Practice question · Multiple choice
A small stroke in the reticular formation can leave a patient in a coma, while far larger areas of cortex can be destroyed and the patient remains awake. Why does so much less damage produce so much more profound a loss?
Hints
- Distinguish being awake from what you are aware of while awake.
- A cortical stroke takes away a capacity - language, or vision on one side. Ask what a coma takes away instead.
Show the answer
C. Because the reticular formation supplies the arousal the cortex needs.
Why
Two different things an injury can remove: damage cortex and you lose a capacity the patient can tell you about; damage the arousal system and you lose the state in which any capacity could appear. The reticular formation is a necessary condition rather than the seat, aroused cortex with nothing left to arouse produces no experience either.
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