Nature Precedings
July 18, 2011
Rodrick Wallace
Abstract Once cognition is recognized as having a 'dual' information source, the information theory chain rule implies that isolating coresident information sources from crosstalk requires more metabolic free energy than permitting correlation. This provides conditions for an evolutionary exaptation leading to the rapid, shifting global neural broadcasts of consciousness. The argument is quite...
Nature Precedings
May 6, 2011
Sepehr Ehsani
1 citation
Abstract The perception of time is an indispensable facet of human consciousness, and may in fact be dynamically present in primates and other species, albeit with different manifestations. Moreover, contrary to the physical measures of time, cognitive temporal perception may be subjectively affected by both internal and environmental cues. Here we review the evidence for the potential role of...
Nature Precedings
January 5, 2011
Rodrick Wallace
Abstract The Stanley Miller experiment suggests that amino acid-based life is ubiquitous in our universe, although its varieties are not likely to have followed the particular, highly contingent and path-dependent, evolutionary trajectory found on Earth. Are many alien organisms likely to be conscious in ways that we would recognize? Almost certainly. Will some develop high order technology?...
Nature Precedings
April 28, 2010
Alfredo Pereira, Jonathan Edwards, Dietrich Lehmann et al.
Abstract An invited workshop on ‘Theories of Consciousness’ was organized in the format of a Nature Network closed group during the second semester of 2009. There were presentations by each of 15 authors active in the field, followed by debate with other presenters and invitees. A week was allocated to each of the theories proposed; general discussion threads were also opened from time to time,...
Nature Precedings
November 20, 2008
UnCheol Lee, Seunghwan Kim, Gyu‐jeong Noh et al.
33 citations
Abstract The cognitive unbinding paradigm suggests that the synthesis of cognitive information is attenuated by general anesthesia. Here, we investigated the functional organization of brain activities in the conscious and anesthetized states, based on characteristic functional segregation and integration of electroencephalography (EEG). EEG recordings were obtained from 14 subjects undergoing...
Nature Precedings
November 5, 2008
Chris King
4 citations
Abstract Abstract: The nature and physical basis of consciousness remains the central enigma of the scientific description of reality in the third millennium. This paper seeks to examine the phenomenal nature of subjective consciousness and elucidate a possible biophysical basis for its existence, in terms of a form of quantum anticipation based on entangled states driven by chaotic sensitivity...
Nature Precedings
October 31, 2008
Frederic Peters
Abstract At the phenomenal level, consciousness can be described as a singular, unified field of recursive self-awareness, consistently coherent in a particular way; that of a subject located both spatially and temporally in an egocentrically-extended domain, such that conscious self-awareness is explicitly characterized by I-ness, now-ness and here-ness. The psychological mechanism...
Nature Precedings
September 10, 2008
Ram Lakhan Pandey Vimal
5 citations
Abstract The investigation of subjective experiences (SEs) of space and time is at the core of consciousness research. The term ‘space’ includes the subject and objects. The SE of subject, I-ness, is defined as ‘Self’. The SEs of objects, subject’s external body, and subject’s internal states such as feelings, thoughts, and so on can be investigated using the proto-experience (PE)-SE framework....
Nature Precedings
2008
Chris King
AbstractRecent research into whole genome mapping of the mouse brain has made possible direct investigation of the brain expression of unusual genes. A search of the Allen Brain Atlas database has provided genetic and neuro-anatomical evidence for widespread specific expression in the brain of eight genes specific to sensory transduction, in vision, hearing and touch. A novel biophysical model...
Nature Precedings
December 3, 2007
Juan Pablo Ogalde, Bernardo Arriaza, Elia C. Soto
4 citations
Abstract Hallucinogenic plants are often regarded as the main source of psychoactive drugs in antiquity to reach deep altered states of consciousness^1,2^. Many researchers believe this was particularly true during the Tiwanaku empire expansion, circa (500-1000 A.D.), along the Atacama Desert of Chile. Highly decorated snuffing tablets and tubes are often found as grave goods during this...
Nature Precedings
November 15, 2007
Chien-Hui Liou, Chang-Wei Hsieh, Chao-Hsien Hsieh et al.
6 citations
Abstract The human brain possesses plenty of functions but little is known about its scientific relationship with mind and spirit. Conferences^1,2^ focused on the connection between science and religion were held very recently in which neuroscientists, Buddhist scholars and Dalai Lama discussed attention, mental imagery, emotion, mind, brain functions and meditation, suggesting religious...