• AutoTL;DRB
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    69 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The man’s skull was full of liquid, with just a thin layer of brain tissue left.

    This came out to be 84, which is slightly below the normal range … So, this person is not bright — but perfectly, socially apt," explains Axel Cleeremans.

    When he learned about the case, which was first described in The Lancet in 2007, he saw a medical miracle — but also a major challenge to theories about consciousness.

    Last month, Cleeremans gave a lecture about this extremely rare case at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness conference in Buenos Aires.

    [There’s a] second lesson perhaps, if you’re interested in consciousness — that is the manner in which the biological activity of the brain produces awareness … One idea that I’m defending is the idea that awareness depends on the brain’s ability to learn.

    These cases are definitely a challenge for any theory of consciousness that depends on very specific neuro-anatomical assumptions.


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