Tag Archives: Neuroscience

The magic step and the crucial fork

Posted on December 8, 2019 by

Those of you who’ve known me for a while may remember the long fascination I’ve had with Michael Graziano’s attention schema theory of consciousness.  I covered it early in this blog’s history and have returned to it multiple times over … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , | 45 Comments

The information generation theory of consciousness

Posted on December 1, 2019 by

James of Seattle called my attention to an interesting paper in the Neuroscience of Consciousness journal: Information generation as a functional basis of consciousness: Drawing upon empirical research into consciousness, we propose a hypothesis that a function of consciousness is … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , | 32 Comments

Conscious visual perception happens in the frontal lobes

Posted on November 26, 2019 by

(warning: neuroscience weeds) Okay, switching back to the other major debate in neuroscience: whether conscious perception happens in the back or front of the brain.  A new study presents evidence that seems to bolster the frontal view: Neural Correlates of … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , | 44 Comments

The layers of emotional feelings

Posted on November 25, 2019 by

One of the ongoing debates in neuroscience is on the nature of emotions, where they originate, where they are felt, and how innate versus learned they are. One view, championed by the late Jaak Panksepp and his followers, see emotions … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , | 46 Comments

Debate: Do split-brain patients have two minds?

Posted on November 16, 2019 by

I went to the NYU Consciousness site this morning hoping to see if the recent debate on the relationship of prefrontal activity to consciousness had been posted yet.  It hasn’t, and based on what I can see, it might be … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

The difficulty of isolating evidence for the location of consciousness

Posted on November 2, 2019 by

In the ongoing debate in neuroscience between those who see consciousness being in the back part of the brain, among the sensory processing regions, or in the front of the brain, in the cognitive action planning regions, there are issues … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , | 64 Comments

Integrated information theory

Posted on October 29, 2019 by

I think most of you know I’m not a fan of integrated information theory (IIT).  However, it is a theory proposed by scientists, and I’ve always had a mildly guilty conscience over not having read about it other than through articles … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , | 101 Comments

Angst over mini-brains

Posted on October 26, 2019 by

Organoids, the small pieces of neural tissue grown from stem cells, dubbed “mini-brains”, and used in research, have been getting a lot of attention lately.  Apparently a few neuroscientists are concerned that the organoids might be sentient, and suffering as … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Michael Graziano on mind uploading

Posted on October 20, 2019 by

Michael Graziano has an article at The Guardian, which feels like an excerpt from his new book, exploring what might happen if we can upload minds: Imagine that a person’s brain could be scanned in great detail and recreated in … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , | 204 Comments

A standard model of consciousness?

Posted on September 29, 2019 by

I’ve often noted that I find more consilience than disagreement between the empirically grounded theories of consciousness.  They seem to be looking at the problem at differing levels of organization, and together they may present a growing scientific consensus about … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , | 129 Comments