Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures
2014
B. Goertzel
Abstract Synthesizing concepts and findings from a number of recent models of human consciousness, a unified model of the key properties characterizing human consciousness is outlined. Six key properties are emphasized: Dynamical representation of the focus of consciousness, Focusing of energetic resources and focusing of informational resources on a subset of system knowledge, Global Workspace...
2014
Joanna Nicholls-Parker
The subject of this thesis is the spiritual practices taught by Gurdjieff (1870-1949) and the legacy of these teachings in the major spiritual groups that have aspired to follow his path. I argue that at the core of these spiritual techniques are the practices that Gurdjieff referred to as “self-remembering” and “transition” and that by an analysis of these it is possible to articulate...
uO Research
2014
Shaofan Bu
The aim of this study was to explore psychotherapists‘ practice of mindful acceptance. I employed the hermeneutic phenomenological approach with the intention of creating thick descriptions of how mindful acceptance is performed in therapy sessions with clients by psychotherapists with backgrounds in mindfulness. The findings for this study came from a variety of sources including,...
PLoS One
2014
Nicola Bertolino, Stefania Ferraro, Anna Nigri et al.
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether artificial neural networks (ANN) are able to decode participants' conscious experience perception from brain activity alone, using complex and ecological stimuli. To reach the aim we conducted pattern recognition data analysis on fMRI data acquired during the execution of a binocular visual rivalry paradigm (BR). Twelve healthy participants...
Frontiers in Psychology
2014
Nicole K Flaig, Edward W Large
Is there something special about the way music communicates feelings? Theorists since Meyer (1956) have attempted to explain how music could stimulate varied and subtle affective experiences by violating learned expectancies, or by mimicking other forms of social interaction. Our proposal is that music speaks to the brain in its own language; it need not imitate any other form of communication....
Current Pharmaceutical Design
2014
Jaakko Långsjö, Antti Revonsuo, Harry Scheinin
Philosophers have been trying to solve the mind-body problem for hundreds of years. Consciousness is the core of this problem: How do subjective conscious sensations, perceptions, feelings, and thoughts arise out of objective physical brain activities? How is this subjective conscious world in causal interaction with the objective sensory and motor mechanisms of the brain and the body? Although...
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
2014
Siveshigan Pillay, Jeannette Vizuete, Xiping Liu et al.
States of consciousness have been associated with information integration in the brain as modulated by anesthesia and the ascending arousal system. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that electrical stimulation of the oral part of the pontine reticular nucleus (PnO) can augment information integration in the cerebral cortex of anesthetized rats. Extracellular unit activity...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
2014
Julia Mossbridge, Patrizio Tressoldi, Jessica Utts et al.
A recent meta-analysis of experiments from seven independent laboratories (n = 26) indicates that the human body can apparently detect randomly delivered stimuli occurring 1-10 s in the future (Mossbridge etal., 2012). The key observation in these studies is that human physiology appears to be able to distinguish between unpredictable dichotomous future stimuli, such as emotional vs. neutral...
2014
Lucille Villasenor-Caron
This is an autoethnography that provides a thick description, analysis and reflection of my personal Multiple Sclerosis healing journey, supported by a transpersonal modality based on an ancient shamanic wisdom.This research explores Ayahuasca as a transpersonal therapy, which is facilitated by a spiritual plant that has been used for centuries by Indigenous Peoples in the Amazonian region for...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
January 2014
Simon McCarthy-Jones, Tom Trauer, Andrew Mackinnon et al.
A comprehensive understanding of the phenomenology of auditory hallucinations (AHs) is essential for developing accurate models of their causes. Yet, only 1 detailed study of the phenomenology of AHs with a sample size of N ≥ 100 has been published. The potential for overreliance on these findings, coupled with a lack of phenomenological research into many aspects of AHs relevant to...