The On, Off Switch of Consciousness | Breakthrough

to map what goes on inside the brain
mohamad implants tiny electrodes in his
patients skulls he then sends pulses to
these electrodes gradually increasing
the current sometimes with dramatic
results recently he inserted an
electrode
next to a small region called the
claustrum the claustrum is uniquely
connected to other parts of the brain
when we were doing the mapping we were
surprised to see what stimulation of the
claustrum resulted in I asked her to
read and I discovered that stimulation
of this one electrode which is in the
closed room made her stop reading and
have no memory to what happened during
the stimulation when Mohammed sends a 14
million electric pulse into the
claustrum the patient freezes
mid-sentence it’s as if her conscious
mind has been switched off cognitively
she is completely impaired no language
function no memory function no
responsiveness
when the current is reduced she picks up
exactly where she left off the findings
led to some authors to naming the lost
from the on/off switch of consciousness
which based on this case is actually
pretty accurate