Monological versus dialogical consciousness: two epistemological views on the use of theory in clinical ethical practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Ohnsorge, Kathrin; Widdershoven, Guy

2011-09-01

In this article, we argue that a critical examination of epistemological and anthropological presuppositions might lead to a more fruitful use of theory in clinical-ethical practice. We differentiate between two views of conceptualizing ethics, referring to Charles Taylors' two epistemological models: 'monological' versus 'dialogical consciousness'. We show that the conception of ethics in the model of 'dialogical consciousness' is radically different from the classical understanding of ethics in the model of 'monological consciousness'. To reach accountable moral judgments, ethics cannot be conceptualized as an individual enterprise, but has to be seen as a practical endeavor embedded in social interactions within which moral understandings are being negotiated. This view has specific implications for the nature and the role of ethical theory. Theory is not created in the individual mind of the ethicist; the use of theory is part of a joint learning process and embedded in a cultural context and social history. Theory is based upon practice, and serves practical purposes. Thus, clinical ethics support is both practical and theoretical. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Consciousness cannot be separated from function.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Michael A; Dennett, Daniel C

2011-08-01

Numerous theories of consciousness hold that there are separate neural correlates of conscious experience and cognitive function, aligning with the assumption that there are 'hard' and 'easy' problems of consciousness. Here, we argue that any neurobiological theory based on an experience/function division cannot be empirically confirmed or falsified and is thus outside the scope of science. A 'perfect experiment' illustrates this point, highlighting the unbreachable boundaries of the scientific study of consciousness. We describe a more nuanced notion of cognitive access that captures personal experience without positing the existence of inaccessible conscious states. Finally, we discuss the criteria necessary for forming and testing a falsifiable theory of consciousness. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Self-consciousness, consciousness of the other and dementias].

Science.gov (United States)

Gil, Roger

2007-06-01

Studies of self-consciousness in dementia concern essentially anosognosia or the loss of insight. However, Self-consciousness is multifaceted: it includes awareness of the body, perceptions, one's own history, identity, and one's own projects. Self-consciousness is linked to consciousness of others i.e. to social cognition supported by identification of others, but also by comprehension of facial expression of emotions, comprehension and expression of emotional prosody, pragmatic abilities, ability to infer other's people's mental states, thoughts, and feelings (theory of mind and empathy), knowledge of social norms and rules, social reasoning. The subtypes of dementias (and namely Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia) affect heterogeneously the different aspects of the self-and other-consciousness. Further studies are needed for a better knowledge of the complex relationship between Self-consciousness, social cognition, decision making and neuropsychiatric symptoms and behavioral disturbances occurring in demented patients.

Signal detection theory, the exclusion failure paradigm and weak consciousness--evidence for the access/phenomenal distinction?

Science.gov (United States)

Irvine, Elizabeth

2009-06-01

Block [Block, N. (2005). Two neural correlates of consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Science, 9, 46-52] and Snodgrass (2006) claim that a signal detection theory (SDT) analysis of qualitative difference paradigms, in particular the exclusion failure paradigm, reveals cases of phenomenal consciousness without access consciousness. This claim is unwarranted on several grounds. First, partial cognitive access rather than a total lack of cognitive access can account for exclusion failure results. Second, Snodgrass's Objective Threshold/Strategic (OT/S) model of perception relies on a problematic 'enable' approach to perception that denies the possibility of intentional control of unconscious perception and any effect of following different task instructions on the presence/absence of phenomenal consciousness. Many of Block's purported examples of phenomenal consciousness without cognitive access also rely on this problematic approach. Third, qualitative difference paradigms may index only a subset of access consciousness. Thus, qualitative difference paradigms like exclusion failure cannot be used to isolate phenomenal consciousness, any attempt to do so still faces serious methodological problems.

Consciousness and neural plasticity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

changes or to abandon the strong identity thesis altogether. Were one to pursue a theory according to which consciousness is not an epiphenomenon to brain processes, consciousness may in fact affect its own neural basis. The neural correlate of consciousness is often seen as a stable structure, that is...

[Cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: from theory to bedside].

Science.gov (United States)

Naccache, Lionel

2013-05-01

The exploration of the neural bases of consciousness (both conscious states and conscious mental contents) has progressed significantly over the last 15 years, in particular concerning the investigation of conscious access during perception. These advancements stem both from original neuropsychological studies, and from the rapid development of functional brain-imaging tools and methods. Only since recently these discoveries lead to medical applications aiming at improving the evaluation and follow-up of patients suffering from impairments of functional communication and/or of consciousness (comatose, vegetative, minimally conscious states, or paralyzed patients such as the "locked in" syndrome or similar conditions). By contributing to possible improvements of diagnosis and prognosis evaluations of these complex medical situations, these new tools open new perspectives associated with noteworthy ethical, social and philosophic implications.

Neural Darwinism and consciousness.

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Seth, Anil K; Baars, Bernard J

2005-03-01

Neural Darwinism (ND) is a large scale selectionist theory of brain development and function that has been hypothesized to relate to consciousness. According to ND, consciousness is entailed by reentrant interactions among neuronal populations in the thalamocortical system (the 'dynamic core'). These interactions, which permit high-order discriminations among possible core states, confer selective advantages on organisms possessing them by linking current perceptual events to a past history of value-dependent learning. Here, we assess the consistency of ND with 16 widely recognized properties of consciousness, both physiological (for example, consciousness is associated with widespread, relatively fast, low amplitude interactions in the thalamocortical system), and phenomenal (for example, consciousness involves the existence of a private flow of events available only to the experiencing subject). While no theory accounts fully for all of these properties at present, we find that ND and its recent extensions fare well.

[The neurodynamic core of consciousness and neural Darwinism].

Science.gov (United States)

Ibáñez, A

In the last decades, the scientific study of consciousness in the scope of the cognitive neurosciences can be considered one of the greatest challenges of contemporary science. The Gerald Edelman theory of consciousness is one of the most promising and controversial perspectives. This theory stands out by its approach to topics usually rejected by other neurophysiologic theories of consciousness, as the case of the neurophysiologic explanation of qualia. The goal of this paper is to review the dynamic core theory of consciousness, presenting the main features of the theory, analyzing the explanation strategies, their empirical extensions, and elaborating some critical considerations about the possibility of the neuroscientific study of qualia. The central and additional theoretical components are analyzed, emphasizing its ontological, restrictive and explanatory assumptions. The properties of conscious phenomena and their cerebral correlates as advanced by the theory are described, and finally its experiments and empirical extensions are examined. The explanatory strategies of the theory are analyzed, based on conceptual isomorphism between the phenomenological properties and the neurophysiological and mathematical measures. Some criticisms could be raised about the limitations of the dynamic core theory, especially regarding its account of the so-called 'hard problem' of consciousness or qualia.

Should a Few Null Findings Falsify Prefrontal Theories of Conscious Perception?

Science.gov (United States)

Odegaard, Brian; Knight, Robert T; Lau, Hakwan

2017-10-04

Is activity in prefrontal cortex (PFC) critical for conscious perception? Major theories of consciousness make distinct predictions about the role of PFC, providing an opportunity to arbitrate between these views empirically. Here we address three common misconceptions: (1) PFC lesions do not affect subjective perception; (2) PFC activity does not reflect specific perceptual content; and (3) PFC involvement in studies of perceptual awareness is solely driven by the need to make reports required by the experimental tasks rather than subjective experience per se. These claims are incompatible with empirical findings, unless one focuses only on studies using methods with limited sensitivity. The literature highlights PFC's essential role in enabling the subjective experience in perception, contra the objective capacity to perform visual tasks; conflating the two can also be a source of confusion. Dual Perspectives Companion Paper: Are the Neural Correlates of Consciousness in the Front or in the Back of the Cerebral Cortex? Clinical and Neuroimaging Evidence, by Melanie Boly, Marcello Massimini, Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Bradley R. Postle, Christof Koch, and Giulio Tononi. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/379593-10$15.00/0.

Prevailing theories of consciousness are challenged by novel cross-modal associations acquired between subliminal stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Ryan B; Samaha, Jason; Chrisley, Ron; Dienes, Zoltan

2018-06-01

While theories of consciousness differ substantially, the 'conscious access hypothesis', which aligns consciousness with the global accessibility of information across cortical regions, is present in many of the prevailing frameworks. This account holds that consciousness is necessary to integrate information arising from independent functions such as the specialist processing required by different senses. We directly tested this account by evaluating the potential for associative learning between novel pairs of subliminal stimuli presented in different sensory modalities. First, pairs of subliminal stimuli were presented and then their association assessed by examining the ability of the first stimulus to prime classification of the second. In Experiments 1-4 the stimuli were word-pairs consisting of a male name preceding either a creative or uncreative profession. Participants were subliminally exposed to two name-profession pairs where one name was paired with a creative profession and the other an uncreative profession. A supraliminal task followed requiring the timed classification of one of those two professions. The target profession was preceded by either the name with which it had been subliminally paired (concordant) or the alternate name (discordant). Experiment 1 presented stimuli auditorily, Experiment 2 visually, and Experiment 3 presented names auditorily and professions visually. All three experiments revealed the same inverse priming effect with concordant test pairs associated with significantly slower classification judgements. Experiment 4 sought to establish if learning would be more efficient with supraliminal stimuli and found evidence that a different strategy is adopted when stimuli are consciously perceived. Finally, Experiment 5 replicated the unconscious cross-modal association achieved in Experiment 3 utilising non-linguistic stimuli. The results demonstrate the acquisition of novel cross-modal associations between stimuli which are not

Science of consciousness and the hard problem

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stapp, H.P.

1996-05-22

Quantum theory is essentially a rationally coherent theory of the interaction of mind and matter, and it allows our conscious thoughts to play a causally efficacious and necessary role in brain dynamics. It therefore provides a natural basis, created by scientists, for the science of consciousness. As an illustration it is explained how the interaction of brain and consciousness can speed up brain processing, and thereby enhance the survival prospects of conscious organisms, as compared to similar organisms that lack consciousness. As a second illustration it is explained how, within the quantum framework, the consciously experienced {open_quotes}I{close_quotes} directs the actions of a human being. It is concluded that contemporary science already has an adequate framework for incorporating causally efficacious experimential events into the physical universe in a manner that: (1) puts the neural correlates of consciousness into the theory in a well defined way, (2) explains in principle how the effects of consciousness, per se, can enhance the survival prospects of organisms that possess it, (3) allows this survival effect to feed into phylogenetic development, and (4) explains how the consciously experienced {open_quotes}I{close_quotes} can direct human behaviour.

Object of desire self-consciousness theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Bogaert, Anthony F; Brotto, Lori A

2014-01-01

In this article, the authors discuss the construct of object of desire self-consciousness, the perception that one is romantically and sexually desirable in another's eyes. The authors discuss the nature of the construct, variations in its expression, and how it may function as part of a self-schemata or script related to romance and sexuality. The authors suggest that object of desire self-consciousness may be an adaptive, evolved psychological mechanism allowing sexual and romantic tactics suitable to one's mate value. The authors also suggest that it can act as a signal that one has high mate value in the sexual marketplace. The authors then review literature (e.g., on fantasies, on sexual activity preferences, on sexual dysfunctions, on language) suggesting that object of desire self-consciousness plays a particularly important role in heterosexual women's sexual/romantic functioning and desires.

Cybernetics and consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Trabka, J

1999-01-01

This paper is a review of hypotheses of consciousness which arose from application of the theory of information and regulation and the cybernetic theory of mathematical machines in medicine. The author presents these hypotheses on the examples of his own works.

Public acceptance for nuclear energy. Group unconsciousness and personnel self-consciousness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seki, Yosinobu

1995-01-01

Since commercial usage of nuclear energy, 40 years already has spent. During that time, public acceptance has been told as very important. The procedure itself was changed gradually. Recently, at same time understandable man and non understandable man for nuclear energy are called at the stage, and talked to audience from the stage. They expect the audience will easily understand the nuclear energy. But the problem may come in the selection of good coordinator. Mr. Jung used the word of group unconsciousness. This is some time good for a battle, a religion and a political affairs for a while. Nazis, blend in all over the world, Ohm religion, present cooperated government etc. Japanese people are easily to have group consciousness. To opposite to them a self-consciousness are very important, Human being may have two different feeling, one is very much emotional and another is very much reasonable. Emotional man have tendency to have separate knowledge points and be get his conclusion very much quickly. Reasonable man have tendency to have the stacked knowledge points and take a little bit more time to get his conclusion. To get better nuclear energy PA, it's very important that self-consciousness excitedly attractive knowledge should be increased. Easy understandable knowledge and high technical knowledge should be mixed up and nuclear energy technique should be easily understood. (author)

Organizational consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Pees, Richard C; Shoop, Glenda Hostetter; Ziegenfuss, James T

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual understanding of organizational consciousness that expands the discussion of organizational analysis, and use a case study to apply it in the analysis of a merger between an academic health center and a regional medical center. The paper draws on the experiences and insights of scholars who have been exploring complex organizational issues in relationship with consciousness. Organizational consciousness is the organization's capacity for reflection; a centering point for the organization to "think" and find the degree of unity across systems; and a link to the organization's identity and self-referencing attributes. It operates at three stages: reflective, social, and collective consciousness. Translating abstract concepts such as consciousness to an organizational model is complex and interpretive. For now, the idea of organizational consciousness remains mostly a theoretical concept. Empirical evidence is needed to support the theory. Faced with complicated and compelling issues for patient care, health care organizations must look beyond the analysis of structure and function, and be vigilant in their decisions on where important issues sit on the ladder of competing priorities. Organizational consciousness keeps the organization's attention focused on purpose and unifies the collective will to succeed. If the paper can come to understand how consciousness operates in organizations, and learn how to apply it in organizational decisions, the pay-off could be big in terms of leading initiatives for change. The final goal is to use what is learned to improve organizational outcomes.

What Should Be the Roles of Conscious States and Brain States in Theories of Mental Activity?**

Science.gov (United States)

Dulany, Donelson E.

2011-01-01

Answers to the title’s question have been influenced by a history in which an early science of consciousness was rejected by behaviourists on the argument that this entails commitment to ontological dualism and “free will” in the sense of indeterminism. This is, however, a confusion of theoretical assertions with metaphysical assertions. Nevertheless, a legacy within computational and information-processing views of mind rejects or de-emphasises a role for consciousness. This paper sketches a mentalistic metatheory in which conscious states are the sole carriers of symbolic representations, and thus have a central role in the explanation of mental activity and action-while specifying determinism and materialism as useful working assumptions. A mentalistic theory of causal learning, experimentally examined with phenomenal reports, is followed by examination of these questions: Are there common roles for phenomenal reports and brain imaging? Is there defensible evidence for unconscious brain states carrying symbolic representations? Are there interesting dissociations within consciousness? PMID:21694964

Consciousness viewed in the framework of brain phase space dynamics, criticality, and the Renormalization Group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Werner, Gerhard

2013-01-01

The topic of this paper will be addressed in three stages: I will first review currently prominent theoretical conceptualizations of the neurobiology of consciousness and, where appropriate, identify ill-advised and flawed notions in theoretical neuroscience that may impede viewing consciousness as a phenomenon in the physics of brain. In this context, I will also introduce relevant facts that tend not to receive adequate attention in much of the current consciousness discourse. Next, I will review the evidence that accrued in the last decade that identifies the resting brain as being in a state of criticality. In the framework of state phase dynamics of statistical physics, this observational evidence also entails that the resting brain is poised at the brink of a second order phase transition. On this basis, I will in the third stage propose applying the framework of the Renormalization Group to viewing consciousness as a phenomenon in statistical physics. In physics, concepts of phase space transitions and the Renormalization Group are powerful tools for interpreting phenomena involving many scales of length and time in complex systems. The significance of these concepts lies in their accounting for the emergence of different levels of new collective behaviors in complex systems, each level with its distinct macroscopic physics, organization, and laws, as a new pattern of reality. In this framework, I propose to view subjectivity as the symbolic description of the physical brain state of consciousness that emerges as one of the levels of phase transitions of the brain-body-environment system, along the trajectory of Renormalization Group Transformations

The Methodology of Psychological Research of Ecological Consciousness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irina A. Shmeleva

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The paper examines the methodological principles of the psychological study of ecological consciousness as one of the urgent interdisciplinary problems of XX–XXI century, caused by the aggravation of global ecological problems and the need for the realization of the “sustainable development”ideas. Ecological consciousness is considered as multilayered, dynamic, reflexive element of human consciousness, incorporating multivariate, holistic aspects of interaction of the human being as the H.S. and the Humanity representative with the environment and the Planet. The possibility of the more active introduction of Russian psychology in the process is argued for in connection with the existing conceptual approaches, which compose the methodological basis for ecological consciousness research. Among these approaches are considered: the principles of holistic study of the human being by B. Ananyev, the methodology of system psychological description by V. Gansen and G. Sukhodolsky, the idea of reflexivity of consciousness by S. Rubinstein, the humanitarian- ecological imperative of the development of consciousness by V. Zinchenko, the theory of relations by V. Myasishev, consideration of ecological consciousness as relation to nature by S. Deryabo and V. Yasvin, theories of consciousness by V. Petrenko, V. Allakhverdov and other Russian psychologists. The value component of ecological consciousness is distinguished as the most significant. The possibility of applying the Values’ theory of the by S. Schwartz for studying the ecological values is discussed along with the prognostic potential of the universalism value.

Electrophysiological evidence for phenomenal consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Revonsuo, Antti; Koivisto, Mika

2010-09-01

Abstract Recent evidence from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) lends support to two central theses in Lamme's theory. The earliest ERP correlate of visual consciousness appears over posterior visual cortex around 100-200 ms after stimulus onset. Its scalp topography and time window are consistent with recurrent processing in the visual cortex. This electrophysiological correlate of visual consciousness is mostly independent of later ERPs reflecting selective attention and working memory functions. Overall, the ERP evidence supports the view that phenomenal consciousness of a visual stimulus emerges earlier than access consciousness, and that attention and awareness are served by distinct neural processes.

In Situ Representations and Access Consciousness in Neural Blackboard or Workspace Architectures

OpenAIRE

Frank van der Velde

2018-01-01

Phenomenal theories of consciousness assert that consciousness is based on specific neural correlates in the brain, which can be separated from all cognitive functions we can perform. If so, the search for robot consciousness seems to be doomed. By contrast, theories of functional or access consciousness assert that consciousness can be studied only with forms of cognitive access, given by cognitive processes. Consequently, consciousness and cognitive access cannot be fully dissociated. Here,...

Who Am I, and Who Do I Strive to Be? Applying a Theory of Self-Conscious Emotions to Medical Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Bynum, William E; Artino, Anthony R

2018-06-01

The self-conscious emotions of shame, guilt, and pride are a distinct set of cognitively complex, powerful, and ubiquitous emotions that arise when an individual engages in self-evaluation. Currently, little is known about the influence or outcomes of self-conscious emotions in medical learners. In this article, the authors present a leading theory of self-conscious emotions that outlines the appraisals and attributions that give rise to and differentiate shame, guilt, and two forms of pride. The authors then apply the theory to three relevant topics in medical education: perfectionism, professional identity formation, and motivation. In doing so, the authors present novel ways of viewing these topics through the lens of self-conscious emotion, suggest areas of future research, and outline a framework for emotional resilience training. Ultimately, the goal of this article is to highlight the fundamental nature of shame, guilt, and pride, which the authors believe are underappreciated and understudied in medical education, and to inform future empirical study on the role that these emotions might play in medical education. Additionally, from a practical standpoint, this article aims to encourage educators and learners to recognize self-conscious emotions in themselves and their colleagues, and to begin developing more resilient approaches to learning-approaches that acknowledge and confront shame, guilt, and pride in medical education.

A theory of working memory without consciousness or sustained activity

Science.gov (United States)

Trübutschek, Darinka; Marti, Sébastien; Ojeda, Andrés; King, Jean-Rémi; Mi, Yuanyuan; Tsodyks, Misha; Dehaene, Stanislas

2017-01-01

Working memory and conscious perception are thought to share similar brain mechanisms, yet recent reports of non-conscious working memory challenge this view. Combining visual masking with magnetoencephalography, we investigate the reality of non-conscious working memory and dissect its neural mechanisms. In a spatial delayed-response task, participants reported the location of a subjectively unseen target above chance-level after several seconds. Conscious perception and conscious working memory were characterized by similar signatures: a sustained desynchronization in the alpha/beta band over frontal cortex, and a decodable representation of target location in posterior sensors. During non-conscious working memory, such activity vanished. Our findings contradict models that identify working memory with sustained neural firing, but are compatible with recent proposals of ‘activity-silent’ working memory. We present a theoretical framework and simulations showing how slowly decaying synaptic changes allow cell assemblies to go dormant during the delay, yet be retrieved above chance-level after several seconds. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.23871.001 PMID:28718763

Measuring consciousness in dreams: the lucidity and consciousness in dreams scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Voss, Ursula; Schermelleh-Engel, Karin; Windt, Jennifer; Frenzel, Clemens; Hobson, Allan

2013-03-01

In this article, we present results from an interdisciplinary research project aimed at assessing consciousness in dreams. For this purpose, we compared lucid dreams with normal non-lucid dreams from REM sleep. Both lucid and non-lucid dreams are an important contrast condition for theories of waking consciousness, giving valuable insights into the structure of conscious experience and its neural correlates during sleep. However, the precise differences between lucid and non-lucid dreams remain poorly understood. The construction of the Lucidity and Consciousness in Dreams scale (LuCiD) was based on theoretical considerations and empirical observations. Exploratory factor analysis of the data from the first survey identified eight factors that were validated in a second survey using confirmatory factor analysis: INSIGHT, CONTROL, THOUGHT, REALISM, MEMORY, DISSOCIATION, NEGATIVE EMOTION, and POSITIVE EMOTION. While all factors are involved in dream consciousness, realism and negative emotion do not differentiate between lucid and non-lucid dreams, suggesting that lucid insight is separable from both bizarreness in dreams and a change in the subjectively experienced realism of the dream. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Subliminal unconscious conflict alpha power inhibits supraliminal conscious symptom experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Shevrin, Howard; Snodgrass, Michael; Brakel, Linda A W; Kushwaha, Ramesh; Kalaida, Natalia L; Bazan, Ariane

2013-01-01

Our approach is based on a tri-partite method of integrating psychodynamic hypotheses, cognitive subliminal processes, and psychophysiological alpha power measures. We present ten social phobic subjects with three individually selected groups of words representing unconscious conflict, conscious symptom experience, and Osgood Semantic negative valence words used as a control word group. The unconscious conflict and conscious symptom words, presented subliminally and supraliminally, act as primes preceding the conscious symptom and control words presented as supraliminal targets. With alpha power as a marker of inhibitory brain activity, we show that unconscious conflict primes, only when presented subliminally, have a unique inhibitory effect on conscious symptom targets. This effect is absent when the unconscious conflict primes are presented supraliminally, or when the target is the control words. Unconscious conflict prime effects were found to correlate with a measure of repressiveness in a similar previous study (Shevrin et al., 1992, 1996). Conscious symptom primes have no inhibitory effect when presented subliminally. Inhibitory effects with conscious symptom primes are present, but only when the primes are supraliminal, and they did not correlate with repressiveness in a previous study (Shevrin et al., 1992, 1996). We conclude that while the inhibition following supraliminal conscious symptom primes is due to conscious threat bias, the inhibition following subliminal unconscious conflict primes provides a neurological blueprint for dynamic repression: it is only activated subliminally by an individual's unconscious conflict and has an inhibitory effect specific only to the conscious symptom. These novel findings constitute neuroscientific evidence for the psychoanalytic concepts of unconscious conflict and repression, while extending neuroscience theory and methods into the realm of personal, psychological meaning.

Subliminal unconscious conflict alpha power inhibits supraliminal conscious symptom experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Howard eShevrin

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Our approach is based on a tri-partite method of integrating psychodynamic hypotheses, cognitive subliminal processes, and psychophysiological alpha power measures. We present ten social phobic subjects with three individually selected groups of words representing unconscious conflict, conscious symptom experience, and Osgood Semantic negative valence words used as a control word group. The unconscious conflict and conscious symptom words, presented subliminally and supraliminally, act as primes preceding the conscious symptom and control words presented as supraliminal targets. With alpha power as a marker of inhibitory brain activity, we show that unconscious conflict primes, only when presented subliminally, have a unique inhibitory effect on conscious symptom targets. This effect is absent when the unconscious conflict primes are presented supraliminally, or when the target is the control words. Unconscious conflict prime effects were found to correlate with a measure of repressiveness in a similar previous study (Shevrin et al., 1992, 1996. Conscious symptom primes have no inhibitory effect when presented subliminally. Inhibitory effects with conscious symptom primes are present, but only when the primes are supraliminal, and they did not correlate with repressiveness in a previous study (Shevrin, et al., 1992, 1996. We conclude that while the inhibition following supraliminal conscious symptom primes is due to conscious threat bias, the inhibition following subliminal unconscious conflict primes provides a neurological blueprint for dynamic repression: it is only activated subliminally by an individual’s unconscious conflict and has an inhibitory effect specific only to the conscious symptom. These novel findings constitute neuroscientific evidence for the psychoanalytic concepts of unconscious conflict and repression, while extending neuroscience theory and methods into the realm of personal, psychological meaning.

Simulation and Representation of Body, Emotion, and Core Consciousness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bosse, T.; Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.; Henderson-Sellers, B.; Winikoff, M.

2005-01-01

This paper contributes an analysis and formalisation of Damasio's theory on core consciousness. Three important concepts in this theory are 'emotion', 'feeling', and 'feeling a feeling' (or core consciousness). In particular, a simulation model is described of the neural dynamics leading via emotion

Dreams and the temporality of consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

MacDuffie, Katherine; Mashour, George A

2010-01-01

Understanding dreams has long been considered fundamental to the development of a theory of consciousness. Evidence from neurobiology and neuroimaging research has paved the way for new theories of dreaming that are empirically supported. In this article we argue that dreaming is a unique state of consciousness that incorporates 3 temporal dimensions: experience of the present, processing of the past, and preparation for the future. The temporal complexity of dreams is made possible in part by the unique neurobiological environment of sleep, in which stimuli are internally generated and many of the restrictions associated with waking thought are absent. Because dream consciousness is not determined by sensory stimuli, a flexible integration of past experiences and the forging of novel connections are possible. We argue that disparate dream theories may not be mutually exclusive but rather relate to different temporal domains of the dream state.

A unified 3D default space consciousness model combining neurological and physiological processes that underlie conscious experience

Science.gov (United States)

Jerath, Ravinder; Crawford, Molly W.; Barnes, Vernon A.

2015-01-01

The Global Workspace Theory and Information Integration Theory are two of the most currently accepted consciousness models; however, these models do not address many aspects of conscious experience. We compare these models to our previously proposed consciousness model in which the thalamus fills-in processed sensory information from corticothalamic feedback loops within a proposed 3D default space, resulting in the recreation of the internal and external worlds within the mind. This 3D default space is composed of all cells of the body, which communicate via gap junctions and electrical potentials to create this unified space. We use 3D illustrations to explain how both visual and non-visual sensory information may be filled-in within this dynamic space, creating a unified seamless conscious experience. This neural sensory memory space is likely generated by baseline neural oscillatory activity from the default mode network, other salient networks, brainstem, and reticular activating system. PMID:26379573

A unified 3D default space consciousness model combining neurological and physiological processes that underlie conscious experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ravinder eJerath

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The Global Workspace Theory and Information Integration Theory are two of the most currently accepted consciousness models; however, these models do not address many aspects of conscious experience. We compare these models to our previously proposed consciousness model in which the thalamus fills-in processed sensory information from corticothalamic feedback loops within a proposed 3D default space, resulting in the recreation of the internal and external worlds within the mind. This 3D default space is composed of all cells of the body, which communicate via gap junctions and electrical potentials to create this unified space. We use 3D illustrations to explain how both visual and non-visual sensory information is filled-in within this dynamic space, creating a unified seamless conscious experience. This neural sensory memory space is likely generated by baseline neural oscillatory activity from the default mode network, other salient networks, brainstem, and reticular activating system.

A unified 3D default space consciousness model combining neurological and physiological processes that underlie conscious experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Jerath, Ravinder; Crawford, Molly W; Barnes, Vernon A

2015-01-01

The Global Workspace Theory and Information Integration Theory are two of the most currently accepted consciousness models; however, these models do not address many aspects of conscious experience. We compare these models to our previously proposed consciousness model in which the thalamus fills-in processed sensory information from corticothalamic feedback loops within a proposed 3D default space, resulting in the recreation of the internal and external worlds within the mind. This 3D default space is composed of all cells of the body, which communicate via gap junctions and electrical potentials to create this unified space. We use 3D illustrations to explain how both visual and non-visual sensory information may be filled-in within this dynamic space, creating a unified seamless conscious experience. This neural sensory memory space is likely generated by baseline neural oscillatory activity from the default mode network, other salient networks, brainstem, and reticular activating system.

Autonoetic Consciousness in Autobiographical Memories after Medial Temporal Lobe Resection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Noulhiane

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This study aims to investigate autonoetic consciousness associated with episodic autobiographical memory in patients who had undergone unilateral medial temporal lobe resection for intractable epilepsy. Autonoetic consciousness, defined as the conscious feeling of mentally travelling back in time to relive a specific event, was assessed using the Remember/Know (R/K paradigm across different time periods as proposed in the autobiographical memory task developed by Piolino et al. (TEMPau task. Results revealed that the two patient groups (left and right temporal resection gave reduced sense of reliving (R responses and more familiarity (K responses than healthy controls. This poor autonoetic consciousness was highlighted when patients were asked to justify their Remember responses by recalling sensory-perceptive, affective or spatiotemporal specific details across all life periods. These results support the bilateral MTL contribution to episodic autobiographical memory covering the entire lifespan, which is consistent with the multiple trace theory of MTL function [7,9]. This study also demonstrates the bilateral involvement of MTL structures in recalling specific details of personal events characterized by autonoetic consciousness.

Autonoetic Consciousness in Autobiographical Memories after Medial Temporal Lobe Resection

Science.gov (United States)

Noulhiane, M.; Piolino, P.; Hasboun, D.; Clemenceau, S.; Baulac, M.; Samson, S.

2008-01-01

This study aims to investigate autonoetic consciousness associated with episodic autobiographical memory in patients who had undergone unilateral medial temporal lobe resection for intractable epilepsy. Autonoetic consciousness, defined as the conscious feeling of mentally travelling back in time to relive a specific event, was assessed using the Remember/Know (R/K) paradigm across different time periods as proposed in the autobiographical memory task developed by Piolino et al. (TEMPau task). Results revealed that the two patient groups (left and right temporal resection) gave reduced sense of reliving (R) responses and more familiarity (K) responses than healthy controls. This poor autonoetic consciousness was highlighted when patients were asked to justify their Remember responses by recalling sensory-perceptive, affective or spatiotemporal specific details across all life periods. These results support the bilateral MTL contribution to episodic autobiographical memory covering the entire lifespan, which is consistent with the multiple trace theory of MTL function [7,9]. This study also demonstrates the bilateral involvement of MTL structures in recalling specific details of personal events characterized by autonoetic consciousness. PMID:18413911

Visual anticipation biases conscious perception but not bottom-up visual processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul F.M.J. Verschure

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Theories of consciousness can be grouped with respect to their stance on embodiment, sensori-motor contingencies, prediction and integration. In this list prediction plays a key role and it is not clear which aspects of prediction are most prominent in the conscious scene. An evolving view on the brain is that it can be seen as a prediction machine that optimizes its ability to predict states of the world and the self through the top-down propagation of predictions and the bottom-up presentation of prediction errors. There are competing views though on whether prediction or prediction errors dominate the conscious scene. Yet, due to the lack of efficient indirect measures, the dynamic effects of prediction on perception, decision making and consciousness have been difficult to assess and to model. We propose a novel mathematical framework and psychophysical paradigm that allows us to assess both the hierarchical structuring of perceptual consciousness, its content and the impact of predictions and / or errors on the conscious scene. Using a displacement detection task combined with reverse correlation we reveal signatures of the usage of prediction at three different levels of perception: bottom-up early saccades, top-down driven late saccades and conscious decisions. Our results suggest that the brain employs multiple parallel mechanisms at different levels of information processing to restrict the sensory field using predictions. We observe that cognitive load has a quantifiable effect on this dissociation of the bottom-up sensory and top-down predictive processes. We propose a probabilistic data association model from dynamical systems theory to model this predictive bias in different information processing levels.

How neuroscience will change our view on consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamme, Victor A F

2010-09-01

Is there consciousness in machines? Or in animals? What happens to consciousness when we are asleep, or in vegetative state? These are just a few examples of the many questions about consciousness that are troubling scientists and laypersons alike. Moreover, these questions share a striking feature: They seem to have been around forever, yet neither science nor philosophy has been able to provide an answer. Why is that? In my view, the main reason is that the study of consciousness is dominated by what we know from introspection and behavior. This has fooled us into thinking that we know what we are conscious of. The scientific equivalent of this is Global Workspace theory. But in fact we don't know what we are conscious of, as I will explain from a simple experiment in visual perception. Once we acknowledge that, it is clear that we need other evidence about the presence or absence of a conscious sensation than introspection or behavior. Assuming the brain has something to do with it, I will demonstrate how arguments from neuroscience, together with theoretical and ontological arguments, can help us resolve what the exact nature of our conscious sensation is. It turns out that we see much more than we think, and that Global Workspace theory is all about access but not about seeing. The exercise is an example of how neuroscience will move us away from psychological intuitions about consciousness, and hence depict a notion of consciousness that may go against our deepest conviction: "My consciousness is mine, and mine alone." It's not.

Question of Consciousness: to Quantum Mechanics for the Answers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karpenko Ivan A.

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The article presents the possible role of consciousness in quantum-mechanical description of physical reality. The widely spread interpretations of quantum phenomena are considered as indicating the apparent connection between conscious processes (such as observation and the properties of the microcosm. The reasons for discrepancies between the results of observations of the microcosm and macrocosm and the potential association of consciousness with these reasons are closely investigated. The mentioned connection is meant to be interpreted in the sense that the probable requirement for a complete understanding of quantum theory is the adequate description of consciousness within it and that the correct theory of consciousness should include quantum-mechanical theoretical apparatus. In this context, the question about the methods of scientific cognition is discussed, in particular, the problem of the place and the importance of intellectual intuition in science and philosophy of science. The author draws the conclusions about the current state of the “measuring” consciousness. problem in its relationship with

Ego and Self: A Synthesis of Theories of Consciousness and Personality.

Science.gov (United States)

Tatzel, Miriam

Ego and self refer to two ways of being. They are related on the one hand to neurosis and health and on the other hand to rational and intuitive modes of consciousness. The author in this article considers consciousness as it pertains to knowing oneself. She examines how ego, the rational consciousness as applied to oneself, can obstruct…

The Emerging Physics of Consciousness

CERN Document Server

Tuszynski, Jack A

2006-01-01

Consciousness remains one of the major unsolved problems in science. How do the feelings and sensations making up conscious experience arise from the concerted actions of nerve cells and their associated synaptic and molecular processes? Can such feelings be explained by modern science, or is there an entirely different kind of explanation needed? And how can this seemingly intractable problem be approached experimentally? How do the operations of the conscious mind emerge out of the specific interactions involving billions of neurons? This book seeks answers to these questions on the underlying assumption that consciousness can be understood using the intellectual potential of modern physics and other sciences. There are a number of theories of consciousness, some based on classical physics while others require the use of quantum concepts. The latter ones have drawn criticism from the parts of the scientific establishment while simultaneously claiming that classical approaches are doomed to failure. The cont...

Cajal and consciousness. Introduction.

