Thursday, April 20, 2006

Watching the brain 'switch off' self-awareness





The team conducted a series of experiments to pinpoint the brain activity associated with introspection and that linked to sensory function. They found that the brain assumes a robotic functionality when it has to concentrate all its efforts on a difficult, timed task -- only becoming "human" again when it has the luxury of time.

Ilan Goldberg and colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of nine volunteers during the study. Participants were shown picture cards and told to push buttons to indicate whether or not an animal was depicted.

(Via KurzweilAI.net.)


Can you say "Voight-Kampf"?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

can you say "republican party member"?

platts42 said...

can you say "CapnMarrrrk Meat Stick"?

Mac said...

can you say "republican party member"?

;-D

razorsmile said...

Can you say "Peter Watts"?