Perspectives on Psychological Science
March 2009
Peter J Marshall
Advances in brain research have invigorated an ongoing debate about the relations between psychology and neuroscience. Cognitive science has historically neglected the study of neuroscience, although the influential subfield of cognitive neuroscience has since attempted to combine information processing approaches with an awareness of brain functioning. Although cognitive neuroscience does not...
Dialogue
March 1, 2009
Marc Champagne
5 citations
ABSTRACT: This paper suggests that it is largely a want of notional distinctions which fosters the “explanatory gap” that has beset the study of consciousness since T. Nagel’s revival of the topic. Modifying Ned Block’s controversial claim that we should countenance a “phenomenal-consciousness” which exists in its own right, we argue that there is a way to recuperate the intuitions he appeals...
Sleep
March 1, 2009
Katrina Stuart, Russell Conduit
There is debate in dream research as to whether ponto-geniculo-occipital (PGO) waves or cortical arousal during sleep underlie the biological mechanisms of dreaming. This study comprised 2 experiments. As eye movements (EMs) are currently considered the best noninvasive indicator of PGO burst activity in humans, the aim of the first experiment was to investigate the effect of low-intensity...
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
March 1, 2009
Athena Demertzi, Charlene Liew, Didier Ledoux et al.
125 citations
The relationship between mind and brain has philosophical, scientific, and practical implications. Two separate but related surveys from the University of Edinburgh (University students, n= 250) and the University of Liège (health-care workers, lay public, n= 1858) were performed to probe attitudes toward the mind-brain relationship and the variables that account for differences in views. Four...
New Mathematics and Natural Computation
February 16, 2009
Andrew A Fingelkurts, Alexander A Fingelkurts, Carlos F H Neves
63 citations
In our contribution we will observe phenomenal architecture of a mind and operational architectonics of the brain and will show their intimate connectedness within a single integrated metastable continuum. The notion of operation of different complexity is the fundamental and central one in bridging the gap between brain and mind: it is precisely by means of this notion that it is possible to...
Neuroscience Letters
February 6, 2009
Jaan Aru, Talis Bachmann
Boost up gamma-band neuronal oscillations have been interpreted as a correlate of pertinent stimulus awareness. The validity of this observation-based conclusion can be rigorously tested if the basic methodological rule of investigating neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) is followed: the varying contents of consciousness should be contrasted with invariant stimulation. We asked whether...
The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine
February 1, 2009
Guy Kahane, Julian Savulescu
126 citations
Neuroimaging studies of brain-damaged patients diagnosed as in the vegetative state suggest that the patients might be conscious. This might seem to raise no new ethical questions given that in related disputes both sides agree that evidence for consciousness gives strong reason to preserve life. We question this assumption. We clarify the widely held but obscure principle that consciousness is...
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...
World Futures
January 8, 2009
Maria Armezzani
5 citations
Analyzing the outline of the endless literature on consciousness, the separation between science and philosophy rather than being overcome, seems to come back in different shapes. According to this point of view, the hard problem seems to be how to study consciousness while avoiding a slip back to the old dualism. This article outlines the advantages of the phenomenological method. This method,...
World Futures
January 8, 2009
Mauro Maldonato
19 citations
Up until only a few decades ago, not many scholars recognized scientific dignity in the problem of consciousness. In the last few years this scenario has changed. The rapid development of non-invasive research techniques that explore cerebral functions has not only increased our knowledge on the correlations between mental processes and cerebral structures, but it has fed our hopes for the...