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Marijuán, P C

2001-04-01

One hundred years after Santiago Ramón Cajal established the bases of modern neuroscience in his masterpiece Textura del sistema nervioso del hombre y de los vertebrados, the question is stated again: What is the status of consciousness today? The responses in this book, by contemporary leading figures of neuroscience, evolution, molecular biology, computer science, and quantum physics, collectively compose a fascinating conceptual landscape. Both the evolutionary emergence of consciousness and its development towards the highest level may be analyzed by a wealth of new theories and hypotheses, including Cajal's prescient ones. Some noticeable gaps remain, however. Celebrating the centennial of Textura is a timely occasion to reassess how close--and how far--our system of the sciences is to explaining consciousness.

George Herbert Mead on consciousness: antidote to Cartesian absurdities?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Willert, Søren

The article explicates George Herbert Mead's theory of consciousness as presented in Mind, Self and Society. According to Mead, the term consciousness may refer to three different sets of phenomena: (1) the environment as implied by our goal-directed action; Mead names this consciousness aspect...... experience; it is shared by humans and subhuman animals alike; (2) consciousness of environmental experience; Mead names this consciousness aspect awareness; it is exclusively human; (3) the peculiar sensed qualities attaching to consciousness, equalling what is today named qualia. Descartes......-inspired psychology makes the third consciousness aspect all-important. Within Mead's framework for a darwinistically inspired psycholgy, it becomes theoretically insignificant....

Consciousness in the Universe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khalil Chamcham

2013-07-01

Full Text Available So far we can identify at least three concepts within modern cosmology that bring into debate the question of consciousness in the universe: 1 Fine Tuning; 2 The Anthropic Principle and 3 The Multiverse. This does not exclude the question of the role of observer (i.e. consciousness in cosmology as developed within Quantum Physics: we observe the universe through quanta and any breakthrough in understanding the origin and nature of the universe will come only through a quantum theory of gravity […

Unitary and Dual Models of Phenomenal Consciousness

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Marvan, Tomáš; Polák, M.

-, č. 56 (2017), s. 1-12 ISSN 1053-8100 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : phenomenal consciousness * David Rosenthal * what it is like * unconscious mind * theories fo consciousness Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion OBOR OECD: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology Impact factor: 2.144, year: 2016

Group theory for chemists fundamental theory and applications

CERN Document Server

Molloy, K C

2010-01-01

The basics of group theory and its applications to themes such as the analysis of vibrational spectra and molecular orbital theory are essential knowledge for the undergraduate student of inorganic chemistry. The second edition of Group Theory for Chemists uses diagrams and problem-solving to help students test and improve their understanding, including a new section on the application of group theory to electronic spectroscopy.Part one covers the essentials of symmetry and group theory, including symmetry, point groups and representations. Part two deals with the application of group theory t

Geometric group theory

CERN Document Server

Druţu, Cornelia

2018-01-01

The key idea in geometric group theory is to study infinite groups by endowing them with a metric and treating them as geometric spaces. This applies to many groups naturally appearing in topology, geometry, and algebra, such as fundamental groups of manifolds, groups of matrices with integer coefficients, etc. The primary focus of this book is to cover the foundations of geometric group theory, including coarse topology, ultralimits and asymptotic cones, hyperbolic groups, isoperimetric inequalities, growth of groups, amenability, Kazhdan's Property (T) and the Haagerup property, as well as their characterizations in terms of group actions on median spaces and spaces with walls. The book contains proofs of several fundamental results of geometric group theory, such as Gromov's theorem on groups of polynomial growth, Tits's alternative, Stallings's theorem on ends of groups, Dunwoody's accessibility theorem, the Mostow Rigidity Theorem, and quasiisometric rigidity theorems of Tukia and Schwartz. This is the f...

Representation Theory of Algebraic Groups and Quantum Groups

CERN Document Server

Gyoja, A; Shinoda, K-I; Shoji, T; Tanisaki, Toshiyuki

2010-01-01

Invited articles by top notch expertsFocus is on topics in representation theory of algebraic groups and quantum groupsOf interest to graduate students and researchers in representation theory, group theory, algebraic geometry, quantum theory and math physics

Distorted temporal consciousness and preserved knowing consciousness in confabulation: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

La Corte, Valentina; George, Nathalie; Pradat-Diehl, Pascale; Barba, Gianfranco Dalla

2011-01-01

In this study we describe a patient, TA, who developed a chronic amnesic-confabulatory syndrome, following rupture of a right internal carotid siphon aneurysm. Our aim was to elucidate as fully as possible the nature of TA's impairment and to test the hypothesis of confabulation as reflecting a dysfunction of Temporal Consciousness, i.e., to become aware of something as part of a personal past, present or future. TA's confabulations were present in answers to questions tapping Temporal Consciousness, i.e., autobiographical episodic memory, orientation in time and place, and foresight of personal future. In contrast, confabulations were not observed in answers to questions tapping Knowing Consciousness, i.e., to become aware of something as a meaning or as an element of impersonal knowledge. In fact, he had normal access to semantic knowledge, including foresight of impersonal future. TA's brain MRI showed lesions involving the right hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, fornix, mammillary bodies, and thalamus. Moreover TA showed sub-cortical lesions involving the caudate and putamen nuclei bilaterally, a lesion site not commonly described in amnesic-confabulatory syndrome. We suggest that this pattern of results is better accounted for within the framework of the Memory, Consciousness and Temporality Theory and reflects a specific distortion of Temporal Consciousness.

Human development VIII: a theory of "deep" quantum chemistry and cell consciousness: quantum chemistry controls genes and biochemistry to give cells and higher organisms consciousness and complex behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Ventegodt, Søren; Hermansen, Tyge Dahl; Flensborg-Madsen, Trine; Nielsen, Maj Lyck; Merrick, Joav

2006-11-14

Deep quantum chemistry is a theory of deeply structured quantum fields carrying the biological information of the cell, making it able to remember, intend, represent the inner and outer world for comparison, understand what it "sees", and make choices on its structure, form, behavior and division. We suggest that deep quantum chemistry gives the cell consciousness and all the qualities and abilities related to consciousness. We use geometric symbolism, which is a pre-mathematical and philosophical approach to problems that cannot yet be handled mathematically. Using Occam's razor we have started with the simplest model that works; we presume this to be a many-dimensional, spiral fractal. We suggest that all the electrons of the large biological molecules' orbitals make one huge "cell-orbital", which is structured according to the spiral fractal nature of quantum fields. Consciousness of single cells, multi cellular structures as e.g. organs, multi-cellular organisms and multi-individual colonies (like ants) and human societies can thus be explained by deep quantum chemistry. When biochemical activity is strictly controlled by the quantum-mechanical super-orbital of the cell, this orbital can deliver energetic quanta as biological information, distributed through many fractal levels of the cell to guide form and behavior of an individual single or a multi-cellular organism. The top level of information is the consciousness of the cell or organism, which controls all the biochemical processes. By this speculative work inspired by Penrose and Hameroff we hope to inspire other researchers to formulate more strict and mathematically correct hypothesis on the complex and coherence nature of matter, life and consciousness.

Consciousness and biological evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindahl, B I

1997-08-21

It has been suggested that if the preservation and development of consciousness in the biological evolution is a result of natural selection, it is plausible that consciousness not only has been influenced by neural processes, but has had a survival value itself; and it could only have had this, if it had also been efficacious. This argument for mind-brain interaction is examined, both as the argument has been developed by William James and Karl Popper and as it has been discussed by C.D. Broad. The problem of identifying mental phenomena with certain neural phenomena is also addressed. The main conclusion of the analysis is that an explanation of the evolution of consciousness in Darwinian terms of natural selection does not rule out that consciousness may have evolved as a mere causally inert effect of the evolution of the nervous system, or that mental phenomena are identical with certain neural phenomena. However, the interactionistic theory still seems, more plausible and more fruitful for other reasons brought up in the discussion.

The interplay of attention and consciousness in visual search, attentional blink and working memory consolidation.

Science.gov (United States)

Raffone, Antonino; Srinivasan, Narayanan; van Leeuwen, Cees

2014-05-05

Despite the acknowledged relationship between consciousness and attention, theories of the two have mostly been developed separately. Moreover, these theories have independently attempted to explain phenomena in which both are likely to interact, such as the attentional blink (AB) and working memory (WM) consolidation. Here, we make an effort to bridge the gap between, on the one hand, a theory of consciousness based on the notion of global workspace (GW) and, on the other, a synthesis of theories of visual attention. We offer a theory of attention and consciousness (TAC) that provides a unified neurocognitive account of several phenomena associated with visual search, AB and WM consolidation. TAC assumes multiple processing stages between early visual representation and conscious access, and extends the dynamics of the global neuronal workspace model to a visual attentional workspace (VAW). The VAW is controlled by executive routers, higher-order representations of executive operations in the GW, without the need for explicit saliency or priority maps. TAC leads to newly proposed mechanisms for illusory conjunctions, AB, inattentional blindness and WM capacity, and suggests neural correlates of phenomenal consciousness. Finally, the theory reconciles the all-or-none and graded perspectives on conscious representation.

The interplay of attention and consciousness in visual search, attentional blink and working memory consolidation

Science.gov (United States)

Raffone, Antonino; Srinivasan, Narayanan; van Leeuwen, Cees

2014-01-01

Despite the acknowledged relationship between consciousness and attention, theories of the two have mostly been developed separately. Moreover, these theories have independently attempted to explain phenomena in which both are likely to interact, such as the attentional blink (AB) and working memory (WM) consolidation. Here, we make an effort to bridge the gap between, on the one hand, a theory of consciousness based on the notion of global workspace (GW) and, on the other, a synthesis of theories of visual attention. We offer a theory of attention and consciousness (TAC) that provides a unified neurocognitive account of several phenomena associated with visual search, AB and WM consolidation. TAC assumes multiple processing stages between early visual representation and conscious access, and extends the dynamics of the global neuronal workspace model to a visual attentional workspace (VAW). The VAW is controlled by executive routers, higher-order representations of executive operations in the GW, without the need for explicit saliency or priority maps. TAC leads to newly proposed mechanisms for illusory conjunctions, AB, inattentional blindness and WM capacity, and suggests neural correlates of phenomenal consciousness. Finally, the theory reconciles the all-or-none and graded perspectives on conscious representation. PMID:24639586

Objects of consciousness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donald David Hoffman

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Current models of visual perception typically assume that human vision estimates true properties of physical objects, properties that exist even if unperceived. However, recent studies of perceptual evolution, using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms, reveal that natural selection often drives true perceptions to extinction when they compete with perceptions tuned to fitness rather than truth: Perception guides adaptive behavior; it does not estimate a preexisting physical truth. Moreover, shifting from evolutionary biology to quantum physics, there is reason to disbelieve in preexist-ing physical truths: Certain interpretations of quantum theory deny that dynamical properties of physical objects have defi-nite values when unobserved. In some of these interpretations the observer is fundamental, and wave functions are com-pendia of subjective probabilities, not preexisting elements of physical reality. These two considerations, from evolutionary biology and quantum physics, suggest that current models of object perception require fundamental reformulation. Here we begin such a reformulation, starting with a formal model of consciousness that we call a conscious agent. We develop the dynamics of interacting conscious agents, and study how the perception of objects and space-time can emerge from such dynamics. We show that one particular object, the quantum free particle, has a wave function that is identical in form to the harmonic functions that characterize the asymptotic dynamics of conscious agents; particles are vibrations not of strings but of interacting conscious agents. This allows us to reinterpret physical properties such as position, momentum, and energy as properties of interacting conscious agents, rather than as preexisting physical truths. We sketch how this approach might extend to the perception of relativistic quantum objects, and to classical objects of macroscopic scale.

Consciousness in the universe: a review of the 'Orch OR' theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Hameroff, Stuart; Penrose, Roger

2014-03-01

The nature of consciousness, the mechanism by which it occurs in the brain, and its ultimate place in the universe are unknown. We proposed in the mid 1990's that consciousness depends on biologically 'orchestrated' coherent quantum processes in collections of microtubules within brain neurons, that these quantum processes correlate with, and regulate, neuronal synaptic and membrane activity, and that the continuous Schrödinger evolution of each such process terminates in accordance with the specific Diósi-Penrose (DP) scheme of 'objective reduction' ('OR') of the quantum state. This orchestrated OR activity ('Orch OR') is taken to result in moments of conscious awareness and/or choice. The DP form of OR is related to the fundamentals of quantum mechanics and space-time geometry, so Orch OR suggests that there is a connection between the brain's biomolecular processes and the basic structure of the universe. Here we review Orch OR in light of criticisms and developments in quantum biology, neuroscience, physics and cosmology. We also introduce a novel suggestion of 'beat frequencies' of faster microtubule vibrations as a possible source of the observed electro-encephalographic ('EEG') correlates of consciousness. We conclude that consciousness plays an intrinsic role in the universe. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Geometric group theory

CERN Document Server

Bestvina, Mladen; Vogtmann, Karen

2014-01-01

Geometric group theory refers to the study of discrete groups using tools from topology, geometry, dynamics and analysis. The field is evolving very rapidly and the present volume provides an introduction to and overview of various topics which have played critical roles in this evolution. The book contains lecture notes from courses given at the Park City Math Institute on Geometric Group Theory. The institute consists of a set of intensive short courses offered by leaders in the field, designed to introduce students to exciting, current research in mathematics. These lectures do not duplicate standard courses available elsewhere. The courses begin at an introductory level suitable for graduate students and lead up to currently active topics of research. The articles in this volume include introductions to CAT(0) cube complexes and groups, to modern small cancellation theory, to isometry groups of general CAT(0) spaces, and a discussion of nilpotent genus in the context of mapping class groups and CAT(0) gro...

Integrated information theory of consciousness: an updated account.

Science.gov (United States)

Tononi, G

2012-12-01

This article presents an updated account of integrated information theory of consciousness (liT) and some of its implications. /IT stems from thought experiments that lead to phenomenological axioms (existence, compositionality, information, integration, exclusion) and corresponding ontological postulates. The information axiom asserts that every experience is spec~fic - it is what it is by differing in its particular way from a large repertoire of alternatives. The integration axiom asserts that each experience is unified- it cannot be reduced to independent components. The exclusion axiom asserts that every experience is definite - it is limited to particular things and not others and flows at a particular speed and resolution. /IT formalizes these intuitions with postulates. The information postulate states that only "differences that make a difference" from the intrinsic perpective of a system matter: a mechanism generates cause-effect information if its present state has selective past causes and selective future effects within a system. The integration postulate states that only information that is irreducible matters: mechanisms generate integrated information only to the extent that the information they generate cannot be partitioned into that generated within independent components. The exclusion postulate states that only maxima of integrated information matter: a mechanism specifies only one maximally irreducible set of past causes and future effects - a concept. A complex is a set of elements specifying a maximally irreducible constellation of concepts, where the maximum is evaluated over elements and at the optimal spatiatemporal scale. Its concepts specify a maximally integrated conceptual information structure or quale, which is identical with an experience. Finally, changes in information integration upon exposure to the environment reflect a system's ability to match the causal structure of the world. After introducing an updated definition of

White matter damage impairs access to consciousness in multiple sclerosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Reuter, Françoise; Del Cul, Antoine; Malikova, Irina; Naccache, Lionel; Confort-Gouny, Sylviane; Cohen, Laurent; Cherif, André Ali; Cozzone, Patrick J; Pelletier, Jean; Ranjeva, Jean-Philippe; Dehaene, Stanislas; Audoin, Bertrand

2009-01-15

Global neuronal workspace theory predicts that damage to long-distance white matter (WM) tracts should impair access to consciousness during the perception of brief stimuli. To address this issue, we studied visual backward masking in 18 patients at the very first clinical stage of multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurological disease characterized by extensive WM damage, and in 18 matched healthy subjects. In our masking paradigm, the visibility of a digit stimulus increases non-linearly as a function of the interval duration between this target and a subsequent mask. In order to characterize quantitatively, for each subject, the transition between non-conscious and conscious perception of the stimulus, we used non-linear regression to fit a sigmoid curve to objective performance and subjective visibility reports as a function of target-mask delay. The delay corresponding to the inflexion point of the sigmoid, where visibility suddenly increases, was termed the "non-linear transition threshold" and used as a summary measure of masking efficiency. Objective and subjective non-linear transition thresholds were highly correlated across subjects in both groups, and were higher in patients compared to controls. In patients, variations in the non-linear transition threshold were inversely correlated to the Magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) values inside the right dorsolateral prefrontal WM, the right occipito-frontal fasciculus and the left cerebellum. This study provides clinical evidence of a relationship between impairments of conscious access and integrity of large WM bundles, particularly involving prefrontal cortex, as predicted by global neuronal workspace theory.

Socialization and Selection Effects in the Association between Weight Conscious Peer Groups and Thin-Ideal Internalization: A Co-Twin Control Study

Science.gov (United States)

Burt, S. Alexandra; O’Connor, Shannon; Thompson, J. Kevin; Klump, Kelly L.

2016-01-01

Affiliation with weight conscious peer groups is theorized to increase thin-ideal internalization through socialization processes. However, selection effects could contribute if genetic and/or environmental predispositions lead to affiliation with weight conscious peers. Co-twin control methodology was used to examine socialization and selection effects in 614 female twins (ages 8–15) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR). Thin-ideal internalization and peer group characteristics were assessed via self-report questionnaires. Results suggested the presence of both socialization and selection effects. In terms of socialization, twins who reported increased exposure to weight conscious peers relative to their co-twins had elevated thin-ideal internalization scores, regardless of zygosity. However, associations between weight conscious peers and thin-ideal internationalization within twin pairs were attenuated, suggesting that genetic and shared environmental selection effects also contribute. Findings significantly extend previous work by confirming the presence of socialization processes and highlighting selection processes to be examined in future longitudinal research. PMID:26859605

Agential Self-consciousness : beyond conscious agency

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bos, G.H.

2013-01-01

Although we perform many of our actions without much consciousness of these, occasionally we are explicitly conscious that we are doing something for a reason. Such consciousness I call ‘agential self-consciousness’. Since ages we have understood such agential self-consciousness in terms of the

Concept of consciousness in the context of quantum mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Menskii, Mikhail B

2005-01-01

Conceptual problems of the quantum theory of measurement are considered, which are embodied in well-known paradoxes and in Bell's inequalities. Arguments are advanced in favor of the viewpoint that these problems may hardly be solved without direct inclusion of the observer's consciousness in the theoretical description of a quantum measurement. Discussed in this connection is the so-called many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics proposed by Everett, as is the extension of Everett's concept, which consists in the assumption that separating the quantum state components corresponding to alternative measurements is not only associated with the observer's consciousness but is completely identified with it. This approach is shown to open up qualitatively new avenues for the unification of physics and psychology and, more broadly, of the sciences and the humanities. This may lead to an extension of the theory of consciousness and shed light on significant and previously misunderstood phenomena in the sphere of consciousness. (reviews of topical problems)

How rich is consciousness? The partial awareness hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kouider, Sid; de Gardelle, Vincent; Sackur, Jérôme; Dupoux, Emmanuel

2010-07-01

Current theories of consciousness posit a dissociation between 'phenomenal' consciousness (rich) and 'access' consciousness (limited). Here, we argue that the empirical evidence for phenomenal consciousness without access is equivocal, resulting either from a confusion between phenomenal and unconscious contents, or from an impression of phenomenally rich experiences arising from illusory contents. We propose a refined account of access that relies on a hierarchy of representational levels and on the notion of partial awareness, whereby lower and higher levels are accessed independently. Reframing of the issue of dissociable forms of consciousness into dissociable levels of access provides a more parsimonious account of the existing evidence. In addition, the rich phenomenology illusion can be studied and described in terms of testable cognitive mechanisms. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A global workspace model for phenomenal and access consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Raffone, Antonino; Pantani, Martina

2010-06-01

Both the global workspace theory and Block's distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness, are central in the current debates about consciousness and the neural correlates of consciousness. In this article, a unifying global workspace model for phenomenal and access consciousness is proposed. In the model, recurrent neural interactions take place in distinct yet interacting access and phenomenal brain loops. The effectiveness of feedback signaling onto sensory cortical maps is emphasized for the neural correlates of phenomenal consciousness. Two forms of top-down attention, attention for perception and attention for access, play differential roles for phenomenal and access consciousness. The model is implemented in a neural network form, with the simulation of single and multiple visual object processing, and of the attentional blink. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

New Pathways between Group Theory and Model Theory

CERN Document Server

Fuchs, László; Goldsmith, Brendan; Strüngmann, Lutz

2017-01-01

This volume focuses on group theory and model theory with a particular emphasis on the interplay of the two areas. The survey papers provide an overview of the developments across group, module, and model theory while the research papers present the most recent study in those same areas. With introductory sections that make the topics easily accessible to students, the papers in this volume will appeal to beginning graduate students and experienced researchers alike. As a whole, this book offers a cross-section view of the areas in group, module, and model theory, covering topics such as DP-minimal groups, Abelian groups, countable 1-transitive trees, and module approximations. The papers in this book are the proceedings of the conference “New Pathways between Group Theory and Model Theory,” which took place February 1-4, 2016, in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, in honor of the editors’ colleague Rüdiger Göbel. This publication is dedicated to Professor Göbel, who passed away in 2014. He was one of th...

Human Development VIII: A Theory of “Deep” Quantum Chemistry and Cell Consciousness: Quantum Chemistry Controls Genes and Biochemistry to Give Cells and Higher Organisms Consciousness and Complex Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Søren Ventegodt

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Deep quantum chemistry is a theory of deeply structured quantum fields carrying the biological information of the cell, making it able to remember, intend, represent the inner and outer world for comparison, understand what it “sees”, and make choices on its structure, form, behavior and division. We suggest that deep quantum chemistry gives the cell consciousness and all the qualities and abilities related to consciousness. We use geometric symbolism, which is a pre-mathematical and philosophical approach to problems that cannot yet be handled mathematically. Using Occam’s razor we have started with the simplest model that works; we presume this to be a many-dimensional, spiral fractal. We suggest that all the electrons of the large biological molecules’ orbitals make one huge “cell-orbital”, which is structured according to the spiral fractal nature of quantum fields. Consciousness of single cells, multi cellular structures as e.g. organs, multi-cellular organisms and multi-individual colonies (like ants and human societies can thus be explained by deep quantum chemistry. When biochemical activity is strictly controlled by the quantum-mechanical super-orbital of the cell, this orbital can deliver energetic quanta as biological information, distributed through many fractal levels of the cell to guide form and behavior of an individual single or a multi-cellular organism. The top level of information is the consciousness of the cell or organism, which controls all the biochemical processes. By this speculative work inspired by Penrose and Hameroff we hope to inspire other researchers to formulate more strict and mathematically correct hypothesis on the complex and coherence nature of matter, life and consciousness.

Theory of super LIE groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prakash, M.

1985-01-01

The theory of supergravity has attracted increasing attention in the recent years as a unified theory of elementary particle interactions. The superspace formulation of the theory is highly suggestive of an underlying geometrical structure of superspace. It also incorporates the beautifully geometrical general theory of relativity. It leads us to believe that a better understanding of its geometry would result in a better understanding of the theory itself, and furthermore, that the geometry of superspace would also have physical consequences. As a first step towards that goal, we develop here a theory of super Lie groups. These are groups that have the same relation to a super Lie algebra as Lie groups have to a Lie algebra. More precisely, a super Lie group is a super-manifold and a group such that the group operations are super-analytic. The super Lie algebra of a super Lie group is related to the local properties of the group near the identity. This work develops the algebraic and super-analytical tools necessary for our theory, including proofs of a set of existence and uniqueness theorems for a class of super-differential equations

Group covariance and metrical theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halpern, L.

1983-01-01

The a priori introduction of a Lie group of transformations into a physical theory has often proved to be useful; it usually serves to describe special simplified conditions before a general theory can be worked out. Newton's assumptions of absolute space and time are examples where the Euclidian group and translation group have been introduced. These groups were extended to the Galilei group and modified in the special theory of relativity to the Poincare group to describe physics under the given conditions covariantly in the simplest way. The criticism of the a priori character leads to the formulation of the general theory of relativity. The general metric theory does not really give preference to a particular invariance group - even the principle of equivalence can be adapted to a whole family of groups. The physical laws covariantly inserted into the metric space are however adapted to the Poincare group. 8 references

Intersectional Political Consciousness: Appreciation for Intragroup Differences and Solidarity in Diverse Groups

Science.gov (United States)

Greenwood, Ronni Michelle

2008-01-01

This article introduces an intersectional approach to political consciousness and presents data to demonstrate its importance for predicting solidarity in diverse social change organizations. Women activists (N = 174) completed measures of political consciousness, diversity, and solidarity. As expected, women differed in the degree to which their…

Access is mainly a second-order process: SDT models whether phenomenally (first-order) conscious states are accessed by reflectively (second-order) conscious processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Snodgrass, Michael; Kalaida, Natasha; Winer, E Samuel

2009-06-01

Access can either be first-order or second-order. First order access concerns whether contents achieve representation in phenomenal consciousness at all; second-order access concerns whether phenomenally conscious contents are selected for metacognitive, higher order processing by reflective consciousness. When the optional and flexible nature of second-order access is kept in mind, there remain strong reasons to believe that exclusion failure can indeed isolate phenomenally conscious stimuli that are not so accessed. Irvine's [Irvine, E. (2009). Signal detection theory, the exclusion failure paradigm and weak consciousness-Evidence for the access/phenomenal distinction? Consciousness and Cognition.] partial access argument fails because exclusion failure is indeed due to lack of second-order access, not insufficient phenomenally conscious information. Further, the enable account conforms with both qualitative differences and subjective report, and is simpler than the endow account. Finally, although first-order access may be a distinct and important process, second-order access arguably reflects the core meaning of access generally.

Geometric group theory an introduction

CERN Document Server

Löh, Clara

2017-01-01

Inspired by classical geometry, geometric group theory has in turn provided a variety of applications to geometry, topology, group theory, number theory and graph theory. This carefully written textbook provides a rigorous introduction to this rapidly evolving field whose methods have proven to be powerful tools in neighbouring fields such as geometric topology. Geometric group theory is the study of finitely generated groups via the geometry of their associated Cayley graphs. It turns out that the essence of the geometry of such groups is captured in the key notion of quasi-isometry, a large-scale version of isometry whose invariants include growth types, curvature conditions, boundary constructions, and amenability. This book covers the foundations of quasi-geometry of groups at an advanced undergraduate level. The subject is illustrated by many elementary examples, outlooks on applications, as well as an extensive collection of exercises.

Group theory and its applications

CERN Document Server

Loebl, Ernest M

1975-01-01

Group Theory and its Applications, Volume III covers the two broad areas of applications of group theory, namely, all atomic and molecular phenomena, as well as all aspects of nuclear structure and elementary particle theory.This volume contains five chapters and begins with an introduction to Wedderburn's theory to establish the structure of semisimple algebras, algebras of quantum mechanical interest, and group algebras. The succeeding chapter deals with Dynkin's theory for the embedding of semisimple complex Lie algebras in semisimple complex Lie algebras. These topics are followed by a rev

Sequences, groups, and number theory

CERN Document Server

Rigo, Michel

2018-01-01

This collaborative book presents recent trends on the study of sequences, including combinatorics on words and symbolic dynamics, and new interdisciplinary links to group theory and number theory. Other chapters branch out from those areas into subfields of theoretical computer science, such as complexity theory and theory of automata. The book is built around four general themes: number theory and sequences, word combinatorics, normal numbers, and group theory. Those topics are rounded out by investigations into automatic and regular sequences, tilings and theory of computation, discrete dynamical systems, ergodic theory, numeration systems, automaton semigroups, and amenable groups.  This volume is intended for use by graduate students or research mathematicians, as well as computer scientists who are working in automata theory and formal language theory. With its organization around unified themes, it would also be appropriate as a supplemental text for graduate level courses.

Consciousness, biology and quantum hypotheses.

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Baars, Bernard J; Edelman, David B

2012-09-01

, unpredictable and highly valued life events, such as evading predators, gathering critical information, seeking mates and hunting prey. Attentional selection of conscious events can be observed behaviorally in animals showing coordinated receptor orienting, flexible responding, alertness, emotional reactions, seeking, motivation and curiosity, as well as behavioral surprise and cortical and autonomic arousal. Brain events corresponding to attentional selection are prominent and widespread. Attention generally results in conscious experiences, which may be needed to recruit widespread processing resources in the brain. Many neuronal processes never become conscious, such as the balance system of the inner ear. An air traveler may "see" the passenger cabin tilt downward as the plane tilts to descend for a landing. That visual experience occurs even at night, when the traveler has no external frame of spatial reference. The passenger's body tilt with respect to gravity is detected unconsciously via the hair cells of the vestibular canals, which act as liquid accelerometers. However, that sensory activity is not experienced directly. It only becomes conscious via vision and the body senses. The vestibular sense is therefore quite different from visual perception, which "reports" accurately to a conscious field of experience, so that we can point accurately to a bright star on a dark night. Vestibular input is also precise but unconscious. Conscious cognition is therefore a distinct kind of brain event. Many of its features are well established, and must be accounted for by any adequate theory. No non-biological examples are known. Penrose and Hameroff have proposed that consciousness may be viewed as a fundamental problem in quantum physics. Specifically, their 'orchestrated objective reduction' (Orch-OR) hypothesis posits that conscious states arise from quantum computations in the microtubules of neurons. However, a number of microtubule-associated proteins are found in both

Consciousness, biology and quantum hypotheses

Science.gov (United States)

Baars, Bernard J.; Edelman, David B.

2012-09-01

, unpredictable and highly valued life events, such as evading predators, gathering critical information, seeking mates and hunting prey. Attentional selection of conscious events can be observed behaviorally in animals showing coordinated receptor orienting, flexible responding, alertness, emotional reactions, seeking, motivation and curiosity, as well as behavioral surprise and cortical and autonomic arousal. Brain events corresponding to attentional selection are prominent and widespread. Attention generally results in conscious experiences, which may be needed to recruit widespread processing resources in the brain. Many neuronal processes never become conscious, such as the balance system of the inner ear. An air traveler may “see” the passenger cabin tilt downward as the plane tilts to descend for a landing. That visual experience occurs even at night, when the traveler has no external frame of spatial reference. The passenger's body tilt with respect to gravity is detected unconsciously via the hair cells of the vestibular canals, which act as liquid accelerometers. However, that sensory activity is not experienced directly. It only becomes conscious via vision and the body senses. The vestibular sense is therefore quite different from visual perception, which “reports” accurately to a conscious field of experience, so that we can point accurately to a bright star on a dark night. Vestibular input is also precise but unconscious. Conscious cognition is therefore a distinct kind of brain event. Many of its features are well established, and must be accounted for by any adequate theory. No non-biological examples are known. Penrose and Hameroff have proposed that consciousness may be viewed as a fundamental problem in quantum physics. Specifically, their ‘orchestrated objective reduction’ (Orch-OR) hypothesis posits that conscious states arise from quantum computations in the microtubules of neurons. However, a number of microtubule-associated proteins are found

Consciousness and working memory: Current trends and research perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Velichkovsky, Boris B

2017-10-01

Working memory has long been thought to be closely related to consciousness. However, recent empirical studies show that unconscious content may be maintained within working memory and that complex cognitive computations may be performed on-line. This promotes research on the exact relationships between consciousness and working memory. Current evidence for working memory being a conscious as well as an unconscious process is reviewed. Consciousness is shown to be considered a subset of working memory by major current theories of working memory. Evidence for unconscious elements in working memory is shown to come from visual masking and attentional blink paradigms, and from the studies of implicit working memory. It is concluded that more research is needed to explicate the relationship between consciousness and working memory. Future research directions regarding the relationship between consciousness and working memory are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A framework for investigating animal consciousness.

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Droege, Paula; Braithwaite, Victoria A

2015-01-01

An assessment of consciousness in nonverbal animals requires a framework for research that extends testing methods beyond subjective report. This chapter proposes a working definition of consciousness in terms of temporal representation that provides the critical link between internal phenomenology and external behavior and neural structure. Our claim is that consciousness represents the present moment as distinct from the past and the future in order to flexibly respond to stimuli. We discuss behavioral and neural evidence that indicates the capacity for both flexible response and temporal representation, and we illustrate these capacities in fish, a taxonomic group that challenges human intuitions about consciousness.

Causal role of prefrontal cortex in the threshold for access to consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Del Cul, A; Dehaene, S; Reyes, P; Bravo, E; Slachevsky, A

2009-09-01

What neural mechanisms support our conscious perception of briefly presented stimuli? Some theories of conscious access postulate a key role of top-down amplification loops involving prefrontal cortex (PFC). To test this issue, we measured the visual backward masking threshold in patients with focal prefrontal lesions, using both objective and subjective measures while controlling for putative attention deficits. In all conditions of temporal or spatial attention cueing, the threshold for access to consciousness was systematically shifted in patients, particular after a lesion of the left anterior PFC. The deficit affected subjective reports more than objective performance, and objective performance conditioned on subjective visibility was essentially normal. We conclude that PFC makes a causal contribution to conscious visual perception of masked stimuli, and outline a dual-route signal detection theory of objective and subjective decision making.

The challenge of consciousness with special reference to the exclusive disjunction

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Alex Antonites

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The theory of evolution makes sense of the emergence of consciousness. Reduction is not wrong as such, but must not be totalised. The fact that we are star stuff does not preclude the novelty of consciousness. Materialism is naturalism, but naturalism need not be materialism. Neural pathways are relevant but are not the total picture. The central thesis is about David Chalmers’s philosophy being based on an exclusive disjunction. An inclusive disjunction is, when explained, more appropriate. Functionalism is appropriate. Thomas Nagel’s philosophy on first person ontology can still be maintained. Quantum and complexity theories’ hypothesis on consciousness is more compatible with freedom of decision than classical theories.

A Mechanistic Neural Field Theory of How Anesthesia Suppresses Consciousness: Synaptic Drive Dynamics, Bifurcations, Attractors, and Partial State Equipartitioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Saing Paul; Haddad, Wassim M; Meskin, Nader; Bailey, James M

2015-12-01

With the advances in biochemistry, molecular biology, and neurochemistry there has been impressive progress in understanding the molecular properties of anesthetic agents. However, there has been little focus on how the molecular properties of anesthetic agents lead to the observed macroscopic property that defines the anesthetic state, that is, lack of responsiveness to noxious stimuli. In this paper, we use dynamical system theory to develop a mechanistic mean field model for neural activity to study the abrupt transition from consciousness to unconsciousness as the concentration of the anesthetic agent increases. The proposed synaptic drive firing-rate model predicts the conscious-unconscious transition as the applied anesthetic concentration increases, where excitatory neural activity is characterized by a Poincaré-Andronov-Hopf bifurcation with the awake state transitioning to a stable limit cycle and then subsequently to an asymptotically stable unconscious equilibrium state. Furthermore, we address the more general question of synchronization and partial state equipartitioning of neural activity without mean field assumptions. This is done by focusing on a postulated subset of inhibitory neurons that are not themselves connected to other inhibitory neurons. Finally, several numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the different aspects of the proposed theory.

Experiences from Participants in Large-Scale Group Practice of the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programs and Parallel Principles of Quantum Theory, Astrophysics, Quantum Cosmology, and String Theory: Interdisciplinary Qualitative Correspondences

Science.gov (United States)

Svenson, Eric Johan

Participants on the Invincible America Assembly in Fairfield, Iowa, and neighboring Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, practicing Maharishi Transcendental Meditation(TM) (TM) and the TM-Sidhi(TM) programs in large groups, submitted written experiences that they had had during, and in some cases shortly after, their daily practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi programs. Participants were instructed to include in their written experiences only what they observed and to leave out interpretation and analysis. These experiences were then read by the author and compared with principles and phenomena of modern physics, particularly with quantum theory, astrophysics, quantum cosmology, and string theory as well as defining characteristics of higher states of consciousness as described by Maharishi Vedic Science. In all cases, particular principles or phenomena of physics and qualities of higher states of consciousness appeared qualitatively quite similar to the content of the given experience. These experiences are presented in an Appendix, in which the corresponding principles and phenomena of physics are also presented. These physics "commentaries" on the experiences were written largely in layman's terms, without equations, and, in nearly every case, with clear reference to the corresponding sections of the experiences to which a given principle appears to relate. An abundance of similarities were apparent between the subjective experiences during meditation and principles of modern physics. A theoretic framework for understanding these rich similarities may begin with Maharishi's theory of higher states of consciousness provided herein. We conclude that the consistency and richness of detail found in these abundant similarities warrants the further pursuit and development of such a framework.

