Greg Detre
@8 on 7/11/00
Susan Greenfield � Prof. of Pharmacology, Lincoln, Director of Royal Institute
100 billion brain cells
consciousness as what you lose when anaesthetised
qualia as the quintessentially subjective; sci as quintessentially objective
consciousness as a CLM � career limiting move
first, try to develop a correlation, bilingual framework, marry the two frameworks/levels/terminologies
scie = falsifiable testable hypothesis
halephone(???) anaesthetic � in fMRI, the entire brain shuts down along with consciousness � no special centre for consciousness
premise 1
consciousness is generated by/for the brain
the micro extreme equivalent of a macro centre of consciousness is panpsychism
do you ever have >1 conscoiusness at once? e.g. the vase/2-faces, one-or-the-other
but how can we have temporal unity and spatial multiplicity?
is a rat conscious? (yes, according to the Home Office, rat = sentient)
but consciousness like we are?
what about foetuses? where do we place the boundary?
null hypothesis � foetus is not conscious
but then when does it happen? birth, birth canal � ?
conscious as different from self-consciousness (language)
(qualia)
if the child is consciouss, then so is the foetus, but the zygot is not
premise 2
no, there�s a continuum of consciousness that grows with the brain
if so, then we have varying levels of consciousness sometimes
then, consciousness is quantifiable, that � and �
premise 3
intentionality � that we�re conscious of something, usually indirectly the outside world, epicentre
e.g. stone thrown into a pond, highly transient effect (ripples), whose degree varies by many factors
is there such a trigger?
fallacy of grandmother cells, seeing neurons as much more than they are (individually)
London taxi drivers � enlarged area of the brain, larger then longer they�ve been a taxi driver � plasticity
mind vs consciousness � mind as personalisation of the brain (learning + synaptic weights)
you can be out of your mind and still conscious, and vice versa
hardwired hubs = mind; the more significant, the more consciousness
a large number of neurons connected together (one flash of light �/span> 230ms 10m neurons) cause a transient ripple
these huge ripples would encompass most of the brain; different each time
we need to be able to precisely look at the brain at high temporal and spatial acuity
what type of consciousness if you had a small brain or few connections?
children as minimal, simple passive sponges to sensation
cf schizophrenia
dreaming = when you don't have sensory input, so smaller ripples
feels real, though it�s illogical (small assembly state)
link between babies + dreaming
raves as tapping into sensational consciousness
self-consciousness as death knell for losing yourself in the music
what if you had a large assembly?
grey world without emotion, cut off, numb = clinical depression
emotion as hallmark of small assembly world
building block of consciousness = emotion
AI = computer that ran off with your wife
degree of pain is metaphorical to size of neuronal assembly
feel pain less during the middle of the day
morphine �/span> small assembly, � corraling of the neurons, small assembly, feel the pain but it doesn't bother them
Greenfield has allowed us to interface or bridge the explanatory gap of consciousness
we can talk of consciousness in physical terms
so what is it about these neuronal ripples that �/span> qualia?
�brains in a vat� = nonsense, 3 control systems that must� interact (NS, endocrine, immune)
consciousness as the iteration(interaction???) between these three systems
assembly of neurons = index of that iteration
peptides = bilingual, global
unique cocktail of 200 peptides that affect all three systems
this idea llows for the multiplicity of our phenomenology
large assembly is more logical because less reliant on sense-input
Candace Pert � The Molecules of Emotion
wrong that there is a peptide for emotion
some parts of the brain could be better connected and better epicentres of consciousness
e.g. human frontal cortex is two times larger than a human-sized primate
depression/schizophrenia are related to the activity
source amnesia � memories disembodied in time + space like animals
sentience = consciousness???
I am a panpsychist???
Amvan Grimwald
Crich + Edelman � limited
what is growing about the brain to make it become more conscious (panpsych, functionalist)???
is the degree of conscious an Orwellian illusion???
armies � fountains, modulations
ID theory � token, mental states = physical states, but different every time
why should ripple size affect logicality?
so what are qualia??? are they non-physical???
what about causal role + free will???
ecstasy = (Gk) stand outside of yourself
AI � needs a reward system
peptides are different type of somatic marker hypothesis
The Private Life of the Brain � Greenfield
what does it meant o call the neuronal assembly the index of the chemical landscape of the body???