Neurobiology of Consciousness

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Neurobiology of Consciousness

• Dr. Scott Decker
• Areas of Research
• Foundation
• NCC
• Damasio Somatic Marker Hypothesis
• Edelman

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Brief Background
Georgia State University
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Darwin

• Most plausible explanation of biological
  complexity.
• How environmental variation may differentially
  influence gene variation which in turn influences
  phenotypes.
• Do genes matter? Eye as preparation for detecting
  electromagnetic radiation.

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Functionalism

• Consciousness is as Consciousness does
• Consciousness as
• a physical design
• problem

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Science of Consciousness

• Materialistic explain consciousness based on the
  stuff or workings of the stuff in the brain.
• Reductionistic explain consciousness in more
  simplistic elements

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Neural Correlates of Consciousness

• 1) What do we mean by 'consciousness'?
• (2) What do we mean by 'neural correlate of
  consciousness'?
• (3) How can we find the neural correlate(s) of
  consciousness?
• (4) What will a neural correlate of consciousness
  explain?
• (5) Is consciousness reducible to its neural
  correlate(s)?

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Problem of Consciousness

• Chalmers
• Easy Problem cognitive abilities and functions
  (perceptual, categorization..)
• specify model on how it works or performance,
  determine how much is explained.
• Monitor neural activation
• Hard Problem consciousness as experience
• May not be about performance or function
• May not be reductionistic
• Awareness in between information availability

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Chalmers

• I can see that you have explained how
  information is discriminated, integrated, and
  reported but you have not explained how it is
  experienced. (p. 9)
• Solutions
• Science not ready
• Explain something else
• Deny the phenomenon
• Explain structure of experience
• Add extra ingredient
• Chaos theory
• Quantum physics
• Nonalgorithmic processing

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BRAIN CORRELATES

• 40-hertz oscillations in the cerebral cortex
  (Crick and Koch 1990)
• Binding Problem 35-75 hrtz oscillations
  correlated with awareness. Binds separately
  represented pieces of information about a single
  entity are brought together (red round
  apple).
• Intralaminar nuclei in the thalamus (Bogen 1995)
• Re-entrant loops in thalamocortical systems
  (Edelman 1989)
• 40-hertz rhythmic activity in thalamocortical
  systems (Llinas et al 1994)
• Extended reticular-thalamic activation system
  (Newman and Baars 1993)
• Neural assemblies bound by NMDA (Flohr 1995)
• Certain neurochemical levels of activation
  (Hobson 1997)
• Certain neurons in inferior temporal cortex
  (Sheinberg and Logothetis 1997)
• Neurons in extrastriate visual cortex projecting
  to prefrontal areas (Crick and Koch 1995)
• Visual processing within the ventral stream
  (Milner and Goodale 1995)

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Edelman

• Edelman, G. M. (2000). A universe of
  consciousness.
• Neuronal Group Selection, or Neural Darwinism
• Reentry signal cycles in the thalamocortical
  networks.
• Integration of perceptual-motor processes
• Symphony, each connected, emergent harmony
• Value Systems inbuilt tendencies toward
  particular behaviors.

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Global Work Space

• Baars Global Workspace
• Central processor mediates communication between
  host of specialized nonconscious processors.
  Communal blackboard.
• Maybe more a theory of awareness or
  accessibiliity
• http//www.nsi.edu/users/baars/BaarsConsciousnessB
  ook1988/

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Dennett

• No Cartisian theatre
• Multiple Drafts multiple possibilities exist
  below consciousness with the first narrative
  draft complete becoming conscious
• Top down feedback provides editing
• heterophenomenological approach, what people say
  about their internal subjective experiences is
  allowable as evidence, but as evidence of how
  things feel to them, not as direct evidence of
  "things as they actually are".
• Memes- self-replicating bits of information.
  Belief system correlate of the gene.

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Damasio Somatic Marker Hypothesis

• Consciousness a device capable of maximizing
  the effective manipulation of images in the
  service of interests of a particular organism
  would have given an enormous advantage

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Damasio

• Core Consciousness Low level nonconscious brain
  process of mapping objects to internal
  representations (thalymus, superior colliculus,
  cingulate)
• Represents state of organism
• Brain stem Coma vs. Locked In Syndrome
• Damage Anterior Pons Locked In, Posterior Coma
• Emotion vs Feeling
• Extended Consciousness extended awareness
  autobiographical self

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Integration Conversation

• Must be clear in defining consciousness
• Raise consciousness or awareness
• Both structure and function important
• Qualia unresolved issue
• Multiple components to consciousness, or multiple
  processes
• Therapeutic tool? Mediation?
• Wilbers Stance (genius or memus)
• Wilber agrees with Intelligent Design theorists
  that Neo-Darwinism fails to adequately explain
  the origin of life, sentience, and human
  self-awareness. But he rejects Intelligent Design
  theorists' embrace of a dualistic creator deity
  separate from the creation as the solution to
  these problems. (Wilber's conception of divinity
  is similar to that found in Zen and Advaita
  Vedanta.) he both confirmed his support of the
  scientific method and simultaneously charged
  hardcore Neo-Darwinists with bad faith of almost
  schizophrenic proportions (the ellipsis is
  Wilber's)