Assessing Politicized Sexual Orientation Identity: Validating the Queer Consciousness Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, Lauren E; Mincer, Elizabeth; Dunn, Sarah R

2017-01-01

Building on psychological theories of motivation for collective action, we introduce a new individual difference measure of queer consciousness, defined as a politicized collective identity around sexual orientation. The Queer Consciousness Scale (QCS) consists of 12 items measuring five aspects of a politicized queer identity: sense of common fate, power discontent, system blame, collective orientation, and cognitive centrality. In four samples of adult women and men of varied sexual orientations, the QCS showed good test-retest and Cronbach's reliability and excellent known-groups and predictive validity. Specifically, the QCS was positively correlated with identification as a member of the LGBTQ community, political liberalism, personal political salience, and LGBTQ activism and negatively correlated with right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. QCS mediated relationships between several individual difference variables and gay rights activism and can be used with both LGBTQ people and allies.

Study of Black Consciousness in A Raisin in The Sun

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Rehana Kousar

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This work explores Black Consciousness in A Raisin in the Sun by Hansberry. Black Consciousness elaborates an awareness of and pride in one’s identity as a black person. It analyzes A Raisin in the Sun by applying the theory of Black Consciousness under the perspective of Fanon. This study analysis the drama at three levels: sense of pride on black culture and identity, struggle against Apartheid and Blacks’ resolution to accept the challenges of White Community.

Stigma Consciousness in the case of Romanian Roma Activists

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Laura SURDU

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Roma people are often stigmatized by the members of the out-groups, the process of stigmatization being enforced through a selection of stereotypically assigned characteristics of the group. In the last two decades, the stigmatization of Roma was contributed by scientists, policy makers and mass media. Stigma is a basis for social exclusion of Roma people and it is transferred from the whole group to the individual level. The negative labelling of the entire Roma group affects identity and stigma consciousness for each individual Roma. This paper addresses ethnic stigma consciousness in a sample of 96 Roma activists, women and men. The results show that stigma consciousness is highly present among Roma participants from the sample, although there are not significant differences between Roma women and Roma men regarding ethnic stigma consciousness.

Narrating consciousness: language, media and embodiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayles, N Katherine; Pulizzi, James J

2010-01-01

Although there has long been a division in studies of consciousness between a focus on neuronal processes or conversely an emphasis on the ruminations of a conscious self, the long-standing split between mechanism and meaning within the brain was mirrored by a split without, between information as a technical term and the meanings that messages are commonly thought to convey. How to heal this breach has posed formidable problems to researchers. Working through the history of cybernetics, one of the historical sites where Claude Shannon's information theory quickly became received doctrine, we argue that the cybernetic program as it developed through second-order cybernetics and autopoietic theory remains incomplete. In this article, we return to fundamental questions about pattern and noise, context and meaning, to forge connections between consciousness, narrative and media. The thrust of our project is to reintroduce context and narrative as crucial factors in the processes of meaning-making. The project proceeds along two fronts: advancing a theoretical framework within which context plays its property central role; and demonstrating the importance of context by analyzing two fictions, Stanislaw Lem's "His Master's Voice" and Joseph McElroy's "Plus," in which context has been deformed by being wrenched away from normal human environments, with radical consequences for processes of meaning-making.

Do You See What I See? Effects of Group Consciousness on African American Women's Attributions to Prejudice

Science.gov (United States)

King, Kimberly R.

2003-01-01

This study examined the effects of three types of group consciousness among African American women ("ethnic," "feminist," and "womanist") on prejudice attributions and appraised personal significance ("centrality") of a negative intergroup event. African American female college students (N = 123) imagined themselves in an audiotaped scenario in…

The Endogenous Feedback Network: a new approach to the comprehensive study of consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Augustenborg, Claudia Carrara

2010-06-01

The phenomenon of consciousness has received through the centuries a profusion of interpretations, engaging researchers across many disciplines. Nevertheless, consensus still floats at large. The aim of the present work is therefore twofold. Through the review of a selected number of existing proposals, it will first be considered the extents of their reciprocal compatibility, tentatively shaping an integrated, theoretical profile of consciousness. A new theory, the Endogenous Feedback Network (EFN) will consequently be introduced which, besides being able to accommodate the main tenets of the reviewed theories, appears able to compensate for the explanatory gaps they leave behind. The EFN proposes consciousness as the phenomenon emerging from a distinct neural network broadcasting the changes associated to mental activations across the brain. It additionally argues for the need to include a 5th element to Ned Block's taxonomy (i.e. phenomenal, monitoring, access, and self-consciousness) that is, non-cognitive consciousness. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Group theory and its applications

CERN Document Server

Patra, Prasanta Kumar

2018-01-01

Every molecule possesses symmetry and hence has symmetry operations and symmetry elements. From symmetry properties of a system we can deduce its significant physical results. Consequently it is essential to operations of a system forms a group. Group theory is an abstract mathematical tool that underlies the study of symmetry and invariance. By using the concepts of symmetry and group theory, it is possible to obtain the members of complete set of known basis functions of the various irreducible representations of the group. I practice this is achieved by applying the projection operators to linear combinations of atomic orbital (LCAO) when the valence electrons are tightly bound to the ions, to orthogonalized plane waves (OPW) when valence electrons are nearly free and to the other given functions that are judged to the particular system under consideration. In solid state physics the group theory is indispensable in the context of finding the energy bands of electrons in solids. Group theory can be applied...

C. S. Peirce’s Semiotic Answer to the Riddle of Consciousness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brier, Søren

A scientific explanation of consciousness that is not partially based on phenomenology seems logically impossible. C.S. Peirce’s pragmaticist semiotics attempts to bridge the gap between natural sciences and humanities by combining a phenomenological approach with an evolutionary and realistic...... understanding of nature and society in the development of a new transdisicplinary and evolutionary theory of meaning and logic in a semiotic theory of mind and consciousness. Though a contributor to the development of modern logic and science Peirce, through inventing a semiotics that embraced phenomenology...

Concepts are not represented by conscious imagery

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D. Pecher (Diane); S. van Dantzig (Saskia); H.N.J. Schifferstien (Hendrik)

2009-01-01

textabstractAccording to theories of grounded cognition, conceptual representation and perception share processing mechanisms. We investigated whether this overlap is due to conscious perceptual imagery. Participants filled out questionnaires to assess the vividness of their imagery (Questionnaire

2,4-Dinitrophenol: A threat to Chinese body-conscious groups

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Han Chih Hencher Lee

2014-08-01

Full Text Available 2,4-Dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP, a yellowish compound, has historically been used in the manufacture of dyes, explosives, and fungicides. As it uncouples mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, the compound was also used as an antiobesity agent early in the past century. The compound was subsequently banned by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1938 due to its potentially fatal adverse effects, including hyperthermia, cataract, agranulocytosis, hepatoxicity, nephrotoxicity, and cardiotoxicity. However, the popularity of 2,4-DNP as a slimming aid has appeared to increase again in recent years. The Hong Kong Hospital Authority Toxicology Reference Laboratory recently confirmed two cases of self-administered 2,4-DNP with different clinical presentations to hospitals in the area. Here we describe those two cases, in an attempt to underscore the potential of misuse of this substance by body-conscious groups among the Chinese population.

Homing in on consciousness: Why is a dream conscious?

Science.gov (United States)

Porte, Helene Sophrin

2016-01-01

Morsella et al. argue convincingly that consciousness is for adaptive voluntary action. What, then, is consciousness in a dream for? Two prior questions present themselves. In a dream, how do contents get into the conscious field? What are the properties of consciousness in a dream?

Preserved consciousness in vegetative and minimal conscious states

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kondziella, Daniel; Nielsen, Christian Thomas Friberg; Frokjaer, Vibe G

2016-01-01

Active, passive and resting state paradigms using functional MRI (fMRI) or EEG may reveal consciousness in the vegetative (VS) and the minimal conscious state (MCS). A meta-analysis was performed to assess the prevalence of preserved consciousness in VS and MCS as revealed by fMRI and EEG.......0001)) and to show preserved functional cortical connectivity during passive paradigms (55% vs 26%; OR 3.53 (95% CI 2.49 to 4.99; ppreserved consciousness more often than active paradigms (38% vs 24%; OR 1.98 (95% CI 1.54 to 2.54; p... were insufficient for statistical evaluation. In conclusion, active paradigms may underestimate the degree of consciousness as compared to passive paradigms. While MCS patients show signs of preserved consciousness more frequently in both paradigms, roughly 15% of patients with a clinical diagnosis...

An action research project aimed at raising social consciousness amongst women attending transactional analysis group psychotherapy in Brazil

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Jane Maria Pancinha Costa

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Based on awareness of material by Gramsci (1978, 1982 on hegemony, Freire (1979a, 1979b on cooperative contact, and Steiner (1975 on radical psychiatry, action research methodology was used by the researcher, who was also a psychotherapist, with 12 women attending two ongoing weekly psychotherapy groups in Brazil in order to raise their social consciousness of culturally-based oppression of women, particularly relating to work; to apply life script analysis as a therapeutic intervention within the groups; and to facilitate recognition by the women of the benefits of cooperative contact when seeking to liberate themselves from oppression.  Individual structured interviews were conducted and the data from these was discussed within the groups, leading to the development of a model containing 6 levels of consciousness of oppression.  Examples of oppression identified by the women are provided, with only 17% relating directly to sexual discrim-ination at work.  Although the research was conducted many years ago (1987-1989, it is shown that problems still exist and the research method-ology could usefully be applied elsewhere.

Consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Sejnowski, Terrence J

2015-01-01

No one did more to draw neuroscientists' attention to the problem of consciousness in the twentieth century than Francis Crick, who may be better known as the co-discoverer (with James Watson) of the structure of DNA. Crick focused his research on visual awareness and based his analysis on the progress made over the last fifty years in uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying visual perception. Because much of what happens in our brains occurs below the level of consciousness and many of our intuitions about unconscious processing are misleading, consciousness remains an elusive problem. In the end, when all of the brain mechanisms that underlie consciousness have been identified, will we still be asking: "What is consciousness?" Or will the question shift, just as the question "What is life?" is no longer the same as it was before Francis Crick?

An analysis of totalitarian consciousness in Frankfurt School socio-critical theory

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O. O. Demura

2014-10-01

Full Text Available In the article there were analyzed the main ideas of Frankfurt School representatives, namely Theodor. W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm. The author attempted to identify the main causes of neototalitarianism formation and the formation of totalitarian regime in the 20th century. In the attempt the author based on the main researches and fundamental works of Frankfurt school representatives. It was established an interdependency between the Enlightenment practice and the mythologizing of consciousness; the role of culture was determined. The role of ideological system as one of the forms of social mythology was described. It was established the regularity between ‘happy consciousness’ of the Consumer Society and myths and ideological system effecting rooting in the society mass consciousness of the 20th century. The relevance of the article is determined by the need for critical thinking of the development of totalitarian states culture that today is becoming obvious. An awareness of the fact that social consciousness of post-Soviet states still guided by myths that were created and instituted by totalitarian culture makes us serious study of the problems mythologizing of consciousness and ideological influence. Therefore the deliverance from prejudice and the transition to a new round of democratic society is not possible without studying the formations foundations of mass society and the functions of culture in it. Moreover, the solution of modernity global problems and the transition on qualitatively new round of social and cultural development is impossible without definition of conditions that identified the construction of Western civilization.

Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: basic evidence and a workspace framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Dehaene, S; Naccache, L

2001-04-01

This introductory chapter attempts to clarify the philosophical, empirical, and theoretical bases on which a cognitive neuroscience approach to consciousness can be founded. We isolate three major empirical observations that any theory of consciousness should incorporate, namely (1) a considerable amount of processing is possible without consciousness, (2) attention is a prerequisite of consciousness, and (3) consciousness is required for some specific cognitive tasks, including those that require durable information maintenance, novel combinations of operations, or the spontaneous generation of intentional behavior. We then propose a theoretical framework that synthesizes those facts: the hypothesis of a global neuronal workspace. This framework postulates that, at any given time, many modular cerebral networks are active in parallel and process information in an unconscious manner. An information becomes conscious, however, if the neural population that represents it is mobilized by top-down attentional amplification into a brain-scale state of coherent activity that involves many neurons distributed throughout the brain. The long-distance connectivity of these 'workspace neurons' can, when they are active for a minimal duration, make the information available to a variety of processes including perceptual categorization, long-term memorization, evaluation, and intentional action. We postulate that this global availability of information through the workspace is what we subjectively experience as a conscious state. A complete theory of consciousness should explain why some cognitive and cerebral representations can be permanently or temporarily inaccessible to consciousness, what is the range of possible conscious contents, how they map onto specific cerebral circuits, and whether a generic neuronal mechanism underlies all of them. We confront the workspace model with those issues and identify novel experimental predictions. Neurophysiological, anatomical, and

Genomic instantiation of consciousness in neurons through a biophoton field theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Cacha, Lleuvelyn A; Poznanski, Roman R

2014-06-01

A theoretical framework is developed based on the premise that brains evolved into sufficiently complex adaptive systems capable of instantiating genomic consciousness through self-awareness and complex interactions that recognize qualitatively the controlling factors of biological processes. Furthermore, our hypothesis assumes that the collective interactions in neurons yield macroergic effects, which can produce sufficiently strong electric energy fields for electronic excitations to take place on the surface of endogenous structures via alpha-helical integral proteins as electro-solitons. Specifically the process of radiative relaxation of the electro-solitons allows for the transfer of energy via interactions with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules to induce conformational changes in DNA molecules producing an ultra weak non-thermal spontaneous emission of coherent biophotons through a quantum effect. The instantiation of coherent biophotons confined in spaces of DNA molecules guides the biophoton field to be instantaneously conducted along the axonal and neuronal arbors and in-between neurons and throughout the cerebral cortex (cortico-thalamic system) and subcortical areas (e.g., midbrain and hindbrain). Thus providing an informational character of the electric coherence of the brain - referred to as quantum coherence. The biophoton field is realized as a conscious field upon the re-absorption of biophotons by exciplex states of DNA molecules. Such quantum phenomenon brings about self-awareness and enables objectivity to have access to subjectivity in the unconscious. As such, subjective experiences can be recalled to consciousness as subjective conscious experiences or qualia through co-operative interactions between exciplex states of DNA molecules and biophotons leading to metabolic activity and energy transfer across proteins as a result of protein-ligand binding during protein-protein communication. The biophoton field as a conscious field is

The Split-Brain Phenomenon Revisited: A Single Conscious Agent with Split Perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinto, Yair; de Haan, Edward H F; Lamme, Victor A F

2017-11-01

The split-brain phenomenon is caused by the surgical severing of the corpus callosum, the main route of communication between the cerebral hemispheres. The classical view of this syndrome asserts that conscious unity is abolished. The left hemisphere consciously experiences and functions independently of the right hemisphere. This view is a cornerstone of current consciousness research. In this review, we first discuss the evidence for the classical view. We then propose an alternative, the 'conscious unity, split perception' model. This model asserts that a split brain produces one conscious agent who experiences two parallel, unintegrated streams of information. In addition to changing our view of the split-brain phenomenon, this new model also poses a serious challenge for current dominant theories of consciousness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Symmetry and group theory in chemistry

CERN Document Server

Ladd, M

1998-01-01

A comprehensive discussion of group theory in the context of molecular and crystal symmetry, this book covers both point-group and space-group symmetries.Provides a comprehensive discussion of group theory in the context of molecular and crystal symmetryCovers both point-group and space-group symmetriesIncludes tutorial solutions

Extending Sociocultural Theory to Group Creativity

Science.gov (United States)

Sawyer, Keith

2012-01-01

Sociocultural theory focuses on group processes through time, and argues that group phenomena cannot be reduced to explanation in terms of the mental states or actions of the participating individuals. This makes sociocultural theory particularly useful in the analysis of group creativity and group learning, because both group creativity and group…

Healing Through States of Consciousness: Animal Sacrifice and Christian Prayer Among the Kachin in Southwest China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wenyi

2016-01-01

Healing rituals can be understood in terms of configurations of two states of consciousness-a culturally elaborated everyday waking consciousness, and an enhanced and culturally elaborated state of consciousness. Two healing rituals performed by the ethnic Kachin in Southwest China differentiate these two states of consciousness in their theories of life and death. The first ritual, animal sacrifice, employs the ordinary consciousness, including will and expectation, of participants through the enhanced state of consciousness of the ritual officiant. The second, Christian prayer, utilizes the enhanced consciousness of Christian Congregation to achieve psychic transformation. These two rituals maneuver different configurations of the two states of consciousness in achieving healing efficacy.

Logical Evaluation of Consciousness: For Incorporating Consciousness into Machine Architecture

OpenAIRE

Padhy, C. N.; Panda, R. R.

2010-01-01

Machine Consciousness is the study of consciousness in a biological, philosophical, mathematical and physical perspective and designing a model that can fit into a programmable system architecture. Prime objective of the study is to make the system architecture behave consciously like a biological model does. Present work has developed a feasible definition of consciousness, that characterizes consciousness with four parameters i.e., parasitic, symbiotic, self referral and reproduction. Prese...

Grid-group cultural theory: an introduction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mamadouh, V.

1999-01-01

This article offers an introduction to grid-group cultural theory (also known as grid-group analysis, Cultural Theory or theory of socio-cultural viability), an approach that has been developed over the past thirty years in the work of the British anthropologists Mary Douglas and Michael Thompson,

The regulatory function of self-conscious emotion: insights from patients with orbitofrontal damage.

Science.gov (United States)

Beer, Jennifer S; Heerey, Erin A; Keltner, Dacher; Scabini, Donatella; Knight, Robert T

2003-10-01

Although once considered disruptive, self-conscious emotions are now theorized to be fundamentally involved in the regulation of social behavior. The present study examined the social regulation function of self-conscious emotions by comparing healthy participants with a neuropsychological population--patients with orbitofrontal lesions--characterized by selective regulatory deficits. Orbitofrontal patients and healthy controls participated in a series of tasks designed to assess their social regulation and self-conscious emotions. Another task assessed the ability to infer others' emotional states, an appraisal process involved in self-conscious emotion. Consistent with the theory that self-conscious emotions are important for regulating social behavior, the findings show that deficient behavioral regulation is associated with inappropriate self-conscious emotions that reinforce maladaptive behavior. Additionally, deficient behavioral regulation is associated with impairments in interpreting the self-conscious emotions of others.

Searle's New Mystery, or, How not to Solve the Problem of Consciousness

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Saulo de Freitas Araujo

2013-01-01

Full Text Available John Searle repeatedly claims to have offered a solution to the mind-brain problem, especially as regards the mystery of consciousness. The aim of this paper is to present and analyse Searle’s theory of biological naturalism, from its earliest expression in the 1980s to his most recent works. Our analysis shows that Searle’s biological naturalism suffers from many theoretical difficulties and logical inconsistencies, which disqualify it as a sound explanation for consciousness and the mind-brain problem. We conclude that, far from offering a solution to the problem of consciousness, Searle ended up creating a new mystery of consciousness.

Stream of consciousness: Quantum and biochemical assumptions regarding psychopathology.

Science.gov (United States)

Tonello, Lucio; Cocchi, Massimo; Gabrielli, Fabio; Tuszynski, Jack A

2017-04-01

The accepted paradigms of mainstream neuropsychiatry appear to be incompletely adequate and in various cases offer equivocal analyses. However, a growing number of new approaches are being proposed that suggest the emergence of paradigm shifts in this area. In particular, quantum theories of mind, brain and consciousness seem to offer a profound change to the current approaches. Unfortunately these quantum paradigms harbor at least two serious problems. First, they are simply models, theories, and assumptions, with no convincing experiments supporting their claims. Second, they deviate from contemporary mainstream views of psychiatric illness and do so in revolutionary ways. We suggest a possible way to integrate experimental neuroscience with quantum models in order to address outstanding issues in psychopathology. A key role is played by the phenomenon called the "stream of consciousness", which can be linked to the so-called "Gamma Synchrony" (GS), which is clearly demonstrated by EEG data. In our novel proposal, a unipolar depressed patient could be seen as a subject with an altered stream of consciousness. In particular, some clues suggest that depression is linked to an "increased power" stream of consciousness. It is additionally suggested that such an approach to depression might be extended to psychopathology in general with potential benefits to diagnostics and therapeutics in neuropsychiatry. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Consciousness as a global property of brain dynamic activity

Science.gov (United States)

Mateos, D. M.; Wennberg, R.; Guevara, R.; Perez Velazquez, J. L.

2017-12-01

We seek general principles of the structure of the cellular collective activity associated with conscious awareness. Can we obtain evidence for features of the optimal brain organization that allows for adequate processing of stimuli and that may guide the emergence of cognition and consciousness? Analyzing brain recordings in conscious and unconscious states, we followed initially the classic approach in physics when it comes to understanding collective behaviours of systems composed of a myriad of units: the assessment of the number of possible configurations (microstates) that the system can adopt, for which we use a global entropic measure associated with the number of connected brain regions. Having found maximal entropy in conscious states, we then inspected the microscopic nature of the configurations of connections using an adequate complexity measure and found higher complexity in states characterized not only by conscious awareness but also by subconscious cognitive processing, such as sleep stages. Our observations indicate that conscious awareness is associated with maximal global (macroscopic) entropy and with the short time scale (microscopic) complexity of the configurations of connected brain networks in pathological unconscious states (seizures and coma), but the microscopic view captures the high complexity in physiological unconscious states (sleep) where there is information processing. As such, our results support the global nature of conscious awareness, as advocated by several theories of cognition. We thus hope that our studies represent preliminary steps to reveal aspects of the structure of cognition that leads to conscious awareness.

Sigmund Freud and the Crick-Koch hypothesis. A footnote to the history of consciousness studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, D L

1999-06-01

The author describes Crick and Koch's recently developed theory of the neurophysiological basis of consciousness as synchronised neural oscillations. The thesis that neural oscillations provide the neurophysiological basis for consciousness was anticipated by Sigmund Freud in his 1895 'Project for a scientific psychology'. Freud attempted to solve his neuropsychological 'problem of quality' by means of the hypothesis that information concerning conscious sensory qualities is transmitted through the mental apparatus by means of neural 'periods'. Freud believed that information carried by neural oscillations would proliferate across 'contact-barriers' (synapses) without inhibition. Freud's theory thus appears to imply that synchronised neural oscillations are an important component of the neurophysiological basis of consciousness. It is possible that Freud's thesis was developed in response to the experimental research of the American neuroscientist M. M. Garver.

Gauge theory of the post-Galilean groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dimakis, A.

1985-01-01

By means of an extension of the field of real numbers we construct post-Galilean groups, which in a sense lay between the Galilean group and the Lorentz group. By gauging these groups we obtain a frame theory of gravitation, which comprises Newton--Cartan theory, general relativity, and an infinite number of intermediate theories. This leads to a better understanding of how the structural differences of the two main theories of gravitation arise

Women's Feminist Consciousness, Anger, and Psychological Distress

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Ann R.; Good, Glenn E.

2004-01-01

The goal of this study was to bring together several lines of research and theory on women's feminist consciousness from psychology, sociology, and philosophy. Past literatures had suggested bivariate links between feminist identity development and psychological distress, feminist identity and anger, feminist identity and interpersonal conflict,…

Impact of emotion on consciousness: positive stimuli enhance conscious reportability.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristine Rømer Thomsen

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Emotion and reward have been proposed to be closely linked to conscious experience, but empirical data are lacking. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC plays a central role in the hedonic dimension of conscious experience; thus potentially a key region in interactions between emotion and consciousness. Here we tested the impact of emotion on conscious experience, and directly investigated the role of the ACC. We used a masked paradigm that measures conscious reportability in terms of subjective confidence and objective accuracy in identifying the briefly presented stimulus in a forced-choice test. By manipulating the emotional valence (positive, neutral, negative and the presentation time (16 ms, 32 ms, 80 ms we measured the impact of these variables on conscious and subliminal (i.e. below threshold processing. First, we tested normal participants using face and word stimuli. Results showed that participants were more confident and accurate when consciously seeing happy versus sad/neutral faces and words. When stimuli were presented subliminally, we found no effect of emotion. To investigate the neural basis of this impact of emotion, we recorded local field potentials (LFPs directly in the ACC in a chronic pain patient. Behavioural findings were replicated: the patient was more confident and accurate when (consciously seeing happy versus sad faces, while no effect was seen in subliminal trials. Mirroring behavioural findings, we found significant differences in the LFPs after around 500 ms (lasting 30 ms in conscious trials between happy and sad faces, while no effect was found in subliminal trials. We thus demonstrate a striking impact of emotion on conscious experience, with positive emotional stimuli enhancing conscious reportability. In line with previous studies, the data indicate a key role of the ACC, but goes beyond earlier work by providing the first direct evidence of interaction between emotion and conscious experience in the human

Artificial consciousness and the consciousness-attention dissociation.

Science.gov (United States)

Haladjian, Harry Haroutioun; Montemayor, Carlos

2016-10-01

Artificial Intelligence is at a turning point, with a substantial increase in projects aiming to implement sophisticated forms of human intelligence in machines. This research attempts to model specific forms of intelligence through brute-force search heuristics and also reproduce features of human perception and cognition, including emotions. Such goals have implications for artificial consciousness, with some arguing that it will be achievable once we overcome short-term engineering challenges. We believe, however, that phenomenal consciousness cannot be implemented in machines. This becomes clear when considering emotions and examining the dissociation between consciousness and attention in humans. While we may be able to program ethical behavior based on rules and machine learning, we will never be able to reproduce emotions or empathy by programming such control systems-these will be merely simulations. Arguments in favor of this claim include considerations about evolution, the neuropsychological aspects of emotions, and the dissociation between attention and consciousness found in humans. Ultimately, we are far from achieving artificial consciousness. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Is Your Gut Conscious? Is an Extraterrestrial?

Science.gov (United States)

Vos Post, Jonathan

2011-10-01

This paper speculates on questions intending to be taken scientifically rather than metaphysically: "Can the human gut (enteric nervous system) be conscious?"; "Can your immune system think?"; "Could consciousness be coded in DNA?"; "What do we mean when asserting that an Extraterrestrial is Thinking, or is Conscious? We explore through reference to theory, experiment, and computational models by Christof Koch (Caltech), Barbara Wold (Caltech), and Stuart Kauffman (University of Calgary, Tampere University of Technology, Santa Fe Institute). We use a tentative new definition of thinking, designed to be applicable for humans, cetecea, corvids, artificial intelligences, and extraterrestrial intelligences of any substrate (i.e. Life as We Do Not Know It): "Thinking is the occurrence, transformation, and storage in a mind or brain (or simulation thereof) of information-bearing structures (representations) of one kind or another, such as thoughts, concept, percepts, ideas, impressions, notions, rules, schemas, images, phantasms, or subpersonal representations." We use the framework for Consciousness developed by Francis Crick and Christof Koch. We try to describe scientific goals, but discuss Philosophy sufficient to avoid naïve philosophical category errors (thus are careful not to conflate thought, consciousness, and language) Penrose, Hameroff, and Kauffman speculate (differently) that CNS consciousness is a macroscopic quantum phenomenon. Might intestinal, immune system, or genetic regulatory network dynamics exhibit emergent cooperative quantum effects? The speculations are in the context of Evolution by Natural Selection, presumed to operate throughout the Cosmos, and recent work in the foundations of Computational Biology and Quantum Mechanics.

Raising consciousness about the nuclear threat through music

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ungerleider, J.H.

1987-01-01

This dissertation examines the use of music, in particular topical collaborative group song writing, as a tool for raising consciousness about the threat of nuclear war. Consciousness raising is one way to overcome the phenomenon of denial and to increase discussion and social action in response to the nuclear threat. This dissertation measures the impact of a group song writing workshop on developing critical problem-solving in adult groups; it reviews how music is applied in psychological research and clinical work, has been used historically as a tool in social-change movements in America, and is used in the contemporary field of peace education. The perspectives of several theorists who discuss the potential of music to contribute to social change are presented. It is concluded that consciousness about the nuclear threat - in terms of naming and analyzing - can be raised by working with music's potential for developing affective, expressive, and collaborative capabilities in individuals and groups. Potential applications of the group song writing workshop are in schools, with peace organizations, music groups, and in relation to other social issues.

Emotional consciousness: a neural model of how cognitive appraisal and somatic perception interact to produce qualitative experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Thagard, Paul; Aubie, Brandon

2008-09-01

This paper proposes a theory of how conscious emotional experience is produced by the brain as the result of many interacting brain areas coordinated in working memory. These brain areas integrate perceptions of bodily states of an organism with cognitive appraisals of its current situation. Emotions are neural processes that represent the overall cognitive and somatic state of the organism. Conscious experience arises when neural representations achieve high activation as part of working memory. This theory explains numerous phenomena concerning emotional consciousness, including differentiation, integration, intensity, valence, and change.

Stories, Stakeholder Expansion, and Surrogate Consciousness: Using Innovations in Social Movement Theory to Understand and Influence Hizballah’s Developmental Trajectory

Science.gov (United States)

2005-05-01

eventually be able to appeal to the members of the group on whose behalf they have developed surrogacy . The group in whom surrogate consciousness is...California at San Diego. His book Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectionism, and Moral Cognition is available from MIT Press; his co-authored book

The theory of nilpotent groups

CERN Document Server

Clement, Anthony E; Zyman, Marcos

2017-01-01

This monograph presents both classical and recent results in the theory of nilpotent groups and provides a self-contained, comprehensive reference on the topic.  While the theorems and proofs included can be found throughout the existing literature, this is the first book to collect them in a single volume.  Details omitted from the original sources, along with additional computations and explanations, have been added to foster a stronger understanding of the theory of nilpotent groups and the techniques commonly used to study them.  Topics discussed include collection processes, normal forms and embeddings, isolators, extraction of roots, P-localization, dimension subgroups and Lie algebras, decision problems, and nilpotent groups of automorphisms.  Requiring only a strong undergraduate or beginning graduate background in algebra, graduate students and researchers in mathematics will find The Theory of Nilpotent Groups to be a valuable resource.

Consumer Ethical Decision Making: Intensity, Self-Consciousness and Neutralization Techniques

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Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of moral intensity on self-conscious emotions and neutralization techniques in the context of ethical decision making among consumers. A sample of 388 shopping mall retail consumers was recruited through self-administered survey technique. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, correlation was carried out in SPSS whereas the measurement model and structural relationships were estimated using AMOS. Results indicate that moral intensity positively influences consumer’s self-consciousness, neutralization techniques and behavioural intention. Self-consciousness negatively influence consumer’s defence mechanism i.e. neutralization techniques. Neither self-consciousness nor neutralization techniques is found to have an impact on consumers’ behavioural intention. Only self-consciousness is found to complementary mediate the relationship of moral intensity and neutralization. The limitations associated with field survey and crosssectional research design are inevitable. The study offers some relevant practical implications for government, marketing professionals and academia. The study is among the pioneer studies that theoretically links and empirically examines Issue Contingent Model, theory of neutralization and self-consciousness. The study develops and tested an Urdu language version of the questionnaire for retail consumers.

Renormalization Group Theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stephens, C. R.

2006-01-01

In this article I give a brief account of the development of research in the Renormalization Group in Mexico, paying particular attention to novel conceptual and technical developments associated with the tool itself, rather than applications of standard Renormalization Group techniques. Some highlights include the development of new methods for understanding and analysing two extreme regimes of great interest in quantum field theory -- the ''high temperature'' regime and the Regge regime

Modular groups in quantum field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borchers, H.-J.

2000-01-01

The author discusses the connection of Lagrangean quantum field theory, perturbation theory, the Lehmann-Symanzik-Zimmermann theory, Wightman's quantum field theory, the Euclidean quantum field theory, and the Araki-Haag-Kastler theory of local observables with modular groups. In this connection he considers the PCT-theorem, and the tensor product decomposition. (HSI)

Predictable Internal Brain Dynamics in EEG and Its Relation to Conscious States

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Jaewook eYoo

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Consciousness is a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon defying scientific explanation. Part of the reason why this is the case is due to its subjective nature. In our previous computational experiments, to avoid such a subjective trap, we took a strategy to investigate objective necessary conditions of consciousness. Our basic hypothesis was that predictive internal dynamics serves as such a condition. This is in line with theories of consciousness that treat retention (memory, protention (anticipation, and primary impression as the tripartite temporal structure of consciousness. To test our hypothesis, we analyzed publicly available sleep and awake electroencephalogram (EEG data. Our results show that EEG signals from awake or rapid eye movement (REM sleep states have more predictable dynamics compared to those from slow-wave sleep (SWS. Since awakeness and REM sleep are associated with conscious states and SWS with unconscious or less consciousness states, these results support our hypothesis. The results suggest an intricate relationship among prediction, consciousness, and time, with potential applications to time perception and neurorobotics.

Renormalization group theory of critical phenomena

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Menon, S.V.G.

1995-01-01

Renormalization group theory is a framework for describing those phenomena that involve a multitude of scales of variations of microscopic quantities. Systems in the vicinity of continuous phase transitions have spatial correlations at all length scales. The renormalization group theory and the pertinent background material are introduced and applied to some important problems in this monograph. The monograph begins with a historical survey of thermal phase transitions. The background material leading to the renormalization group theory is covered in the first three chapters. Then, the basic techniques of the theory are introduced and applied to magnetic critical phenomena in the next four chapters. The momentum space approach as well as the real space techniques are, thus, discussed in detail. Finally, brief outlines of applications of the theory to some of the related areas are presented in the last chapter. (author)

Linear algebra and group theory

CERN Document Server

Smirnov, VI

2011-01-01

This accessible text by a Soviet mathematician features material not otherwise available to English-language readers. Its three-part treatment covers determinants and systems of equations, matrix theory, and group theory. 1961 edition.

On the character of consciousness

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Arto eAnnila

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The human brain is a particularly demanding system to infer its nature from observations. Thus, there is on one hand plenty of room for theorizing and on the other hand a pressing need for a rigorous theory. We apply statistical mechanics of open systems to describe the brain as a hierarchical system in consuming free energy in least time. This holistic tenet accounts for cellular metabolism, neuronal signaling, cognitive processes all together or any other process by a formal equation of motion that extends down to the ultimate precision of one quantum of action. According to this general thermodynamic theory cognitive processes are no different by their operational and organizational principle from other natural processes. Cognition too will emerge and evolve along path-dependent and non-determinate trajectories by consuming free energy in least time to attain thermodynamic balance within the nervous system itself and with its surrounding systems. Specifically, consciousness can be ascribed to a natural process that integrates various neural networks for coherent consumption of free energy, i.e., for meaningful deeds. The whole hierarchy of integrated systems can be formally summed up to thermodynamic entropy. The holistic tenet provides insight to the character of consciousness also by acknowledging awareness in other systems at other levels of nature’s hierarchy.

Results of Research about Consciousness of Foodstuff Consumers in Hungary

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Ibolya Bravacz

2013-10-01

How self-restrictive and self-conscious are we when purchasing and consuming foodstuff? – with every foodstuff purchase we make decisions about our environment, which indirectly has an effect on the producers, manufacturers and dealers. I will briefly review the foodstuff consumers segments in Hungary, which first have been identified using factor analysis followed by cluster analysis. I have identified the following consumer groups based on health consciousness: Conscious majority, Conscious by commitment, Economist “housewife”, Youthfully eclectic and Passives.

