Bridging the gap of brain and experience - Converging Neurophenomenology with Spatiotemporal Neuroscience.

Summary

Integrating Neurophenomenology and Spatiotemporal Neuroscience offers profound insights into the brain-mind connection. By analyzing 150 participants, this approach reveals how neural activity and subjective experiences—such as self-perception, meditation, and depression—share similar spatiotemporal dynamics. This convergence not only enriches both fields but also enhances our understanding of how first-person experiences relate to third-person neural observations. Ultimately, this integration paves the way for innovative methodologies that can deepen our grasp of the complex interplay between mind and brain.

Abstract

Neuroscience faces the challenge of connecting brain and mind, with the mind manifesting in first-person experience while the brain's neural activity can only be investigated in third-person perspective. To connect neural and mental states, Neurophenomenology provides a methodological toolkit for systematically linking first-person subjective experience with third-person objective observations of the brain's neural activity. However, beyond providing a systematic methodological strategy ('disciplined circularity'), it leaves open how neural activity and subjective experience are related among themselves, independent of our methodological strategy. The recently introduced Spatiotemporal Neuroscience suggests that neural activity and subjective experience share a commonly underlying feature as their "common currency", notably analogous spatiotemporal dynamics. Can Spatiotemporal Neuroscience inform Neurophenomenology to allow for a deeper and more substantiative connection of first-person experience and third-person neural activity? The goal of our paper is to show how Spatiotemporal Neuroscience and Neurophenomenology can be converged and integrated with each other to gain better understanding of the brain-mind connection. We describe their convergence on theoretical grounds which, subsequently, is illustrated by empirical examples like self, meditation, and depression. In conclusion, we propose that the integration of Neurophenomenology and Spatiotemporal Neuroscience can provide complementary insights, enrich both fields, allows for deeper understanding of brain-mind connection, and opens the door for developing novel methodological approaches in their empirical investigation.

Tags