Medical Criterion for Consciousness, Essay Example

The medical criterion for consciousness should be “the ability to report events with accuracy” (Seth, Bean, Edelman, 2004).  “Accurate Report (AR) is the standard behavioral index for consciousness in humans”(ibid.). It is, however, difficult to generalize to other species. For people whose brains are intact, AR can be very sensitive and accurate.  The response does not have to be verbal in humans; it can be any voluntary one; such as, the blinking of eyes.  AR has a “broad applicability across disparate sensory modalities” (ibid.).

There are three main physiological facts related to consciousness; namely, irregular, low-amplitude brain activity; involvement of the thalamocortical system; and widespread brain activity; and they can also be found in mammals (ibid.).

Nowadays, patients with impaired consciousness, are examined by neurologists to decide if the person is comatose, stuporous,  in PVS, or in a minimal conscious state, in which the patient shows “definite responsiveness that is cognitively driven, rather than unconscious reflexive responses”(JAMA, 2009).  Then the work begins to try and discover if the impairment is due to “a structural lesion, such as an infarction, a hemorrhage, tumour, infection in the brain stem, thalamus, or cerebral hemispheres; or alternatively, due to a metabolic cause such as severe hypoglycemia, electrolyte disturbance, toxin, or drug  overdose”(ibid.). Coma has been identified way back, but the specific neurological criteria for brain death was only  published in 1968.  Today the courts will uphold that a brain dead person is considered the same as an actual dead person. Minimal consciousness and PVS are considered different from a comatose state.  Some patients in a PVS state have regained consciousness within a few weeks.

Works Cited

JAMA.  Journal of the American Medical Association (March 18, 2009), Vol. 301, No. 11. A definition of irreversible coma:  Report of the ad hoc committee of the Harvard Medical School to examine the definition of brain death.  Retrieved on December 05, 2012, from http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.asp?

Seth, A. K., Baars, P. J. & Edelman, D. B. (2004).  Criteria for consciousness in humans and other mammals.  The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego, CA92121, USA.  Available online 2 November 2004 at www.sciencedirect.com.