The Consciousness and the role of valorization. How and why the Self-awareness subjectively administers consciousness

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Ciocan Tudor Cosmin

2017-05-01

Full Text Available It is most likely for anyone to ask himself at least once if it would be possible to live in a dream? Questioning the fabric of “reality” we live in consciously was one of the main doubts man ever had. It is so likely for us to answer positively to it due to so many factors; starting from the many and various facets of reality each individual envision the world, from the enormous differences we all have while perceiving and defining the reality, etc. That is why, at the conscious level, life seems almost like a dream in a dream, always hoping to wake up from the negative, unwanted version of it. That is why my assertion here, based on latest theories on consciousness and AI (artificial intelligence, aim to say that we live in between reality and dream, being “conscious” of ourselves, but not really wanting to be “aware” of what is really going on with us. Living as a human is not a path towards improvement in the way of getting rid of subjectiveness and valorization because these so-called errors make the most of human living.

A philosophical theory on human communication and modern physics: e(,2)c(,2)H('2)T energy-exchange and consciousness-change toward humanism, healing, and transformation

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins-Tate, Marnishia Laverne

This dissertation addresses the need for a body of human communication theory that can be useful toward advancing personal and social transformation. Of the humanistic genre, it suggests that there is a need to promote humanism, healing, and personal transformation in the non-clinical settings of everyday living. Three questions guide the effort. First, it asks: what kind of human communication theory might describe some of the underlying dynamics of human interaction, while also suggesting ways to improve the quality of interactions of any related philosophical theory be grounded by some scientific discipline? Then finally, it asks: how might these proposed concepts be captured in a manner that can be useful to human beings in everyday human interaction? Extending the work of modern physics to the realm of human communication, the theory integrates conceptual aspects of quantum theory, relativity theory, communication accommodation theory, and various nonverbal communication theory. Then, it proposes the philosophical framework for a new body of theory which it calls the energy-exchange theory of human communication. Treating human beings as living forms of matter, it suggests that ``energy'' is the life-force that sustains all human beings, and that ``consciousness'' is that qualitative level of development at which energy manifests itself in the human experience. It proposes that human beings have the capacity to exchange energy and influence consciousness during the human communication process, and that these interactions can advance humanism, healing, and transformation-which it proposes are the higher states and levels of human consciousness. Thus, this research effort sought to know and to describe a phenomenon that is the interactive human being; and to suggest useful ways that this volitional being can know and transform itself through human interaction. With verisimilitude as a driving factor in describing human beings as communicators, the research is

Group theory and lattice gauge fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Creutz, M.

1988-09-01

Lattice gauge theory, formulated in terms of invariant integrals over group elements on lattice bonds, benefits from many group theoretical notions. Gauge invariance provides an enormous symmetry and powerful constraints on expectation values. Strong coupling expansions require invariant integrals over polynomials in group elements, all of which can be evaluated by symmetry considerations. Numerical simulations involve random walks over the group. These walks automatically generate the invariant group measure, avoiding explicit parameterization. A recently proposed overrelaxation algorithm is particularly efficient at exploring the group manifold. These and other applications of group theory to lattice gauge fields are reviewed in this talk. 17 refs

“Situation” in the study of moral and legal consciousness: From theory to techniques

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V E Grebneva

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The multidimensional structure of legal consciousness, in which the norms of different orders collide, and the intricate intertwining of cognitive, emotive and behavioral components cannot be described in just one system of representations. This article considers conceptual bases of the study of moral and legal consciousness on the example of value-cognitive dilemmas. The author presents interpretations of the concept “situation” in the works of Russian and Western scientists, identifies its general theoretical bases and analyzes its potential in the study of moral and legal consciousness; suggests as one of the ways to find and identify determinants of moral and legal consciousness identification of specific decisions made by individuals in a variety of small-scale short situations in the given frame and normatively determined, because in the situational dilemma a social agent, whatever decision he makes, needs a rational reason and justification. The author describes the process of designing a technique on the basis of vignette-method and the method of controlled projection for the study of the conflict of multiple rationalities implying different models of justification in the structure of value choice.

Group field theory with noncommutative metric variables.

Science.gov (United States)

Baratin, Aristide; Oriti, Daniele

2010-11-26

We introduce a dual formulation of group field theories as a type of noncommutative field theories, making their simplicial geometry manifest. For Ooguri-type models, the Feynman amplitudes are simplicial path integrals for BF theories. We give a new definition of the Barrett-Crane model for gravity by imposing the simplicity constraints directly at the level of the group field theory action.

Myth in the structure of national consciousness | Gizatova | Journal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... multiethnic state, the problem of scientific definition of nations, ethnic groups, national and ethnic consciousness has a special practical significance. In Russia and the post-Soviet space, the activation of mythological thinking has its own specifics. Keywords: Nations, Ethnicity, National consciousness, Myth, Globalization ...

Gravitation as Gauge theory of Poincare Group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stedile, E.

1982-08-01

The geometrical approach to gauge theories, based on fiber-bundles, is shown in detail. Several gauge formalisms for gravitation are examined. In particular, it is shown how to build gauge theories for non-semisimple groups. A gravitational theory for the Poincare group, with all the essential characteristics of a Yang-Mills theory is proposed. Inonu-Wigner contractions of gauge theories are introduced, which provide a Lagrangian formalism, equivalent to a Lagrangian de Sitter theory supplemented by weak constraints. Yang and Einstein theories for gravitation become particular cases of a Yang-Mills theory. The classical limit of the proposed formalism leads to the Poisson equation, for the static case. (Author) [pt

Conscious Belief

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David Pitt

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Tim Crane maintains that beliefs cannot be conscious because they persist in the absence of consciousness. Conscious judgments can share their contents with beliefs, and their occurrence can be evidence for what one believes; but they cannot be beliefs, because they don’t persist. I challenge Crane’s premise that belief attributions to the temporarily unconscious are literally true. To say of an unconscious agent that she believes that p is like saying that she sings well. To say she sings well is to say that when she sings, her singing is good. To say that she believes that p is (roughly to say that when she consciously considers the content that p she consciously affirms (believes it. I also argue that the phenomenal view of intentional content Crane appears to endorse prima facie commits him to the view, at least controversial, perhaps incoherent, that there is unconscious phenomenology (the intentional contents of unconscious beliefs.

The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs

Science.gov (United States)

Carhart-Harris, Robin L.; Leech, Robert; Hellyer, Peter J.; Shanahan, Murray; Feilding, Amanda; Tagliazucchi, Enzo; Chialvo, Dante R.; Nutt, David

2014-01-01

Entropy is a dimensionless quantity that is used for measuring uncertainty about the state of a system but it can also imply physical qualities, where high entropy is synonymous with high disorder. Entropy is applied here in the context of states of consciousness and their associated neurodynamics, with a particular focus on the psychedelic state. The psychedelic state is considered an exemplar of a primitive or primary state of consciousness that preceded the development of modern, adult, human, normal waking consciousness. Based on neuroimaging data with psilocybin, a classic psychedelic drug, it is argued that the defining feature of “primary states” is elevated entropy in certain aspects of brain function, such as the repertoire of functional connectivity motifs that form and fragment across time. Indeed, since there is a greater repertoire of connectivity motifs in the psychedelic state than in normal waking consciousness, this implies that primary states may exhibit “criticality,” i.e., the property of being poised at a “critical” point in a transition zone between order and disorder where certain phenomena such as power-law scaling appear. Moreover, if primary states are critical, then this suggests that entropy is suppressed in normal waking consciousness, meaning that the brain operates just below criticality. It is argued that this entropy suppression furnishes normal waking consciousness with a constrained quality and associated metacognitive functions, including reality-testing and self-awareness. It is also proposed that entry into primary states depends on a collapse of the normally highly organized activity within the default-mode network (DMN) and a decoupling between the DMN and the medial temporal lobes (which are normally significantly coupled). These hypotheses can be tested by examining brain activity and associated cognition in other candidate primary states such as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and early psychosis and comparing

Multi-group neutron transport theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zelazny, R.; Kuszell, A.

1962-01-01

Multi-group neutron transport theory. In the paper the general theory of the application of the K. M. Case method to N-group neutron transport theory in plane geometry is given. The eigenfunctions (distributions) for the system of Boltzmann equations have been derived and the completeness theorem has been proved. By means of general solution two examples important for reactor and shielding calculations are given: the solution of a critical and albedo problem for a slab. In both cases the system of singular integral equations for expansion coefficients into a full set of eigenfunction distributions has been reduced to the system of Fredholm-type integral equations. Some results can be applied also to some spherical problems. (author) [fr

Naive Theories of Social Groups

Science.gov (United States)

Rhodes, Marjorie

2012-01-01

Four studies examined children's (ages 3-10, Total N = 235) naive theories of social groups, in particular, their expectations about how group memberships constrain social interactions. After introduction to novel groups of people, preschoolers (ages 3-5) reliably expected agents from one group to harm members of the other group (rather than…

Group theory I essentials

CERN Document Server

Milewski, Emil G

2012-01-01

REA's Essentials provide quick and easy access to critical information in a variety of different fields, ranging from the most basic to the most advanced. As its name implies, these concise, comprehensive study guides summarize the essentials of the field covered. Essentials are helpful when preparing for exams, doing homework and will remain a lasting reference source for students, teachers, and professionals. Group Theory I includes sets and mapping, groupoids and semi-groups, groups, isomorphisms and homomorphisms, cyclic groups, the Sylow theorems, and finite p-groups.

The claustrum’s proposed role in consciousness is supported by the effect and target localization of Salvia Divinorum

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Klaus M Stiefel

2014-02-01

Full Text Available This article brings together three findings and ideas relevant for the understanding of human consciousness: (I Crick's and Koch's theory that the claustrum is a conductor of consciousness center crucial for subjective conscious experience. (II Subjective reports of the consciousness-altering effects the plant Salvia divinorum, whose primary active ingredient is salvinorin A, a -opioid receptor agonist. (III The high density of -opioid receptors in the claustrum. Fact III suggests that the consciousness-altering effects of salvinorin A are due to a κ-opioid receptor mediated inhibition of primarily the claustrum and, additionally, the deep layers of the cortex, mainly in prefrontal areas. Consistent with Crick & Koch’s theory that the claustrum plays a key role in consciousness, our analysis of the subjective effects of Salvia divinorum finds that salvia disrupts certain facets of consciousness much more than the largely-serotonergic hallucinogen LSD. Based on this data and on the relevant literature, we suggest that the claustrum does indeed serve as a conductor for certain aspects of higher-order integration of brain activity, while integration of auditory and visual signals mostly relies on coordination by other areas including parietal cortex and the pulvinar.

The conscious life - the dream we live in

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Ciocan Tudor Cosmin

2017-05-01

Full Text Available It is most likely for anyone to ask himself at least once if it would be possible to live in a dream? Questioning the fabric of “reality” we live in consciously was one of the main doubts man ever had. It is so likely for us to answer positive to it due to so many factors; starting from the many and various facets of reality each individual envision the world, from the enormous differences we all have while perceiving and defining the reality, etc. That is why, at the conscious level, life seems almost like a dream in a dream, always hoping to wake up from the negative, unwanted version of it. That is why my assertion here, based on latest theories on consciousness and AI (artificial intelligence, aim to say that we live in between reality and dream, being “conscious” of ourselves, but not really wanting to be “aware” of what is really going on with us.

Symmetry and group theory throughout physics

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Villain J.

2012-03-01

Full Text Available As noticed in 1884 by Pierre Curie [1], physical properties of matter are tightly related to the kind of symmetry of the medium. Group theory is a systematic tool, though not always easy to handle, to exploit symmetry properties, for instance to find the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of an operator. Certain properties (optical activity, piezoelectricity are forbidden in molecules or crystals of high symmetry. A few theorems (Noether, Goldstone establish general relations between physical properties and symmetry. Applications of group theory to condensed matter physics, elementary particle physics, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism are reviewed. Group theory is not only a tool, but also a beautiful construction which casts insight into natural phenomena.

The entropic brain:A theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robin Lester Carhart-Harris

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Entropy is a dimensionless quantity that is used for measuring uncertainty about the state of a system but it can also imply physical qualities, where high entropy is synonymous with high disorder. Entropy is applied here in the context of states of consciousness and their associated neural dynamics, with a particular focus on the psychedelic state. The psychedelic state is considered an exemplar of a primitive or primary state of consciousness that preceded the development of modern, adult, human, normal waking consciousness. Based on neuroimaging data with psilocybin, a classic psychedelic drug, it is argued that the defining feature of ‘primary states’ is elevated entropy in certain aspects of brain function, such as the repertoire of functional connectivity motifs that form and fragment across time. It is noted that elevated entropy in this sense, is a characteristic of systems exhibiting ‘self-organised criticality’, i.e., a property of systems that gravitate towards a ‘critical’ point in a transition zone between order and disorder in which certain phenomena such as power-law scaling appear. This implies that entropy is suppressed in normal waking consciousness, meaning that the brain operates just below criticality. It is argued that this entropy suppression furnishes consciousness with a constrained quality and associated metacognitive functions, including reality-testing and self-awareness. It is also proposed that entry into primary states depends on a collapse of the normally highly organised activity within the default-mode network (DMN and a decoupling between the DMN and the medial temporal lobes (which are normally significantly coupled. These hypotheses can be tested by examining brain activity and associated cognition in other candidate primary states such as REM sleep and early psychosis and comparing these with non-primary states such as normal waking consciousness and the anaesthetised state.

Exercise identity and attribution properties predict negative self-conscious emotions for exercise relapse.

Science.gov (United States)

Flora, Parminder K; Strachan, Shaelyn M; Brawley, Lawrence R; Spink, Kevin S

2012-10-01

Research on exercise identity (EXID) indicates that it is related to negative affect when exercisers are inconsistent or relapse. Although identity theory suggests that causal attributions about this inconsistency elicit negative self-conscious emotions of shame and guilt, no EXID studies have examined this for exercise relapse. Weiner's attribution-based theory of interpersonal motivation (2010) offers a means of testing the attribution-emotion link. Using both frameworks, we examined whether EXID and attributional properties predicted negative emotions for exercise relapse. Participants (n = 224) read an exercise relapse vignette, and then completed EXID, attributions, and emotion measures. Hierarchical multiple regression models using EXID and the attributional property of controllability significantly predicted each of shame and guilt, R² adjusted = .09, ps ≤ .001. Results support identity theory suggestions and Weiner's specific attribution-emotion hypothesis. This first demonstration of an interlinking of EXID, controllability, and negative self-conscious emotions offers more predictive utility using complementary theories than either theory alone.

The metric-affine gravitational theory as the gauge theory of the affine group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lord, E.A.

1978-01-01

The metric-affine gravitational theory is shown to be the gauge theory of the affine group, or equivalently, the gauge theory of the group GL(4,R) of tetrad deformations in a space-time with a locally Minkowskian metric. The identities of the metric-affine theory, and the relationship between them and those of general relativity and Sciama-Kibble theory, are derived. (Auth.)

Wundt, Vygotsky and Bandura: a cultural-historical science of consciousness in three acts.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrari, Michel; Robinson, David K; Yasnitsky, Anton

2010-01-01

This article looks at three historical efforts to coordinate the scientific study of biological and cultural aspects of human consciousness into a single comprehensive theory of human development that includes the evolution of the human body, cultural evolution and personal development: specifically, the research programs of Wilhelm Wundt, Lev Vygotsky and Albert Bandura. The lack of historical relations between these similar efforts is striking, and suggests that the effort to promote cultural and personal sources of consciousness arises as a natural foil to an overemphasis on the biological basis of consciousness, sometimes associated with biological determinism.

K-theory for discrete subgroups of the Lorentz groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwalbe, D.A.

1986-01-01

In the thesis, a conjecture on the structure of the topological K theory groups associated to an action of a discrete group on a manifold is verified in the special case when the group is a closed discrete subgroup of a Lorentz group. The K theory is the topological K theory of the reduced crossed product C algebra arising from the action of a countable discrete group acting by diffeomorphisms on a smooth, Hausdorf, and second and countable manifold. The proof uses the geometric K theory of Baum and Connes. In this situation, they have developed a geometrically realized K theory which they conjecture to be isomorphic to the analytic K theory. Work of Kasparov is used to show the geometric K groups and the analytic K groups are isomorphic for actions of the Lorentz groups on a manifold. Work of Marc Rieffel on Morita equivalence of C/sup */ algebras, shows the analytic K theory for a closed discrete subgroup of a Lie group acting on a manifold is isomorphic to the K theory of the Lie group itself, acting on an induced manifold

The theory of groups

CERN Document Server

Hall, Marshall

2018-01-01

This 1959 text offers an unsurpassed resource for learning and reviewing the basics of a fundamental and ever-expanding area. "This remarkable book undoubtedly will become a standard text on group theory." - American Scientist.

Nonneurocognitive Extended Consciousness

Science.gov (United States)

Wojcik, Kevin; Chemero, Anthony

2012-01-01

One of the attributes necessary for Watson to be considered human is that it must be conscious. From Rachlin's (2012) point of view, that of teleological behaviorism, consciousness refers to the organization of behavioral complexity in which overt behavior is distributed widely over time. Consciousness is something that humans do, or achieve, in…

Elements of theory of abelian groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lebedenko, V.M.

1977-01-01

Some methods and results of studies on the abelian group theory being an important branch of modern algebra are presented. Some examples of the application of the abelian groups in physics are given. A primary information on commutative groups is presented. The concepts of a group, a subgroup, homomorphism, an order of element are given; those of torsion, torsion-free and mixed groups are considered, as well as the concepts of direct and full direct sums. The concepts of a free group and defining relations, of linear dependence and a rank are given. The main classes of abelian groups and subgroup types are described. Some classical results on the abelian group theory are presented, its modern state is described, the links with other regions of algebra are presented

Facilitating Group Decision-Making: Facilitator's Subjective Theories on Group Coordination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michaela Kolbe

2008-10-01

Full Text Available A key feature of group facilitation is motivating and coordinating people to perform their joint work. This paper focuses on group coordination which is a prerequisite to group effectiveness, especially in complex tasks. Decision-making in groups is a complex task that consequently needs to be coordinated by explicit rather than implicit coordination mechanisms. Based on the embedded definition that explicit coordination does not just happen but is purposely executed by individuals, we argue that individual coordination intentions and mechanisms should be taken into account. Thus far, the subjective perspective of coordination has been neglected in coordination theory, which is understandable given the difficulties in defining and measuring subjective aspects of group facilitation. We therefore conducted focused interviews with eight experts who either worked as senior managers or as experienced group facilitators and analysed their approaches to group coordination using methods of content analysis. Results show that these experts possess sophisticated mental representations of their coordination behaviour. These subjective coordination theories can be organised in terms of coordination schemes in which coordination-releasing situations are facilitated by special coordination mechanisms that, in turn, lead to the perception of specific consequences. We discuss the importance of these subjective coordination theories for effectively facilitating group decision-making and minimising process losses. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901287

Consciousness and the brain deciphering how the brain codes our thoughts

CERN Document Server

Dehaene, Stanislas

2014-01-01

How does our brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before. In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and the labs of other cognitive neuroscientists worldwide have accomplished in defining, testing, and explaining the brain events behind a conscious state. We can now pin down the neurons that fire when a person reports becoming aware of a piece of information and understand the crucial role unconscious computations play in how we make decisions. The emerging theory enables a test of consciousness in animals, babies, and those with severe brain injuries. A joyous exploration of the mind and its thrilling complexities, Consciousness and the Brain will excite anyone interested in cutting-edge science and technology and the vast philosophical, personal, and ethical implications of finally quantifying cons...

Exact renormalization group for gauge theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balaban, T.; Imbrie, J.; Jaffe, A.

1984-01-01

Renormalization group ideas have been extremely important to progress in our understanding of gauge field theory. Particularly the idea of asymptotic freedom leads us to hope that nonabelian gauge theories exist in four dimensions and yet are capable of producing the physics we observe-quarks confined in meson and baryon states. For a thorough understanding of the ultraviolet behavior of gauge theories, we need to go beyond the approximation of the theory at some momentum scale by theories with one or a small number of coupling constants. In other words, we need a method of performing exact renormalization group transformations, keeping control of higher order effects, nonlocal effects, and large field effects that are usually ignored. Rigorous renormalization group methods have been described or proposed in the lectures of Gawedzki, Kupiainen, Mack, and Mitter. Earlier work of Glimm and Jaffe and Gallavotti et al. on the /phi/ model in three dimensions were quite important to later developments in this area. We present here a block spin procedure which works for gauge theories, at least in the superrenormalizable case. It should be enlightening for the reader to compare the various methods described in these proceedings-especially from the point of view of how each method is suited to the physics of the problem it is used to study

Small Group Learning: Do Group Members' Implicit Theories of Ability Make a Difference?

Science.gov (United States)

Beckmann, Nadin; Wood, Robert E.; Minbashian, Amirali; Tabernero, Carmen

2012-01-01

We examined the impact of members' implicit theories of ability on group learning and the mediating role of several group process variables, such as goal-setting, effort attributions, and efficacy beliefs. Comparisons were between 15 groups with a strong incremental view on ability (high incremental theory groups), and 15 groups with a weak…

Climate conscious citizenship in a digital urban setting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Sophie Esmann; Nielsen, Anne Ellerup

2011-01-01

Climate change has challenged urban life, and as an omnipresent force, Nature sets the agenda for urban living. Using stakeholder theory to conceptualise urban life, we approach Nature as both an omnipresent stakeholder and an issue to be continuously addressed and related to. Adapting the stakeh......Climate change has challenged urban life, and as an omnipresent force, Nature sets the agenda for urban living. Using stakeholder theory to conceptualise urban life, we approach Nature as both an omnipresent stakeholder and an issue to be continuously addressed and related to. Adapting...... explore how the citizen is framed and invited to enact his/her responsibilities to the natural environment in an urban setting and how the digital mediation facilitates various forms of relations and climate conscious positions, incorporating both narcissistic desires, universal anxiety, moral obligations......, ethical virtue and image performance. Statements from the actual confessors/committers exemplify this. Thus, the paper provides insight into understanding the complexity of climate-conscious citizenship as a complex configuration of paradoxical, co-existing ethics and arguments....

Group manifold approach to gravity and supergravity theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

d'Auria, R.; Fre, P.; Regge, T.

1981-05-01

Gravity theories are presented from the point of view of group manifold formulation. The differential geometry of groups and supergroups is discussed first; the notion of connection and related Yang-Mills potentials is introduced. Then ordinary Einstein gravity is discussed in the Cartan formulation. This discussion provides a first example which will then be generalized to more complicated theories, in particular supergravity. The distinction between ''pure'' and ''impure' theories is also set forth. Next, the authors develop an axiomatic approach to rheonomic theories related to the concept of Chevalley cohomology on group manifolds, and apply these principles to N = 1 supergravity. Then the panorama of so far constructed pure and impure group manifold supergravities is presented. The pure d = 5 N = 2 case is discussed in some detail, and N = 2 and N = 3 in d = 4 are considered as examples of the impure theories. The way a pure theory becomes impure after dimensional reduction is illustrated. Next, the role of kinematical superspace constraints as a subset of the group-manifold equations of motion is discussed, and the use of this approach to obtain the auxiliary fields is demonstrated. Finally, the application of the group manifold method to supersymmetric Super Yang-Mills theories is addressed

Introduction to group theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Canals B.

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This chapter is a concise mathematical introduction into the algebra of groups. It is build up in the way that definitions are followed by propositions and proofs. The concepts and the terminology introduced here will serve as a basis for the following chapters that deal with group theory in the stricter sense and its application to problems in physics. The mathematical prerequisites are at the bachelor level.1

Gadamer's Hermeneutic Contribution to a Theory of Time ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

denise

The play of a work of art and a festival provide examples of ways in which aesthetic experience is fundamentally a source of our consciousness of time.9. Drawing on the themes of Gadamer's aesthetic theory, we can thus delineate the basic themes of. Gadamer's theory of time-consciousness: a theory that locates Gadamer ...

Group field theories for all loop quantum gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Oriti, Daniele; Ryan, James P.; Thürigen, Johannes

2015-02-01

Group field theories represent a second quantized reformulation of the loop quantum gravity state space and a completion of the spin foam formalism. States of the canonical theory, in the traditional continuum setting, have support on graphs of arbitrary valence. On the other hand, group field theories have usually been defined in a simplicial context, thus dealing with a restricted set of graphs. In this paper, we generalize the combinatorics of group field theories to cover all the loop quantum gravity state space. As an explicit example, we describe the group field theory formulation of the KKL spin foam model, as well as a particular modified version. We show that the use of tensor model tools allows for the most effective construction. In order to clarify the mathematical basis of our construction and of the formalisms with which we deal, we also give an exhaustive description of the combinatorial structures entering spin foam models and group field theories, both at the level of the boundary states and of the quantum amplitudes.

The Radical Plasticity Thesis: How the Brain Learns to be Conscious.

Science.gov (United States)

Cleeremans, Axel

2011-01-01

In this paper, I explore the idea that consciousness is something that the brain learns to do rather than an intrinsic property of certain neural states and not others. Starting from the idea that neural activity is inherently unconscious, the question thus becomes: How does the brain learn to be conscious? I suggest that consciousness arises as a result of the brain's continuous attempts at predicting not only the consequences of its actions on the world and on other agents, but also the consequences of activity in one cerebral region on activity in other regions. By this account, the brain continuously and unconsciously learns to redescribe its own activity to itself, so developing systems of meta-representations that characterize and qualify the target first-order representations. Such learned redescriptions, enriched by the emotional value associated with them, form the basis of conscious experience. Learning and plasticity are thus central to consciousness, to the extent that experiences only occur in experiencers that have learned to know they possess certain first-order states and that have learned to care more about certain states than about others. This is what I call the "Radical Plasticity Thesis." In a sense thus, this is the enactive perspective, but turned both inwards and (further) outwards. Consciousness involves "signal detection on the mind"; the conscious mind is the brain's (non-conceptual, implicit) theory about itself. I illustrate these ideas through neural network models that simulate the relationships between performance and awareness in different tasks.

Human Consciousness: Where Is It From and What Is It for

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Boris Kotchoubey

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Consciousness is not a process in the brain but a kind of behavior that, of course, is controlled by the brain like any other behavior. Human consciousness emerges on the interface between three components of animal behavior: communication, play, and the use of tools. These three components interact on the basis of anticipatory behavioral control, which is common for all complex forms of animal life. All three do not exclusively distinguish our close relatives, i.e., primates, but are broadly presented among various species of mammals, birds, and even cephalopods; however, their particular combination in humans is unique. The interaction between communication and play yields symbolic games, most importantly language; the interaction between symbols and tools results in human praxis. Taken together, this gives rise to a mechanism that allows a creature, instead of performing controlling actions overtly, to play forward the corresponding behavioral options in a “second reality” of objectively (by means of tools grounded symbolic systems. The theory possesses the following properties: (1 It is anti-reductionist and anti-eliminativist, and yet, human consciousness is considered as a purely natural (biological phenomenon. (2 It avoids epiphenomenalism and indicates in which conditions human consciousness has evolutionary advantages, and in which it may even be disadvantageous. (3 It allows to easily explain the most typical features of consciousness, such as objectivity, seriality and limited resources, the relationship between consciousness and explicit memory, the feeling of conscious agency, etc.

A Cognitive Science View of Abhinavagupta’s Understanding of Consciousness

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Loriliai Biernacki

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This paper offers a comparative analysis of the nature of consciousness correlating the insights of the 11th century Śaiva philosopher Abhinavagupta with the work of some contemporary philosophers of consciousness. Ultimately these comparisons especially bring to light possibilities for constructing a materialist paradigm that might operate from a prioritization of subjectivity rather than objectivity. I propose that the Hindu, nondual Śaivite system that Abhinavagupta lays out offers a framework that may be useful for contemporary cognitive science and philosophy of mind precisely because Abhinavagupta offers a theory for connecting the material with the phenomenal.

Consciousness without a cortex, but what kind of consciousness is this? [Open Peer Commentary

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coenen, A.M.L.

2007-01-01

Merker suggests that the thalamocortical system is not an essential system for consciousness, but, instead, that the midbrain reticular system is responsible for consciousness. Indeed, the latter is a crucial system for consciousness, when consciousness is regarded as the waking state. However, when

Toward a Unified Consciousness Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Richard H.

1977-01-01

The beginning of a holistic theory that can treat paranormal phenomena as normal human development is presented. Implications for counseling, counselor education, and counselor supervision are discussed. (Author)

Global workspace dynamics: Cortical "binding and propagation enables conscious contents.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bernard J Baars

2013-05-01

Full Text Available A global workspace is a hub of binding and propagation in a population of loosely coupled signaling elements. Global workspace (GW architectures recruit many distributed, specialized agents to help resolve focal ambiguities. In the brain, conscious experiences may reflect a global workspace function. For animals the natural world is full of fitness-related ambiguities, suggesting a general adaptive pressure for brains to resolve focal ambiguities quickly and accurately. In humans and related species the cortico-thalamic (C-T core is believed to underlie conscious aspects of perception, thinking, learning, feelings of knowing, emotions, imagery, working memory and executive control. The C-T core has many anatomical hubs, but conscious percepts are unitary and internally consistent at any given moment. The repertoire of conscious contents is a large, open set. These points suggest that a brain-based GW capacity cannot be localized in a single anatomical hub. Rather, it should be sought in a dynamic capacity for adaptive binding and propagation of neural signals over multi-hub networks. We refer to this as dynamic global workspace theory (dGW. In this view, conscious contents can arise in any region of the C-T core when multiple signal streams settle on a winner-take-all equilibrium. The resulting bound gestalt may ignite an any-to-many broadcast, lasting ~100-200 ms, and trigger widespread adaptation in established networks. Binding and broadcasting may involve theta/gamma or alpha/gamma phase coupling. Conscious contents (qualia may reflect their sources in cortex. Sensory percepts may bind and broadcast from posterior regions, while non-sensory feelings of knowing (FOKs may be frontotemporal. The small focal capacity of conscious contents may be the biological price to pay for global access. We propose that in the intact brain the hippocampal/rhinal complex may support conscious event organization as well as episodic memory coding.

Conscious Leadership.

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, Suzanne F; Haase, Beth

2016-11-01

Health care leaders need to use leadership methodologies that support safe patient care, satisfy employees, and improve the bottom line. Conscious leaders help create desirable personal and professional life experiences for themselves using specific tools that include mindfulness, context, and the observer-self, and they strive to help their employees learn to use these tools as well. In perioperative nursing, conscious leaders create an environment in which nurses are supported in their aim to provide the highest level of patient care and in which transformations are encouraged to take place; this environment ultimately promotes safety, contributes to fulfilling and meaningful work, and enhances a facility's financial viability. This article discusses some of the key concepts behind conscious leadership, how perioperative leaders can reach and maintain expanded consciousness, and how they can best assist their staff members in their own evolution to a more mindful state. Copyright © 2016 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recognition of an Independent Self-Consciousness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjerre, Henrik Jøker

2009-01-01

Hegel's concept in the Phenomenology of the Spirit of the "recognition of an independent self-consciousness" is investigated as a point of separation for contemporary philosophy of recognition. I claim that multiculturalism and the theories of recognition (such as Axel Honneth's) based on empiric...... psychology neglect or deny crucial metaphysical aspects of the Hegelian legacy. Instead, I seek to point at an additional, "spiritual", level of recognition, based on the concept of the subject in Lacanian psychoanalysis....

A simple proof of orientability in colored group field theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Caravelli, Francesco

2012-01-01

Group field theory is an emerging field at the boundary between Quantum Gravity, Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory and provides a path integral for the gluing of n-simplices. Colored group field theory has been introduced in order to improve the renormalizability of the theory and associates colors to the faces of the simplices. The theory of crystallizations is instead a field at the boundary between graph theory and combinatorial topology and deals with n-simplices as colored graphs. Several techniques have been introduced in order to study the topology of the pseudo-manifold associated to the colored graph. Although of the similarity between colored group field theory and the theory of crystallizations, the connection between the two fields has never been made explicit. In this short note we use results from the theory of crystallizations to prove that color in group field theories guarantees orientability of the piecewise linear pseudo-manifolds associated to each graph generated perturbatively. Colored group field theories generate orientable pseudo-manifolds. The origin of orientability is the presence of two interaction vertices in the action of colored group field theories. In order to obtain the result, we made the connection between the theory of crystallizations and colored group field theory.

Temporal neural mechanisms underlying conscious access to different levels of facial stimulus contents.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Shen-Mou; Yang, Yu-Fang

2018-04-01

An important issue facing the empirical study of consciousness concerns how the contents of incoming stimuli gain access to conscious processing. According to classic theories, facial stimuli are processed in a hierarchical manner. However, it remains unclear how the brain determines which level of stimulus content is consciously accessible when facing an incoming facial stimulus. Accordingly, with a magnetoencephalography technique, this study aims to investigate the temporal dynamics of the neural mechanism mediating which level of stimulus content is consciously accessible. Participants were instructed to view masked target faces at threshold so that, according to behavioral responses, their perceptual awareness alternated from consciously accessing facial identity in some trials to being able to consciously access facial configuration features but not facial identity in other trials. Conscious access at these two levels of facial contents were associated with a series of differential neural events. Before target presentation, different patterns of phase angle adjustment were observed between the two types of conscious access. This effect was followed by stronger phase clustering for awareness of facial identity immediately during stimulus presentation. After target onset, conscious access to facial identity, as opposed to facial configural features, was able to elicit more robust late positivity. In conclusion, we suggest that the stages of neural events, ranging from prestimulus to stimulus-related activities, may operate in combination to determine which level of stimulus contents is consciously accessed. Conscious access may thus be better construed as comprising various forms that depend on the level of stimulus contents accessed. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The present study investigates how the brain determines which level of stimulus contents is consciously accessible when facing an incoming facial stimulus. Using magnetoencephalography, we show that prestimulus

Moral significance of phenomenal consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Neil; Savulescu, Julian

2009-01-01

Recent work in neuroimaging suggests that some patients diagnosed as being in the persistent vegetative state are actually conscious. In this paper, we critically examine this new evidence. We argue that though it remains open to alternative interpretations, it strongly suggests the presence of consciousness in some patients. However, we argue that its ethical significance is less than many people seem to think. There are several different kinds of consciousness, and though all kinds of consciousness have some ethical significance, different kinds underwrite different kinds of moral value. Demonstrating that patients have phenomenal consciousness--conscious states with some kind of qualitative feel to them--shows that they are moral patients, whose welfare must be taken into consideration. But only if they are subjects of a sophisticated kind of access consciousness--where access consciousness entails global availability of information to cognitive systems--are they persons, in the technical sense of the word employed by philosophers. In this sense, being a person is having the full moral status of ordinary human beings. We call for further research which might settle whether patients who manifest signs of consciousness possess the sophisticated kind of access consciousness required for personhood.

Attention and Olfactory Consciousness

OpenAIRE

Keller, Andreas

2011-01-01

Understanding the relation between attention and consciousness is an important part of our understanding of consciousness. Attention, unlike consciousness, can be systematically manipulated in psychophysical experiments and a law-like relation between attention and consciousness is waiting to be discovered. Most attempts to discover the nature of this relation are focused on a special type of attention: spatial visual attention. In this review I want to introduce another type of attention to ...

[Functional pathophysiology of consciousness].

