Consciousness in humans and non-human animals: Recent advances and future directions. | Frontiers in Consciousness Research Melanie Boly1,2,3*, Anil K. Seth4,5, Melanie Wilke6,7, Paul Ingmundson8, Bernard Baars9, Steven Laureys3, David B. Naotsugu Tsuchiya11,12 This joint article reflects the authors' personal views regarding noteworthy advances in the neuroscience of consciousness in the last 10 years, and suggests what we feel may be promising future directions. Keywords: consciousness, animals, human cognition, theoretical neuroscience, biotechnology, neuroimaging Citation: Boly M, Seth AK, Wilke M, Ingmundson P, Baars B, Laureys S, Edelman DB and Tsuchiya N (2013) Consciousness in humans and non-human animals: recent advances and future directions. Received: 11 March 2013; Accepted: 24 August 2013; Published online: 31 October 2013. Copyright © 2013 Boly, Seth, Wilke, Ingmundson, Baars, Laureys, Edelman and Tsuchiya. *Correspondence: Melanie Boly, Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin, 6001 Research Park Boulevard, Madison, WI 53719, USA e-mail: boly@wisc.edu
The Mind Unleashed: 3 Censored TED Talks They Don't Want You To See The current establishment has plenty to gain by keeping the people of this planet in the dark about ideas that can lead to a revolution in human consciousness. It’s time to change that. 1. Hancock’s TED Talk, “The War on Consciousness”, was deliberately removed from YouTube: “Graham Hancock’s talk, again, shares a compelling and unorthodox worldview, but one that strays well beyond the realm of reasonable science. Chris Anderson, [TED]. Graham Hancockis the author of major international bestsellers, his books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into 27 languages. 2. TED also removed the recent talk by author and bio-chemist Rupert Sheldrake. 3. Entrepreneur Rick Hanauer’s presentation is surroundedby controversy because after it was recorded, it was passed over for publication by TED. Credits: Why Don’t You Try This.
Neural correlates of consciousness Figure 1: The Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness (NCC) are the minimal set of neural events and structures – here synchronized action potentials in neocortical pyramidal neurons – sufficient for a specific conscious percept or a conscious (explicit) memory. From Koch (2004). The Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC) can be defined as the minimal neuronal mechanisms jointly sufficient for any one specific conscious percept (Crick & Koch 1990). The Neurobiological Approach to Consciousness Consciousness is a puzzling, state-dependent property of certain types of complex, biological, adaptive, and highly interconnected systems. The Neural Correlates of Consciousness Progress in addressing the mind-body problem has come from focusing on empirically accessible questions rather than on eristic philosophical arguments. The above definition of Neural Correlates of Consciousness stresses the attribute minimal because the entire brain is clearly sufficient to give rise to consciousness.
A Neuroscientist's Radical Theory of How Networks Become Conscious - Wired Science WIRED: How do you square what you believe about animal consciousness with how they're used in experiments? Koch: There are two things to put in perspective. First, there are vastly more animals being eaten at McDonald's every day. The number of animals used in research pales in comparison to the number used for flesh. And we need basic brain research to understand the brain's mechanisms. My father died from Parkinson's. WIRED: Getting back to the theory, is your version of panpsychism truly scientific rather than metaphysical? Koch: In principle, in all sorts of ways. The theory also says you can have simple systems that are conscious, and complex systems that are not. The more relevant question, to me as a scientist, is how can I disprove the theory today. WIRED: I still can't shake the feeling that consciousness arising through integrated information is — arbitrary, somehow. Koch: If you think about any explanation of anything, how far back does it go?
Intuition pump In the case of the Chinese Room argument, Dennett argues that the intuitive notion that a person manipulating symbols seems inadequate to constitute any form of consciousness ignores the requirements of memory, recall, emotion, world knowledge and rationality that the system would actually need to pass such a test. "Searle does not deny that programs can have all this structure, of course," Dennett says.[2] "He simply discourages us from attending to it. But if we are to do a good job imagining the case, we are not only entitled but obliged to imagine that the program Searle is hand-simulating has all this structure — and more, if only we can imagine it. A popular strategy in philosophy is to construct a certain sort of thought experiment I call an intuition pump [...]. See also[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ Baggini, Julian; Peter Fosl (2003). "2". External links[edit]
Chinese room The Chinese room is a thought experiment presented by John Searle to challenge the claim that it is possible for a digital computer running a program to have a "mind" and "consciousness" in the same sense that people do, simply by virtue of running the right program. According to Searle, when referring to a hypothetical computer program which can be told a story then answer questions about it: Partisans of strong AI claim that in this question and answer sequence the machine is not only simulating a human ability but also (1) that the machine can literally be said to understand the story and provide the answers to questions, and (2) that what the machine and its program do explains the human ability to understand the story and answer questions about it. To contest this view, Searle writes in his first description of the argument: "Suppose that I'm locked in a room and ... that I know no Chinese, either written or spoken". Chinese room thought experiment[edit] More general context[edit]
Our Conscious Mind Could Be An Electromagnetic Field Are our thoughts made of the distributed kind of electromagnetic field that permeates space and carries the broadcast signal to the TV or radio. Professor Johnjoe McFadden from the School of Biomedical and Life Sciences at the University of Surrey in the UK believes our conscious mind could be an electromagnetic field. “The theory solves many previously intractable problems of consciousness and could have profound implications for our concepts of mind, free will, spirituality, the design of artificial intelligence, and even life and death,” he said. Most people consider "mind" to be all the conscious things that we are aware of. But much, if not most, mental activity goes on without awareness. Actions such as walking, changing gear in your car or peddling a bicycle can become as automatic as breathing. The biggest puzzle in neuroscience is how the brain activity that we're aware of (consciousness) differs from the brain activity driving all of those unconscious actions. 16-May-2002
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran (born 1951) is a neuroscientist known primarily for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and visual psychophysics. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Graduate Program in Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. Ramachandran is also Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition affiliated with the UC San Diego Department of Psychology.[1] Ramachandran is noted for his use of experimental methods that make relatively little use of complex technologies such as neuroimaging. Despite the apparent simplicity of his approach, he has generated many new ideas about the brain.[2] Ramachandran is the author of several books that have garnered widespread public interest. Early life and education[edit] Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran (in accordance with some Tamil family name traditions, the town of his family's origin, Vilayanur, is placed first) was born in 1951 in Tamil Nadu, India.