ISSN 1381-589X
105 papers in the library · 352 citations · publishing 1995-2017
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Heather Ashton
The endocannabinoid system acts as a neuromodulator, interacting with other neuromodulators such as the opioids. It influences all vital body functions and sets the tone of every conscious thought and feeling. It operates largely below conscious levels but occasionally floats into consciousness where it is perceived as perfect bliss and pain-free calm.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Antti Revonsuo, Katja Valli
Based on biological realism, that is, the philosophical assumption that consciousness is a real natural biological phenomenon in the brain, we argue that dreaming is a pure form of phenomenality, and suggest that the dreaming brain could be used as a model system for consciousness. The dreaming brain offers the most challenging model system that represents all the theoretically and...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Lucas Campos, Adrian Pichurko, George A. Mashour
We discuss the molecular and cognitive mechanisms of general anaesthesia and their relevance to the science of consciousness. General anaesthetics serve as an important tool to explore the transitions from conscious to unconscious processing, as these drugs rapidly induce a complete and reversible cessation of consciousness. With 40,000,000 patients undergoing general anaesthesia each year in...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Edmund T Rolls
Noise caused by randomness in the spiking times of neurons in the brain has a number of advantages, including contributing to probabilistic decision-making. However, noise results in the brain operating effectively as a non-deterministic system, which has implications for free will. Noise also results in decisions being taken probabilistically between the reasoning system and the implicit...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Timothy J. Crow
Hearing “voices”, the experience of thoughts as not one’s own, and incoherent speech are symptoms of mental illness (usually termed “schizophrenia”). Here I argue that (1) the “torque” is the feature that defines the human brain as four chambered by comparison with the two chambers of the generalized mammalian brain, (2) by separating “thought” from speech production in the frontal lobes, and...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Ralf-Peter Behrendt
Information encoded by the autoassociation network of CA3 situates landmarks and objects within an allocentric frame of space and time. Guiding locomotion across the spatial environment, and generally organizing behaviour that transcends space and time, the hippocampus creates phenomenal space and time themselves, thus laying the foundations for conscious awareness. It is argued that conscious...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Fiona E.N. LeBeau
There is evidence to suggest that synchronised neuronal activity, particularly that in the gamma frequency range (~30–100Hz) might contribute to conscious perception. In this chapter I shall discuss what we know about the mechanisms that underlie the generation of gamma frequency activity and the changes known to occur in diseases such as schizophrenia. Until recently it was difficult to test...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Bangalore N Gangadhar, Naren P. Rao
Consciousness can be altered willfully. There are different methods to induce altered state of consciousness including psychological means. While some such induced states are pathological many others are not. Indian and other eastern concepts emphasize one can induce "higher states of consciousness" oneself. Physiological changes are observed in these altered states of consciousness that point...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 William Sedley
Auditory consciousness takes many forms. Some of these, such as auditory perception and imagination, are familiar to nearly all people, which others, such as tinnitus or hearing voices, are rare and unfamiliar to most. This chapter proposes a simplified conceptual model of the auditory system, involving bottom-up influences from the lower auditory pathways and top-down influences from higher...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Mark Solms, Jaak Panksepp
We believe that conscious mental phenomena (such as feelings) are not epiphenomenal to the workings of the brain. Feelings evolved for good biological reasons; they make specific, concrete contributions to brain functioning. Notwithstanding all the philosophical complexities, therefore, the non-conscious/conscious interactions that are the focus of this book are, in our view, causal...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Stan Franklin, Bernard J. Baars
Unconscious processes come in two varieties, the preconscious, whose contents may become conscious, and the never-conscious, whose contents may not. In this chapter we make use of Global Workspace Theory and its LIDA model to catalogue never-conscious and preconscious processes, and offer an explanation of the functionally of the distinction. The LIDA/GWT model suggests that the functional...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Colin W.G. Clifford, Justin A. Harris, Ehsan Arabzadeh
Although a large proportion of the human brain is dedicated to processing incoming sensory information, much of this processing is not accessible to consciousness. In an effort to understand what differentiates conscious from unconscious processing, we are concerned here with methodological issues in exploring the limits of unconscious processing. We first consider a conscious perceptual...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Signy Sheldon, Morris Moscovitch
A commonly held assumption is that consciousness is a defining feature that distinguishes explicit memory (with conscious awareness) from implicit memory (without conscious awareness). Although early studies support this notion, recent evidence suggests that conscious and non-conscious memory systems may share crucial underlying processes. Here, we propose that one locus of interaction between...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Dominic H Ffytche
Neurobiological accounts of consciousness typically partition brain activity into two components: one correlated with conscious experience (the neural correlate of consciousness) and the other not. Here I use evidence derived from visual hallucinations in the context of eye disease – the Charles Bonnet Syndrome – to examine the nature of what might be termed the visual unconscious. Forcing us...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Daniel Collerton
Dementing illnesses massively damage the structures and processes thought to underlie consciousness. However, maintained alertness, preserved awareness, and the appearance of hallucinations in people with dementia all suggest that consciousness survives extreme challenge; implying that conscious processes are extremely robust, and conscious content invariably present.
