What are we?

 

Psychology is one of the most interesting and intriguing fields of study that exist. It seems that the more researches are conducted on that domain, the less it turns out we know about ourselves. The mystery of our brain has yet a long way before it could be revealed. Considering the sensitivity and complexity of that organ, plus the ethical barriers, researches and experiments on the human brain proved to be extremely challenging and intricate. The brain is absolutely decisive on how humans operate, behave, and simply be, to the point that is implausible to take comfortable liberty and run tests to explore the possibilities.

Nevertheless, the smooth methods that have been used in the last decades to skirt those hindrances and at the same time clear some of the bewilderment regarding that crucial part of our body, have shown till this point some breathtaking results and uncovered some exhilarating facts. To know how the brain functions and to what extent it can unwillingly control our perception, behaviors, and radically our life, are something that we are yet unable to digest.    

I’ve read recently some books that invoke psychology and how simple chemicals at different levels in our brain can control our whole being, and my slumbering puzzlement arises: What are we?

Therefore, and through the following, I tried to formulate and list some facts that can hopefully provide us a peek at the depths of the answer.    

In fact, there are seemingly two parts or two aspects of behavior to distinguish within the human brain:

The instinct

Virtually known as things we do because our body is driven to do it, things we can’t control or decide whether to do it or even feel it. Those kinds of behaviors emerge daily in our life: the instinct to mate for instance, to eat a certain food, to sleep, or simply to breath…Those are the basic exhibitions to this aspect of life. Others however are more complicated and puzzling, like the rush of milk to the breast when a mother sees her baby or him cry, or the survival reflexes that arise during critical and dangerous situations… Those might sound trivial and obvious, but let me highlight how distinguished our instincts could be, and let us look thoroughly at these two experiences where the brain took full control of the body without letting these people a choice to intervene.

 One fireman reported that his body had became impeccably light and agile when trying to escape a merciless fire. The mission of fighting the outraging fire in the woods went out control and the fireman found himself surrounded and stuck. He could see that this was the end, and that he will burn to ashes. But his body wasn’t willing to surrender! He had described the minutes that had followed his despair as unreal; it was like if he had been transferred to a different body, an alerted and resilient one, and he couldn’t believe until he found himself far away in a safer place where he was rescued by his team. The way he carefully breathed to avoid suffocating, how he promptly covered himself to isolate himself against the heat, and how he effortlessly dodged the woods hindrances were done unconsciously and saved the man’s life.

Another startling case is that of a documentary cameraman who found his small boat dragged away from his team and abruptly lost in the vast sea. After days of heedlessly roaming and feeding on fish, he noticed that he wasn’t craving the fish meat anymore, but rather the eyes of the fish one time, and another time, its guts, and sometimes just the outer skin. After miraculously surviving this incident, the doctors and researchers who were interested in his case, explained that his body at these moments was lacking certain minerals and vitamins crucial for the survival, and all the areas of the fish that the man was attracted to were actually rich with this specific nutrition. How the brain detected the lack of magnesium for example and knew exactly in which part to find it without a previous knowledge is purely amazing.

Somehow, our body would react independently and push us to behave for its survival sake. Psychologists had determined the area of our brain that is responsible for these kinds of reflexes. If we picture the human brain as an onion, composed of layer upon layer of cells, then the outside layers; those closest to the scalp, are generally the most recent additions from an evolutionary perspective. Deeper inside the brain are older, more primitive structures. They control our automatic behaviors. Towards the center of the skull is a golf ball-sized lump of tissue that is called the basal ganglia. This area is believed to be responsible for these instinct impulses that we fail to explain.

The consciousness

This part is an ambiguous one; it’s generally the decisions we consciously make, the things we do and can explain the logic and knowledge behind it. Some would simply describe this part as the experience we witness within our body and the complex thoughts that occurred following different experiences. When we dream up a new invention or laugh at friend’s joke, it’s the outside parts of our brain that are at work. That’s where the most complex thinking occurs. The outer layers of the brain are suspected to be the source of consciousness.

We usually live our lives combining these two parts of the brain constantly to the point we find it very hard to distinguish between them. The interesting catch of this however, is that both parts are independent, and one can exhibit its power and control without the interference of the other. Two scenarios need to be stressed:

The consciousness is shut down and the instincts are on:

One intriguing case is of a man who suffered from a disease caused by a relatively harmless virus that made its way into his skull, inflecting some serious damage as it chewed through the outer layers of his brain. Although he got the treatment and the virus disappeared, the harm was already done. The man was incapable of holding a memory even for a minute. He consequently forgot anything he experienced, or any person he encountered few seconds after its occurrence. He kept losing his memories perpetually to the point he never knew where he was and what he was doing even though it was just explained to him for the nth time.  

His consciousness was therefore getting wiped away continuously which would normally make him incapable of living on his own. However, something unique has happened; when he was at home and after being shown the places of everything over and over again, he managed at some point to automatically go to the bathroom without asking where it was, or to the kitchen and grab the snack he needed without anyone’s help. The strange part of this is that when asked where he can find the nuts for example, he would stare confused and answers “I don’t know!” Furthermore, as his wife was taking him for a daily walk, she would ask him to point the directions to their home; he evidently couldn’t know but still directly take the right way towards it.

This patient never understood how he could know his way home, or how he could locate the places of food and other stuff, but his intact basal ganglia was at work. Although he couldn’t grasp the experience or be conscious of it, his instincts were directing him like those of a tender sea turtle who runs towards the sea right after its first breath; the minute its little head pierces through the sand, the sea is its sole and main destination.

The instincts are out but the consciousness is still there:

This was experienced by some patients who were under a general anesthesia, but they were perfectly conscious of everything that happened to them during the surgery, unable to physically react or show a sign. The locked-in-syndrome is another example worth mentioning; ‘it’s a condition in which the patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and blinking.’ And in some cases, even the eyes are paralyzed. Without the researchers’ efforts, patients who suffered from this were considered as good as dead in the past. Today, locked-in-syndrome patients can reach out through the invented communication technique that relies on the eyes’ movements and blinks.

The enigma of our brain has yet a long way before it could be solved. Nevertheless, it is startling to have a brief peek on how our body functions. Even though the understanding of who we are and why we act and think in such ways is slowly yet steadily in progress, these small discoveries only open up a vast sea of questions and hypotheses.

What makes us any different from animals? It actually turns out to be nothing. The studied cases of people who were injured in the outer layers of the brain make it clear that many kinds of behaviors that we tend to assume related to us being a conscious species are in the truth mere fruits of our auto pilot system; in other words: our inherited instincts. Our consciousness on the other hand can be matched with the awareness of our experiences in life. A random escaping prey can walk by a rock, dodge it or jump over it (instinctively) and keep running away from its predator. A human however would see the rock, experience being next to it, be aware of its existence, and eventually use it to defend themselves and throw it towards their hunter. 

However, are we the only species capable of exhibiting such an advanced reasoning? Or are there others in their way to develop consciousness as similar as ours, or that manifest it in other unfathomable forms beyond our comprehension?

What are we?  

 What a curious mystery indeed!