patterns by heart.
Conscious thought is a relatively slow process and many experiments seems to indicate our brain already made the decision before the individual is aware of it. One analogy is that if your mind were a car consciousness is not the driver the one making the decisions, it is the kid with a toy wheel pretending to be the driver. For the reason for its role it might be important for socialization or maybe learning. When you are learning a new task or skill you need to think on every step but when you already mastered it you can do everything much faster without even thinking about it. In fact, thinking about it slows you down.
0:32, I completely misheard when you said “rhesus monkey” - I thought you said “racist monkey” so I was wondering how on earth they found out it was racist 😂😂
Christel Headington it’s called ‘double speak’ the English language is drenched in linguistic phonetic, and semantic multiple meaning and sound like how ‘double speak’ is actually saying ‘devil speak’... it’s apart of how we are mind controlled...all the world elite, wealthy people in positions of power and authority and all the famous music recording artist know about it and use it in their music... I’ll give you an example the word “for” is also the number “four” or the word “no” is also SPELLED “know” the word “one” is also “won” the word “eyes” is also “ass” or the word “come” is also “cum” the word “development” has the word “DEVEL” as its first FOUR LETTERS... the word “analysis” is phonetic to ANAL CYST(CIST)... there’s a million and one examples I could give you... but basically language and alphabets(scripture/writing) is essentially black magic, because once someone gets indoctrinated into the WORD OF GOD, a demon is summoned and POSSESSES (pose ass is) your self/mind (as the ego/I am/self) and the individual loses the ability to sense reality, basically becomes able to be mind controlled, all human suffering and war and evil in the world can be attributed to ALPHABETS, because you can’t tell a soldier for the US to go to the Middle East and blow up a whole innocent family if that man can’t hear or understand the words coming out of the bosses mouth... the serpent in the garden of eden is the human tongue... how could something so simple as “go kill them” be so powerful?
So if a person with blindsight sees something scary, like say a threatening dog, would they feel fear without knowing why they’re afraid? Because their amygdala is getting that fear signal?
AFAIK not. I don't remember having read or heard of them seeing something scary, but I recall having read something along the lines that they'll "see" someone sed, and then "know" they're sad, and respond accordingly, asking why they're sad or whatever, which is an empathic emotional response that they are aware of. The person doesn't know how they know, as in their POV they're completely blind, they just "feel" it, probably initially thinking it was just some "sixth sense" or some other reason.
My uneducated guess would be probably not. It's probably a more primitive or instinctual part that evolved before we could properly analyze things with our big brain. Just "walk there to food" or "run away from predator". Simplified pattern recognition. So we'd be able to recognize some things but not too much. Maybe the face of a predator would trigger something though.
My first answer to this comment was based on misreading it as "would they feel fear without knowing -why- they’re afraid." Now realizing there's a "why" there, then I'd change it to "likely yes," even though the rest of my original comment still kind of supports this answer, ironically.
This one time I was walking down a street when a random guy in a group simulated an uppercut to my chin. Now, I may have some V1 damage from a brick to the back of my head when I was a kid, as although I can see, I usually get around "on autopilot" - no memory forms about what I've seen, and I can't actively identify places or people in a crowd when this happens. What happened is that I caught his guy's fist in my hand without putting any conscious effort into it, but my vision was pretty much on standby. I haven't had this area investigated yet. I mean, it's not causing me much trouble - I just come up as awkward, so I'm not sure I'd be able to convince a doctor to give me an MRI to check if anything shows up over there.
Off the wall, but a genuine experience... I can "see" (occasionally) when my eyes are closed. Not clear vision, more shadowy,. Dark on dark, really. But I've been able to lay my hands on things in the dark or with my eyes closed for years... But not when I'm blindfolded. So it would seem I'm seeing through my eyelids? I often wondered...
I'm pretty sure I've had my own experience with blindsight just a few months ago. I was wearing a crappy eyepatch, one that didn't completely occlude my entire right eye's field of vision, and in low-light conditions, I could swear I was still seeing in binocular vision, like my brain was filling in the information in my reduced field of view. It felt pretty weird, but it was awesomely fascinating.
Subconscious signaling would be a good explanation for being able to react to traffic, pedestrians, debris, etc. while driving. It is impossible to consciously scan every movement. I think experienced drivers are generally better drivers because we've learned to trust these reactions.
In case someone else comes here now, 3 years into the future from this video, re: this person’s comment that “experienced drivers have better reactions while driving”; I don’t disagree with you, but here’s something interesting… someone I know very recently had driving school to obtain their license. Their instructor told the class that because they had been a passenger for years, they already learned how to drive from observation. It’s an interesting theory. Although for brand new drivers, this probably only applies for those who’ve actually been observing, and not for those who never pay attention (i.e.: only ever looking at their cellphones, for example).
