ISSN 1381-589X
40 papers in the library · 105 citations · publishing 1995-2015
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Bangalore N. Gangadhar, Naren P. Rao
Consciousness can be altered willfully through various methods, including psychological means. While some induced states are pathological, many are not. Indian and other Eastern concepts emphasize that individuals can induce "higher states of consciousness" themselves. Physiological changes observed in these altered states point to a neural basis.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Edmund T. Rolls
Noise from random neuronal spiking gives the brain advantages like probabilistic decision-making but makes it a non-deterministic system, raising implications for free will. Decisions are taken probabilistically between the reasoning system and the implicit reward system. The reasoning system's operation can be described as free will, and consciousness arises from using higher order syntactic thoughts (HOSTs) to correct first order thoughts. When the implicit system decides, we may confabulate a reason, making the feeling of free will an illusion.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Biyu J. He, Marcus E. Raichle
A neurophysiological hypothesis proposes that the slow cortical potential (SCP) recorded from the brain's surface reflects the activity of superficial-layer pyramidal neurons, which directly contribute to conscious awareness. Existing data from manipulations of conscious awareness in normal subjects, as well as from altered states like general anesthesia and recovery from vegetative states, support this idea. The hypothesis also makes experimentally testable predictions. Because a relationship between the SCP and fMRI signals has been identified, this hypothesis may bridge neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies of consciousness.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 William Sedley
Auditory consciousness encompasses familiar experiences like hearing and imagining sounds, as well as rarer ones like tinnitus and hearing voices. This chapter presents a simplified model of the auditory system that distinguishes bottom-up signals from lower pathways and top-down influences from higher evaluative mechanisms. Using this model, auditory perception, hallucinations, and illusions are explained as minor variations from normal functioning. Neuroimaging and electrophysiological correlates are discussed, highlighting their current inability to qualitatively differentiate conscious from unconscious auditory processes, and suggesting future approaches to address this limitation.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Michael E. Hasselmo
Consciousness is described as a perception of self constructed to guide voluntary, goal-directed behavior, involving neural mechanisms for mental time travel into the future during planning and into the past during episodic retrieval. This neural time travel relies on distributed cortical perceptual processes that detect the state of the self across multiple dimensions, including spatial location, head direction, speed, temporal duration, and egocentric relationships to items. These circuit mechanisms are regulated by neuromodulatory influences, such as muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, which activate intrinsic properties of neurons involved in maintaining an internal representation of self.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Armando D'Agostino, Ivan Limosani, Silvio Scarone
The subjective experience of dreaming and psychosis share features: periodicity, hallucinatory phenomena, and a lack of awareness of detachment from reality. Both are considered fully conscious states of the brain/mind, with non-conscious elements influencing them due to impaired interaction with the external world. Inducing lucidity in dreams through psychological or pharmacological methods may aid understanding of acute psychoses and have clinical applications.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Fiona E.N. LeBeau
Synchronized neuronal activity in the gamma frequency range (~30–100 Hz) may contribute to conscious perception. This chapter reviews mechanisms underlying gamma frequency generation and changes observed in schizophrenia. Recent optogenetic techniques, which genetically modify cells to respond to specific light wavelengths, now enable direct testing of how different neuronal classes contribute to network oscillations and potentially to consciousness.
Advances in Consciousness Research March 27, 2008 Greg Janzen
Conscious states are inherently self-aware, possessing an implicit, built-in awareness of their own occurrence. Drawing on phenomenologists Brentano and Sartre, as well as recent analytic philosophy of mind, this book argues that subjects have immediate, non-objectual acquaintance with their conscious states. It further contends that phenomenal character—the 'what-it-is-like' dimension of experience—is constituted by this implicit self-awareness. This thesis contrasts with qualia theories, which attribute phenomenal character to sensations, and representationalism, which ties it to representational content.
Advances in Consciousness Research January 30, 2003
This book systematically explores consciousness, reviewing findings and theoretical accounts related to its neural and quantum basis. It examines proposed models and challenges generalized views on consciousness, covering mechanisms of different varieties of conscious experience. The author, a professor at Kyoto University, has conducted experimental research on consciousness and attention for over 15 years.
Advances in Consciousness Research April 8, 2002
This collection of essays examines the evolution of consciousness, addressing what makes humans distinctive. It begins with a behavioristic framing of the problem and ends with reflections on immortality through serial cloning. The chapters are organized into three sections: how and why consciousness may have evolved; special capacities such as language, creativity, and mentality as evolved adaptations; and the prospects for artificial evolution through designing robots with specific forms of consciousness and mind. The volume aims to help readers understand human distinctiveness and humanity's place in nature.
Advances in Consciousness Research April 12, 2001 Chris Clarke
A model of consciousness is proposed that describes the world by integrating material and psychological aspects from the outset, rather than treating them separately. Work is underway to test this model.
Advances in Consciousness Research April 12, 2001
This collection of twelve chapters presents diverse perspectives on the relationship between modern physics and consciousness. Stuart Hameroff updates the Penrose/Hameroff Orch-OR model addressing quantum approaches to the brain. Evan Walker integrates quantum theory and relativity for consciousness. Friedrich Beck elaborates on the Beck/Eccles quantum approach. Karl Pribram discusses the holographic view. Peter Marcer and Edgar Mitchell explain quantum holography's relevance. Gordon Globus relates postmodern philosophy to quantum consciousness. Chris Clarke uses formal logic to reconcile phenomenology with physics. Ilya Prigogine comments on complexity and consciousness beyond present quantum formalism. Matti Pitkanen places consciousness in topological geometro-dynamics. Colin McGinn argues against classical materialism. Dick Bierman overviews anomalous phenomena, identifying a decline effect. Philip Van Loocke discusses deep teleology in cellular systems relating to consciousness.
Advances in Consciousness Research May 15, 1998 Leopold Stubenberg
Consciousness involves qualitative experiences—pains, colors, sounds—called qualia, which are problematic because they seem to lack something that bears or owns them. The usual candidates for this ownership relation, such as introspection or higher-level thoughts, fail to explain what it means to have a quale. The author solves both problems with bundle theories: phenomenal objects are bundles of qualia, eliminating the need for separate bearers, and the self is a bundle, so having a quale simply means it belongs to the bundle one is. The argument prioritizes phenomenological adequacy and the first-person perspective.
Advances in Consciousness Research March 20, 1996 Rocco J. Gennaro
This book develops and defends the 'higher-order thought theory of consciousness', which holds that a mental state becomes conscious when a suitable higher-order thought is directed at it. The author argues that consciousness entails self-consciousness, drawing on cognitive science, perception, artificial intelligence, neuropsychology, psychopathology, and Kantian philosophy. The work analyzes relationships between self-consciousness, behavior, memory, intentionality, and de se attitudes.
Advances in Consciousness Research November 8, 1995 Valerie Gray Hardcastle
Consciousness should be aligned with a single, distinct memory system rather than being a central decision-making system. It is a lower-level dynamical structure that underpins information processing. This perspective offers solutions to problems such as absent qualia, the binding problem, inverted spectra, epiphenomenalism, the explanatory gap, and the objective-subjective distinction. Drawing on psychology and neuroscience data, the work also addresses when consciousness arises and when other animals are likely conscious.