The human brain is one of the greatest biological wonders of the animal kingdom. So it’s no wonder that exploring how the human brain achieves this level of consciousness has confounded philosophers, theologians, and scientists for millennia. Our concept of “consciousness” can be bisected into two distinct modes: there’s the conscious state (i.e. Additionally, evidence of damage to this area in patients appears to affect consciousness, and by nature of being the outermost layer of the brain, it’s easier to study compared to deeper brain structures. In a peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Neuron in May 2024, an interdisciplinary team of scientists detailed the potentially overlooked contributions of the thalamus toward human consciousness.