An increasing number of studies highlight common brain regions and processes in mediating conscious sensory experience. While most studies have been performed in the visual modality, it is implicitly assumed that similar processes are involved in other sensory modalities. However, the existence of supramodal neural processes related to conscious perception has not been convincingly shown so...
In the acknowledgements section of her 2019 book Artificial You, Susan Schneider relates that “This book was a delight to write.” (Schneider 2019, 153) It shows. The book is a delight to read. Artificial You is relatively short and, thankfully, without a lot of neurophilosophical jargon. Its primary objective is to present a multi-faceted exploration of how artificial intelligence (AI) and its...
Whether the brain operates at a critical ‘‘tipping” point is a long standing scientific question, with evidence from both cellular and systems-scale studies suggesting that the brain does sit in, or near, a critical regime. Neuroimaging studies of humans in altered states of consciousness have prompted the suggestion that maintenance of critical dynamics is necessary for the emergence of...
The topic of synchronicity has long intrigued philosophers, scientists and the general public. Carl Jung formally introduced the term “synchronicity” in the 1950s, however to date very little empirical research has explored the underlying mechanisms of synchronicity. In other words, why do synchronicities occur? Are synchronicities random, or do they hold clues about the ultimate nature of...
This is the first in a series of instalments aiming at a minimal model explanation for conscious experience, taking the phenomenal character of “pure consciousness” or “pure awareness” in meditation as its entry point. It develops the concept of “minimal phenomenal experience” (MPE) as a candidate for the simplest form of consciousness, substantiating it by extracting six semantic constraints...
Psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, LSD and DMT are known to induce powerful alterations in phenomenology. Perhaps of most philosophical and scientific interest is their capacity to disrupt and even “dissolve” one of the most primary features of normal experience: that of being a self. Such “peak” or “mystical” experiences are of increasing interest for their potentially transformative...
Introduction: Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully aware of where we are and what we’re doing. It is a special form of attention, a cognitive phenomenon that can increase awareness of internal pain or stress and help to cultivate habits of practicing self-care. Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This study was carried out to analyse...
A new book by Philip Goff, Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, accomplishes a number of notable things. Perhaps foremost, Goff provides an excellent overview of the debate on consciousness for a wide audience with little or no background in philosophy. He guides the reader through the various frameworks that include dualism, physicalism, and panpsychism. Goff’s...
Research exploring the nature of near-death experiences (NDEs) is extensive. There are a variety of hypothesized mechanisms proposed to explain the origin of the experiences, including hallucinations due to physiological changes in a dying brain. However, there is growing evidence that these theories cannot explain a number of the characteristics of NDEs. In this article we present a detailed...
Entropy (Basel, Switzerland)March 16, 2020Nicholas J M Popiel, Sina Khajehabdollahi, Pubuditha M. Abeyasinghe et al.
Integrated Information Theory (IIT) posits that integrated information ( Φ ) represents the quantity of a conscious experience. Here, the generalized Ising model was used to calculate Φ as a function of temperature in toy models of fully connected neural networks. A Monte-Carlo simulation was run on 159 normalized, random, positively weighted networks analogous to small five-node excitatory...