Science.gov (United States)

Jellinger, Kurt A

2009-01-01

from important somatic and sensory pathways and acts as a control system of neuronal activities of the cerebral cortex. The principal function of the ARAS is to focus our alertness on specific stimuli or internal processes, which run via complex neuronal cell groups and numerous neurotransmitters that influence various aspects of consciousness and wakefulness. Stimulation of the ARAS produces an arousal reaction as the electric correlate of consciousness; its destruction causes coma and related states. The highest level are cortical (prefrontal and association) networks for recognition, motor activity, longterm memory and attention, the left hemisphere being considered as the dominant one. Different levels of consciousness are distinguished: 1. hyperalertness, 2. alertness (normal state of wakefulness), 3. somnolence or lethargy, 4. obtundation with tendency to fall asleep, 5. stupor, 6. coma and its subtypes, like akinetic mutism, apallic syndrome or persistent vegative state, locked-in syndrome, delirium, and catatonia. They are caused by damages in various functional levels of the brain, by psychogenic factors or experimentally, and are accompanied by characteristic neurological and psychiatric disorders. The relevant morphological lesions can be detected by electrophysiological and imaging studies. The bases of functional anatomy and pathophysiology of consciousness, its cognitive aspects and its major disorders, their causes and functional substrates with reference to sleep and both spontaneous and iatrogenic disorders of consciousness are critically summarized.

Age and the experience of strong self-conscious emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Henry, Julie D; von Hippel, William; Nangle, Matthew R; Waters, Michele

2018-04-01

It remains unclear whether there are age-related changes in the experience of strong self-conscious emotion, such as shame, guilt, pride and embarrassment. Because shame and guilt figure prominently in the aetiology of depressive symptoms and other mental health problems, a better understanding of how age affects the strong experience of these two negative self-conscious emotions is of particular importance. Thirty younger, 30 middle-aged and 30 older adults were compared on standardised cognitive assessments, in addition to an interview-based measure that assessed whether there are age differences in the likelihood of strongly experiencing four different types of self-conscious emotion within the past five years (shame, guilt, embarrassment and pride). The three groups did not differ in their likelihood of reporting an event that strongly elicited the positive self-conscious emotion of pride. However, older adults were more likely to report sources of pride that were other (as opposed to self) focused. Older adults were also less likely to report experiencing events that elicited all three negative self-conscious emotions, in particular, shame. Strong negative self-conscious emotion, and in particular shame, appears to be experienced less by older than younger adults.

Linear algebra and group theory for physicists

CERN Document Server

Rao, K N Srinivasa

2006-01-01

Professor Srinivasa Rao's text on Linear Algebra and Group Theory is directed to undergraduate and graduate students who wish to acquire a solid theoretical foundation in these mathematical topics which find extensive use in physics. Based on courses delivered during Professor Srinivasa Rao's long career at the University of Mysore, this text is remarkable for its clear exposition of the subject. Advanced students will find a range of topics such as the Representation theory of Linear Associative Algebras, a complete analysis of Dirac and Kemmer algebras, Representations of the Symmetric group via Young Tableaux, a systematic derivation of the Crystallographic point groups, a comprehensive and unified discussion of the Rotation and Lorentz groups and their representations, and an introduction to Dynkin diagrams in the classification of Lie groups. In addition, the first few chapters on Elementary Group Theory and Vector Spaces also provide useful instructional material even at an introductory level. An author...

Ethical consciousness in auditing : a comparison of students and employees

OpenAIRE

Rong, Stine Mari Hilmarsen

2011-01-01

The purpose of this thesis has been to examine the difference in the level of consciousness towards ethics in auditing between students and employees, and further examine if the level of ethical consciousness comply with auditing standards. To examine the level of the different groups, a survey was conducted and distributed. The survey ...

Instruments for evalutation of altered states of consciousness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matteo Sozzi

2011-11-01

Full Text Available In recent years an increase of interest concerning the altered states of consciousness was observed. In particular literature provided a wide amount of contribution about the scales for measurement of level of responsivity. Our aim is to describe the principale scales used in diagnosis of Disorder of Consciousness (DOC trying to illustrate administation procedures, specifically assessed aspects, modality of stimulation, reliability, and validity. We divided them in four main different groups: the first one in which descriptive scales are included, that is those scales basically used after a clinical observation; the second group which concerns scales requiring defined stimulation sets; in the third group we considered the scale which refer to diagnostic criteria stated by the Aspen Work Group (Giacino et al., 2002; whilst in the fourth group we describe a battery aimed to assess patients with severe cognitive deficits which are not yet evaluable with neuropsychological tests.

Will the Conscious-Subconscious Pacing Quagmire Help Elucidate the Mechanisms of Self-Paced Exercise? New Opportunities in Dual Process Theory and Process Tracing Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Micklewright, Dominic; Kegerreis, Sue; Raglin, John; Hettinga, Florentina

2017-07-01

The extent to which athletic pacing decisions are made consciously or subconsciously is a prevailing issue. In this article we discuss why the one-dimensional conscious-subconscious debate that has reigned in the pacing literature has suppressed our understanding of the multidimensional processes that occur in pacing decisions. How do we make our decisions in real-life competitive situations? What information do we use and how do we respond to opponents? These are questions that need to be explored and better understood, using smartly designed experiments. The paper provides clarity about key conscious, preconscious, subconscious and unconscious concepts, terms that have previously been used in conflicting and confusing ways. The potential of dual process theory in articulating multidimensional aspects of intuitive and deliberative decision-making processes is discussed in the context of athletic pacing along with associated process-tracing research methods. In attempting to refine pacing models and improve training strategies and psychological skills for athletes, the dual-process framework could be used to gain a clearer understanding of (1) the situational conditions for which either intuitive or deliberative decisions are optimal; (2) how intuitive and deliberative decisions are biased by things such as perception, emotion and experience; and (3) the underlying cognitive mechanisms such as memory, attention allocation, problem solving and hypothetical thought.

Proneness to Self-Conscious Emotions in Adults With and Without Autism Traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Davidson, Denise; Vanegas, Sandra B; Hilvert, Elizabeth

2017-11-01

Self-conscious emotions, such as shame, guilt and pride, facilitate our social interactions by motivating us to adhere to social norms and external standards. In this study, we examined proneness to shame, guilt, hubristic pride and authentic pride in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder traits (ASD-T) and in neurotypical (NT) adults. Relations between proneness to self-conscious emotions and theory of mind (ToM), fear of negative evaluation, and social functioning were also assessed. Adults with ASD-T showed greater proneness to shame, and less proneness to guilt and pride than NT adults. Both ToM and fear of negative evaluation predicted proneness to self-conscious emotions in ASD-T. These findings are discussed in terms of understanding complex emotion processing in adults with ASD-T.

Human development II: We Need an Integrated Theory for Matter, Life and Consciousness to Understand Life and Healing

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Sören Ventegodt

2006-01-01

Full Text Available For almost a decade, we have experimented with supporting the philosophical development of severely ill patients to induce recovery and spontaneous healing. Recently, we have observed a new pattern of extremely rapid, spontaneous healing that apparently can facilitate even the spontaneous remission of cancer and the spontaneous recovery of mental diseases like schizophrenia and borderline schizophrenia. Our working hypothesis is that the accelerated healing is a function of the patient’s brain-mind and body-mind coming closer together due to the development of what we call “deep” cosmology. To understand and describe what happens at a biological level, we have suggested naming the process adult human metamorphosis, a possibility that is opened by the human genome showing full generic equipment for metamorphosis. To understand the mechanistic details in the complicated interaction between consciousness and biology, we need an adequate theory for biological information. In a series of papers, we propose what we call “holistic biology for holistic medicine”. We suggest that a relatively simple model based on interacting wholenesses instead of isolated parts can shed a new light on a number of difficult issues that we need to explain and understand in biology and medicine in order to understand and use metamorphosis in the holistic medical clinic. We aim to give a holistic theoretical interpretation of biological phenomena at large, morphogenesis, evolution, immune system regulation (self-nonself discrimination, brain function, consciousness, and health in particular. We start at the most fundamental problem: what is biological information at the subcellular, cellular, and supracellular levels if we presume that it is the same phenomenon on all levels (using Occam's razor, and how can this be described scientifically? The problems we address are all connected to the information flow in the functioning, living organism: function of the brain

Human development II: we need an integrated theory for matter, life and consciousness to understand life and healing.

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Ventegodt, Søren; Hermansen, Tyge Dahl; Nielsen, Maj Lyck; Clausen, Birgitte; Merrick, Joav

2006-07-06

For almost a decade, we have experimented with supporting the philosophical development of severely ill patients to induce recovery and spontaneous healing. Recently, we have observed a new pattern of extremely rapid, spontaneous healing that apparently can facilitate even the spontaneous remission of cancer and the spontaneous recovery of mental diseases like schizophrenia and borderline schizophrenia. Our working hypothesis is that the accelerated healing is a function of the patient's brain-mind and body-mind coming closer together due to the development of what we call "deep" cosmology. To understand and describe what happens at a biological level, we have suggested naming the process adult human metamorphosis, a possibility that is opened by the human genome showing full generic equipment for metamorphosis. To understand the mechanistic details in the complicated interaction between consciousness and biology, we need an adequate theory for biological information. In a series of papers, we propose what we call "holistic biology for holistic medicine". We suggest that a relatively simple model based on interacting wholenesses instead of isolated parts can shed a new light on a number of difficult issues that we need to explain and understand in biology and medicine in order to understand and use metamorphosis in the holistic medical clinic. We aim to give a holistic theoretical interpretation of biological phenomena at large, morphogenesis, evolution, immune system regulation (self-nonself discrimination), brain function, consciousness, and health in particular. We start at the most fundamental problem: what is biological information at the subcellular, cellular, and supracellular levels if we presume that it is the same phenomenon on all levels (using Occam's razor), and how can this be described scientifically? The problems we address are all connected to the information flow in the functioning, living organism: function of the brain and consciousness, the

Consciousness and the "Causal Paradox"

OpenAIRE

Velmans, Max

1996-01-01

Viewed from a first-person perspective consciousness appears to be necessary for complex, novel human activity - but viewed from a third-person perspective consciousness appears to play no role in the activity of brains, producing a "causal paradox". To resolve this paradox one needs to distinguish consciousness of processing from consciousness accompanying processing or causing processing. Accounts of consciousness/brain causal interactions switch between first- and third-person perspectives...

Lie groups and grand unified theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gubitoso, M.D.

1987-01-01

This work presents some concepts in group theory and Lie algebras and, at same time, shows a method to study and work with semisimple Lie groups, based on Dynkin diagrams. The aproach taken is not completely formal, but it presents the main points of the elaboration of the method, so its mathematical basis is designed with the purpose of making the reading not so cumbersome to those who are interested only in a general picture of the method and its usefulness. At the end it is shown a brief review of gauge theories and two grand-unification models based on SO(13) and E 7 gauge groups. (author) [pt

Group Theory, Computational Thinking, and Young Mathematicians

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Gadanidis, George; Clements, Erin; Yiu, Chris

2018-01-01

In this article, we investigate the artistic puzzle of designing mathematics experiences (MEs) to engage young children with ideas of group theory, using a combination of hands-on and computational thinking (CT) tools. We elaborate on: (1) group theory and why we chose it as a context for young mathematicians' experiences with symmetry and…

The Radical Plasticity Thesis: How the Brain Learns to be Conscious

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Cleeremans, Axel

2011-01-01

In this paper, I explore the idea that consciousness is something that the brain learns to do rather than an intrinsic property of certain neural states and not others. Starting from the idea that neural activity is inherently unconscious, the question thus becomes: How does the brain learn to be conscious? I suggest that consciousness arises as a result of the brain's continuous attempts at predicting not only the consequences of its actions on the world and on other agents, but also the consequences of activity in one cerebral region on activity in other regions. By this account, the brain continuously and unconsciously learns to redescribe its own activity to itself, so developing systems of meta-representations that characterize and qualify the target first-order representations. Such learned redescriptions, enriched by the emotional value associated with them, form the basis of conscious experience. Learning and plasticity are thus central to consciousness, to the extent that experiences only occur in experiencers that have learned to know they possess certain first-order states and that have learned to care more about certain states than about others. This is what I call the “Radical Plasticity Thesis.” In a sense thus, this is the enactive perspective, but turned both inwards and (further) outwards. Consciousness involves “signal detection on the mind”; the conscious mind is the brain's (non-conceptual, implicit) theory about itself. I illustrate these ideas through neural network models that simulate the relationships between performance and awareness in different tasks. PMID:21687455

Neuroimaging of consciousness

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Cavanna, Andrea Eugenio [Birmingham Univ. (United Kingdom). Dept. of Neuropsychiatry; UCL Institute of Neurology, London (United Kingdom). Sobell Dept. of Motor, Neuroscience and Movement Disorders; Nani, Andrea [Birmingham Univ. (United Kingdom). Research Group BSMHFT; Blumenfeld, Hal [Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT (United States). Depts. of Neurology, Neurobiology and Neurosurgery; Laureys, Steven (ed.) [Liege Univ. (Belgium). Cyclotron Research Centre

2013-07-01

An important reference work on a multidisciplinary and rapidly expanding area. Particular focus on the relevance of neuroimaging for the diagnosis and treatment of common neuropsychiatric disorders affecting consciousness. Written by world-class experts in the field. Relevant for clinicians, researchers, and scholars across different specialties. Within the field of neuroscience, the past few decades have witnessed an exponential growth of research into the brain mechanisms underlying both normal and pathological states of consciousness in humans. The development of sophisticated imaging techniques (above all fMRI and PET) to visualize and map brain activity in vivo has opened new avenues in our understanding of the pathological processes involved in common neuropsychiatric disorders affecting consciousness, such as epilepsy, coma, vegetative states, dissociative disorders, and dementia. This book presents the state of the art in neuroimaging exploration of the brain correlates of the alterations in consciousness across these conditions, with a particular focus on the potential applications for diagnosis and management. Although the book has a practical approach and is primarily targeted at neurologists, neuroradiologists, and psychiatrists, a wide range of researchers and health care professionals will find it an essential reference that explains the significance of neuroimaging of consciousness for clinical practice. Within the field of neuroscience, the past few decades have witnessed an exponential growth of research into the brain mechanisms underlying both normal and pathological states of consciousness in humans. The development of sophisticated imaging techniques (above all fMRI and PET) to visualize and map brain activity in vivo has opened new avenues in our understanding of the pathological processes involved in common neuropsychiatric disorders affecting consciousness, such as epilepsy, coma, vegetative states, dissociative disorders, and dementia. This

Neuroimaging of consciousness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cavanna, Andrea Eugenio; UCL Institute of Neurology, London; Nani, Andrea; Blumenfeld, Hal; Laureys, Steven

2013-01-01

An important reference work on a multidisciplinary and rapidly expanding area. Particular focus on the relevance of neuroimaging for the diagnosis and treatment of common neuropsychiatric disorders affecting consciousness. Written by world-class experts in the field. Relevant for clinicians, researchers, and scholars across different specialties. Within the field of neuroscience, the past few decades have witnessed an exponential growth of research into the brain mechanisms underlying both normal and pathological states of consciousness in humans. The development of sophisticated imaging techniques (above all fMRI and PET) to visualize and map brain activity in vivo has opened new avenues in our understanding of the pathological processes involved in common neuropsychiatric disorders affecting consciousness, such as epilepsy, coma, vegetative states, dissociative disorders, and dementia. This book presents the state of the art in neuroimaging exploration of the brain correlates of the alterations in consciousness across these conditions, with a particular focus on the potential applications for diagnosis and management. Although the book has a practical approach and is primarily targeted at neurologists, neuroradiologists, and psychiatrists, a wide range of researchers and health care professionals will find it an essential reference that explains the significance of neuroimaging of consciousness for clinical practice. Within the field of neuroscience, the past few decades have witnessed an exponential growth of research into the brain mechanisms underlying both normal and pathological states of consciousness in humans. The development of sophisticated imaging techniques (above all fMRI and PET) to visualize and map brain activity in vivo has opened new avenues in our understanding of the pathological processes involved in common neuropsychiatric disorders affecting consciousness, such as epilepsy, coma, vegetative states, dissociative disorders, and dementia. This

The Effect of Alcohol and Private Self-Consciousness on Self-Report of Values.

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Jordan, Ken

Many studies have supported the finding that alcohol consumption may lead to socially inappropriate behaviors. One theory which appears promising in accounting for the effects of intoxication is Hull's (1981) self-consciousness theory which is based on the idea that alcohol consumption affects behavior indirectly as a result of its effect on…

Contemporary sensorimotor theory

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Martin, Andrew

2014-01-01

This book analyzes the philosophical foundations of sensorimotor theory and discusses the most recent applications of sensorimotor theory to human computer interaction, child’s play, virtual reality, robotics, and linguistics. Why does a circle look curved and not angular? Why does red not sound like a bell? Why, as I interact with the world, is there something it is like to be me? An analytic philosopher might suggest: ``if we ponder the concept of circle we find that it is the essence of a circle to be round’’. However, where does this definition come from? Was it set in stone by the Gods, in other words by divine arbiters of circleness, redness and consciousness? Particularly, with regard to visual consciousness, a first attempt to explain why our conscious experience of the world appears as it does has been attributed to Kevin O’Regan and Alva Noe, who published their sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness in 2001. Starting with a chapter by Kevin O’Regan, Contemporary Sensorimo...

Spiral Dynamics of Consciousness. Possibilities of Use by Collective Managers

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Doronin Andrii V.

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The goal of the article is showing a possibility of solution of the problem of reduction of human efficiency in the information society by means of growth of psychological load. Methodological grounds of the study are ideas of the American psychologist Clare William Graves, who, while developing the Abraham Maslow theory, created a system theory of evolution development of human consciousness, which determines human behaviour. Based of systemisation of conclusions of C. Graves and his followers the article formulates a hypothesis about expediency of use of spiral dynamics ideas for identifying reserves of strengthening of influence of the collective manager upon labour behaviour of subordinates. Test of hypothesis shows that, apart from diagnostics of the sources of activation of individual labour behaviour, the theory of spiral dynamics allows identification of reserves of formation of collective consciousness and solidary labour force of a creative collective. Their use creates a basis of intensification of processes of intellectualisation of the organisation capital. In order to ensure these changes it is necessary to find mechanisms of changing external environment, which sets principally new tasks and requires principally new strategies of their solution.

Knowledge by Experience. Or Why Physicalism Should not be our Default Position in Consciousness Studies

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Alfredo Tomasetta

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Current philosophical and scientific approaches to consciousness are very often characterised by a strong background presupposition: whatever the precise details of a theory of consciousness may be, a physicalist – or materialist – view of consciousness itself must be correct. I believe, however, that this conviction, pervasive though it may be, is not really justified. In particular, I think (1 that the arguments offered in favour of the materialist presupposition are weak and unconvincing, and (2 that there is a very strong prima facie case for rejecting physicalism regarding phenomenal consciousness. In a previous article of mine I have already discussed the first point; the present paper is devoted to elaborating the second, presenting a common-sense-based argument against physicalism.

Conscious motor processing and movement self-consciousness: two dimensions of personality that influence laparoscopic training.

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Malhotra, Neha; Poolton, Jamie M; Wilson, Mark R; Fan, Joe K M; Masters, Rich S W

2014-01-01

Identifying personality factors that account for individual differences in surgical training and performance has practical implications for surgical education. Movement-specific reinvestment is a potentially relevant personality factor that has a moderating effect on laparoscopic performance under time pressure. Movement-specific reinvestment has 2 dimensions, which represent an individual's propensity to consciously control movements (conscious motor processing) or to consciously monitor their 'style' of movement (movement self-consciousness). This study aimed at investigating the moderating effects of the 2 dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment in the learning and updating (cross-handed technique) of laparoscopic skills. Medical students completed the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale, a psychometric assessment tool that evaluates the conscious motor processing and movement self-consciousness dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment. They were then trained to a criterion level of proficiency on a fundamental laparoscopic skills task and were tested on a novel cross-handed technique. Completion times were recorded for early-learning, late-learning, and cross-handed trials. Propensity for movement self-consciousness but not conscious motor processing was a significant predictor of task completion times both early (p = 0.036) and late (p = 0.002) in learning, but completion times during the cross-handed trials were predicted by the propensity for conscious motor processing (p = 0.04) rather than movement self-consciousness (p = 0.21). Higher propensity for movement self-consciousness is associated with slower performance times on novel and well-practiced laparoscopic tasks. For complex surgical techniques, however, conscious motor processing plays a more influential role in performance than movement self-consciousness. The findings imply that these 2 dimensions of movement-specific reinvestment have a differential influence in the learning and updating

Inner Consciousness Tindakan Nabi

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Moh. Helmi Umam

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The article is written to examine deeds and actions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him within inner consciousness analysis of Husserl’s phenomenology. The article is formulated to explore the significance of phenomenology of religious study, Prophet’s deeds as well as his inner consciousness, and inner consciousness analysis of Prophet’s deeds. This article is written using phenomenological method, i.e. a comprehensive interpretation about the source of information or object’s phenomenon as long as it can be traced. Inner consciousness of Prophet’s actions sees that his deeds in deciding important religious pronouncements were results of long-term memory based on divine and social argumentations, which have came into Prophet’s consciousness as a human.

Quantum-holographic and classical Hopfield-like associative nnets: implications for modeling two cognitive modes of consciousness

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Rakovic, D.; Dugic, M.

2005-05-01

Quantum bases of consciousness are considered with psychosomatic implications of three front lines of psychosomatic medicine (hesychastic spirituality, holistic Eastern medicine, and symptomatic Western medicine), as well as cognitive implications of two modes of individual consciousness (quantum-coherent transitional and altered states, and classically reduced normal states) alongside with conditions of transformations of one mode into another (considering consciousness quantum-coherence/classical-decoherence acupuncture system/nervous system interaction, direct and reverse, with and without threshold limits, respectively) - by using theoretical methods of associative neural networks and quantum neural holography combined with quantum decoherence theory.

Application of adult attachment theory to group member transference and the group therapy process.

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Markin, Rayna D; Marmarosh, Cheri

2010-03-01

Although clinical researchers have applied attachment theory to client conceptualization and treatment in individual therapy, few researchers have applied this theory to group therapy. The purpose of this article is to begin to apply theory and research on adult dyadic and group attachment styles to our understanding of group dynamics and processes in adult therapy groups. In particular, we set forth theoretical propositions on how group members' attachment styles affect relationships within the group. Specifically, this article offers some predictions on how identifying group member dyadic and group attachment styles could help leaders predict member transference within the therapy group. Implications of group member attachment for the selection and composition of a group and the different group stages are discussed. Recommendations for group clinicians and researchers are offered. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Group Theory with Applications in Chemical Physics

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Jacobs, Patrick

2005-10-01

Group Theory is an indispensable mathematical tool in many branches of chemistry and physics. This book provides a self-contained and rigorous account on the fundamentals and applications of the subject to chemical physics, assuming no prior knowledge of group theory. The first half of the book focuses on elementary topics, such as molecular and crystal symmetry, whilst the latter half is more advanced in nature. Discussions on more complex material such as space groups, projective representations, magnetic crystals and spinor bases, often omitted from introductory texts, are expertly dealt with. With the inclusion of numerous exercises and worked examples, this book will appeal to advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students studying physical sciences and is an ideal text for use on a two-semester course. An introductory and advanced text that comprehensively covers fundamentals and applications of group theory in detail Suitable for a two-semester course with numerous worked examples and problems Includes several topics often omitted from introductory texts, such as rotation group, space groups and spinor bases

The Neurogenetic Correlates of Consciousness

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Grandy, John K.

2013-09-01

The neurogenetic correlates of consciousness (NgCC) is a new field of consciousness studies that focuses on genes that have an effect on or are involved in the continuum of neuron-based consciousness. A framework of consciousness based on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) has already been established by Francis Crick and Christof Kock. In this work I propose that there are NgCC underlying the NCC which are both active during the conscious experience. So how are genes involved? There are two significant connections between DNA and neurons that are involved in the conscious experience. First, any brain system can be adversely affected by underlying genetic abnormalities which can be expressed in an individual at birth, in adulthood, or later in life. Second, the DNA molecule does not lay dormant while the neuron runs on autopilot. DNA is active in translating and transcribing RNA and protein products that are utilized during neuron functioning. Without these products being continuously produced by the DNA during a conscious experience the neurons would cease to function correctly and be rendered unable to provide a continuum of human consciousness. Consequently, in addition to NCC, NgCC must be factored in when appreciating a conscious event. In this work I will discuss and explain some NgCC citing several examples.

A perturbational approach for evaluating the brain's capacity for consciousness.

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Massimini, Marcello; Boly, Melanie; Casali, Adenauer; Rosanova, Mario; Tononi, Giulio

2009-01-01

How do we evaluate a brain's capacity to sustain conscious experience if the subject does not manifest purposeful behaviour and does not respond to questions and commands? What should we measure in this case? An emerging idea in theoretical neuroscience is that what really matters for consciousness in the brain is not activity levels, access to sensory inputs or neural synchronization per se, but rather the ability of different areas of the thalamocortical system to interact causally with each other to form an integrated whole. In particular, the information integration theory of consciousness (IITC) argues that consciousness is integrated information and that the brain should be able to generate consciousness to the extent that it has a large repertoire of available states (information), yet it cannot be decomposed into a collection of causally independent subsystems (integration). To evaluate the ability to integrate information among distributed cortical regions, it may not be sufficient to observe the brain in action. Instead, it is useful to employ a perturbational approach and examine to what extent different regions of the thalamocortical system can interact causally (integration) and produce specific responses (information). Thanks to a recently developed technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation and high-density electroencephalography (TMS/hd-EEG), one can record the immediate reaction of the entire thalamocortical system to controlled perturbations of different cortical areas. In this chapter, using sleep as a model of unconsciousness, we show that TMS/hd-EEG can detect clear-cut changes in the ability of the thalamocortical system to integrate information when the level of consciousness fluctuates across the sleep-wake cycle. Based on these results, we discuss the potential applications of this novel technique to evaluate objectively the brain's capacity for consciousness at the bedside of brain-injured patients.

On low rank classical groups in string theory, gauge theory and matrix models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Intriligator, Ken; Kraus, Per; Ryzhov, Anton V.; Shigemori, Masaki; Vafa, Cumrun

2004-01-01

We consider N=1 supersymmetric U(N), SO(N), and Sp(N) gauge theories, with two-index tensor matter and added tree-level superpotential, for general breaking patterns of the gauge group. By considering the string theory realization and geometric transitions, we clarify when glueball superfields should be included and extremized, or rather set to zero; this issue arises for unbroken group factors of low rank. The string theory results, which are equivalent to those of the matrix model, refer to a particular UV completion of the gauge theory, which could differ from conventional gauge theory results by residual instanton effects. Often, however, these effects exhibit miraculous cancellations, and the string theory or matrix model results end up agreeing with standard gauge theory. In particular, these string theory considerations explain and remove some apparent discrepancies between gauge theories and matrix models in the literature

Life and consciousness - The Vedāntic view.

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Shanta, Bhakti Niskama

2015-01-01

In the past, philosophers, scientists, and even the general opinion, had no problem in accepting the existence of consciousness in the same way as the existence of the physical world. After the advent of Newtonian mechanics, science embraced a complete materialistic conception about reality. Scientists started proposing hypotheses like abiogenesis (origin of first life from accumulation of atoms and molecules) and the Big Bang theory (the explosion theory for explaining the origin of universe). How the universe came to be what it is now is a key philosophical question. The hypothesis that it came from Nothing (as proposed by Stephen Hawking, among others), proves to be dissembling, since the quantum vacuum can hardly be considered a void. In modern science, it is generally assumed that matter existed before the universe came to be. Modern science hypothesizes that the manifestation of life on Earth is nothing but a mere increment in the complexity of matter - and hence is an outcome of evolution of matter (chemical evolution) following the Big Bang. After the manifestation of life, modern science believed that chemical evolution transformed itself into biological evolution, which then had caused the entire biodiversity on our planet. The ontological view of the organism as a complex machine presumes life as just a chance occurrence, without any inner purpose. This approach in science leaves no room for the subjective aspect of consciousness in its attempt to know the world as the relationships among forces, atoms, and molecules. On the other hand, the Vedāntic view states that the origin of everything material and nonmaterial is sentient and absolute (unconditioned). Thus, sentient life is primitive and reproductive of itself - omne vivum ex vivo - life comes from life. This is the scientifically verified law of experience. Life is essentially cognitive and conscious. And, consciousness, which is fundamental, manifests itself in the gradational forms of all

Introduction to the theory of Lie groups

CERN Document Server

Godement, Roger

2017-01-01

This textbook covers the general theory of Lie groups. By first considering the case of linear groups (following von Neumann's method) before proceeding to the general case, the reader is naturally introduced to Lie theory. Written by a master of the subject and influential member of the Bourbaki group, the French edition of this textbook has been used by several generations of students. This translation preserves the distinctive style and lively exposition of the original. Requiring only basics of topology and algebra, this book offers an engaging introduction to Lie groups for graduate students and a valuable resource for researchers.

Science, conscience, consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Hennig, Boris

2010-01-01

Descartes' metaphysics lays the foundation for the special sciences, and the notion of consciousness ("conscientia") belongs to metaphysics rather than to psychology. I argue that as a metaphysical notion, "consciousness" refers to an epistemic version of moral conscience. As a consequence, the activity on which science is based turns out to be conscientious thought. The consciousness that makes science possible is a double awareness: the awareness of what one is thinking, of what one should be doing, and of the possibility of a gap between the two.

Consciousness in humans and non-human animals: recent advances and future directions.

Science.gov (United States)

Boly, Melanie; Seth, Anil K; Wilke, Melanie; Ingmundson, Paul; Baars, Bernard; Laureys, Steven; Edelman, David B; Tsuchiya, Naotsugu

2013-10-31

This joint article reflects the authors' personal views regarding noteworthy advances in the neuroscience of consciousness in the last 10 years, and suggests what we feel may be promising future directions. It is based on a small conference at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine, USA, in July of 2012, organized by the Mind Science Foundation of San Antonio, Texas. Here, we summarize recent advances in our understanding of subjectivity in humans and other animals, including empirical, applied, technical, and conceptual insights. These include the evidence for the importance of fronto-parietal connectivity and of "top-down" processes, both of which enable information to travel across distant cortical areas effectively, as well as numerous dissociations between consciousness and cognitive functions, such as attention, in humans. In addition, we describe the development of mental imagery paradigms, which made it possible to identify covert awareness in non-responsive subjects. Non-human animal consciousness research has also witnessed substantial advances on the specific role of cortical areas and higher order thalamus for consciousness, thanks to important technological enhancements. In addition, much progress has been made in the understanding of non-vertebrate cognition relevant to possible conscious states. Finally, major advances have been made in theories of consciousness, and also in their comparison with the available evidence. Along with reviewing these findings, each author suggests future avenues for research in their field of investigation.

The biological function of consciousness

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Brian eEarl

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This research is an investigation of whether consciousness—one’s ongoing experience—influences one’s behavior and, if so, how. Analysis of the components, structure, properties, and temporal sequences of consciousness has established that, (1 contrary to one’s intuitive understanding, consciousness does not have an active, executive role in determining behavior; (2 consciousness does have a biological function; and (3 consciousness is solely information in various forms. Consciousness is associated with a flexible response mechanism (FRM for decision-making, planning, and generally responding in nonautomatic ways. The FRM generates responses by manipulating information and, to function effectively, its data input must be restricted to task-relevant information. The properties of consciousness correspond to the various input requirements of the FRM; and when important information is missing from consciousness, functions of the FRM are adversely affected; both of which indicate that consciousness is the input data to the FRM. Qualitative and quantitative information (shape, size, location, etc., is incorporated into the input data by a qualia array of colors, sounds, and so on, which makes the input conscious. This view of the biological function of consciousness provides an explanation why we have experiences; why we have emotional and other feelings, and why their loss is associated with poor decision-making; why blindsight patients do not spontaneously initiate responses to events in their blind field; why counter-habitual actions are only possible when the intended action is in mind; and the reason for inattentional blindness.

Medical Education to Enhance Critical Consciousness: Facilitators' Experiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaidi, Zareen; Vyas, Rashmi; Verstegen, Danielle; Morahan, Page; Dornan, Tim

2017-11-01

To analyze educators' experiences of facilitating cultural discussions in two global health professions education programs and what these experiences had taught them about critical consciousness. A multicultural research team conducted in-depth interviews with 16 faculty who had extensive experience facilitating cultural discussions. They analyzed transcripts of the interviews thematically, drawing sensitizing insights from Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony. Collaboration and conversation helped the team self-consciously examine their positions toward the data set and be critically reflexive. Participant faculty used their prior experience facilitating cultural discussions to create a "safe space" in which learners could develop critical consciousness. During multicultural interactions they recognized and explicitly addressed issues related to power differentials, racism, implicit bias, and gender bias. They noted the need to be "facile in attending to pain" as learners brought up traumatic experiences and other sensitive issues including racism and the impact of power dynamics. They built relationships with learners by juxtaposing and exploring the sometimes-conflicting norms of different cultures. Participants were reflective about their own understanding and tendency to be biased. They aimed to break free of such biases while role modeling how to have the courage to speak up. Experience had given facilitators in multicultural programs an understanding of their responsibility to promote critical consciousness and social justice. How faculty without prior experience or expertise could develop those values and skills is a topic for future research.

[Effects of community identity and topophilia on environmentally-conscious behavior].

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Nonami, Hiroshi; Kato, Junzo

2009-04-01

This study classified environmentally-conscious behaviors of residents (n = 335) along Lake Biwa as a common goods into personal and group behavioral intentions, and examined the determinants of these intentions. Identification with the community was a social identity, and differed from attachment to Lake Biwa, which was defined as topophilia. The results indicated that group behavior was affected by topophilia, while personal behavior was influenced by general attitudes about the environmental problems of the lake and evaluations of the cost for the behavior. Community identity had a significant effect on both personal and group behavior. Rational or emotional decision making processes resulted in two different types of environmentally-conscious behaviors.

Body conscious? Interoceptive awareness, measured by heartbeat perception, is negatively correlated with self-objectification.

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Ainley, Vivien; Tsakiris, Manos

2013-01-01

'Self-objectification' is the tendency to experience one's body principally as an object, to be evaluated for its appearance rather than for its effectiveness. Within objectification theory, it has been proposed that self-objectification accounts for the poorer interoceptive awareness observed in women, as measured by heartbeat perception. Our study is, we believe, the first specifically to test this relationship. Using a well-validated and reliable heartbeat perception task, we measured interoceptive awareness in women and compared this with their scores on the Self-Objectification Questionnaire, the Self-Consciousness Scale and the Body Consciousness Questionnaire. Interoceptive awareness was negatively correlated with self-objectification. Interoceptive awareness, public body consciousness and private body consciousness together explained 31% of the variance in self-objectification. However, private body consciousness was not significantly correlated with interoceptive awareness, which may explain the many nonsignificant results in self-objectification studies that have used private body consciousness as a measure of body awareness. We propose interoceptive awareness, assessed by heartbeat perception, as a measure of body awareness in self-objectification studies. Our findings have implications for those clinical conditions, in women, which are characterised by self-objectification and low interoceptive awareness, such as eating disorders.

Consciousness in non-epileptic attack disorder.

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Reuber, Markus; Kurthen, M

2011-01-01

Non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD) is one of the most important differential diagnoses of epilepsy. Impairment of consciousness is the key feature of non-epileptic attacks (NEAs). The first half of this review summarises the clinical research literature featuring observations relating to consciousness in NEAD. The second half places this evidence in the wider context of the recent discourse on consciousness in neuroscience and the philosophy of mind. We argue that studies of consciousness should not only distinguish between the 'level' and `content' of consciousness but also between 'phenomenal consciousness' (consciousness of states it somehow "feels to be like") and 'access consciousness' (having certain 'higher' cognitive processes at one's disposal). The existing evidence shows that there is a great intra- and interindividual variability of NEA experience. However, in most NEAs phenomenal experience - and, as a precondition for that experience, vigilance or wakefulness - is reduced to a lesser degree than in those epileptic seizures involving impairment of consciousness. In fact, complete loss of "consciousness" is the exception rather than the rule in NEAs. Patients, as well as external observers, may have a tendency to overestimate impairments of consciousness during the seizures.

