How to Begin to Overcome the Ambiguity Present in Differentiation between Contents and Levels of Consciousness?
Frontiers in Psychology March 21, 2012 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00082 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Contents States Consciousness Levels Neural correlates |
| Key points | Argues that empirical measurement of levels of consciousness suffers from ambiguous and underspecified labels, and that neural-correlate research has not been well linked to psychophysical approaches to levels. Proposes advancing the psychophysics of levels by precisely specifying level-specific contents and by relating the contents/levels distinction to the distinction between brain mechanisms for processing contents and those regulating the level of consciousness. |
Abstract
Recently, a welcome trend has emerged - in addition to the traditional studies on contents and states of consciousness, levels of consciousness have become a matter of research. However, there are some conceptual and methodological difficulties with this research - the labels used for empirical measurement of levels are ambiguous and underspecified while the research on neural correlates of consciousness has not been well linked to psychophysical approaches to studying the levels of consciousness. This article suggests a perspective on how to advance the psychophysics of measuring the levels by precisely specifying level-specific contents and how to relate the distinction between contents and levels to the distinction between the underlying brain mechanisms necessary for processing contents and regulating the level of consciousness.
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Cites 11
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- Integrated Information in Discrete Dynamical Systems: Motivation and Theoretical Framework PLoS Computational Biology June 12, 2008
- The neural correlates of consciousness: New experimental approaches needed? Consciousness and Cognition April 5, 2009
- Neural Correlates of Contents and Levels of Consciousness Frontiers in Psychology 2010
- The grand challenge of consciousness Frontiers in Psychology 2010
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