This would explain a lot. I'm legally blind (not totally blind), but I can often function like a sighted person. In fact most acquaintances don't even know I'm blind. But when I'm in a chaotic or destressing situation, I become a lot less functional. The examples you gave were mainly about brain damage. Wonder if the possibility of blindsight changes if only the eyes or retina are damaged.
Makes me wonder if this has anything to do with why sometimes I hear someone say something, blurt out what and then get what they say and even sometimes respond while they are resaying. I don't understand what they say but my subconscious hears the entire thing or enough to get what i was just told?
That happens to me as well, also to my husband. I think this is a common thing. I've never looked into it but I'd be curious to know if their are studies on it. Probably has to do with processing time in the brain when something isnt super easy to hear
Happens frequently to me as well. Best explanation I could figure is that you remember what is basically an audio file- exactly the way it was said with their voice and everything- and are still processing that even when you've already given up and asked them to repeat. I've learned to just cock my head and think about it that extra few seconds before giving up. Seems to help quite a bit just to give yourself a little more time before the "what?"
In some cases, patients with aphasia can show up at their appointment, say "hello" and then not be able to even repeat it after they doctor told them so. That's because of the neural networks of memory and what we call "schemes". There is an association between "entering a room", "seeing someone" and "introducing ourself" because we repeated this scenario enough times. So that's an automatism. However if the patient has to repeat the same word, sometimes he isn't able to because his working memory (or another function in the brain), which is sometimes seen as a form of consciousness itself (an "active" one), is broken.
Well, I couldn't do it. I was born blind and was given minimal sight after 3 operations. I "saw" with my hands and ears and via another "sense" that I can't describe and I'm not talking about ESP. I mean something different. I just don't have the right words tp describe it. That's what I'm talking about: what she described with that monkey but I never would have called it blind sight. It's more like a sensation around your energy field. It's like being hypersensitive in all your other senses because one is missing so the others need to make up for it.
I visited a friend in hospital who was suffering from a brain abscess. It had caused him to lose vision of everything on the left side of his field of view. We walked down a corridor when a couple of people approached us from the opposite direction. My friend moved aside to allow the couple to pass. He then told me that he had not heard or seen them approaching - they were in the blind part of his field of view. But somehow he just knew they were there... Fortunately the abscess has now been cured and he has fully recovered his lost vision.
I wonder if blindsight is consistent with single cell theories of consciousness. In particular, Steven Sevush (neuroscientist) wrote "Single-neuron theory of consciousness" discusses "verbally reportable (VR) consciousness" such that certain conscious areas of the brain which process certain information might feed VR conscious areas for example.
There are also collicular pathways that bypass LGN. I noticed a few years ago in rush hour traffic, I would change lanes w/o being aware of consciously doing so and when I checked, it was usually the right choice based on cars slowing or turning from the lane I was just in.
I hope you'll make an episode about blindness caused by psychological trauma or stress... if that's even a real thing, though I'm quite sure it is. I heard about it in a game (Yakuza 0 if anyone's interested) and one of the characters had this kind of condition but then was actually able to recover her sight in the end. Saw some articles about this as well. Anyway, would be a cool topic for a future vid imo!
Defining the easy and hard problems of conciousness and then clarifying which you mean in various circumstances might make things more clear. Since both variations are used interchangeably, and that can get confusing.
In China and India, this being common knowledge for thousands of years. In the year 1812 in Mexico, Coronel Jose Perdiz reported that his granddaughters were playing blindsight instructed by a teacher. He states that his granddaughters couldn't run around completely blindfolded without having any kind of accident. Today, UK and Mexico are the most advanced teaching this skill to kids. You don't have to have brain damage to activate this skill.
Or like when driving and you don't remember part of the drive despite contending with stop lights, signs, railroad crossings, or even needing to turn. Which always freaks me out.
@@angelcdeath no, i have full waking dreams. Its like watching a movie, i stop seeing whats really in front of me(or my mind is not recording my physical sight into memory) and i only remember the daydream until it fades like a normal dream. I arrive home safe and sound like a cutaway in tv/films. Its very unsettling! I always think 'how did i not hit anything/anyone!?'
Meant that as a little joke. I know what you mean. Driving specifically. As a chronic day dreamer sometimes I wonder how often people (myself included) aren't just running on "auto pilot" as its been referred to. Some are just more vivid than others I think.
Well you can "feel" someone staring at you, or sneaking up behind you.I have felt a slight air movement out of my line of sight. Could it work when you pass a still object while moving ?
