What parts of the brain are thought to control the consciousness and subconsciousness?

Question

What are the current theories (if any) regarding the portions of the brain which control the consciousness and subconsciousness? I realize that these two categories of consciousness are overly simplistic, but I couldn't think of more efficient way to label them in the space of this message.

I'm guessing that Freudians would associate the Ego with the consciousness and the ID with the subconsciousness.

Jungians would identify (or would they?) the subconscious with the "spiritual sensation", connection to group consciousnesses, etc.

Existentialists would - well, do nothing I suppose (!).

Regardless of my hits or misses above, have there been any studies which observe areas of increased brain activity during conscious (test-taking, say) or subconscious (dreaming???) activities?

Or, is there a better way to ask this question?

Answer 1

I must first point out that Freud's psychoanalytic perspective is not a scientifically supportable psychological theory. There is nothing at all to suggest that repressed memories actually exist.

I think I kind of know what you're trying to ask though- are there any specific parts of the brain that work differently in altered states (drugs, dreams, hypnosis, etc.) than in normal consciousness? It's been found that there's actually very little that is different. Dreaming is often referred to as "paradoxical sleep" because although the body is completely paralyzed, the electrical activity in your brain actually looks the same as when you're awake. In the case of drugs, there are probably a lot of different areas of the brain that are affected differently, dependent on the drug.

It may be that what you mean by subconsciousness is something similar to the state of awareness achieved by some people in meditation where normal invasive thinking goes away? In this case, they've studied the brain waves of experienced meditators and found that the electrical activity slows down significantly until it is nearly the same as that of deep non-REM sleep.

I'm not sure, but I don't think that there is a specific part of the brain that controls the kind of consciousness that you're thinking of.

Answer 2

Sub-conscious, where our innate instincts and innermost emotions reside are in the primitive limbic system. The more recently developed cerebral cortex is the location of our rational thinking...the area where we use our logical minds to separate us from other animals.

Answer 3

3 minds not 1. Most in the West will focus their consciousness behind their eyes. Head mind.

Alternatively you can lower it to your heart mind and then to the navel or stomach mind -- your real center.

Answer 4

Consciousness dwells in your third eye. ie. the area between your brows. It's non-substantial.