Question: What is consciousness

Angela Stokes answered on 18 Nov 2014:

Well, in general, we can tell when we’re awake, when we’re thinking, when we’re pondering the meaning of life, but can we really explain the nature of this or what separates conscious thought from subconscious thought?

Any debate over the nature of consciousness is best left to philosophers and religious scholars rather than scientists. However, we understand the brain better, more scientists are starting to look at this tricky subject.

So what is consciousness?

A good analogy of consciousness has been explained by Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. summarising his work, he said that you can think about the difference between the image of an apple to your brain and a digital camera. The image is the same whether it is on a camera screen or in your head. However, the camera treats each pixel independently and doesn’t recognise the apple as an object. Your brain combines the parts of the image to identify the object as an apple and that it is edible. Here, the camera can be seen as ‘unconscious’ and the brain as ‘conscious’