Consciousness, The Brain and Behavior

Today's reading was not an attempt to confuse you. One article shows that there is a clear set of data to support the fact that there is a real connection between video games and brain behavior. The second piece was merely to highlight the problem of consciousness and where it lies within the brain.

If the article on consciousness seemed more confusing than concrete there is a reason for that. There is no clear consensus on where consciousness lies but we all know and accept it as somewhere in the brain. The article goes on to explain that consciousness could be a result of many portions of the brain working in concert to create a walking taking Ego. Take a moment and look up the Word Ego in the dictionary if you are not clear on its meaning.......Ok now that you've done that lets discuss it for a moment. The Ego, as defined by Freud, really defines consciousness in human beings. This is who we are, or who we think we are and it defines us. The Ego is also the part of our consciousness which deals most with the external world and makes meaning from the things we perceive. So...if the consciousness exists in the brain, and consists of many parts working together, and (as the second article points out)videogames have a clear impact on our brains functioning, then they also have the power to alter our consciousness.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Videogames can alter our consciousness. Now were getting into Science fiction territory right? Anyone hear of the new blockbuster movie Avatar? It's another Hollywood blockbuster but has a nice twist in the plot. Apparently (in the film) the military is capable of doing the old mind meld between two different people. One person's consciousness is transferred to the body of another and is able to experience all kinds of things through them.

This reminds of one of our main points from yesterday. Knowledge is imperfect. Many of our experiences come to us indirectly through movies, other people, language etc. These attenuated experiences create our consciousness and Ego. Our Self. What is to separate the Avatar experience from that of our actual experience? One remove? Maybe two? Take a minute and look up "Avatar"....... Ok what i have here translates literally from Hindu as "incarnation". An avatar is an incarnation of our self and can be an extension of our consciousness. The experiences we have through the Avatar also have the capability of changing our consciousness. That is a pretty big deal. It is even more important because that is what most video games do. They present an Avatar under your control, capable of taking action in a world of defined possibilities.

How real is it?

Some readings for tommorrow:
Short article on how great games are

An article on Socializing in Online Games

A final article on Solitude in a world of connectivity

The video embedded on the left is there for entertainment, and to point out how seriously teenage kids can be affected by these games. Never seen anything like it.
On a different note. Please be sure that your posts meet the 100 word minimum outlined in the course information on th4e portal.

Effects of video games

I think that in general the brain perceives a video game as real as it wants it to be, of course the brain isn't going to think it could be in the middle of the desert somewhere under fire from an enemy but i think the brain is creating an alter ego. I think that this is the way that the brain looks at video games obviously the more involved you become with a video game the more the bigger the alter ego is going to be. Saying this though there can be times that i have experienced myself where you will subconsciously reference something that you have seen to something from a video game i disagree that it is something that cant be controlled. If you were to do the same studies on an individual who would read books for the same period of time as someone plays video games would the same results not be shown? I think that in relation to BETA waves it has to depend on each individual and how they live there life to see where they would start on BETA level without video games being involved because if people are on a different level and drop by the same amount then surely mixed results would be shown. Whereas if you get people with the same BETA level and they drop the same then aren't the results are going to show the same thing?

I think that people who play video games use it to distress from there everyday life well in general (going by the video on the homepage). I think that anything that we involve ourselves in will/can have a lasting affect on the brain if we involve ourselves in the activity. By that i mean the way that we see whatever activity we are participating in.

In one of the articles when it spoke about the children and Mario kart with the way that the ten year old acted to his younger brother, then the way that the eight year old acted, i think this has allot more to do with just a video game. The only reason i say this is because if a parent is seeing there child act like this then surely they are going to be told off and punished? I know i would of been if i ever acted in that way to my younger sister in general let alone over a computer game. I suppose that when you look at it that way then video games to affect an individual especially if it is unsupervised gaming with actions like this happening. Things like that can have more than an alter ego affect on an individual it could give them behaviours that could be shown throughout their life.

