The Neuroscientist
October 2003
Hal Blumenfeld, Jacob Taylor
Model systems are needed for the scientific investigation of consciousness. A good model system should include variable states of consciousness, allowing the relationship between brain activity and consciousness to be investigated. Examples include sleep, anesthesia, focal brain lesions, development, evolution, and epilepsy. One advantage of epilepsy is that changes are dynamic and rapidly...
Psychological Reports
October 1, 2003
Ezequiel Morsella
The function of phenomenal states remains a mystery, primarily because of the prevalent, a priori view that these states serve no functional role. This note is a call to arms against this uncorroborated and counterproductive view, which continues to stifle research on the topic. It is proposed that, given what we know and can accomplish with the tools at hand, discovering the function of...
Mana
October 1, 2003
Benny Shanon
19 citations
Este artigo examina os conteúdos das alucinações visuais induzidas pela infusão psicotrópica ayahuasca. Ele faz parte de uma investigação fenomenológica mais ampla que busca estudar a ayahuasca de uma perspectiva psicológico-cognitiva. (Até agora, quase todos os estudos da ayahuasca partiram das ciências naturais ou da antropologia.) Análises comparativas quantitativas revelam que certos itens...
Identity, Cause, and Mind
September 4, 2003
Sydney Shoemaker
Abstract In his recent paper “Are Absent Qualia Impossible?” (hereafter AAQI),1 Ned Block attempts to rebut an argument I gave for an affirmative answer to his title question in my paper, “Functionalism and Qualia” (hereafter F&Q).2 The issues raised by this controversy go far beyond the question of whether a particular argument of mine is successful. The question of what account we are to give...
Anthropology of Consciousness
September 1, 2003
Robin Rodd
Shamans of the Piaroa ethnic group (southern Venezuela) conceive of power in terms of knowledge derived from visionary experiences. Märipa is an epistemology concerning the translation of knowledge derived from the integrative mode of consciousness, induced primarily through the consumption of plant hallucinogens, to practical effect during waking life. I integrate mythological,...
Ethnography
September 1, 2003
Kathryn Linn Geurts
Anlo-Ewe generally refers to a dialect of the Ewe language spoken in southeastern Ghana, with Anlo designating an ethnolinguistic group whose homeland is on a littoral between the Keta Lagoon and the sea. Etymologically, however, Anlo derives from the Ewe term ‘nlo’ which means rolling up or folding into oneself. This article describes moments of ethnographic fieldwork that led to tracing links...
Contemporary Hypnosis
September 1, 2003
Sakari Kallio, Antti Revonsuo
133 citations
Abstract There is currently agreement that, in addition to the changes in external behaviour, suggestions presented in a hypnotic context may give rise to changes in subjective experience. Yet, there is no general agreement about the theoretical framework within which these changes in experience should be explained. Though different theories about hypnosis overlap in many respects, there is...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
September 1, 2003
Ede Frecska, Keith D. White, Luis E. Luna
12 citations
An early theoretical analysis supposed changes in hemispheric integration as the basis of altered state of consciousness induced by psychoactive drugs. Brain imaging studies revealed right cortical activation after administration of hallucinogens. Recent studies on binocular rivalry suggest that interhemispheric switching is the neural substrate of the perceptual oscillations observed during...
Neurologic Clinics
August 1, 2003
A. Whatham, Patrik Vuilleumier, T. Landis et al.
Conscious experience is an essential part of normal human life and interaction with the environment. Yet the nature of consciousness and conscious perception remains a mystery. Because of its subjective nature, consciousness has been difficult to investigate scientifically, but clues have been gained through studies involving patients with cortical lesions. During the past decade, the...
Bio Systems
August 2003
Andrei Khrennikov
We develop a quantum formalism (Hilbert space probabilistic calculus) for measurements performed over cognitive systems. In particular, this formalism is used for mathematical modelling of the functioning of consciousness as a self-measuring quantum-like system. By using this formalism, we could predict averages of cognitive observables. Reflecting the basic idea of neurophysiological and...