Dissection of Consciousness with PET

Gulyas, Balazs

In recent years, functional neuroimaging techniques, including positron emission tomography (PET), have been playing a major role in revealing the workings of the human brain. PET enables us to map out the physiological bases of higher sensory, motor and cognitive brain function.
Our behaviour is clearly influenced by sub-conscious processes taking place in the brain. But how can we differentiate between those neuronal activities in the brain which underlie conscious thoughts and acts, and those which are not entering the stream of consciousness? Is there a biological "marker" that would help us correlate conscious brain functions with certain neurobiological phenomena?
This lecture will demonstrate the usefulness of PET in mapping the neurobiological bases of higher cognitive processes, and introduce the audience to the world of conscious and non-conscious higher brain functions. Among others, it will also answer the question of whether some sort of "inner vision" is taking place inside the visual cortex when we consciously visualise an image, and we will talk about the neurobiological underpinnings of the fact that some one may seem less attractive to us in person than on a photograph...

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