Scientists Think They Know Where Consciousness Lives In Your Brain

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Scientists Think They Know Where Consciousness Lives In Your Brain

October 2, 2025

New research suggests that consciousness originates in the subcortex, and is polished by the cortex and cerebellum.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

It used to be thought that without the cerebral cortex, consciousness could not exist.

New research, however, has found that humans and animals missing part or all of their cortices are still capable of having experiences associated with consciousness.

This research suggests that consciousness instead originates in the subcortex, and is polished by the cortex and cerebellum.

Whether consciousness is generated by quantum forces or connected to the entire universe is still up for debate, but even the theoretical physicists who suggest these complicated theories have not yet answered one question: Where are consciousness’ origins in the brain?

Peter Coppola, a neuroscientist from the University of Cambridge, sought to answer this question with an exhaustive analysis of brain studies going back decades. Consciousness is defined (at least in neuroscience) as “qualitative subjective experience, or ‘what it is like’ to be a specific organism in a specific state,” he said in a study recently published in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. Coppola wanted to see what the evidence said, rather than relying on the dominant theories.

While there are functions in all parts of the brain that contribute to consciousness, some might be more instrumental than others in giving us that awareness of who and what we are.


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