4 papers in the library · publishing 2010-2017
WIREs Cognitive Science September 1, 2017 Ralf-Peter Behrendt
A commentary on a prior article proposing that neurotypical subjective experience arises from a hippocampal simulation process. The commentary engages with the philosophical and neuroscientific dimensions of consciousness, situating the discussion within the categories of philosophy of consciousness and neuroanatomy.
Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry November 3, 2016 Ralf-Peter Behrendt
Hallucinations may not be fundamentally different from normal conscious experiences; both arise from the same neural processes. Conscious experience reflects the formation of event (episodic) memories, linking hallucinations to the hippocampus. Perceptions and misperceptions are manifestations of activity patterns that recurrently emerge in the CA3 network of the hippocampus, which forms allocentric representations of objects in context. The hippocampus integrates sensory information, emotional context, and guides decision-making via the medial prefrontal cortex. Disruptions in relational memory processing in the hippocampus can give rise to hallucinations. Neurobiological and neuroimaging findings in schizophrenia research support this framework.
Frontiers in Psychology January 1, 2013 Ralf-Peter Behrendt
Unitary conscious experience can be defined as a symbolic representation of the pattern of hippocampal neuronal firing that encodes an event memory. At each cycle of the θ rhythm, the hippocampus rapidly forms event codes that integrate object information from the ventral visual stream and orbitofrontal cortex, contextual emotional information from the anterior insula, and spatial environmental information from the dorsal visual stream. These event codes, formed in the CA3-dentate network for memorization, are allocentric representations, similar to conscious experiences of events in a seemingly objective framework of phenomenal space and time. Conscious perception is evolutionarily related to autobiographical memory recall, mental imagery, dreaming, and hallucinations, and evidence for hippocampal contributions to these phenomena is reviewed.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Ralf-Peter Behrendt
The hippocampus, particularly its CA3 autoassociation network, encodes spatial and temporal information by situating landmarks and objects within an allocentric frame. This process guides locomotion and organizes behavior across space and time, thereby creating phenomenal space and time and laying the groundwork for conscious awareness. The authors argue that conscious experience describes the informational content of self-organizing activity patterns in CA3. They propose that excessive pyramidal cell activity in CA3, resulting from deficient inhibition by GABAergic basket interneurons and leading to event memory formation unrestrained by entorhinal input, may be a mechanism for generating hallucinations in schizophrenia.