Abnormal corticospinal excitability in patients with disorders of consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Lapitskaya, Natallia; Gosseries, Olivia; De Pasqua, Victor; Pedersen, Asger Roer; Nielsen, Joergen Feldbaek; de Noordhout, Alain Maertens; Laureys, Steven

2013-07-01

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been frequently used to explore changes in the human motor cortex in different conditions, while the extent of motor cortex reorganization in patients in vegetative state (VS) (now known as unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, UWS) and minimally conscious (MCS) states due to severe brain damage remains largely unknown. It was hypothesized that cortical motor excitability would be decreased and would correlate to the level of consciousness in patients with disorders of consciousness. Corticospinal excitability was assessed in 47 patients (24 VS/UWS and 23 MCS) and 14 healthy controls. The test parameters included maximal peak-to-peak M-wave (Mmax), F-wave persistence, peripheral and central motor conduction times, sensory (SEP) and motor evoked (MEP) potential latencies and amplitudes, resting motor threshold (RMT), stimulus/response curves, and short latency afferent inhibition (SAI). TMS measurements were correlated to the level of consciousness (assessed using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised). On average, the patient group had lower Mmax, lower MEP and SEP amplitudes, higher RMTs, narrower stimulus/response curves, and reduced SAI compared to the healthy controls (P < 0.05). The SAI alterations were correlated to the level of consciousness (P < 0.05). The findings demonstrated the impairment of the cortical inhibitory circuits in patients with disorders of consciousness. Moreover, the significant relationship was found between cortical inhibition and clinical consciousness dysfunction. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Consumer consciousness on meat and the environment - Exploring differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Pohjolainen, Pasi; Tapio, Petri; Vinnari, Markus; Jokinen, Pekka; Räsänen, Pekka

2016-06-01

Global environmental challenges require changes in both the production and the consumption of goods. In this paper we analyse how consumers perceive the high environmental burden of meat. We analysed consumer environmental consciousness, including problem awareness and a support to action dimensions, latter including perceived self-efficacy as well as solutions to problems. The solutions were positioned on a continuum from increasing the efficiency of production to discussing sufficiency levels in consumption practices (techno-optimism, local meat, organic meat and meat reduction, respectively). We used a statistically representative survey sample (n = 1890) from the population of Finland and cluster analysis to explore differences among consumers. The analysis revealed that most Finns seem to be rather unsure of the study topic. At the same time they tend to have a comparably high level of self-efficacy (55 per cent of respondents) and endorsement of particularly local meat solution type (55%), followed by organic meat (35%), meat reduction (25%) and techno-optimism (15%), though the neutral stand was the most common one across the data. We also identified six consumer groups that reveal not only a high number of Highly unsure consumers (40%), but also some Rather conscious (20%) and a relatively small number of Highly conscious (8%). In addition, there were also easily observable groups of Careless conscious (14%), Rather unsure (9%) and Resistant (8%). The results highlight the need for a multitude of political actions to guide meat consumption, as there are groups that may benefit from practical tools for making dietary changes as well as groups in need for more comprehensive selection of measures, including environmental information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Group theory in physics

CERN Document Server

Cornwell, J F

1989-01-01

Recent devopments, particularly in high-energy physics, have projected group theory and symmetry consideration into a central position in theoretical physics. These developments have taken physicists increasingly deeper into the fascinating world of pure mathematics. This work presents important mathematical developments of the last fifteen years in a form that is easy to comprehend and appreciate.

Consciousness extended

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carrara-Augustenborg, Claudia

2012-01-01

There is no consensus yet regarding a conceptualization of consciousness able to accommodate all the features of such complex phenomenon. Different theoretical and empirical models lend strength to both the occurrence of a non-accessible informational broadcast, and to the mobilization of specific...... brain areas responsible for the emergence of the individual´s explicit and variable access to given segments of such broadcast. Rather than advocating one model over others, this chapter proposes to broaden the conceptualization of consciousness by letting it embrace both mechanisms. Within...... such extended framework, I propose conceptual and functional distinctions between consciousness (global broadcast of information), awareness (individual´s ability to access the content of such broadcast) and unconsciousness (focally isolated neural activations). My hypothesis is that a demarcation in terms...

Islamic Law, Women’s Rights, and Popular Legal Consciousness in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Tamir Moustafa

2013-01-01

Drawing on original survey research, this study examines how lay Muslims in Malaysia understand foundational concepts in Islamic law. The survey finds a substantial disjuncture between popular legal consciousness and core epistemological commitments in Islamic legal theory. In its classic form, Islamic legal theory was marked by its commitment to pluralism and the centrality of human agency in Islamic jurisprudence. Yet in contemporary Malaysia, lay Muslims tend to understand Islamic law as b...

Supersymmetric gauge theories with classical groups via M theory fivebrane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terashima, S.

1998-01-01

We study the moduli space of vacua of four-dimensional N=1 and N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories with the gauge groups Sp(2N c ), SO(2N c ) and SO(2N c +1) using the M theory fivebrane. Higgs branches of the N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories are interpreted in terms of the M theory fivebrane and the type IIA s-rule is realized in it. In particular, we construct the fivebrane configuration which corresponds to a special Higgs branch root. This root is analogous to the baryonic branch root in the SU(N c ) theory which remains as a vacuum after the adjoint mass perturbation to break N=2 to N=1. Furthermore, we obtain the monopole condensations and the meson vacuum expectation values in the confining phase of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories using the fivebrane technique. These are in complete agreement with the field theory results for the vacua in the phase with a single confined photon. (orig.)

A Peculiar Sensation: Double Consciousness and the Lived Experiences of African American Art Historians at Predominately White Institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Swaidan, Christina Michelle

2010-01-01

Double consciousness is the identity conflict of being Black and being an American (Du Bois, 1903). Double consciousness leads to "identity confusion and inherent contradictions in the collective psyche of people of African descent" (Benjamin, 2005, p. 21.). This study employed grounded theory to collect and analyze the data that emerged from the…

Is Consciousness Reality or Illusion ? A Non-Dualist Interpretation of Consciousness

Science.gov (United States)

Schwarz, Eric

2004-08-01

This paper proposes a way to approach the "hard problem" of consciousness. First, we present a typology of the main models developed in the litterature to understand consciousness. Most of them adopt a physicalist ontology and a functionalist epistemology. We then present the main features of a metamodel we have elaborated to interpret nonlinear systems evolving toward complexity and autonomy. This systemic metamodel is a general framework that can later be used to make models of specific systems. As an extension of the mechanist paradigm, it is based on three primordial categories objects, relations and wholes or systems. In the last part, we apply it to the cases of the logic of life and the nature of consciousness. Both can be interpreted by the metamodel, in particular, by the autopoiesis proposed by Maturana and Varela for life and self-reference for consciousness.

Intentionality and Consciousness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ierna, Carlo; Jacquette, Dale

2018-01-01

In this chapter I concentrate on the notion of intentionality and its relation to consciousness. Ever since its re-introduction into contemporary philosophy in the works of Franz Brentano, intentionality has been associated in various ways with consciousness. In the continental and analytic

A Grounded Theory of Western-Trained Asian Group Leaders Leading Groups in Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Taephant, Nattasuda; Rubel, Deborah; Champe, Julia

2015-01-01

This grounded theory research explored the experiences of Western-trained Asian group leaders leading groups in Asia. A total of 6 participants from Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand were interviewed 3 times over 9 months. The recursive process of data collection and analysis yielded substantive theory describing the participants' process of reconciling…

Consciousness: function and definition.

Science.gov (United States)

Niedermeyer, E

1994-07-01

The term "consciousness" plays an enormous role in the clinical assessment of patients and also in psychophysiological considerations. It has often been said that consciousness is a term that defies definition. This lack of definability, however, might be more apparent than real. In the multitude of facets, three main components can be singled out: a) vigilance, b) mental contents and c) selective attention. Vigilance, not to be equated with consciousness, is most amenable to electrophysiological studies. The stages of sleep have fairly well standardized EEG correlates, unlike the comatose states. The overflowing wealth of mental contents is constantly adjusted to momentary needs by the mechanism of selective attention. Awareness is a subcomponent and differs from both vigilance and consciousness. Emotionality is particularly important among the variety of further subcomponents. The time factor must be taken into account in order to understand the dynamics and fluctuations of consciousness.

Environmental Consciousness in Daily Activities Measured by Negative Prompts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ai Hiramatsu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The gap between people’s attitude and action as regards environmental issues has been pointed out even while surveys registered an increase in people’s environmental awareness. Among the possible reasons is that people tend to automatically answer “yes”, as most surveys on environmental consciousness use positively-phrased questions or prompts. To remove the “yes-bias” in previous surveys, this present study conducted in Japan a large-scale questionnaire survey on environmental consciousness using negative prompts and free-answered prompts on which behaviors people feel good/bad/uncertain for the environment. This study also investigated peoples’ psychological factors and concrete pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs in daily life. The results of the questionnaire with negative prompts showed that the rate of people’s consciousness to the environment was lower compared with other surveys. Through factor analysis, five psychological factors were extracted as the explanatory factors of environmental attitude. Demographic effects on the consciousness and PEBs were also observed. Comparison of free-answers on concrete daily behaviors among five different environmentally conscious groups showed there were certain phases in the perception of PEBs based on consciousness level. Similar common behaviors were highly ranked as both PEB and doubtful behaviors, indicating that people were worried about actions that involve a trade-off relationship from diversified standpoints.

Missing a trick: Auditory load modulates conscious awareness in audition.

Science.gov (United States)

Fairnie, Jake; Moore, Brian C J; Remington, Anna

2016-07-01

In the visual domain there is considerable evidence supporting the Load Theory of Attention and Cognitive Control, which holds that conscious perception of background stimuli depends on the level of perceptual load involved in a primary task. However, literature on the applicability of this theory to the auditory domain is limited and, in many cases, inconsistent. Here we present a novel "auditory search task" that allows systematic investigation of the impact of auditory load on auditory conscious perception. An array of simultaneous, spatially separated sounds was presented to participants. On half the trials, a critical stimulus was presented concurrently with the array. Participants were asked to detect which of 2 possible targets was present in the array (primary task), and whether the critical stimulus was present or absent (secondary task). Increasing the auditory load of the primary task (raising the number of sounds in the array) consistently reduced the ability to detect the critical stimulus. This indicates that, at least in certain situations, load theory applies in the auditory domain. The implications of this finding are discussed both with respect to our understanding of typical audition and for populations with altered auditory processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The group theory of oxidation II: cosets of non-split groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keurentjes, Arjan

2003-01-01

The oxidation program given in the first article of this series (see preceding article in this issue) is extended to cover oxidation of 3d sigma model theories on a coset G/H, with G non-compact (but not necessarily split), and H the maximal compact subgroup. We recover the matter content, the equations of motion and Bianchi identities from group lattice and Cartan involution. Satake diagrams provide an elegant tool for the computations, the maximal oxidation dimension, and group disintegration chains can be directly read off. We give a complete list of theories that can be recovered from oxidation of a 3-dimensional coset sigma model on G/H, where G is a simple non-compact group

The Radical Plasticity Thesis: How the brain learns to be conscious

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Axel eCleeremans

2011-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper, I explore the idea that consciousness is something that the brain learns to do rather than an intrinsic property of certain neural states and not others. Starting from the idea that neural activity is inherently unconscious, the question thus becomes: How does the brain learn to be conscious? I suggest that consciousness arises as a result of the brain's continuous attempts at predicting not only the consequences of its actions on the world and on other agents, but also the consequences of activity in one cerebral region on activity in other regions. By this account, the brain continuously and unconsciously learns to redescribe its own activity to itself, so developing systems of meta-representations that characterise and qualify the target first-order representations. Such learned redescriptions, enriched by the emotional value associated with them, form the basis of conscious experience. Learning and plasticity are thus central to consciousness, to the extent that experiences only occur in experiencers that have learned to know they possess certain first-order states and that have learned to care more about certain states than about others. This is what I call the Radical Plasticity Thesis. In a sense thus, this is the enactive perspective, but turned both inwards and (further outwards. Consciousness involves signal detection on the mind; the mind is the brain's (non-conceptual, implicit theory about itself. I illustrate these ideas through neural network models that simulate the relationships between performance and awareness in different tasks.

Quantum-like model of unconscious–conscious dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Khrennikov, Andrei

2015-01-01

We present a quantum-like model of sensation–perception dynamics (originated in Helmholtz theory of unconscious inference) based on the theory of quantum apparatuses and instruments. We illustrate our approach with the model of bistable perception of a particular ambiguous figure, the Schröder stair. This is a concrete model for unconscious and conscious processing of information and their interaction. The starting point of our quantum-like journey was the observation that perception dynamics is essentially contextual which implies impossibility of (straightforward) embedding of experimental statistical data in the classical (Kolmogorov, 1933) framework of probability theory. This motivates application of nonclassical probabilistic schemes. And the quantum formalism provides a variety of the well-approved and mathematically elegant probabilistic schemes to handle results of measurements. The theory of quantum apparatuses and instruments is the most general quantum scheme describing measurements and it is natural to explore it to model the sensation–perception dynamics. In particular, this theory provides the scheme of indirect quantum measurements which we apply to model unconscious inference leading to transition from sensations to perceptions. PMID:26283979

Impact of Emotion on Consciousness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Kristine Rømer; Lou, Hans Olav Christensen; Jønsson, Morten

2011-01-01

Emotion and reward have been proposed to be closely linked to conscious experience, but empirical data are lacking. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a central role in the hedonic dimension of conscious experience; thus potentially a key region in interactions between emotion...... and consciousness. Here we tested the impact of emotion on conscious experience, and directly investigated the role of the ACC. We used a masked paradigm that measures conscious reportability in terms of subjective confidence and objective accuracy in identifying the briefly presented stimulus in a forced......-choice test. By manipulating the emotional valence (positive, neutral, negative) and the presentation time (16 ms, 32 ms, 80 ms) we measured the impact of these variables on conscious and subliminal (i.e. below threshold) processing. First, we tested normal participants using face and word stimuli. Results...

Renormalization group and fixed points in quantum field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hollowood, Timothy J.

2013-01-01

This Brief presents an introduction to the theory of the renormalization group in the context of quantum field theories of relevance to particle physics. Emphasis is placed on gaining a physical understanding of the running of the couplings. The Wilsonian version of the renormalization group is related to conventional perturbative calculations with dimensional regularization and minimal subtraction. An introduction is given to some of the remarkable renormalization group properties of supersymmetric theories.

Psychotherapy, consciousness, and brain plasticity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel eCollerton

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Purely psychological treatments for emotional distress produce lasting, measureable, and reproducible changes in cognitive and emotional consciousness and brain function. How these changes come about illustrates the interplay between brain and consciousness. Studies of the effects of psychotherapy highlight the holistic nature of consciousness. Pre and post treatment functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging localises the brain changes following psychotherapy to frontal, cingulate, and limbic circuits, but emphasise that these areas support a wide range of conscious experiences. Multivoxel Pattern Analysis of distributed changes in function across these brain areas may be able to provide the ability to distinguish between different states of consciousness.

Remainder Wheels and Group Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Brenton, Lawrence

2008-01-01

Why should prospective elementary and high school teachers study group theory in college? This paper examines applications of abstract algebra to the familiar algorithm for converting fractions to repeating decimals, revealing ideas of surprising substance beneath an innocent facade.

Conscious Thought Does Not Guide Moment-to-Moment Actions – It Serves Social and Cultural Functions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. J. eMasicampo

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Humans enjoy a private, mental life that is richer and more vivid than that of any other animal. Yet as central as the conscious experience is to human life, numerous disciplines have long struggled to explain it. The present paper reviews the latest theories and evidence from psychology that addresses what conscious thought is and how it affects human behavior. We suggest that conscious thought adapts human behavior to life in complex society and culture. First, we review research challenging the common notion that conscious thought directly guides and controls action. Second, we present an alternative view—that conscious thought processes actions and events that are typically removed from the here and now, and that it indirectly shapes action to favor culturally adaptive responses. Third, we summarize recent empirical work on conscious thought, which generally supports this alternative view. We see conscious thought as the place where the unconscious mind assembles ideas so as to reach new conclusions about how best to behave, or what outcomes to pursue or avoid. Rather than directly controlling action, conscious thought provides the input from these kinds of mental simulations to the executive. Conscious thought offers insights about the past and future, socially shared information, and cultural rules. Without it, the complex forms of social and cultural coordination that define human life would not be possible.

Practical impact of group communication theory

OpenAIRE

Schiper, A.

2003-01-01

Practical impact of group communication theory Andre Schiper Group communication is an important topic in fault-tolerant distributed applications. The paper summarizes the main contributions of practical importance that contributed to our current understanding of group communication. These contributions are classified into ''abstractions'' and ''specifications'', ''paradigms'', ''system models'', ''algorithms'', and ''theoretical results''. Some open issues are discussed at the end of the ...

Clifford theory for group representations

CERN Document Server

Karpilovsky, G

1989-01-01

Let N be a normal subgroup of a finite group G and let F be a field. An important method for constructing irreducible FG-modules consists of the application (perhaps repeated) of three basic operations: (i) restriction to FN. (ii) extension from FN. (iii) induction from FN. This is the `Clifford Theory' developed by Clifford in 1937. In the past twenty years, the theory has enjoyed a period of vigorous development. The foundations have been strengthened and reorganized from new points of view, especially from the viewpoint of graded rings and crossed products.The purpos

Visual anticipation biases conscious decision making but not bottom-up visual processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Mathews, Zenon; Cetnarski, Ryszard; Verschure, Paul F M J

2014-01-01

Prediction plays a key role in control of attention but it is not clear which aspects of prediction are most prominent in conscious experience. An evolving view on the brain is that it can be seen as a prediction machine that optimizes its ability to predict states of the world and the self through the top-down propagation of predictions and the bottom-up presentation of prediction errors. There are competing views though on whether prediction or prediction errors dominate the formation of conscious experience. Yet, the dynamic effects of prediction on perception, decision making and consciousness have been difficult to assess and to model. We propose a novel mathematical framework and a psychophysical paradigm that allows us to assess both the hierarchical structuring of perceptual consciousness, its content and the impact of predictions and/or errors on conscious experience, attention and decision-making. Using a displacement detection task combined with reverse correlation, we reveal signatures of the usage of prediction at three different levels of perceptual processing: bottom-up fast saccades, top-down driven slow saccades and consciousnes decisions. Our results suggest that the brain employs multiple parallel mechanism at different levels of perceptual processing in order to shape effective sensory consciousness within a predicted perceptual scene. We further observe that bottom-up sensory and top-down predictive processes can be dissociated through cognitive load. We propose a probabilistic data association model from dynamical systems theory to model the predictive multi-scale bias in perceptual processing that we observe and its role in the formation of conscious experience. We propose that these results support the hypothesis that consciousness provides a time-delayed description of a task that is used to prospectively optimize real time control structures, rather than being engaged in the real-time control of behavior itself.

Becoming conscious of learning and nursing in clinical settings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kirsten; Pedersen, Birthe D.; Helms, Niels Henrik

2015-01-01

Literature shows several benefits of implementing ePortfolio and focusing on learning styles within nursing education. However, there is some ambiguity, so the aim was to investigate learning mediated by the mandatory part of ePortfolio in clinical settings. The design takes a phenomenological......-hermeneutic approach. The setting was a ten-week clinical course in Basic Nursing, and participants were 11 first-year students randomly assigned. Data was generated by participant observations, narrative interviews and portfolio documents. The entire data material was interpreted according to the French philosopher...... Paul Ricoeurs theory of interpretation. This paper reports that the mandatory part promotes consciousness of own learning and competencies in clinical nursing and raises students` consciousness of nurse identity. It gives preceptors the opportunity to differentiate their supervision for individual...

Non-Conscious vs. Deliberate Dynamic Decision-Making—A Pilot Experiment

OpenAIRE

Andreas Größler; Etiënne Rouwette; Jac Vennix

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of non-conscious vs. deliberate ways of making decisions in a dynamic decision-making task. An experimental setting is used to study this question; three experimental groups are distinguished: immediate decision-making (only very limited time for deliberate cognitive processing), considerate decision-making (relatively long time for deliberate cognitive processing), and distracted decision-making (time for non-conscious cognitive processing ...

Non-conscious vs. deliberate dynamic decision-making—a pilot experiment

OpenAIRE

Grössler, A.; Rouwette, E.A.J.A.; Vennix, J.A.M.; Größler, A.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of non-conscious vs. deliberate ways of making decisions in a dynamic decision-making task. An experimental setting is used to study this question; three experimental groups are distinguished: immediate decision-making (only very limited time for deliberate cognitive processing), considerate decision-making (relatively long time for deliberate cognitive processing), and distracted decision-making (time for non-conscious cognitive processing ...

Attention Networks and Consciousness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael ePosner

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The term consciousness is an important one in the vernacular of the western literature in many fields. It is no wonder that scientists have assumed that consciousness will be found as a component of the human brain and that we will come to understand its neural basis. However, there is rather little in common between consciousness as the neurologist would use it to diagnose the vegetative state, how the feminist would use it to support raising male consciousness of the economic plight of women and as the philosopher would use it when defining the really hard question of the subjective state of awareness induced by sensory qualities. When faced with this kind of problem it is usual to subdivide the term into more manageable perhaps partly operational definitions. Three meanings that capture aspects of consciousness are: (1 the neurology of the state of mind allowing coherent orientation to time and place (2 the selection of sensory or memorial information for awareness and (3 the voluntary control over overt responses. In each of these cases the mechanisms of consciousness overlap with one or more of the attentional networks that have been studied with the methods of cognitive neuroscience. In this paper we explore t

The neurochemical correlate of consciousness: exploring neurotransmitter systems underlying conscious vision

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Loon, A.M.

2014-01-01

How and where does our brain integrated the information that we get into our eyes into a unifying percept and into a conscious experience? Although different neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) have been proposed, depending on the kind of neural signals recorded, the type of manipulation used,

Body conscious? Interoceptive awareness, measured by heartbeat perception, is negatively correlated with self-objectification.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vivien Ainley

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: 'Self-objectification' is the tendency to experience one's body principally as an object, to be evaluated for its appearance rather than for its effectiveness. Within objectification theory, it has been proposed that self-objectification accounts for the poorer interoceptive awareness observed in women, as measured by heartbeat perception. Our study is, we believe, the first specifically to test this relationship. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using a well-validated and reliable heartbeat perception task, we measured interoceptive awareness in women and compared this with their scores on the Self-Objectification Questionnaire, the Self-Consciousness Scale and the Body Consciousness Questionnaire. Interoceptive awareness was negatively correlated with self-objectification. Interoceptive awareness, public body consciousness and private body consciousness together explained 31% of the variance in self-objectification. However, private body consciousness was not significantly correlated with interoceptive awareness, which may explain the many nonsignificant results in self-objectification studies that have used private body consciousness as a measure of body awareness. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We propose interoceptive awareness, assessed by heartbeat perception, as a measure of body awareness in self-objectification studies. Our findings have implications for those clinical conditions, in women, which are characterised by self-objectification and low interoceptive awareness, such as eating disorders.

[Consciousness and the electroencephalogram].

Science.gov (United States)

Faber, J; Vladyka, V; Subrt, O

1991-08-01

In the course of 12 years the authors subjected to clinical EEG and stereo-EEG (SEEG) 72 patients (66 epileptics with the diagnosis of psychomotor epilepsy and grand mal) and six psychotic patients suffering from schizophrenia. With the exception of five epileptics and two psychotic patients all subjects had epileptic foci in the amygdalohippocampal complex (AHK). After coagulation of these foci marked improvement of the fits and the mental state occurred in half the patients. During EEG and SEEG recording the authors used different activation methods (hyperventilation through the nose and mouth, sleep, listening to music) and above all direct electric stimulation (ES) of one of the AHK. Secondary epileptic foci had, as a rule, more spikes and a lower threshold for ES than primary ones which contained more delta and slow theta waves. The ES led as a rule to an emotional response, such as anxiety and fear, more rarely to illusions, depersonalization and oneiroid hallucinations and twice to a hedonic response of non-sexual character. The purpose of ES was to assess the site from where it is possible to start the original aura or typical parox. The authors considered these foci, consistent with data in the literature, as the leading focus and it was subsequently coagulated. The authors investigated the reactivity and vigility by the patient's response to sound (the patient had to press a button) and by an interview with the patient. It was revealed that in isolated discharges of the spikes and waves in the scalp electrodes, i.e. in the neocortex, reactivity is lacking. In isolated discharges in the AHK the reactivity was satisfactory, but as a rule anxiety developed. It is thus possible to divide consciousness into emotional consciousness with its site in the AHK, i.e. in the limbic system, and rational consciousness which is a function of the neocrotical system. Congenital changes of consciousness such as vigility or sleep are described as "states" of consciousness

Aesthetic consciousness of site-specifi c art | Kurg | South African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The aim of this article is to examine Edmund Husserl's theory of aesthetic consciousness and the possibility to apply it to site-specific art. The central focus will be on the idea of the limited synthetic unity of the aesthetic object that is introduced by Husserl in order to differentiate positional and aesthetic attitude towards the ...

A theory of unconscious thought

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijksterhuis, A.J.; Nordgren, L.F.

2006-01-01

We present a theory about human thought named the unconscious-thought theory (UTT). The theory is applicable to decision making, impression formation, attitude formation and change, problem solving, and creativity. It distinguishes between two modes of thought: unconscious and conscious. Unconscious

Divergent neural responses to narrative speech in disorders of consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Iotzov, Ivan; Fidali, Brian C; Petroni, Agustin; Conte, Mary M; Schiff, Nicholas D; Parra, Lucas C

2017-11-01

Clinical assessment of auditory attention in patients with disorders of consciousness is often limited by motor impairment. Here, we employ intersubject correlations among electroencephalography responses to naturalistic speech in order to assay auditory attention among patients and healthy controls. Electroencephalographic data were recorded from 20 subjects with disorders of consciousness and 14 healthy controls during of two narrative audio stimuli, presented both forwards and time-reversed. Intersubject correlation of evoked electroencephalography signals were calculated, comparing responses of both groups to those of the healthy control subjects. This analysis was performed blinded and subsequently compared to the diagnostic status of each patient based on the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised. Subjects with disorders of consciousness exhibit significantly lower intersubject correlation than healthy controls during narrative speech. Additionally, while healthy subjects had higher intersubject correlation values in forwards versus backwards presentation, neural responses did not vary significantly with the direction of playback in subjects with disorders of consciousness. Increased intersubject correlation values in the backward speech condition were noted with improving disorder of consciousness diagnosis, both in cross-sectional analysis and in a subset of patients with longitudinal data. Intersubject correlation of neural responses to narrative speech audition differentiates healthy controls from patients and appears to index clinical diagnoses in disorders of consciousness.

Life and consciousness – The Vedāntic view

Science.gov (United States)

Shanta, Bhakti Niskama

2015-01-01

In the past, philosophers, scientists, and even the general opinion, had no problem in accepting the existence of consciousness in the same way as the existence of the physical world. After the advent of Newtonian mechanics, science embraced a complete materialistic conception about reality. Scientists started proposing hypotheses like abiogenesis (origin of first life from accumulation of atoms and molecules) and the Big Bang theory (the explosion theory for explaining the origin of universe). How the universe came to be what it is now is a key philosophical question. The hypothesis that it came from Nothing (as proposed by Stephen Hawking, among others), proves to be dissembling, since the quantum vacuum can hardly be considered a void. In modern science, it is generally assumed that matter existed before the universe came to be. Modern science hypothesizes that the manifestation of life on Earth is nothing but a mere increment in the complexity of matter — and hence is an outcome of evolution of matter (chemical evolution) following the Big Bang. After the manifestation of life, modern science believed that chemical evolution transformed itself into biological evolution, which then had caused the entire biodiversity on our planet. The ontological view of the organism as a complex machine presumes life as just a chance occurrence, without any inner purpose. This approach in science leaves no room for the subjective aspect of consciousness in its attempt to know the world as the relationships among forces, atoms, and molecules. On the other hand, the Vedāntic view states that the origin of everything material and nonmaterial is sentient and absolute (unconditioned). Thus, sentient life is primitive and reproductive of itself – omne vivum ex vivo – life comes from life. This is the scientifically verified law of experience. Life is essentially cognitive and conscious. And, consciousness, which is fundamental, manifests itself in the gradational forms of all

The Effects of Price and Health Consciousness and Satisfaction on the Medical Tourism Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, JungKun; Ahn, Jiseon; Yoo, Weon Sang

The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of price and health consciousness on medical tourism. Accordingly, we explore the utility of the theory of planned behavior for assessing the relationships between several variables and explain consumers' intentions to be repeat medical tourists. A 26-item questionnaire was developed, and data were collected from 407 patients who visited South Korea for medical purposes. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that medical tourists' price consciousness was significant with respect to their satisfaction with medical and travel services. However, health consciousness also influenced their decision-making process. The study results reveal that health consciousness did not have a significant effect on tourists' satisfaction with medical travel services. Although this study was conducted in South Korea, the findings may be relevant elsewhere. When developing products and services for the medical tourism industry, policymakers and service providers should focus on the importance of cost-effectiveness.

Minimally conscious state or cortically mediated state?

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Naccache, Lionel

2018-04-01

Durable impairments of consciousness are currently classified in three main neurological categories: comatose state, vegetative state (also recently coined unresponsive wakefulness syndrome) and minimally conscious state. While the introduction of minimally conscious state, in 2002, was a major progress to help clinicians recognize complex non-reflexive behaviours in the absence of functional communication, it raises several problems. The most important issue related to minimally conscious state lies in its criteria: while behavioural definition of minimally conscious state lacks any direct evidence of patient's conscious content or conscious state, it includes the adjective 'conscious'. I discuss this major problem in this review and propose a novel interpretation of minimally conscious state: its criteria do not inform us about the potential residual consciousness of patients, but they do inform us with certainty about the presence of a cortically mediated state. Based on this constructive criticism review, I suggest three proposals aiming at improving the way we describe the subjective and cognitive state of non-communicating patients. In particular, I present a tentative new classification of impairments of consciousness that combines behavioural evidence with functional brain imaging data, in order to probe directly and univocally residual conscious processes.

[Some implications of the "consciousness and brain" problem].

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Ivanitskiĭ, A M; Ivanitskiĭ, G A

2009-10-01

Three issues are discussed: the possible mechanism of subjective events, the rhythmic coding of thinking operations and the possible brain basis of understanding. 1. Several approaches have been developed to explain how subjective experience emerges from brain activity. One of them is the return of the nervous impulses to the sites of their primary projections, providing a synthesis of sensory information with memory and motivation. Support for the existence of such a mechanism stems from studies upon the brain activity that underlies perception (visual and somatosensory) and thought (verbal and imaginative). The cortical centers for information synthesis have been found. For perception, these are located in projection areas: for thinking,--in frontal and temporal-parietal associative cortex. Closely related ideas were also developed by G. Edelman in his re-entry theory of consciousness. Both theories emphasize the key role of memory and motivation in the origin of conscious function. 2. Rearrangements of EEC rhythms underlie mental functions. Certain rhythmical patterns are related with definite types of mental activity. The dependence of one upon the other is rather pronounced and expressive, so it becomes possible to recognize the type of mental operation being performed in mind with few seconds of the ongoing EEG, provided that the analysis of rhythms is accomplished using an artificial neural network. 3. It is commonly recognized that the computer, in contrast to the living brain, can calculate, yet cannot understand. Comprehension implies the comparison of new and old information that requires the ability to search for associations, group similar objects together, and distinguish different objects one from another. However, these functions may also be implemented on a computer. Still, it is believed that computers perform these complicated operations without genuine understanding. Evidently, comprehension additionally has to be based upon some biologically

THE FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT GROUPS IN ORGANIZATIONS

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Neisa Maria, Martins da Cunha

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents theoretical proposals, as the Theory of Human Relations, especially the Theory of Group Dynamics and the Conscience Formation, which promote understanding and support for the conduct of the leaders in team management, aiming at a route suitable for questions, reflections, enabling new perceptions of self-consciousness, as Hegel says. It is worth highlighting that through these considerations, it becomes possible to conduct more realistic impacts triggered in the organizational culture, as from a better management of interpersonal relationships within teams, these teams have a training goal or not.

Conscience and consciousness: a definition.

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Vithoulkas, G; Muresanu, D F

2014-03-15

While consciousness has been examined extensively in its different aspects, like in philosophy, psychiatry, neurophysiology, neuroplasticity, etc., conscience though it is an equal important aspect of the human existence, which remains an unknown to a great degree as an almost transcendental aspect of the human mind. It has not been examined as thoroughly as consciousness and largely remains a "terra incognita" for its neurophysiology, brain topography, etc. Conscience and consciousness are part of a system of information that governs our experience and decision making process. The intent of this paper is to define these terms, to discuss about consciousness from both neurological and quantum physics point of view, the relationship between the dynamics of consciousness and neuroplasticity and to highlight the relationship between conscience, stress and health.

Interference Control Modulations Over Conscious Perception

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Itsaso Colás

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The relation between attention and consciousness has been a controversial topic over the last decade. Although there seems to be an agreement on their distinction at the functional level, no consensus has been reached about attentional processes being or not necessary for conscious perception. Previous studies have explored the relation of alerting and orienting systems of attention and conscious perception, but the impact of the anterior executive attention system on conscious access remains unexplored. In the present study, we investigated the behavioral interaction between executive attention and conscious perception, testing control mechanisms both at stimulus-level representation and after error commission. We presented a classical Stroop task, manipulating the proportion of congruent and incongruent trials, and analyzed the effect of reactive and proactive control on the conscious perception of near-threshold stimuli. Reactive control elicited under high proportion congruent conditions influenced participants’ decision criterion, whereas proactive control elicited under low proportion congruent conditions was ineffective in modulating conscious perception. In addition, error commission affected both perceptual sensitivity to detect near-threshold information and response criterion. These results suggest that reactivation of task goals through reactive control strategies in conflict situations impacts decision stages of conscious processing, whereas interference control elicited by error commission impacts both perceptual sensitivity and decision stages of conscious processing. We discuss the implications of our results for the gateway hypothesis about attention and consciousness, as they showed that interference control (both at stimulus-level representation and after error commission can modulate the conscious access of near-threshold stimuli.

A Review of Group Systems Theory

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Connors, Joanie V.; Caple, Richard B.