I could imagine senses working in concert (like proprioception) could do something like echolocation, like you're talking about with air movement. The feeling of "being watched" almost certainly is purely down to anxiety, context, the lack of awareness of the context by the subject, and the unconscious signaling that the subject is performing that draws attention to them. Simply, people tend to look at other people, and when you're around people it's going to happen. All the other times you look back to not see someone staring at you get discounted and forgotten due to perceptive bias. The more you look around, the more you are likely to find someone looking at you, and if you're doing that, you're probably a lot more likely to have anxiety and be self conscious about being watched.
On an unrelated note, what is the significance of that latitude and longitude you have tattooed on your arm, unless I'm being too nosy, in which case disregard the question.
I bet one's fight or flight instincts are tied to this ability. could explain why any time I've attempted to spar I've found myself suddenly five feet away before I can even realize what I'm doing.
There are two types of people, those who can't stand the idea of unconscious mental processes controlling their behavior throughout their lives, and those who embrace their unconscious like an old friend.
Could it be that the V1 area is not involved directly with the process of vision instead it is what allows you to remember what you see. So if damage occurs to that region vision would remain unimpaired, we just would forget what we saw as we were seeing it.
I guess it's not too surprising, the eye and brain evolved step by step and it's logical that there were stages were animals would just automatically or instinctively respond to visual stimuli in a more primitive manner. I makes sense that there are levels. And what we perceive as vision is just the upper one where we can analyze what we see for complex thoughts and planning.
Sometimes I'll do things without thinking like reach for something I thought was there then when I look I feel blind because I put things in places so I don't have to look or think about it so when something is out of place or I reorganize I find it difficult to see what's there mostly because it's so dense and so many layers. Other times I'll look so quick I either feel like I guessed without actually seeing anything or I don't realize I didn't actually look long enough and think I didn't see anything.
This reminds me a lot of my experiences with a macaw I worked with while interning at a marine mammal facility. Even though she was in familiar places that she spent a lot of time in before she was blind, when I was training her or when I did something or something moved, she responded like the birds we had who were not blind. It made me really question if she was but this video shed some light for me that I figured what happening, and what I tried to tell my supervisor. Can you offer any further explanation for me, now that I've had this aha moment I'm really curious!!
"We all have *unconscious* processing going on all the time..." "It seem odd to you that there are parts of your brain guiding you *subconsciously*..." I've never been clear on this. Are 'unconscious' and 'subconscious' interchangeable? Do they have different meanings, but both apply here? What's the deal?
If they're reacting to suprises, it would be interesting to have them look at visual jumpscares to see if they can actually be scared by them. If so, would they know why? Would they just suddenly feel creeped out for apparently no reason?
That could also be your mind tricking itself. It takes around 150 milliseconds for a visual stimulus to be processed. When you're doing something that requires fast reactions, or happens at great speed, e.g. driving, your brain "fills in the gaps". For example, when you're driving at 120 kph, 150 milliseconds is the time it takes to traverse 5 meters. When something unexpected happens, you don't really consciously notice that your brain "jumps" from predicted to actual reality, even though that's exactly what happens. You feel as though it's a single, logical continuum, despite your brain creating this cohesion after the fact. It is quite likely the same with your reflexes. They happen, your brain becomes aware of them, and then makes it seem like you were aware while it happened.
@@hititwithit Yeah, could very well be. That does not explain how I can trace my thoughts back to random queues to the subconscious. I was on a bus this Summer and a word I seldom used came into my head, when I realised it had flashed by on an advertising poster along the road. I can be quite aware of what happens in my subconscious, so I wonder what the actual occurence is.
@@TreespeakerOfTheLand Isn't that normal? It happens to me too, anyway. The opposite as well: knowing I know something, but being unable to explicitly retrieve it from memory: a tip-of-the-tongue experience.
I have a student who is supposed to be blind, in theory, but she reaches out and grabs things with more than 70% accuracy and can walk around without running into things, so long as, y'know, her eyes are open.
I'm not sure which would make me saltier, being straight up blind, or being unable to consciously see. Like both suck, but for COMPLETELY different reason imo.
Soooo...when you tell a blind person, they're now walking into a kitchen, do they automatically try and avoid things like stoves, tables and chairs etc?
"No one knows what makes us conscious, or why we experience life instead of just going through the motions like a robot." Hahah, SciShow has the best jokes
Spoiler alert for The Traitor Baru Cormorant, but At the end of the first book one side of her brain gets some kind of damage that causes similar symptoms - she can't see out that eye anymore, but she responds to visual cues on that side repeatedly in the second book.
