Measurable Components Of Consciousness Essay

780 Words4 Pages

1) What are 2 measurable components of consciousness?

2) What is the only sure-fire way to know that someone is aware?

The only sure-fire way to know that someone is aware is only by asking them and getting a response from them. For example, during his lecture he asked the audience to raise their left hand if they were aware in order to demonstrate the command following response. Where responsibility is the only sure-fire way we have to know if someone is aware.

3) What is the vegetative state?

According to Quinn the vegetative state is when a person is awake but has no sense of awareness (or no sense of response when given a command). A person who is in a vegetative state lives life having to deal with sleep and awake cycles. They never make any response in regards to any given stimulus. In other words, when a person is in a vegetative state a person may be awake but can’t fixate on a certain object or event and this person has no sense of awareness in regards to his/her surroundings.

4) What is the difference between coma, vegetative state, and minimally- conscious state? …show more content…

Another difference between a patient who is in coma and a patient in a vegetative state is that a patient with coma do not express any elaborate forms of behaviors. The minimally conscious state is a condition where a patient is able to present some form of awareness/consciousness but does not fully present awareness. Patients with minimally conscious state condition fall between a patient who is in coma and patient who is in the vegetative state. Overall there needs to be some sense of evidence that a patient has partial