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Elaine K. Perry, Valerie L. Laws
Among agents which alter the boundary between conscious and non conscious cognition, the ritualistic use of plant species (often in a spiritual context, hence ‘plants of the gods’) provides an example of long-standing empirical knowledge subsequently verified by scientific (chemical, pharmacological and psychological) evidence. Based on such an impressive record of acquired knowledge,...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Michael E. Hasselmo
Consciousness is described in this article as a perception of self that is constructed for guidance of voluntary goal-directed behaviour, including neural mechanisms for mental time travel into the future during planning and into the past during episodic retrieval. Neural time travel draws on the distributed cortical perceptual processes for detecting the state of the self along multiple...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Biyu J. He, Marcus E. Raichle
We propose a neurophysiological hypothesis on the emergence of consciousness, which postulates that the slow cortical potential (SCP) recorded from the surface of the brain provides an index of the activities of superficial-layer pyramidal neurons that directly contribute to the emergence of conscious awareness. This hypothesis is supported by existing data from manipulations of conscious...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Armando D'Agostino, Ivan Limosani, Silvio Scarone
Periodicity, hallucinatory phenomena and lack of awareness of one’s detachment from reality seem to connect the subjective experience of dreaming to that of psychosis. Both can be considered fully conscious states of the brain/mind, with an immediate influence of non-conscious elements caused by an impaired interaction with the external world. Psychological and pharmacological induction of...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Antoine Lutz
Exploring the initial findings of neuroscientific research on meditation, new horizons of further inquiry in consciousness research are apparent. While such studies of contemplative practices are still in their infancy, early findings promise to contribute in three key areas. These include: Neuroplasticity – physiological and psychological indices of short and long terms responses of the brain...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 28, 2010 Allan Hobson, Ursula Voss
In this essay, we develop our working hypothesis that consciousness in primates and humans is a state-dependent commodity that has at least two expressions. Waking and dreaming are two such states that differ in conscious awareness. In both states, we are perceptive and emotional. Whereas in dreaming, our thoughts are delusional, however, waking consciousness potentiates volition and...
Advances in Consciousness Research October 22, 2009 Gordon G. Globus
The Transparent Becoming of World undertakes a penetrating inquiry into the quotidian world we take for granted and the brain that silently hoists our bubbles of world-thrownness. After critiquing the traditional views of direct realism, indirect realism and idealism, the continual becoming of world is explained by a novel integration of process dynamics, as formulated by Whitehead, Heidegger...
Advances in Consciousness Research January 14, 2009
Panpsychism is the view that all things, living and nonliving, possess some mind like quality. It stands in sharp contrast to the traditional notion of mind as the property of humans and (perhaps) a few select ‘higher animals’. Though surprising at first glance, panpsychism has a long and noble history in both Western and Eastern thought. Overlooked by analytical, materialist philosophy for...
Advances in Consciousness Research March 27, 2008 Greg Janzen
Combining phenomenological insights from Brentano and Sartre, but also drawing on recent work on consciousness by analytic philosophers, this book defends the view that conscious states are reflexive, and necessarily so, i.e., that they have a built-in, “implicit” awareness of their own occurrence, such that the subject of a conscious state has an immediate, non-objectual acquaintance with it....
Advances in Consciousness Research March 15, 2006 Russell T. Hurlburt, Christopher L. Heavey
Written for the psychologist, philosopher, and layperson interested in consciousness, Exploring Inner Experience provides a comprehensive introduction to the Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) method for obtaining accurate reports of inner experience. DES uses a beeper to cue participants to pay attention to their experience at precisely defined moments; participants are then interviewed to...