Spotlight consciousness🧠
- People generally live ruminating the past or anticipating the future rather than enjoying the present moment
- Taking in as little info as possible so that we can think about what hat to do later or what not it do from the past
- We tend to act habitually
Spotlight consciousness gives people the ability to narrowly focus attention on a goal. Spotlight consciousness involves the left hemisphere since it has a narrow attentional window (The right hemisphere has broad, global, and flexible attention, while the left has narrow attention). Also the left hemisphere prioritizes things that it already knows and expects. Our left hemisphere unconsciously focuses on only a select few of the sensory signals it receives that it considers important. The left hemisphere directs the spotlight of its attention where it will and then relies on predictive coding to interpret what it perceives. This is the default conscious state of adults, as children experience more of lantern consciousness.
References
- Pollan, Micheal. (2018). How to Change Your Mind Chapter 5. The Neuroscience of Your Brain on Psychedelics (Location 4417). New York, NY: Penguin Random House.
Metadata
Type:🔵 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Psychology / Neuropsychology / Developmental Neurology Status:⛅️