cousciousness

I watched a PBS special last night that was very interesting on the subject of human emotions. They said that the amygdala, part of the cerebral cortex which is influenced heavily by secretions in flight or flight, is where a person develops anger. Now when a person develops that anger, there is a direct pathway or bunch of connecting pathways to our cortex which initiates a response. This would have to mean that whatever a person is doing, be it video games or not, is strong enough to illicit a secretion to trigger an emotion. Playing video games I believe can trigger this, and it has been scientifically proven that it can. However in the argument of conscienceness if that part of the brain where taken away, as suggested in the article New Empiricism, we as individuals would still have some means of knowing our surroundings or being aware of our experiences. Another idea that was presented in the PBS program was the fact that our frontal lobe is what truly experiences our emotions and the rest of our brain interprets them in there general respect. However, there is not a straight pathway to the cortex in which our bodies can illicit a response, there are several channels and they leisurely make there way to the cortex. Scientist believe that, according to this program, the frontal lobe is still developing and is the newer part of the brain. The part that allows the person to ponder on their emotions. Where as the amygdala is old and has been used in the fight or flight response. When playing a video game I guess it would have to depend on the persons experiences in life as to how the game is perceived and how much consciousness they put into the game. A person who whole heartily puts themselves into a game and depends apon it would illicit a greater response than a person who knows that it is just a game and has had greater life experiences, such as being in a war and knowing what is real.

Plato

In the article the allergory of the cave i think that Plato is trying to say that people look at things in a different light for the example the glass is half empty opposed to the glass is half full. I think that when people play some of these video games it tries to show a life that they want to live they want to some on the front line first in to battle etc. Of course it is possible to change our understandings and our belifs but it is not allways the easiest thing to do, sometimes it can cause pain to an individual. However that small pain might result in a greater good. Referring to the second extract, the slave prefers the new life style that he discovers and in Heine sight it is something he wishes he had done earlier. Everyone alive has a say about the actions we make in our lives, but it is how we react in each situation that determines who we are as people.

Plato

I think Plato is trying to tell us that everyone has different experiences. They may be good they my be bad, it all depends how you look at them, and how you face them. Some times you have to be more optimistic about certain things in life. You have to be a strong person for your self and others in your life at times. As you look at life and the experiences that you have you need to better understand why they happened, and take a deeper look. As you do this you may notice that its better than what could of happened or better than where you were in life. It also has impact on your knowledge and your openness to learn.

Plato:The Allegory of the Cave

In Plato's: The Allegory of the Cave he Expreces some ideas i feel that are true but leaves out part of the idea leaving me with question. This may be because of my beliefe or even just because of the way i read and understood the text. To start off he talked about the feeling of the slaves. Yes i do believe if a slave was unleashed and aloud to go and view the world they would at first be suprised and they probubly would not enjoy it at first, but latter adapt because as humans we are known to adapt. Eventually not wanting to return to the cave that once was all they new, and even feeling pitty for the people still stuck as slaves. But i also believe that each slave would feel different about the situation, just like when a high school senior graduates and is alound to finaly leave the house, some are ready and open to the new "real world" others arent yet prepared, and soon return home. Every human has their own opinion that we form from our life experiences, and that makes us who we are. I think that is what Plato was saying, we live life by the knowledge that we hold and how we view it then also how we use it. Some people when they gain new knowledge they go with what they now know and live a better life. But others gain knowledge and persist on living the old way. That said the more knowledge the avrage person gains the better the life to be led. Like in the writing the slaves gained knowldge of the "real world" and had what they thought to be a better life.

Plato

Experience lies in a persons circumstances. As in the story of the people in the cave, they experienced where they were at in that moment in time. We are subjected to our experiences by our position. Say that person in the cave was deeper down or had others blocking their view (as in wealth or location today). Would not his experience be different if not quelched than those who are closer? Now if a person coming out of the light were to realize objects or 'shadows' more quickly than another would that be dependant upon what that person was subjected to? Each person learns differently, yet has the same structures in which to use their learning. Plato suggests that there is a higher intellect once an individual 'sees the light' but how can each person come to the light if not for their experiences and how they were subjected to them. It is how they are presented to the person and that makes all the difference, in my opinion. What Plato presented was stated to be all good but not everyones experiences are good. Also how they interpret that experience isn't the same. Some may have experienced something not good but that goes back to every ones subjectivity and how they were exposed to their learning or lack their of.