Jolene Creighton

Throughout history, accidents have led us to a number of amazing discoveries. This is the process that led to the latest find from scientists at George Washington University.

Neuroscientist Mohamad Koubeissi and his team were attempting to uncover the source of a woman's seizures. To do this, they were using deep brain electrodes to record signals from different regions of her brain. They placed one electrode next to a part of the brain that is known as the "claustrum," and they got amazing results.

The claustrum is believed to govern the mechanisms that control attention. Specifically, we think it synchronizes time between various parts of the brain, which creates what we all know as "the conscious experience." It is also a region of the brain that had never been stimulated before.

As the scientists were placing one electrode, they accidentally stimulated this area of the brain, which caused the woman to lose awareness. In order to verify their suspicions (that they were turning off her consciousness), the team asked the women to repeat specific words as the stimulation started. Rather than immediately stopping, which would happen if she simply lost the ability to move or speak, the woman gradually spoke more and more quietly as she drifted into a state of unawareness.

In the study, the team writes, "We describe a region in the human brain where electrical stimulation reproducibly disrupted consciousness." They report that, when they hit the area with high frequency electrical impulses, the woman stared into space and failed to respond to auditory or visual commands.

Notably, once the scientists stopped stimulating this portion of the brain, the woman immediately regained consciousness/awareness; however, she had absolutely no memory of the event.

This may seem simple, but it is an amazing find. We don't know what creates consciousness or how it could be turned off. As such, this discovery could help shed light on the nature of human consciousness itself, leading to a plethora of new discoveries involving the human mind and how it functions.

It could also lead to a number of new treatments and medications (perhaps even one for coma patients?). However, all of that is a long ways off, and more research (a lot more) will be needed in order to determine the full significance of this find.

Koubeissi believes that these facts indicate the claustrum plays a vital role in the conscious experience.

"I would liken it to a car," he said. "A car on the road has many parts that facilitate its movement — the gas, the transmission, the engine — but there's only one spot where you turn the key, and it all switches on and works together. So while consciousness is a complicated process created via many structures and networks — we may have found the key."

Jolene Creighton is working toward a Ph.D. and teaches English literature and composition at Southern Miss. Reach her at Jolene.creighton@eagles.usm.edu.