Blindsight and communication

[Shelter]

Certain findings in neuroscience show that our brains know/perceive more than we (our conscious selves) know.

Individuals who have damage to certain parts of the brain become cortically blind- their eyes are not damaged, but they are blind because of an inability to process visual signals in the brain. These individuals describe themselves as fully blind. They are not conscious of being able to see anything.

BUT, in some cases, these individuals show some signs of being able to see:

-blinking if an object is flying toward their eyes

-reaching for objects more accurately than predicted by chance

-being able to correctly turn a paper vertically or horizontally to fit it through a slot they can’t see

-navigating around obstacles more accurately than chance

So, it seems that it’s possible to perceive something without being conscious of it… only part of the brain knows about it. And that part of the brain may even have some advantages of its own.

Similarly, there are parts of the brain that are nonverbal and unable to communicate verbally, though they understand things in another way. There are various forms of visual agnosia- brain damage that causes a person to be able to perceive visual inputs but unable to state the names of objects or recognize how they are used.

So, my questions are- What else are our brains hiding from us? Can we communicate with these parts of the brain? Can we teach the non-conscious brain to report back to the conscious parts of the brain, or can we teach non-verbal areas to report to our verbal self so we can verbalize what they know? What other implications do you see?

 

[Shelter]

In one study, a man was blind in the left half of his visual field because of damage to his right visual cortex. His blindsight was found to be more accurate than his own normal vision (and more accurate than other sighted subjects’ normal vision) at a particular visual task.

Blindsight: When the brain sees what you do not

He also said that using his blindsight was effortless (he was “just guessing”) while using his normal vision for the task was hard work.

More details on blindsight:

“Real-time” obstacle avoidance in the absence of primary visual cortex

Grasping the non-conscious: Preserved grip scaling to unseen objects for immediate but not delayed grasping following a unilateral lesion to primary visual cortex - ScienceDirect

 

[sun rise]

So, my questions are- What else are our brains hiding from us? Can we communicate with these parts of the brain? Can we teach the non-conscious brain to report back to the conscious parts of the brain, or can we teach non-verbal areas to report to our verbal self so we can verbalize what they know? What other implications do you see?

Those are excellent questions. I think one of those areas is intuition. Currently I sometimes, rarely, know something without knowing how I know it. The mark of this for me is that I know it with certainty and it's confirmed afterwards.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

From my own personal experience, I think it is possible to open yourself to at least some of the information from your subconscious mind. I have long worked on quieting my mind and opening my senses...as @sun rise suggests, perhaps it is responding to intuition...

Personally, I think most people over-value conscious thought and ability, and under-value the subconscious...

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

A friend suffered a stroke and has left-field neglect, in which his conscious mind ignores everything to the left side...and yet, he is able to do many things...he just has to both think about it carefully, and allow his body to respond subconsciously to what his conscious brain is now ignoring...