'Conscious Perception' Occurs from Suppression in the Cerebral Cortex

Model of thalamocortical interaction during conscious perception in humans (A), strong thalamocortical interaction when perceiving the combined orange color (dark blue indicates strong inhibition, dark red indicates strong excitation. Therefore, the visual cortex in the occipital lobe, regulated by the thalamus's active inhibitory function located at the center of the brain, enables conscious perceptual responses), and weak thalamocortical interaction when red and green are perceived simply in alternation (C).

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Look alternately at the blinking red and green lights. At some point, you will perceive an orange light, which is a mixed color of the two. The perception of an orange color that is not actually seen is a representation formed in our brain's mental world. This can be called conscious perception.

Professor Byungkyung Min of the Department of Brain Engineering at Korea University experimentally demonstrated that human conscious perception occurs due to the inhibitory function of the thalamus, known as the brain within the brain, and the research results were introduced on the 18th (local time) in the international academic journal NeuroImage.

Professor Min experimentally proved that human conscious awareness is related to the inhibitory function of the thalamus. By analyzing the brain waves at the moment the subject perceives orange in the red and green light experiment, it was revealed that the thalamus, the gray matter that occupies most of the diencephalon, is involved in conscious awareness.

Meanwhile, this study was jointly conducted by Dr. Hyunseok Kim from the same research institute, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT in the United States, and the research team from City, University of London in the United Kingdom.