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Consciousness: Humans
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Charles T. Tart, An Emergent Interactionist Understanding of Human Consciousness Brain/Mind and Parapsychology: Proceedings of an International Conference, held in Montreal, Canada, August 24-25, 1978 under the auspices of the Parapsychology Foundation, New York, NY. Available over the web from http://www.paradigm-sys.com/cttart/ (66K)
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Consciousness is generally regarded as comprising abilities such as self-awareness and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. A thing that is conscious uses the term "I" to refer to itself. So far, the only beings believed to be conscious are human beings.
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As there is still not a clear definition of consciousness, no empirical tests currently exist to test consciousness as a whole. Some have even argued that empirical tests of consciousness are intrinsically impossible. However, some researchers have devised tests to detect what they feel are certain aspects of consciousness. A test similar to this was used in the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick to see if a person was a robot or an actual human. In the Ridley Scott movie, Blade Runner, which was inspired by that book, it is known as the "Voigt-Kampf" test, and tests the subject for empathy.
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The application of the Turing test to human consciousness has even led to an annual competition, the Loebner Prize with "Grand Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal for the first computer whose responses were indistinguishable from a human's." For a summary of research on the Turing Test, see here
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Brain chemistry affects human consciousness. Sleeping drugs (such as Midazolam = Dormicum) can bring the brain from the awake condition (conscious) to the sleep (unconscious). Wake-up drugs such as Anexate reverse this process. Many other drugs (such as alcohol, nicotine, THC, heroin, cocaine, LSD, MDMA) have a consciousness-changing effect.
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The bilateral removal of the centromedian nucleus (part of the Intra-laminar nucleus of the Thalamus) appears to abolish consciousness, causing coma, PVS, severe mutism and other features that mimic brain death. The centromedian nucleus is ... one of the principal sites of action of general anaesthetics and anti-psychotic drugs. This evidence suggests that a functioning thalamus is necessary, but not sufficient, for human consciousness.
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