Human consciousness: Where is it in the brain? BBC Learning English from the News

From BBC Learning English.

This is Learning English from The News, our podcast about the news headlines.

In this programme:

Consciousness is what you experience - your thoughts and feelings,

but where does it happen in the brain?

Two major theories are put to the test.

Hello, I'm Neil.

And I'm Georgie.

In this programme, we look at one big news story

and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.

You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode,

as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com

So let's hear more about this story.

So firstly, what is consciousness?

Well, the scientific definition varies, as we're about to find out.

Yes. But in a basic sense, consciousness is everything a person experiences

your awareness of your thoughts, feelings, sensations, memories.

But where does this happen in the brain?

Well, scientists haven't yet agreed on an explanation,

but recently two leading, but very different, theories were put to the test

in a large research project.

The seven-year study was published in the journal Nature.

Let's have our first headline.

This one is from Scientific American.

Two theories face off to explain the origins of consciousness.

That headline again from Scientific American.

Two theories face off to explain the origins of consciousness.

Two theories face off.

That's an interesting phrasal verb.

What does it mean if two sides face off?

Is it friendly or are they about to fight?

Well, they are about to fight.

So face off means to meet an opposing person or group

to begin a competition or confrontation.

So imagine two opposing sports teams,

for example, at the start of a match facing each other.

That means they are opposite each other. In some sports,

like ice hockey, that moment at the start is called a face-off.

Okay, so in this story,

the major theories, which are very different to each other,

are facing off in this big experiment to see which one is right.

Now, the scientists aren't literally about to fight in the lab.

This is more of a metaphorical meaning.

Their ideas are in competition.

And face off can also be used as a noun -

a face-off. That's written with a hyphen in the middle.

So we could say the two theories are in a face-off.

We've had face off - meet to argue or compete.

For example,

two colleagues of mine are facing off in a battle for the promotion.

This is learning English from The News, our podcast about the news headlines.

Today we're talking about a large new study about human consciousness.

Now, the research project was unusual because it had scientists

with opposing theories of consciousness working together

with other researchers who weren't on either side.

They were neutral.

The two theories that were put against each other were very different.

For example, for one of them,

the front part of the brain is not considered necessary for consciousness.

Whereas the other theory argues that consciousness comes

from what they call 'global broadcasting' across the brain,

which does include the front regions.

Let's have our next headline.

Two theories of consciousness faced off.

The ref took a beating

  and that's from the New York Times.

Okay. That headline again from the New York Times.

Two theories of consciousness faced off.

The ref took a beating.

So again, we have that phrasal verb face off.

This time in the past tense, two theories faced off.

Yes, but this time we're looking at took a beating.

The ref, or referee, took a beating.

So what does it mean to take a beating, Neil?

If you literally beat something, you physically hit it.

Metaphorically, though, beat can mean to defeat someone

in a competitive situation.

So, Georgie, I always beat you at tennis, for example.

You're such a loser.

Hey! So if you take a beating, you are receiving that beating.

You are being beaten.

Now the referee they're referring to

in the headline is the research study itself,

because it has been criticised by some other scientists.

You can use take a beating any time something has suffered some damage.

For example, my garden shed was destroyed in the storm.

It really took a beating.

Yes, or another example:

My presentation at work the other day went really badly.

My confidence has really taken a beating.

We had to take a beating, suffer some damage.

For example, the football team lost all their matches this season.

They really took a beating.

This is Learning English from the News from BBC Learning English,

we're talking about theories of consciousness.

So what did the study find?

Both theories made some accurate predictions about

what was happening in the brain.

Yes, but some of the predictions were wrong.

"Both theories are incomplete," said Dr Ferrante, one

of the neuroscientists working on the project.

Some people have criticised the study.

124 experts signed an open letter criticising both the research project

and one of the theories, calling the theory pseudoscience,

which means they think it's not proper science.

Okay, let's have our next headline.

Landmark study puts leading theories of consciousness to the test.

Neither comes out unscathed.

That's from the University of Birmingham.

Okay, that headline again.

Landmark study puts leading theories of consciousness to the test.

Neither comes out unscathed.

And that's from the University of Birmingham.

This time we're looking at the word unscathed.

Georgie, what can you tell us about unscathed?

Unscathed means without damage or injury.

So here in the headline, neither of the theories comes out unscathed.

In other words, they've both been criticised

and so damaged in the process.

Unscathed comes after a verb.

So, for example, you might hear he was in a horrible car crash,

but he came out unscathed.

He had no injuries.

So if unscathed is undamaged, does that mean scathed is damaged?

Uh, yes. But interestingly, it's much less common.

We don't really hear scathed often at all.

No, we don't, but we do hear scathing as an adjective,

which describes a very strong attack, usually an attack through words.

Yeah. So, for example, the critic wrote a scathing review of the film.

She thought it was awful.

We've had unscathed - undamaged.

For example, the government came out unscathed after the corruption scandal.

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the news.

We'll be back next week with another news story.

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