identify regions in the associative cortex that are responsible for consciousness. And there are regions that create and store unconscious processes, namely the brain stem, the cerebellum, the thalamus, and the subcortical centers of the endbrain. As Freud had assumed, there isa clear anatomical distinction between the conscious and the unconscious . Even so, neuroscience steered clear of exploring the unconscious for quite some time, and neurobiologists found the unconscious difficult to grasp and describe. Unconscious processes often unfold quite rapidly, and they are – as Freud knew – not communicable in language, precisely because the person is not aware of them. So the psychotherapist has no choice but to read between the lines and try to decipher the unconscious – or to send a patient into a CAT scanner and observe what reactions to specific test questions activate the regions of the brain responsible for the unconscious.
Although it is easy enough to name the regions of the brain responsible for the unconscious, its composition can be quite varied. Our field of perception is full of impressions of which we are entirely unaware, and of events that are experienced subliminally . Our attention can focus on only a fraction of what we actually see, hear, and feel. The rest ends up in our subconscious mind. Some of that is stored deep down, but we have no control over what winds up where. We focus selectively on what suits our task at hand or our goal or needs. A person who is hungry is more likely to notice everything pertaining to food or restaurants, and a tourist views a city differently from someone who is looking for a job. The more you train your attention on one thing, the less you notice everything else, as is evident, for example, in the aftermath of car accidents, when drivers claim not to have seen the other vehicle.
When our attention is focused on one thing, our brain often fails to register other elements in our surroundings, even bizarre ones that ought to leap to our attention. One well-known example is the gorilla suit experiment conducted by psychologists Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Christopher Chabris of Harvard. Two teams of basketball players face each other, one dressed in white and the other in black. The players pass the ball to others on their own team while a group of test subjects observe the action on video. Their job is to count howmany times the ball is passed among the members of the white team. Most of the test subjects have no problem completing the assignment and supplying the correct number. The scientist conducting the experiment, however, is looking for a different piece of information. He wants to know whether the viewers picked up on anything out of the ordinary. More than half the test subjects do not. Only when they see the video for a second time, without concentrating on the counting, do they become aware, to their amazement, that a woman in a gorilla suit strode straight across the court, stood still in the middle, and thumped her chest. Most of the viewers were so busy counting during the first round that they failed to notice the gorilla at all. When psychologists conducting the same experiment ask the test subjects to count how many times the ball was passed by the team dressed in black, only a third of them fail to spot the gorilla. The woman in the gorilla suit catches the eye of the viewers of the black team because her costume is also black. The film is a very striking example of how our attention screens what we perceive even though we are largely unaware of it. Our attention is a spotlight that illuminates only a portion of the total picture, and the dark remainder ends up in our unconscious.
A large part of our unconscious draws on these kinds of dimly discerned perceptions. Another substantial portion is culled from our experiences in the womb and over the first three years of life. During this time, we register a great
Although it is easy enough to name the regions of the brain responsible for the unconscious, its composition can be quite varied. Our field of perception is full of impressions of which we are entirely unaware, and of events that are experienced subliminally . Our attention can focus on only a fraction of what we actually see, hear, and feel. The rest ends up in our subconscious mind. Some of that is stored deep down, but we have no control over what winds up where. We focus selectively on what suits our task at hand or our goal or needs. A person who is hungry is more likely to notice everything pertaining to food or restaurants, and a tourist views a city differently from someone who is looking for a job. The more you train your attention on one thing, the less you notice everything else, as is evident, for example, in the aftermath of car accidents, when drivers claim not to have seen the other vehicle.
When our attention is focused on one thing, our brain often fails to register other elements in our surroundings, even bizarre ones that ought to leap to our attention. One well-known example is the gorilla suit experiment conducted by psychologists Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Christopher Chabris of Harvard. Two teams of basketball players face each other, one dressed in white and the other in black. The players pass the ball to others on their own team while a group of test subjects observe the action on video. Their job is to count howmany times the ball is passed among the members of the white team. Most of the test subjects have no problem completing the assignment and supplying the correct number. The scientist conducting the experiment, however, is looking for a different piece of information. He wants to know whether the viewers picked up on anything out of the ordinary. More than half the test subjects do not. Only when they see the video for a second time, without concentrating on the counting, do they become aware, to their amazement, that a woman in a gorilla suit strode straight across the court, stood still in the middle, and thumped her chest. Most of the viewers were so busy counting during the first round that they failed to notice the gorilla at all. When psychologists conducting the same experiment ask the test subjects to count how many times the ball was passed by the team dressed in black, only a third of them fail to spot the gorilla. The woman in the gorilla suit catches the eye of the viewers of the black team because her costume is also black. The film is a very striking example of how our attention screens what we perceive even though we are largely unaware of it. Our attention is a spotlight that illuminates only a portion of the total picture, and the dark remainder ends up in our unconscious.
A large part of our unconscious draws on these kinds of dimly discerned perceptions. Another substantial portion is culled from our experiences in the womb and over the first three years of life. During this time, we register a great
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