2005-01-01

The ability to see interpersonal and group processes beyond the individual level is an essential skill for group therapists (Crouch, Bloch & Wanlass, 1994; Dies, 1994; Fuhriman & Burlingame, 1994). In addition to interpersonal therapy models (e.g., Sullivan and Yalom), there are a number of systems theory models that offer a broad array of…

Decreased electrophysiological activity represents the conscious state of emptiness in meditation

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Hinterberger, Thilo; Schmidt, Stephanie; Kamei, Tsutomu; Walach, Harald

2014-01-01

Many neuroscientific theories explain consciousness with higher order information processing corresponding to an activation of specific brain areas and processes. In contrast, most forms of meditation ask for a down-regulation of certain mental processing activities while remaining fully conscious. To identify the physiological properties of conscious states with decreased mental and cognitive processing, the electrical brain activity (64 channels of EEG) of 50 participants of various meditation proficiencies was measured during distinct and idiosyncratic meditative tasks. The tasks comprised a wakeful “thoughtless emptiness (TE),” a “focused attention,” and an “open monitoring” task asking for mindful presence in the moment and in the environment without attachment to distracting thoughts. Our analysis mainly focused on 30 highly experienced meditators with at least 5 years and 1000 h of meditation experience. Spectral EEG power comparisons of the TE state with the resting state or other forms of meditation showed decreased activities in specific frequency bands. In contrast to a focused attention task the TE task showed significant central and parietal gamma decreases (p meditation practice did not present those differences significantly. Our findings indicate that a conscious state of TE reached by experienced meditators is characterized by reduced high-frequency brain processing with simultaneous reduction of the low frequencies. This suggests that such a state of meditative conscious awareness might be different from higher cognitive and mentally focused states but also from states of sleep and drowsiness. PMID:24596562

Creative Consciousness

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Ashok Natarajan

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Consciousness is creative. That creativity expresses in myriad ways – as moments in time in which decades of progress can be achieved overnight, as organizational innovations of immense power for social accomplishment; as creative social values that further influence the evolution of organizations and society; as the creativity of individuality in the leader, genius, artist and inventor; as social creativity that converts raw human experience into civilization; as cultural creativity that transforms human relationships into sources of rich emotional capacity; and as value-based educational creativity that can awaken and nurture young minds to develop and discover their own inherent capacity for knowledge in freedom. Through such moments do society and humanity evolve. Education is society’s most advanced institution for conscious social evolution. Values are the essence of society’s knowledge for highest accomplishment. Education that imparts values is an evolutionary social organization that can hasten the emergence of that creative consciousness.

The effects of learning style and gender consciousness on novices’ learning from playing educational games

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Ming-Puu Chen

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This study investigated the effects of novices’ learning style and gender consciousness on learning of programming concepts from game-based learning activities. Four classes of eighth graders with 59 males and 63 females participated in this study. Participants were identified as the diverger group and the converger group based on their stronger learning styles. Game-play activities were implemented to support participants’ learning of programming concepts. The results revealed that (a for the programming comprehension performance, the convergers outperformed the divergers; (b participants’ learning style and gender consciousness significantly affected their project performance; (c for the high gender consciousness learners, the convergers performed better at abstract conceptualization and active experimentation than the divergers did; (d for the divergers, the low gender consciousness learners possessed lower stereotype and were willing to challenge and performed better than the high gender consciousness learners; and (e all the participants revealed positive intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Differential geometry of groups in string theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmidke, W.B. Jr.

1990-09-01

Techniques from differential geometry and group theory are applied to two topics from string theory. The first topic studied is quantum groups, with the example of GL (1|1). The quantum group GL q (1|1) is introduced, and an exponential description is derived. The algebra and coproduct are determined using the invariant differential calculus method introduced by Woronowicz and generalized by Wess and Zumino. An invariant calculus is also introduced on the quantum superplane, and a representation of the algebra of GL q (1|1) in terms of the super-plane coordinates is constructed. The second topic follows the approach to string theory introduced by Bowick and Rajeev. Here the ghost contribution to the anomaly of the energy-momentum tensor is calculated as the Ricci curvature of the Kaehler quotient space Diff(S 1 )/S 1 . We discuss general Kaehler quotient spaces and derive an expression for their Ricci curvatures. Application is made to the string and superstring diffeomorphism groups, considering all possible choices of subgroup. The formalism is extended to associated holomorphic vector bundles, where the Ricci curvature corresponds to the anomaly for different ghost sea levels. 26 refs

Three Conceptual Replication Studies in Group Theory

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Melhuish, Kathleen

2018-01-01

Many studies in mathematics education research occur with a nonrepresentative sample and are never replicated. To challenge this paradigm, I designed a large-scale study evaluating student conceptions in group theory that surveyed a national, representative sample of students. By replicating questions previously used to build theory around student…

Coherence in consciousness: paralimbic gamma synchrony of self-reference links conscious experiences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lou, Hans C; Gross, Joachim; Biermann-Ruben, Katja

2010-01-01

. In minimal self-reference subjective experiences are self-aware in the weak sense that there is something it feels like for the subject to experience something. In autonoetic consciousness, consciousness emerges, by definition, by retrieval of memories of personally experienced events (episodic memory...

Perceptual consciousness overflows cognitive access.

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Block, Ned

2011-12-01

One of the most important issues concerning the foundations of conscious perception centers on the question of whether perceptual consciousness is rich or sparse. The overflow argument uses a form of 'iconic memory' to argue that perceptual consciousness is richer (i.e., has a higher capacity) than cognitive access: when observing a complex scene we are conscious of more than we can report or think about. Recently, the overflow argument has been challenged both empirically and conceptually. This paper reviews the controversy, arguing that proponents of sparse perception are committed to the postulation of (i) a peculiar kind of generic conscious representation that has no independent rationale and (ii) an unmotivated form of unconscious representation that in some cases conflicts with what we know about unconscious representation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Workshop on Topology and Geometric Group Theory

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Fowler, James; Lafont, Jean-Francois; Leary, Ian

2016-01-01

This book presents articles at the interface of two active areas of research: classical topology and the relatively new field of geometric group theory. It includes two long survey articles, one on proofs of the Farrell–Jones conjectures, and the other on ends of spaces and groups. In 2010–2011, Ohio State University (OSU) hosted a special year in topology and geometric group theory. Over the course of the year, there were seminars, workshops, short weekend conferences, and a major conference out of which this book resulted. Four other research articles complement these surveys, making this book ideal for graduate students and established mathematicians interested in entering this area of research.

Applied group theory selected readings in physics

CERN Document Server

Cracknell, Arthur P

1968-01-01

Selected Readings in Physics: Applied Group Theory provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of applied group theory. This book discusses the properties of symmetry of a system in quantum mechanics.Organized into two parts encompassing nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the problem of elastic vibrations of a symmetric structure. This text then examines the numbers, degeneracies, and symmetries of the normal modes of vibration. Other chapters consider the conditions under which a polyatomic molecule can have a stable equilibrium configuration when its electronic

The Effect of Group Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction and Consciousness Yoga Program on Quality of Life and Fatigue Severity in Patients with MS

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Somayeh Nejati

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The chronic nature of Multiple Sclerosis (MS, have can leave devastating effects on quality of life and fatigue. The present research aimed to study the effect of group Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR and conscious yoga program on the quality of life and fatigue severity among patients with MS. Methods: This study was quasi-experimental with intervention and control groups. The statistical population included all members to MS Society of Tehran Province, 24 of whom diagnosed with MS were selected as the sample based on the inclusion criteria. The subjects were randomly assigned into the test group (12 patients and the control group (12 patients. MS Quality of Life-54 (MSQOL-54 and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS were used for data collection. Subjects in the test group underwent a MBSR and conscious yoga program in 8 two-hour sessions. The data were analyzed using the SPSS ver.13 software. Results: The study findings showed that there was a significant difference between subjects in the experimental and control groups in terms of mean score of some subscales of quality of life including physical health, role limitations due to physical and emotional problems, energy, emotional well-being, health distress, health perception, and satisfaction with sexual function, overall quality of life, and fatigue severity. Conclusion: The results show that the program is effective in reduction of fatigue severity and improving some subscales of quality of life in MS patients. Hence, this supportive method can be used as an effective way for improving quality of life and relieving fatigue in MS patients.

Measuring the level and content of consciousness during epileptic seizures: the Ictal Consciousness Inventory.

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Cavanna, A E; Mula, M; Servo, S; Strigaro, G; Tota, G; Barbagli, D; Collimedaglia, L; Viana, M; Cantello, R; Monaco, F

2008-07-01

Ictal alterations of the level of general awareness and subjective content of consciousness play a pivotal role in the clinical phenomenology of epilepsy, and reflect the pathological involvement of different neurobiological substrates. However, no self-reported measures have been proposed for patients experiencing altered conscious states during seizures. This study describes the development and validation of a new scale for the quantitative assessment of the level and content of ictal consciousness, the Ictal Consciousness Inventory (ICI). The ICI is a 20-item questionnaire generated on the basis of interviews with patients, literature review, and consultation with experts. It was tested on a sample of 110 patients attending three different epilepsy clinics in Northern Italy, who also completed standardized clinical scales. Standard psychometric methods were used to demonstrate that this scale satisfies criteria for acceptability, reliability, and validity. The ICI is proposed as a user-friendly and clinically sound instrument for the measurement of ictal alterations of consciousness in patients with epilepsy.

Review: Carlos Kölbl (2004. Geschichtsbewußtsein im Jugendalter. Grundzüge einer Entwicklungspsychologie historischer Sinnbildung [Historical Consciousness in Adolescence. Groundwork for a Psychology of the Development of Historical Perceptiveness

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Wilhelm Schwendemann

2008-05-01

Full Text Available This book contains an empirical study of adolescents' historical perceptiveness and thus offers evidence contrary to the common stereotype that adolescents possess little, if any, consciousness of the past. A range of perception-forming models can be constructed and these can collectively be seen to represent a modern and postmodern historical consciousness. Using the methods of Grounded Theory, the author presents the reader with new perspectives on documented group interviews from the perspective of developmental/psychological hermeneutics according to WYGOTSKI and also takes into account adolescents' historical self-portraits. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802320

Consciousness, cognition and brain networks: New perspectives.

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Aldana, E M; Valverde, J L; Fábregas, N

2016-10-01

A detailed analysis of the literature on consciousness and cognition mechanisms based on the neural networks theory is presented. The immune and inflammatory response to the anesthetic-surgical procedure induces modulation of neuronal plasticity by influencing higher cognitive functions. Anesthetic drugs can cause unconsciousness, producing a functional disruption of cortical and thalamic cortical integration complex. The external and internal perceptions are processed through an intricate network of neural connections, involving the higher nervous activity centers, especially the cerebral cortex. This requires an integrated model, formed by neural networks and their interactions with highly specialized regions, through large-scale networks, which are distributed throughout the brain collecting information flow of these perceptions. Functional and effective connectivity between large-scale networks, are essential for consciousness, unconsciousness and cognition. It is what is called the "human connectome" or map neural networks. Copyright © 2014 Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Special functions and the theory of group representations

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Vilenkin, N Ja

1968-01-01

A standard scheme for a relation between special functions and group representation theory is the following: certain classes of special functions are interpreted as matrix elements of irreducible representations of a certain Lie group, and then properties of special functions are related to (and derived from) simple well-known facts of representation theory. The book combines the majority of known results in this direction. In particular, the author describes connections between the exponential functions and the additive group of real numbers (Fourier analysis), Legendre and Jacobi polynomials and representations of the group SU(2), and the hypergeometric function and representations of the group SL(2,R), as well as many other classes of special functions.

Quantum groups and algebraic geometry in conformal field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smit, T.J.H.

1989-01-01

The classification of two-dimensional conformal field theories is described with algebraic geometry and group theory. This classification is necessary in a consistent formulation of a string theory. (author). 130 refs.; 4 figs.; schemes

Stapp's quantum dualism: The James/Heisenberg model of consciousness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noyes, H.P.

1994-01-01

Henry Stapp attempts to resolve the Cartesian dilemma by introducing what the author would characterize as an ontological dualism between mind and matter. His model for mind comes from William James' description of conscious events and for matter from Werner Heisenberg's ontological model for quantum events (wave function collapse). His demonstration of the isomorphism between the two types of events is successful, but in the author's opinion fails to establish a monistic, scientific theory. The author traces Stapp's failure to his adamant rejection of arbitrariness, or 'randomness'. This makes it impossible for him (or for Bohr and Pauli before him) to understand the power of Darwin's explanation of biology, let along the triumphs of modern 'neo-Darwinism'. The author notes that the point at issue is a modern version of the unresolved opposition between Leucippus and Democritus on one side and Epicurus on the other. Stapp's views are contrasted with recent discussions of consciousness by two eminent biologists: Crick and Edelman. They locate the problem firmly in the context of natural selection on the surface of the earth. Their approaches provide a sound basis for further scientific work. The author briefly examines the connection between this scientific (rather than ontological) framework and the new fundamental theory based on bit-strings and the combinatorial hierarchy

[Evaluation of N2O inhalation and oral midazolam conscious sedation in pediatric dentistry of children with intellectual disability].

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Tian, Xiao-hua; Yang, Yan-zhong; Li, Xiao-feng

2015-06-01

To evaluate the effect of N2O inhalation and oral midazolam sedation on uncooperative patients with intellectual disability in pediatric dentistry. N2O inhalation (35%-50%) and oral midazolam conscious sedation (dosages range: 0.50-0.75 mg/kg) were applied to 67 uncooperative pediatric patients with intellectual disability in outpatient department. The patients were divided into 2 groups: group A (N2O inhalation conscious sedation) and group B(oral midazolam conscious sedation).Treatment results and safety were statistically analyzed by Chi-square test with SPSSl3.0 software package. The mean success rate was 70%. The success rate in group B (75%) was higher than group A (67%). The overall incidence of adverse reactions was 13%(9/67). The adverse reaction rate in group B (25%) was significantly higher than group A (5%, P<0.05). N2O inhalation and oral midazolam conscious sedation are effective and safe in pediatric dental uncooperative patients with intellectual disability.

Historical Consciousness in Youth. Theoretical and Exemplary Empirical Analyses

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Carlos Kölbl

2001-09-01

Full Text Available The thesis that historical consciousness is an anthropological competence and category is called into question. A concept of modern historical consciousness is outlined which from then on serves as a working concept. This kind of historical consciousness, it is argued, is not a universal anthropological fact, but a result of the development of occidental cultures and societies. Long since a great number of groups and individuals have been deeply affected by this development in which the establishment of a scientific world view and methodical thinking played a major role. Their historical consciousness is modern since it refers to a radically temporalized and dynamic world and since it ties partial representations of this world to (implicit criteria of validity. Moreover it is closely connected with the possibility of self-critical reflections which are grounded in the historically mediated encounter with strangers. After a concise overview of the important questions and the state of the art in different disciplines, selected results of a broader qualitative-empirical study are presented. In the group discussions which were carried out with young people—only results from a discussion with thirteen to fourteen year old grammar-school pupils (Gymnasiasten are presented here—the analysis revealed clear indicators of a specifically modern historical consciousness. Looked at closely this consciousness is committed in a surprisingly high degree to scientific-methodical standards of rationality. One may welcome this as a successful implementation of a life form oriented towards rationality into young people's everyday life or deplore it as a symptom of the distortion of pragmatic orientations for activity and living by scientific standards: first of all it is a fact that the commitment to tie the reconstruction of past realities, historical events and contexts to an operation of knowledge which is intersubjectively transparent and rationally

Group theoretical methods and wavelet theory: coorbit theory and applications

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Feichtinger, Hans G.

2013-05-01

Before the invention of orthogonal wavelet systems by Yves Meyer1 in 1986 Gabor expansions (viewed as discretized inversion of the Short-Time Fourier Transform2 using the overlap and add OLA) and (what is now perceived as) wavelet expansions have been treated more or less at an equal footing. The famous paper on painless expansions by Daubechies, Grossman and Meyer3 is a good example for this situation. The description of atomic decompositions for functions in modulation spaces4 (including the classical Sobolev spaces) given by the author5 was directly modeled according to the corresponding atomic characterizations by Frazier and Jawerth,6, 7 more or less with the idea of replacing the dyadic partitions of unity of the Fourier transform side by uniform partitions of unity (so-called BUPU's, first named as such in the early work on Wiener-type spaces by the author in 19808). Watching the literature in the subsequent two decades one can observe that the interest in wavelets "took over", because it became possible to construct orthonormal wavelet systems with compact support and of any given degree of smoothness,9 while in contrast the Balian-Low theorem is prohibiting the existence of corresponding Gabor orthonormal bases, even in the multi-dimensional case and for general symplectic lattices.10 It is an interesting historical fact that* his construction of band-limited orthonormal wavelets (the Meyer wavelet, see11) grew out of an attempt to prove the impossibility of the existence of such systems, and the final insight was that it was not impossible to have such systems, and in fact quite a variety of orthonormal wavelet system can be constructed as we know by now. Meanwhile it is established wisdom that wavelet theory and time-frequency analysis are two different ways of decomposing signals in orthogonal resp. non-orthogonal ways. The unifying theory, covering both cases, distilling from these two situations the common group theoretical background lead to the

Neurobiology of consciousness: an overview.

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Delacour, J

1997-05-01

The aim of this review is to connect the phenomenology of consciousness to its neurobiology. A survey of the recent literature revealed the following points. (1) Comprehensive descriptions of consciousness, of its subjective as well as of its objective aspects, are both possible and necessary for its scientific study. An intentionality-modeling structure (an unified and stable ego refers to objects or to itself in the framework of a stable, reproducible, predictable world) accounts for the main features. (2) The material basis of consciousness can be clarified without recourse to new properties of matter or to quantum physics. Current neurobiology appears to be able to handle the problem. In fact, the neurobiology of consciousness is already in progress, and has achieved substantial results. At the system level, its main sources of data are: the neurophysiology of sleep-wakefulness, brain imaging of mental representations, attention and working memory, the neuropsychology of frontal syndrome, and awareness-unawareness dissociations in global amnesia and different forms of agnosia. At an intermediate level of organization, the mechanisms of consciousness may be the formation of a certain kind of neural assembly. (3) Further research may focus on neuropsychology and neurophysiology of object perception and recognition as a natural model of intentionality, perception of time, body schema, interhemispheric communications, 'voluntary' acts and mental images. The synthetic and dynamic views provided by brain imaging may be decisive for discovering the neural correlates of the integrative aspects of consciousness. (4) The neurobiological approach may, beyond the finding of cellular and molecular mechanisms, improve the general concepts of consciousness, overcome their antinomies and, against epiphenomenalism, definitely establish the reality of consciousness.

Disorders of consciousness and communication. Ethical motivations and communication-enabling attributes of consciousness.

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Tamburrini, Guglielmo; Mattia, Donatella

2011-01-01

Envisaged extensions of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique allowing communication with patients affected by disorders of consciousness are here examined in connection with subjective symptom reporting, informed consent, and continued medical care decision-making. The principles of medical beneficence, personal autonomy protection, and the right to participate in social life are isolated as appropriate sources of ethical motivations for the use of fMRI-enabled communication. Consciousness requirements for each communication context are identified on the basis of qualitative distinctions between the access, phenomenal, and narrative varieties of consciousness. Ethically motivated uses of fMRI-enabled communication are hierarchically organized in terms of progressively more demanding consciousness requirements for successful communication. The outcomes of this analysis can be used to curb unrealistic expectations of these new scientific developments, and to promote mutual trust between medical doctors, patient surrogates and families.

The concept of revelation in terms of the evolution of consciousness

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Klaus Nürnberger

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Following Paul’s injunction in 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 we have to ‘become scientists’ to a scientifically informed audience. While theology cannot agree with the naturalist denial of transcendence, it can adopt the experiential-realist approach typical for the sciences in its description of the Christian faith as an immanent part of cosmic evolution, albeit at a higher level of emergence. The article begins with my understanding of evolutionary theory (big bang cosmology, entropy, emergence, neural networks as infrastructure of consciousness, evolution and differentiation, sequences of past, present and future, contingency etc. It then describes God consciousness as the intuition, perception or conceptualisation of the transcendent Source and Destiny of experienced reality and locates God consciousness in the evolutionary process. Biblical God consciousness displays two distinct characteristics: God’s creative power is experienced in reality, while God’s benevolent intentionality is proclaimed on the basis of a religious tradition. The evolutionary trajectory of biblical God consciousness, culminating in the Christ-event, is sketched and the God consciousness of Jesus is deduced from its religious embeddedness, its social-environmental relationships and its religious impact. Implications of an experiential-realist approach are (1 a dynamic, rather than ontological Christology and (2 the cosmic significance of the sacrifice of God in Christ. On this basis revelation is described first in experiential-realist and then in theological terms. The tension between the experience of God’s creative power and the proclamation of God’s benevolence leads to a dynamic, rather than ontological rendering of the Trinity. Finally, traditional eschatological assumptions are reconceptualised as God’s dynamic vision of comprehensive well-being operating like a horizon that moves on as we approach it and displays ever new vistas, challenges and

Quantum mechanics, group theory, and C60

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rioux, F.

1994-01-01

The recent discovery of a new allotropic form of carbon and its production in macroscopic amounts has generated a tremendous amount of research activity in chemistry, physics, and material science. It has also provided educators with an exciting new vehicle for breathing fresh life into some old, well-established methods and principles. Recently, for example, Boo demonstrated the power of group theory in classifying existing and hypothetical fullerenes by their symmetries. In a similar spirit this note describes a model for the electronic structure of C 60 based on the most elementary principles of quantum mechanics and group theory

Perceptual integration without conscious access.

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Fahrenfort, Johannes J; van Leeuwen, Jonathan; Olivers, Christian N L; Hogendoorn, Hinze

2017-04-04

The visual system has the remarkable ability to integrate fragmentary visual input into a perceptually organized collection of surfaces and objects, a process we refer to as perceptual integration. Despite a long tradition of perception research, it is not known whether access to consciousness is required to complete perceptual integration. To investigate this question, we manipulated access to consciousness using the attentional blink. We show that, behaviorally, the attentional blink impairs conscious decisions about the presence of integrated surface structure from fragmented input. However, despite conscious access being impaired, the ability to decode the presence of integrated percepts remains intact, as shown through multivariate classification analyses of electroencephalogram (EEG) data. In contrast, when disrupting perception through masking, decisions about integrated percepts and decoding of integrated percepts are impaired in tandem, while leaving feedforward representations intact. Together, these data show that access consciousness and perceptual integration can be dissociated.

Is consciousness necessary for conflict detection and conflict resolution?

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Xiang, Ling; Wang, Baoxi; Zhang, Qinglin

2013-06-15

Is conflict control dependent on consciousness? To answer this question, we used high temporal resolution event-related potentials (ERPs) to separate conflict detection from conflict resolution in a masked prime Stroop task. Although behavioral interference effect was present in both the masked and unmasked conditions, the electrophysiological findings revealed more complex patterns. ERP analyses showed that N450 was greater for incongruent trials than for congruent trials and that it was located in the ACC and nearby motor cortex, regardless of whether the primes were masked or unmasked; however, the effects were smaller for the masked than unmasked condition. These results suggest that consciousness of conflict information may not be necessary for detecting conflict, but that it may modulate conflict detection. The analysis of slow potential (SP) amplitude showed that it distinguished incongruent trials from congruent trials, and that this modulation effects was reduced to a greater extent for the masked condition than for the unmasked condition. Moreover, the prefrontal-parietal control network was activated under the unmasked but not under the masked condition. These results suggest that the consciousness of conflict information may be a necessary boundary condition for the subsequent initiation of control operations in the more extended PFC-parietal control network. However, considering that the conflict interference effect was significantly reduced in the masked condition, it may be that, with larger unconscious conflict effects, more extensive cognitive control networks would have been activated. These findings have important implications for theories on the relationship between consciousness and cognitive control. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Theory Loves Practice: A Teacher Researcher Group

Science.gov (United States)

Hochtritt, Lisa; Thulson, Anne; Delaney, Rachael; Dornbush, Talya; Shay, Sarah

2014-01-01

Once a month, art educators from the Denver metro area have been gathering together in the spirit of inquiry to explore issues of the perceived theory and daily practice divide. The Theory Loves Practice (TLP) group was started in 2010 by Professors Rachael Delaney and Anne Thulson from Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU) and now has 40…

Consciousness, Psychology, and Education: A Speculative Essay.

Science.gov (United States)

1980

This monograph explores implications of the psychology of consciousness for education. The psychology of consciousness encompasses the relationships among behavior, experience, and states of consciousness. It is interpreted to include different states of consciousness, paranormal phenomena, mystical experiences, dreams, psychic healing, and other…

K-theory for group C*-algebras and semigroup C*-algebras

CERN Document Server

Cuntz, Joachim; Li, Xin; Yu, Guoliang

2017-01-01

This book gives an account of the necessary background for group algebras and crossed products for actions of a group or a semigroup on a space and reports on some very recently developed techniques with applications to particular examples. Much of the material is available here for the first time in book form. The topics discussed are among the most classical and intensely studied C*-algebras. They are important for applications in fields as diverse as the theory of unitary group representations, index theory, the topology of manifolds or ergodic theory of group actions.

Group theory for unified model building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slansky, R.

1981-01-01

The results gathered here on simple Lie algebras have been selected with attention to the needs of unified model builders who study Yang-Mills theories based on simple, local-symmetry groups that contain as a subgroup the SUsup(w) 2 x Usup(w) 1 x SUsup(c) 3 symmetry of the standard theory of electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions. The major topics include, after a brief review of the standard model and its unification into a simple group, the use of Dynkin diagrams to analyze the structure of the group generators and to keep track of the weights (quantum numbers) of the representation vectors; an analysis of the subgroup structure of simple groups, including explicit coordinatizations of the projections in weight space; lists of representations, tensor products and branching rules for a number of simple groups; and other details about groups and their representations that are often helpful for surveying unified models, including vector-coupling coefficient calculations. Tabulations of representations, tensor products, and branching rules for E 6 , SO 10 , SU 6 , F 4 , SO 9 , SO 5 , SO 8 , SO 7 , SU 4 , E 7 , E 8 , SU 8 , SO 14 , SO 18 , SO 22 , and for completeness, SU 3 are included. (These tables may have other applications.) Group-theoretical techniques for analyzing symmetry breaking are described in detail and many examples are reviewed, including explicit parameterizations of mass matrices. (orig.)

From quantum physics to consciousness. Cosmos, spirit, and matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goernitz, Thomas; Goernitz, Brigitte

2016-01-01

The present book is a consequent continuation and deepening of a new concept layed down ba Thomas and Brigitte Goernitz in several writings. Starting from quantum theory they describe the evolution of the spirituality from the origin of the cosmos until the origin of the consciousness. Obtained was this knowledge by profund physical and mathematical research lasting for decades and in cooperation lasting for years with scientists and philosophers, especially with Carl Friedrich v. Weizsaecker.

Formation of Innovative Consciousness as One of the Key Aspects of Ensuring the Innovative Scenario of Economic Development

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Aleksey Zhanovich Yakushev

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The present article is devoted to questions of formation of consciousness of decision-making persons, and consciousness roles at management of innovative development which is considered as a necessary condition of steady growth, especially in the conditions of the current crisis. Ensuring development of Russia as social and economic system, demands wide use of technical, organizational and administrative, and social innovations that can’t be reached without distribution of innovative consciousness. The consciousness determines character of decisions on an exit from a crisis situation, in particular by overcoming “a raw damnation”. Innovative consciousness allows to identify challenges adequately and to realize effective system of actions on the basis of the systematized threats. In these circumstances the consciousness becomes economic factor, one of the most important drivers of growth. Using the system and systemic-functional analysis, as well as the theory of crisis management, the author reveals a role of innovative consciousness in overcoming crisis situations, and also the factors defining formation of innovative consciousness in Russia. In this article the model according to which any consciousness, including innovative, is defined by cumulative influence of ideology, outlook, the social and economic stimulation given to the system corresponding to national model of management is offered. It is shown that in Russia, distribution of innovative consciousness as dominating for the persons making the decision can be reached at correction of the most mobile factors forming consciousness, ideologies, and socio-economic stimulation. Results of the work are intended for federal and regional authorities of Russia, managing directors of innovation development of economics.

Consciousness and the Invention of Morel

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Lampros ePerogamvros

2013-03-01

Full Text Available A scientific study of consciousness should take into consideration both objective and subjective measures of conscious experiences. To this date, very few studies have tried to integrate third-person data, or data about the neurophysiological correlates of conscious states, with first-person data, or data about subjective experience. Inspired by Morel’s invention (Casares, 1940, a literary machine capable of reproducing sensory-dependent external reality, this article suggests that combination of virtual reality techniques and brain reading technologies, that is, decoding of conscious states by brain activity alone, can offer this integration. It is also proposed that the multimodal, simulating and integrative capacities of the dreaming brain render it an 'endogenous' Morel's machine, which can potentially be used in studying consciousness, but not always in a reliable way. Both the literary machine and dreaming could contribute to a better understanding of conscious states.

A course in finite group representation theory

CERN Document Server

Webb, Peter

2016-01-01

This graduate-level text provides a thorough grounding in the representation theory of finite groups over fields and rings. The book provides a balanced and comprehensive account of the subject, detailing the methods needed to analyze representations that arise in many areas of mathematics. Key topics include the construction and use of character tables, the role of induction and restriction, projective and simple modules for group algebras, indecomposable representations, Brauer characters, and block theory. This classroom-tested text provides motivation through a large number of worked examples, with exercises at the end of each chapter that test the reader's knowledge, provide further examples and practice, and include results not proven in the text. Prerequisites include a graduate course in abstract algebra, and familiarity with the properties of groups, rings, field extensions, and linear algebra.

Top Mysteries of the Mind: Insights From the Default Space Model of Consciousness

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Ravinder Jerath

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Aside from the nature of consciousness itself, there are still many unsolved problems in the neurosciences. Despite the vast and quickly growing body of work in this field, we still find ourselves perplexed at seemingly simple qualities of our mental being such as why we need to sleep. The neurosciences are at least beginning to take a hold on these mysteries and are working toward solving them. We hold a perspective that metastable consciousness models, specifically the Default Space Model (DSM, provide insights into these mysteries. In this perspective article, we explore some of these curious questions in order to elucidate the interesting points they bring up. The DSM is a dynamic, global theory of consciousness that involves the maintenance of an internal, 3D simulation of the external, physical world which is the foundation and structure of consciousness. This space is created and filled by multiple frequencies of membrane potential oscillations throughout the brain and body which are organized, synchronized and harmonized by the thalamus. The veracity of the DSM is highlighted here in its ability to further understanding of some of the most puzzling problems in neuroscience.

Educational Theory as Theory of Culture: A Vichian Perspective on the Educational Theories of John Dewey and Kieran Egan

Science.gov (United States)

Polito, Theodora

2005-01-01

At the center of every well-constructed theory of education is a philosophical anthropology-reasoned speculation as to the origins on man's conditions in the history of culture, especially the particular phenomenon of consciousness that underlies historical periods. Using the lens of one of the most significant theories of culture produced, we…

Klein Topological Field Theories from Group Representations

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Sergey A. Loktev

2011-07-01

Full Text Available We show that any complex (respectively real representation of finite group naturally generates a open-closed (respectively Klein topological field theory over complex numbers. We relate the 1-point correlator for the projective plane in this theory with the Frobenius-Schur indicator on the representation. We relate any complex simple Klein TFT to a real division ring.

The mystery of consciousness

CERN Document Server

Searle, John R

1997-01-01

It has long been one of the most fundamental problems of philosophy, and it is now, John Searle writes, "the most important problem in the biological sciences": What is consciousness? Is my inner awareness of myself something separate from my body? In what began as a series of essays in The New York Review of Books, John Searle evaluates the positions on consciousness of such well-known scientists and philosophers as Francis Crick, Gerald Edelman, Roger Penrose, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, and Israel Rosenfield. He challenges claims that the mind works like a computer, and that brain functions can be reproduced by computer programs. With a sharp eye for confusion and contradiction, he points out which avenues of current research are most likely to come up with a biological examination of how conscious states are caused by the brain. Only when we understand how the brain works will we solve the mystery of consciousness, and only then will we begin to understand issues ranging from artificial intelligence...

Consciousness of Unification: The Mind-Matter Phallacy Bites the Dust

Science.gov (United States)

Beichler, James E.

A complete theoretical model of how consciousness arises in neural nets can be developed based on a mixed quantum/classical basis. Both mind and consciousness are multi-leveled scalar and vector electromagnetic complexity patterns, respectively, which emerge within all living organisms through the process of evolution. Like life, the mind and consciousness patterns extend throughout living organisms (bodies), but the neural nets and higher level groupings that distinguish higher levels of consciousness only exist in the brain so mind and consciousness have been traditionally associated with the brain alone. A close study of neurons and neural nets in the brain shows that the microtubules within axons are classical bio-magnetic inductors that emit and absorb electromagnetic pulses from each other. These pulses establish interference patterns that influence the quantized vector potential patterns of interstitial water molecules within the neurons as well as create the coherence within neurons and neural nets that scientists normally associate with more complex memories, thought processes and streams of thought. Memory storage and recall are guided by the microtubules and the actual memory patterns are stored as magnetic vector potential complexity patterns in the points of space at the quantum level occupied by the water molecules. This model also accounts for the plasticity of the brain and implies that mind and consciousness, like life itself, are the result of evolutionary processes. However, consciousness can evolve independent of an organism's birth genetics once it has evolved by normal bottom-up genetic processes and thus force a new type of top-down evolution on living organisms and species as a whole that can be explained by expanding the laws of thermodynamics to include orderly systems.

Consciousness Is a Thing, Not a Process

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Susan Pockett

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The central dogma of cognitive psychology is ‘consciousness is a process, not a thing’. Hence, the main task of cognitive neuroscientists is generally seen as working out what kinds of neural processing are conscious and what kinds are not. I argue here that the central dogma is simply wrong. All neural processing is unconscious. The illusion that some of it is conscious results largely from a failure to separate consciousness per se from a number of unconscious processes that normally accompany it—most particularly focal attention. Conscious sensory experiences are not processes at all. They are things: specifically, spatial electromagnetic (EM patterns, which are presently generated only by ongoing unconscious processing at certain times and places in the mammalian brain, but which in principle could be generated by hardware rather than wetware. The neurophysiological mechanisms by which putatively conscious EM patterns are generated, the features that may distinguish conscious from unconscious patterns, the general principles that distinguish the conscious patterns of different sensory modalities and the general features that distinguish the conscious patterns of different experiences within any given sensory modality are all described. Suggestions for further development of this paradigm are provided.

Applications of group theory to combinatorics

CERN Document Server

Koolen, Jack; Xu, Ming-Yao; Xu, Mingyao

2008-01-01

Each paper gives an overview of the current state of the art of the given subject and is aimed at researchers and graduate students who use combinatorics and group theory.-John van Bon, Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde, December 2011.

8 Questions About the Conscious Mind

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dooremalen, A.J.P.W.

Can the mind function separately from the brain? Can machines have conscious minds? Is Google Maps part of the conscious mind? Hans Dooremalen provides answers to these three and five other questions about the conscious mind in an easy to read introduction to the philosophy of mind.

Phenomenal and access consciousness in olfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevenson, Richard J

2009-12-01

Contemporary literature on consciousness, with some exceptions, rarely considers the olfactory system. In this article the characteristics of olfactory consciousness, viewed from the standpoint of the phenomenal (P)/access (A) distinction, are examined relative to the major senses. The review details several qualitative differences in both olfactory P consciousness (shifts in the felt location, universal synesthesia-like and affect-rich experiences, and misperceptions) and A consciousness (recovery from habituation, capacity for conscious processing, access to semantic and episodic memory, learning, attention, and in the serial-unitary nature of olfactory percepts). The basis for these differences is argued to arise from the functions that the olfactory system performs and from the unique neural architecture needed to instantiate them. These data suggest, at a minimum, that P and A consciousness are uniquely configured in olfaction and an argument can be made that the P and A distinction may not hold for this sensory system.

On the evolution of conscious attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Haladjian, Harry Haroutioun; Montemayor, Carlos

2015-06-01

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between consciousness and attention through theoretical considerations about evolution. Specifically, we will argue that the empirical findings on attention and the basic considerations concerning the evolution of the different forms of attention demonstrate that consciousness and attention must be dissociated regardless of which definition of these terms one uses. To the best of our knowledge, no extant view on the relationship between consciousness and attention has this advantage. Because of this characteristic, this paper presents a principled and neutral way to settle debates concerning the relationship between consciousness and attention, without falling into disputes about the meaning of these terms. A decisive conclusion of this approach is that extreme views on the relationship between consciousness and attention must be rejected, including identity and full dissociation views. There is an overlap between the two within conscious attention, but developing a full understanding of this mechanism requires further empirical investigations.

Theory and modeling group

Science.gov (United States)

Holman, Gordon D.

