Re: Implausibility that we can be explained by evolution

On 10 Aug, 04:23, Garamond Lethe <cartographi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:38:54 -0700, someone3 wrote:
As I said you don't know the mechanistic difference between conscious
and subconscious brain activity

And I as said, you're wrong. That happens a lot....

Specifically addressing consciousness vs. subconsciousness:

<title>
Conscious and Subconscious Sensorimotor Synchronization-Prefrontal
Cortex and the Influence of Awareness
</title>
<authors>
Peter Walla et al.
</authors>
<cite>
Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2002 Nov;14(3):309-16
</cite>

<abstract>
One of the most compelling challenges for modern neuroscience is the
influence of awareness on behavior. We studied prefrontal correlates of
conscious and subconscious motor adjustments to changing auditory rhythms
using regional cerebral blood flow measurements. At a subconscious level,
movement adjustments were performed employing bilateral ventral
mediofrontal cortex. Awareness of change without explicit knowledge of the
nature of change led to additional ventral prefrontal and premotor but not
dorsolateral prefrontal activations. Only fully conscious motor
adaptations to a changing rhythmic pattern showed prominent involvement of
anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These results
demonstrate that while ventral prefrontal areas may be engaged in motor
adaptations performed subconsciously, only fully conscious motor control
which includes motor planning will involve dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
</abstract>

This one may be more approachable. It's a review article.

<title>
Cerebral specialization and interhemispheric communication
</title>
<authors>
Michael S. Gazza***
</authors>
<cite>
Brain, Vol. 123, No. 7, 1293-1326, July 2000
</cite>
<abstract>
The surgical disconnection of the cerebral hemispheres creates an
extraordinary opportunity to study basic neurological mechanisms: the
organization of the sensory and motors systems, the cortical
representation of the perceptual and cognitive processes, the
lateralization of function, and, perhaps most importantly, how the divided
brain yields clues to the nature of conscious experience. Studies of
split-brain patients over the last 40 years have resulted in numerous
insights into the processes of perception, attention, memory, language and
reasoning abilities. When the constellation of findings is considered as a
whole, one sees the cortical arena as a patchwork of specialized
processes. When this is considered in the light of new studies on the
lateralization of functions, it becomes reasonable to suppose that the
corpus callosum has enabled the development of the many specialized
systems by allowing the reworking of existing cortical areas while
preserving existing functions. Thus, while language emerged in the left
hemisphere at the cost of pre-existing perceptual systems, the critical
features of the bilaterally present perceptual system were spared in the
opposite half-brain. By having the callosum serve as the great
communication link between redundant systems, a pre-existing system could
be jettisoned as new functions developed in one hemisphere, while the
other hemisphere could continue to perform the previous functions for both
half-brains. Split-brain studies have also revealed the complex mosaic of
mental processes that participate in human cognition. And yet, even though
each cerebral hemisphere has its own set of capacities, with the left
hemisphere specialized for language and speech and major problem-solving
capacities and the right hemisphere specialized for tasks such as facial
recognition and attentional monitoring, we all have the subjective
experience of feeling totally integrated. Indeed, even though many of
these functions have an automatic quality to them and are carried out by
the brain prior to our conscious awareness of them, our subjective belief
and feeling is that we are in charge of our actions. These phenomena
appear to be related to our left hemisphere's interpreter, a device that
allows us to construct theories about the relationship between perceived
events, actions and feelings.
</abstract>

So what is different about the subconscious brain activity such that
there was no awareness of it, and the brain activity that contributed
to the an awareness of it?

(It didn't mention in the papers)

.