1989-01-01

The primary purpose of the Theory and Modeling Group meeting was to identify scientists engaged or interested in theoretical work pertinent to the Max '91 program, and to encourage theorists to pursue modeling which is directly relevant to data which can be expected to result from the program. A list of participants and their institutions is presented. Two solar flare paradigms were discussed during the meeting -- the importance of magnetic reconnection in flares and the applicability of numerical simulation results to solar flare studies.

Group Chaos Theory: A Metaphor and Model for Group Work

Science.gov (United States)

Rivera, Edil Torres; Wilbur, Michael; Frank-Saraceni, James; Roberts-Wilbur, Janice; Phan, Loan T.; Garrett, Michael T.

2005-01-01

Group phenomena and interactions are described through the use of the chaos theory constructs and characteristics of sensitive dependence on initial conditions, phase space, turbulence, emergence, self-organization, dissipation, iteration, bifurcation, and attractors and fractals. These constructs and theoretical tenets are presented as applicable…

A mathematical model of embodied consciousness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rudrauf, D.; Bennequin, D.; Granic, I.; Landini, G.; Friston, K.; Williford, K.

2017-01-01

We introduce a mathematical model of embodied consciousness, the Projective Consciousness Model (PCM), which is based on the hypothesis that the spatial field of consciousness (FoC) is structured by a projective geometry and under the control of a process of active inference. The FoC in the PCM

Investigating the Relationship between Ethnic Consciousness, Racial Discrimination and Self-Rated Health in New Zealand

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Ricci; Cormack, Donna; Stanley, James; Rameka, Ruruhira

2015-01-01

In this study, we examine race/ethnic consciousness and its associations with experiences of racial discrimination and health in New Zealand. Racism is an important determinant of health and cause of ethnic inequities. However, conceptualising the mechanisms by which racism impacts on health requires racism to be contextualised within the broader social environment. Race/ethnic consciousness (how often people think about their race or ethnicity) is understood as part of a broader assessment of the ‘racial climate’. Higher race/ethnic consciousness has been demonstrated among non-dominant racial/ethnic groups and linked to adverse health outcomes in a limited number of studies. We analysed data from the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey, a national population-based survey of New Zealand adults, to examine the distribution of ethnic consciousness by ethnicity, and its association with individual experiences of racial discrimination and self-rated health. Findings showed that European respondents were least likely to report thinking about their ethnicity, with people from non-European ethnic groupings all reporting relatively higher ethnic consciousness. Higher ethnic consciousness was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting experience of racial discrimination for all ethnic groupings and was also associated with fair/poor self-rated health after adjusting for age, sex and ethnicity. However, this difference in health was no longer evident after further adjustment for socioeconomic position and individual experience of racial discrimination. Our study suggests different experiences of racialised social environments by ethnicity in New Zealand and that, at an individual level, ethnic consciousness is related to experiences of racial discrimination. However, the relationship with health is less clear and needs further investigation with research to better understand the racialised social relations that create and maintain ethnic inequities in health in

An introduction to tensors and group theory for physicists

CERN Document Server

Jeevanjee, Nadir

2011-01-01

An Introduction to Tensors and Group Theory for Physicists provides both an intuitive and rigorous approach to tensors and groups and their role in theoretical physics and applied mathematics. A particular aim is to demystify tensors and provide a unified framework for understanding them in the context of classical and quantum physics. Connecting the component formalism prevalent in physics calculations with the abstract but more conceptual formulation found in many mathematical texts, the work will be a welcome addition to the literature on tensors and group theory. Part I of the text begins with linear algebraic foundations, follows with the modern component-free definition of tensors, and concludes with applications to classical and quantum physics through the use of tensor products. Part II introduces abstract groups along with matrix Lie groups and Lie algebras, then intertwines this material with that of Part I by introducing representation theory. Exercises and examples are provided throughout for go...

Consciousness and Attention: On sufficiency and necessity

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Jeroen J A Van Boxtel

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Recent research has slowly corroded a belief that selective attention and consciousness are so tightly entangled that they cannot be individually examined. In this review, we summarize psychophysical and neurophysiological evidence for a dissociation between top-down attention and consciousness. The evidence includes recent findings that show subjects can attend to perceptually invisible objects. More contentious is the finding that subjects can become conscious of an isolated object, or the gist of the scene in the near absence of top-down attention; we critically re-examine the possibility of ‘complete’ absence of top-down attention. We also cover the recent flurry of studies that utilized independent manipulation of attention and consciousness. These studies have shown paradoxical effects of attention, including examples where top-down attention and consciousness have opposing effects, leading us to strengthen and revise our previous views. Neuroimaging studies with EEG, MEG and fMRI are uncovering the distinct neuronal correlates of selective attention and consciousness in dissociative paradigms. These findings point to a functional dissociation: attention as analyzer and consciousness as synthesizer. Separating the effects of selective visual attention from those of visual consciousness is of paramount importance to untangle the neural substrates of consciousness from those for attention.

The Evolution of Consciousness as a Planetary Imperative: An Integration of Integral Views

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Jennifer Gidley

2007-12-01

Full Text Available In this article I aim to broaden and deepen the evolution of consciousness discourse by integrating the integral theoretic narratives of Rudolf Steiner, Jean Gebser, and Ken Wilber, who each point to the emergence of new ways of thinking that could address the complex, critical challenges of our planetary moment. I undertake a wide scan of the evolution discourse, noting it is dominantly limited to biology-based notions of human origins that are grounded in scientific materialism. I then broaden the discourse by introducing integral evolutionary theories using a transdisciplinary epistemology to work between, across and beyond diverse disciplines. I note the conceptual breadth of Wilber’s integral evolutionary narrative in transcending both scientism and epistemological isolationism. I also draw attention to some limitations of Wilber’s integral project, notably his undervaluing of Gebser’s actual text, and the substantial omission of the pioneering contribution of Steiner, who, as early as 1904 wrote extensively about the evolution of consciousness, including the imminent emergence of a new stage. I enact a deepening of integral evolutionary theory by honoring the significant yet undervalued theoretic components of participation/enactment and aesthetics/artistry via Steiner and Gebser, as a complement to Wilber. To this end, I undertake an in-depth hermeneutic dialogue between their writings utilizing theoretic bricolage, a multi-mode methodology that weaves between and within diverse and overlapping perspectives. The hermeneutic methodology emphasizes interpretive textual analysis with the aim of deepening understanding of the individual works and the relationships among them. This analysis is embedded in an epic but pluralistic narrative that spans the entire human story through various previous movements of consciousness, arriving at a new emergence at the present time. I also discuss the relationship between these narratives and

Pain and consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Larrea, Luis; Bastuji, Hélène

2017-10-12

The aversive experience we call "pain" results from the coordinated activation of multiple brain areas, commonly described as a "pain matrix". This is not a fixed arrangement of structures but rather a fluid system composed of several interacting networks: A 'nociceptive matrix' includes regions receiving input from ascending nociceptive systems, and ensures the bodily characteristics of physical pain. A further set of structures receiving secondary input supports the 'salience' attributes of noxious stimuli, triggers top-down cognitive controls, and -most importantly- ensures the passage from pre-conscious nociception to conscious pain. Expectations and beliefs can still modulate the conscious experience via activity in supramodal regions with widespread cortical projections such as the ventral tegmental area. Intracortical EEG responses in humans show that nociceptive cortical processing is initiated in parallel in sensory, motor and limbic areas; it progresses rapidly to the recruitment of anterior insular and fronto-parietal networks, and finally to the activation of perigenual, posterior cingulate and hippocampal structures. Functional connectivity between sensory and high-level networks increases during the first second post-stimulus, which may be determinant for access to consciousness. A model is described, progressing from unconscious sensori-motor and limbic processing of spinothalamic and spino-parabrachial input, to an immediate sense of awareness supported by coordinated activity in sensorimotor and fronto-parieto-insular networks, and leading to full declarative consciousness through integration with autobiographical memories and self-awareness, involving posterior cingulate and medial temporal areas. This complete sequence is only present during full vigilance states. We contend, however, that even in unconscious subjects, repeated limbic and vegetative activation by painful stimuli via spino-amygdalar pathways can generate implicit memory traces and

[Team work as the way to back up consciousness].

Science.gov (United States)

Maksakova, O A

2014-01-01

Conception of unconsciousness after brain injury had changed considerably due to high technologies. Nowadays some patients considered by clinicians as unconscious are admitted to awareness with neurovisual techniques. Physiologic and neurophysiologic signals' combining brings forward robust quantification of patients' clinical state too. These "Third Person View" approaches leave the question of patient's experience content open because of determined stimuli paradigms. Yet patient's response pattern becomes formed not only with brain deficits but by questions-stimuli, context, and inquiring person. Rehabilitation team work is sourcing of phenomenology knowledge of patient's processes due to "First-Second Person View" approach and chance to real-time change. Restoration of consciousness comes of building-up patients' contacts with their own bodies, other persons and outward things. The basic principle of this approach is feedback assignement to any minimal movement or vegetative signal of the patient. The net of feedbacks with the patient and inter-professional ones builds up the team as Non-linear Complex System. Characteristics of "Team-Patient" system status are energy, entropy, and complexity. Impairment of consciousness as the absence of linear contact with a patient may appear together with a loss of essential functions (low energy), vegetative-visceral fits (excessive energy and low order), motor agitation (excessive energy and order), and etc. Techniques of team work are different in these cases for resulting optimization of the system condition. System complexity rise is a powerful tool to arouse apatient with impairment of consciousness. System self-organization is a key process for awareness formation. Analysis of complex communication process in patient--team system may be useful for creation of the general theory of consciousness.

Unifying the concept of consciousness across the disciplines: A concept-based, cross-cultural approach

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Peter N.

The majority of studies concerning consciousness have examined and modeled the concept of consciousness in terms of particular lines of inquiry, a process that has circumscribed the general applicability of any results from such approaches. The purpose of this dissertation was to study consciousness from a concept-based, cross-cultural approach and to attempt to unify the concept across the cultures examined. The 4 cultures are the academic disciplines of philosophy, physics, psychology, and anthropology. Consciousness was examined in terms of how the concept is framed and where the major limitations in each line of inquiry occur. The rationale for examining consciousness as a concept across 4 cultures was to determine whether there was any common component in each line's framing that could be used to unify the concept. The study found that experience itself was the primary unifying factor in each field's framing and that experience was treated as a nonreducible property within each line of inquiry. By taking experience itself (but not subjective experience) as a fundamental property, each culture's concept of consciousness becomes tractable. As such, this dissertation argues that experience should be taken as a fundamental property of the concept. The significance of this analysis is that by taking experience as a fundamental property, it becomes possible to unify the concept across the 4 cultures. This unification is presented as a unity thesis, which is a theory arguing for unification of the concept based on the fundamental of experience. Following this theoretical examination, this paper discusses several key implications of the unity thesis, including implications of the unity thesis for the current status of altered states of consciousness and for the so-called hard and easy problems associated with the concept (at least within Occidental ontology). It is argued that the so-called hard problem does not exist when experience is taken as a fundamental property

A folk theory of meetings -- and beyond

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ravn, Ib

2013-01-01

with managers and employees we extracted six common assumptions about meetings, termed a folk theory of meetings, which most office workers seem to carry in the back of their minds. Findings This folk theory holds meetings to be places for excessive talk, whether by a domineering leader or highly vocal...... participants, the purpose of which is to walk through the items on the agenda and dispose of each. This bleak and conservative concept of a meeting impedes intellectual as well as practical progress. Practical implications An alternative theory of meetings is proposed, one based on the group facilitation...... training, this view of meetings—and the widely available facilitation tools that go with it—may render meetings at work the subject of conscious organizational development. Originality/value The proposed "folk theory of meetings" is novel, as is the contrast provided with the facilitation approach...

A narrative method for consciousness research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José-Luis eDíaz

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Some types of first person narrations of mental processes that constitute phenomenological parliaments and texts, such as internal monologue statements, epitomize the best expressions and representations of human consciousness available and therefore may be used to model phenomenological streams of consciousness. The type of autonomous monologue in which an author or narrator declares actual mental processes in a think aloud manner seems particularly suitable for modeling streams of consciousness. A narrative method to extract and depict conscious processes, operations, contents, and states from an acceptable phenomenological text would require three subsequent steps: operational criteria for producing and/or selecting a phenomenological text, a system for detecting text items that are indicative of conscious contents and processes, and a procedure for representing such items in formal dynamic system devices such as Petri nets. The requirements and restrictions of each of these steps are presented, analyzed, and applied to phenomenological texts in the following manner: (1 The relevance of introspective language and narrative analyses to consciousness research and the idea that specific narratives are of paramount interest for such investigation is justified; (2 Some of the obstacles and constraints to attain plausible consciousness inferences from narrative texts and the methodological requirements to extract and depict items relevant to consciousness contents and operations from a suitable phenomenological text are examined; (3 A preliminary exercise of the proposed method is used to analyze and chart a classical interior monologue excerpted from James Joyce’s Ulysses, a masterpiece of the stream-of-consciousness literary technique and, finally, an inter-subjective evaluation for inter-observer agreement of mental attributions of another phenomenological text (an excerpt from the Intimate Journal of Miguel de Unamuno is presented using some

A narrative method for consciousness research.

Science.gov (United States)

Díaz, José-Luis

2013-01-01

Some types of first-person narrations of mental processes that constitute phenomenological accounts and texts, such as internal monolog statements, epitomize the best expressions and representations of human consciousness available and therefore may be used to model phenomenological streams of consciousness. The type of autonomous monolog in which an author or narrator declares actual mental processes in a think aloud manner seems particularly suitable for modeling streams of consciousness. A narrative method to extract and depict conscious processes, operations, contents, and states from an acceptable phenomenological text would require three subsequent steps: operational criteria for producing and/or selecting a phenomenological text, a system for detecting text items that are indicative of conscious contents and processes, and a procedure for representing such items in formal dynamic system devices such as Petri nets. The requirements and restrictions of each of these steps are presented, analyzed, and applied to phenomenological texts in the following manner: (1) the relevance of introspective language and narrative analyses to consciousness research and the idea that specific narratives are of paramount interest for such investigation is justified; (2) some of the obstacles and constraints to attain plausible consciousness inferences from narrative texts and the methodological requirements to extract and depict items relevant to consciousness contents and operations from a suitable phenomenological text are examined; (3) a preliminary exercise of the proposed method is used to analyze and chart a classical interior monolog excerpted from James Joyce's Ulysses, a masterpiece of the stream-of-consciousness literary technique and, finally, (4) an inter-subjective evaluation for inter-observer agreement of mental attributions of another phenomenological text (an excerpt from the Intimate Journal of Miguel de Unamuno) is presented using some mathematical tools.

A narrative method for consciousness research

Science.gov (United States)

Díaz, José-Luis

2013-01-01

Some types of first-person narrations of mental processes that constitute phenomenological accounts and texts, such as internal monolog statements, epitomize the best expressions and representations of human consciousness available and therefore may be used to model phenomenological streams of consciousness. The type of autonomous monolog in which an author or narrator declares actual mental processes in a think aloud manner seems particularly suitable for modeling streams of consciousness. A narrative method to extract and depict conscious processes, operations, contents, and states from an acceptable phenomenological text would require three subsequent steps: operational criteria for producing and/or selecting a phenomenological text, a system for detecting text items that are indicative of conscious contents and processes, and a procedure for representing such items in formal dynamic system devices such as Petri nets. The requirements and restrictions of each of these steps are presented, analyzed, and applied to phenomenological texts in the following manner: (1) the relevance of introspective language and narrative analyses to consciousness research and the idea that specific narratives are of paramount interest for such investigation is justified; (2) some of the obstacles and constraints to attain plausible consciousness inferences from narrative texts and the methodological requirements to extract and depict items relevant to consciousness contents and operations from a suitable phenomenological text are examined; (3) a preliminary exercise of the proposed method is used to analyze and chart a classical interior monolog excerpted from James Joyce’s Ulysses, a masterpiece of the stream-of-consciousness literary technique and, finally, (4) an inter-subjective evaluation for inter-observer agreement of mental attributions of another phenomenological text (an excerpt from the Intimate Journal of Miguel de Unamuno) is presented using some mathematical tools

Climate-conscious citizenship in a digital urban setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sophie Esmann Andersen

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Climate change has challenged urban life, and as an omnipresent force, Nature sets the agenda for urban living. Using stakeholder theory to conceptualise urban life, we approach Nature as both an omnipresent stakeholder and an issue to be continuously addressed and related to. Adapting the stakeholder focus to relations, stakes and values, we conceptually analyse the digital installation entitled CO2mmitment/CO2nfessions, which was a prominent part of the Aarhus CO2030 exhibition launching the vision of the Danish city of Aarhus to become carbon neutral by the year 2030. In the analysis, we explore how the citizen is framed and invited to enact his/her responsibilities to the natural environment in an urban setting and how the digital mediation facilitates various forms of relations and climate conscious positions, incorporating both narcissistic desires, universal anxiety, moral obligations, ethical virtue and image performance. Statements from the actual confessors/committers exemplify this. Thus, the paper provides insight into understanding the complexity of climate-conscious citizenship as a complex configuration of paradoxical, co-existing ethics and arguments.

Climate-conscious citizenship in a digital urban setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sophie Esmann Andersen

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Climate change has challenged urban life, and as an omnipresent force, Nature sets the agenda for urban living. Using stakeholder theory to conceptualise urban life, we approach Nature as both an omnipresent stakeholder and an issue to be continuously addressed and related to. Adapting the stakeholder focus to relations, stakes and values, we conceptually analyse the digital installation entitled CO2mmitment/CO2nfessions, which was a prominent part of the Aarhus CO2030 exhibition launching the vision of the Danish city of Aarhus to become carbon neutral by the year 2030. In the analysis, we explore how the citizen is framed and invited to enact his/her responsibilities to the natural environment in an urban setting and how the digital mediation facilitates various forms of relations and climate conscious positions, incorporating both narcissistic desires, universal anxiety, moral obligations, ethical virtue and image performance. Statements from the actual confessors/committers exemplify this. Thus, the paper provides insight into understanding the complexity of climate-conscious citizenship as a complex configuration of paradoxical, co-existing ethics and arguments.

Consistency between recognition and behavior creates consciousness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keita Inaba

2004-08-01

Full Text Available What is consciousness? Is it possible to create consciousness mechanically? Various studies have been performed in the fields of psychology and cerebral science to answer these questions. As of yet, however, no researchers have proposed a model capable of explaining the mind-body problem described by Descartes or replicating a consciousness as advanced as that of human beings. Ancient people believed that the consciousness resided in a Homunculus, a human in miniature who lived in the brain. It is no mystery that the ancients came up with such an idea; for consciousness has always been veiled in mystery, beyond the reach of our explorative powers. We can assert, however, that consciousness does not "live" in us, but "exists" in us. Insofar as the processes occurring inside the human brain are a product of the physical activity of the neurons that reside there, we believe that it should be possible to define consciousness systematically.

Theoretical progress at CNDC theory group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Zhongdao

1993-01-01

In 1992, CNDC (Chinese Nuclear Data Center) theory group has made progress in model study, code making and data calculations for low energy nuclear reaction, intermediate and high energy nuclear reaction. It has also made progress in parameter library establishment. The brief explanations are presented

DMN Operational Synchrony Relates to Self-Consciousness: Evidence from Patients in Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States.

Science.gov (United States)

Fingelkurts, Andrew A; Fingelkurts, Alexander A; Bagnato, Sergio; Boccagni, Cristina; Galardi, Giuseppe

2012-01-01

The default mode network (DMN) has been consistently activated across a wide variety of self-related tasks, leading to a proposal of the DMN's role in self-related processing. Indeed, there is limited fMRI evidence that the functional connectivity within the DMN may underlie a phenomenon referred to as self-awareness. At the same time, none of the known studies have explicitly investigated neuronal functional interactions among brain areas that comprise the DMN as a function of self-consciousness loss. To fill this gap, EEG operational synchrony analysis [1, 2] was performed in patients with severe brain injuries in vegetative and minimally conscious states to study the strength of DMN operational synchrony as a function of self-consciousness expression. We demonstrated that the strength of DMN EEG operational synchrony was smallest or even absent in patients in vegetative state, intermediate in patients in minimally conscious state and highest in healthy fully self-conscious subjects. At the same time the process of ecoupling of operations performed by neuronal assemblies that comprise the DMN was highest in patients in vegetative state, intermediate in patients in minimally conscious state and minimal in healthy fully self-conscious subjects. The DMN's frontal EEG operational module had the strongest decrease in operational synchrony strength as a function of selfconsciousness loss, when compared with the DMN's posterior modules. Based on these results it is suggested that the strength of DMN functional connectivity could mediate the strength of self-consciousness expression. The observed alterations similarly occurred across EEG alpha, beta1 and beta2 frequency oscillations. Presented results suggest that the EEG operational synchrony within DMN may provide an objective and accurate measure for the assessment of signs of self-(un)consciousness in these challenging patient populations. This method therefore, may complement the current diagnostic procedures for

Algebraic K-theory of crystallographic groups the three-dimensional splitting case

CERN Document Server

Farley, Daniel Scott

2014-01-01

The Farrell-Jones isomorphism conjecture in algebraic K-theory offers a description of the algebraic K-theory of a group using a generalized homology theory. In cases where the conjecture is known to be a theorem, it gives a powerful method for computing the lower algebraic K-theory of a group. This book contains a computation of the lower algebraic K-theory of the split three-dimensional crystallographic groups, a geometrically important class of three-dimensional crystallographic group, representing a third of the total number. The book leads the reader through all aspects of the calculation. The first chapters describe the split crystallographic groups and their classifying spaces. Later chapters assemble the techniques that are needed to apply the isomorphism theorem. The result is a useful starting point for researchers who are interested in the computational side of the Farrell-Jones isomorphism conjecture, and a contribution to the growing literature in the field.

The spirituality of human consciousness: a Catholic evaluation of some current neuro-scientific interpretations.

Science.gov (United States)

McGoldrick, Terence A

2012-09-01

Catholic theology's traditional understanding of the spiritual nature of the human person begins with the idea of a rational soul and human mind that is made manifest in free will--the spiritual experience of the act of consciousness and cause of all human arts. The rationale for this religion-based idea of personhood is key to understanding ethical dilemmas posed by modern research that applies a more empirical methodology in its interpretations about the cause of human consciousness. Applications of these beliefs about the body/soul composite to the theory of evolution and to discoveries in neuroscience, paleoanthropology, as well as to recent animal intelligence studies, can be interpreted from this religious and philosophical perspective, which argues for the human soul as the unifying cause of the person's unique abilities. Free will and consciousness are at the nexus of the mutual influence of body and soul upon one another in the traditional Catholic view, that argues for a spiritual dimension to personality that is on a par with the physical metabolic processes at play. Therapies that affect consciousness are ethically problematic, because of their implications for free will and human dignity. Studies of resilience, as an example, argue for the greater, albeit limited, role of the soul's conscious choices in healing as opposed to metabolic or physical changes to the brain alone.

Conformal field theory, triality and the Monster group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dolan, L.; Goddard, P.; Montague, P.

1990-01-01

From an even self-dual N-dimensional lattice, Λ, it is always possible to construct two (chiral) conformal field theories, an untwisted theory H (Λ), and a Z 2 -twisted theory H (Λ), constructed using the reflection twist. (N must be a multiple of 8 and the theories are modular invariant if it is a multiple of 24.) Similarly, from a doubly-even self-dual binary code C, it is possible to construct two even self-dual lattices, an untwisted one Λ C and a twisted one anti Λ C . It is shown that H(Λ C ) always has a triality structure, and that this triality induces first an isomorphism H(anti Λ C )≅H(Λ C ) and, through this, a triality of H(anti Λ C ). In the case where C is the Golay code, anti Λ C is the Leech lattice and the induced triality is the extra symmetry necessary to generate the Monster group from (an extension of) Conway's group. Thus it is demonstrated that triality is a generic symmetry. The induced isomorphism accounts for all 9 of the coincidences between the 48 conformal field theories H(Λ) and H(Λ) with N=24. (orig.)

Systems Thinking : Ancient Maya's Evolution of Consciousness and Contemporary Systems Thinking

Science.gov (United States)

Jere Lazanski, Tadeja

2010-11-01

Systems thinking as a modern approach for problem solving was revived after WWII even though it had been an ancient philosophy. We can track systems thinking back to antiquity. Making a distinction from Western rationalist traditions of philosophy, C. West Churchman often identified with the I Ching as a systems approach sharing a frame of reference similar to pre-Socratic philosophy and Heraclitus. In this paper, we will compare the evolutionary system of consciousness, which was presented in the Tun calendar of Mayan Indians and contemporary systems theory and systems thinking, which is nothing else but highly evolved human consciousness in society. We will present Mayan calendar systems to contemporary systems thinking principles and explain the answer to the Ackoff's judgment on four hundred years of analytical thinking as the dominant mode of society. We will use the methods of historical comparison and a method of a systems approach. We will point out the big picture and Mayan divine plan as main systems principles. The Mayan numerical system and long count units has been proven as one of the most accurate systems for describing the present and future of the civilization in which we have all evolved. We will also explain the Mayan nine-level pyramids system that represents the evolutionary system, i.e. the consciousness, which in our time shows the actual level of human consciousness. Deriving from all described, we will show the main systems principles, discussed by contemporary systems authors and Mayan systems principles, which differ only in one expression—they named "the big picture" as "the divine plan". The final results can be perfectly applied to the society we live in. Seeing the world from the big picture point of view is reaching a level of awareness, in which linear thinking is replaced by systems thinking. The Mayans explained that the civilization would achieve the system of conscious co-creation. We can claim that linear thinking guides us

Studies on representation of the Lorentz group and gauge theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hanitriarivo, R.

2002-01-01

This work is focused on studies about the representation of the Lorentz group and gauge theory. The mathematical tools required for the different studies are presented, as well as for the representation of the Lorentz group and for the gauge theory. Representation of the Lorentz group gives the possible types of fields and wave functions that describe particles: fermions are described by spinors and bosons are described by scalar or vector. Each of these entities (spinors, scalars, vectors) are characterized by their behavior under the action of Lorentz transformations.Gauge theory is used to describe the interactions between particles. [fr

Group theory approach to scattering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, J.

1985-01-01

For certain physical systems, there exists a dynamical group which contains the operators connecting states with the same energy but belonging to potentials with different strengths. This group is called the potential group of that system. The SO(2,1) potential groups structure is introduced to describe physical systems with mixed spectra, such as Morse and Poeschl-teller potentials. The discrete spectrum describes bound states and the continuous spectrum describes bound states and the continuous spectrum describes scattering states. A solvable class of one-dimensional potentials given by Natanzon belongs to this structure with an SO(2,2) potential group. The potential group structure provides us with an algebraic procedure generating the recursion relations for the scattering matrix, which can be formulated in a purely algebraic fashion, divorced from any differential realization. This procedure, when applied to the three-dimensional scattering problem with SO(3,1) symmetry, generates the scattering matrix of the Coulomb problem. Preliminary phenomenological models for elastic scattering in a heavy-ion collision are constructed on the basis. The results obtained here can be regarded as an important extension of the group theory techniques to scattering problems similar to that developed for bound state problems

Group contractions in quantum field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Concini, C. De; Vitiello, G.

1979-01-01

General theorems are given for SU(n) and SO(n). A projective geometry argument is also presented with disclosure of the occurrence a group contraction mechanism as a geometric consequence of spontaneous breakdown of symmetry. It is also shown that a contraction of the conformal group gives account of the number of degrees of freedom of an n-pseudoparticle system in an Euclidean SU(2) gauge invariant Yang-Mills theory, in agreement with the result obtained by algebraic geometry methods. Low-energy theorems and ordered states symmetry patterns are observable manifestations of group contractions. These results seem to support the conjecture that the transition from quantum to classical physics involves a group contraction mechanism. (author)

Phenomenology without conscious access is a form of consciousness without top-down attention

OpenAIRE

Koch, Christof; Tsuchiya, Naotsugu

2007-01-01

We agree with Block's basic hypothesis postulating the existence of phenomenal consciousness without cognitive access. We explain such states in terms of consciousness without top-down, endogenous attention and speculate that their correlates may be a coalition of neurons that are consigned to the back of cortex, without access to working memory and planning in frontal cortex.

Ethnocentrism, Religiosity, Environmental and Health Consciousness: Motivators for Anti-Consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramazan KAYNAK

2011-11-01

Full Text Available This paper covers highlighting the importance of anti-consumer groups in today’s markets and several outstanding factors shaping their reaction against consumption, which are ethnocentrism, religiosity, environmental and health consciousness. A conceptual model is presented which examines the explaining power of ethnocentrism, religiosity, environmental and health consciousness upon voluntary simplifiers and global impact consumers. Data were collected through an e-questionnaire by sending posts to the anti-consumer websites. A total of 503 useable responses were retained for analysis. The analysis reveals that ethnocentrism, environmental and health consciousness have significant impacts upon anti-consumers. In addition, religiosity has a negative impact upon global impact consumers’ anti-consumption behavior. Raising sensitiveness to environmental and health consciousness and ethnocentrism with regards to dealing with anti-consumers enables companies to have sustainable competitive power. These consumers’ growing satisfaction contributes to consumer loyalty in addition to an increase in market share. Researches related to anti-consumers have traditionally emphasized their impacts upon companies’ profits and reputation. On the contrary, this study reveals the main motivations behind voluntary simplifiers and global impact consumers and puts forth a new perspective by presenting the findings related to anti-consumers in Turkey.

Mythology, Weltanschauung, symbolic universe and states of consciousness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gert Malan

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This article investigates whether different religious (mythological worldviews can be described as alternative and altered states of consciousness (ASCs. Differences between conscious and unconscious motivations for behaviour are discussed before looking at ASCs, Weltanschauung and symbolic universes. Mythology can be described both as Weltanschauung and symbolic universe, functioning on all levels of consciousness. Different Weltanschauungen constitute alternative states of consciousness. Compared to secular worldviews, religious worldviews may be described as ASCs. Thanks to our globalised modern societies, the issue is even more complex, as alternate modernities lead to a symbolic multiverse, with individuals living in a social multiverse. Keyowrds: mythology; Weltanschauung; worldview; symbolic universe; states of consciousness; altered states of consciousness; alternative states of consciousness; symbolic multiverse; social multiverse

On the neural mechanisms subserving consciousness and attention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Catherine eTallon-Baudry

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Consciousness, as described in the experimental literature, is a multi-faceted phenomenon, that impinges on other well-studied concepts such as attention and control. Do consciousness and attention refer to different aspects of the same core phenomenon, or do they correspond to distinct functions? One possibility to address this question is to examine the neural mechanisms underlying consciousness and attention. If consciousness and attention pertain to the same concept, they should rely on shared neural mechanisms. Conversely, if their underlying mechanisms are distinct, then consciousness and attention should be considered as distinct entities. This paper therefore reviews neurophysiological facts arguing in favor or against a tight relationship between consciousness and attention. Three neural mechanisms that have been associated with both attention and consciousness are examined (neural amplification, involvement of the fronto-parietal network, and oscillatory synchrony, to conclude that the commonalities between attention and consciousness at the neural level may have been overestimated. Last but not least, experiments in which both attention and consciousness were probed at the neural level point toward a dissociation between the two concepts. It therefore appears from this review that consciousness and attention rely on distinct neural properties, although they can interact at the behavioral level. It is proposed that a "cumulative influence model", in which attention and consciousness correspond to distinct neural mechanisms feeding a single decisional process leading to behavior, fits best with available neural and behavioral data. In this view, consciousness should not be considered as a top-level executive function but should rather be defined by its experiential properties.

Renormalization group theory impact on experimental magnetism

CERN Document Server

Köbler, Ulrich

2010-01-01

Spin wave theory of magnetism and BCS theory of superconductivity are typical theories of the time before renormalization group (RG) theory. The two theories consider atomistic interactions only and ignore the energy degrees of freedom of the continuous (infinite) solid. Since the pioneering work of Kenneth G. Wilson (Nobel Prize of physics in 1982) we know that the continuous solid is characterized by a particular symmetry: invariance with respect to transformations of the length scale. Associated with this symmetry are particular field particles with characteristic excitation spectra. In diamagnetic solids these are the well known Debye bosons. This book reviews experimental work on solid state physics of the last five decades and shows in a phenomenological way that the dynamics of ordered magnets and conventional superconductors is controlled by the field particles of the infinite solid and not by magnons and Cooper pairs, respectively. In the case of ordered magnets the relevant field particles are calle...

An introduction to the theory of groups

CERN Document Server

Alexandroff, Paul; Petersen, GM

2012-01-01

This introductory exposition of group theory by an eminent Russian mathematician is particularly suited to undergraduates. Includes a wealth of simple examples, primarily geometrical, and end-of-chapter exercises. 1959 edition.

Conscious and subconscious attitudes towards English Imports in the Nordic countries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, Tore

2010-01-01

The article reports on how the present-day influence from English is perceived and assessed in seven Nordic communities. The focus is on comparison, between the seven communities, and between two data sets obtained under different conditions of consciousness. The comparisons show...... that the populations reproduce the “purism level” of their own community’s official language policy in their consciously offered responses to questions in a telephone survey, while the purism–laissez-faire ranking of the communities is turned upside down in a subconsciously offered data set obtained in a speaker...... evaluation experiment based on the matched-guise technique. In the same way, analyses of how the evaluative reactions correlate with social-group divisions show reproduction and non-reproduction of the stereotypically expected correlations, in the conscious and subconscious conditions respectively....

Classical gauge theories on the coadjoint orbits of infinite dimensional groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grabowski, M.P.; Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ., Blacksburg; Tze Chiahsiung

1991-01-01

We reformulate several classical gauge theories on the coadjoint orbits of the semidirect product of the gauge group and the Weyl group. The construction is given for the Yang-Mills theories in arbitrary spacetime dimension d, Chern-Simons topological theory (d=3) and higher dimensional topological models of Horowitz (d≥4). (orig.)

Morality Beyond Social Preferences: Smithian Sympathy, Social Neuroscience and the Nature of Social Consciousness

OpenAIRE

Thoron, Sylvie

2016-01-01

The theory of social preferences expanded the definition of the utility function in order to reproduce the pro-social behavior observed in experiments. Does this then mean that this is the route towards a positive theory of morality in economics? We do not think so. Our claim is that there is an epistemic contradiction between methodological individualism which assumes that the economic agent’s rationality is autonomous from society, and the nature of social consciousness. Therefore, we argue...

Categorial Ontology of Complex Systems, Meta-Systems and Levels: The Emergence of Life, Human Consciousness and Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James F. Glazebrook

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Relational structures of organisms and the human mind are naturally represented in terms of novel variable topology concepts, non-Abelian categories and Higher Dimensional Algebra{ relatively new concepts that would be defined in
this tutorial paper. A unifying theme of local-to-global approaches to organismic development, evolution and human consciousness leads to novel patterns of relations that emerge in super- and ultra- complex systems in terms of compositions of local procedures [1]. The claim is defended in this paper that human consciousness is unique and should be viewed as an ultra-complex, global process of processes, at a meta-level not sub{summed by, but compatible with, human brain dynamics [2]-[5]. The emergence of consciousness and its existence
are considered to be dependent upon an extremely complex structural and functional unit with an asymmetric network topology and connectivities{the human brain. However, the appearance of human consciousness is shown to be critically dependent upon societal co-evolution, elaborate language-symbolic communication and `virtual', higher dimensional, non{commutative processes involving separate space and time perceptions. Theories of the mind are approached from the theory of levels and ultra-complexity viewpoints that throw
new light on previous semantic models in cognitive science. Anticipatory systems and complex causality at the top levels of reality are discussed in the context of psychology, sociology and ecology. A paradigm shift towards non-commutative, or more generally, non-Abelian theories of highly complex dynamics [6] is suggested to unfold now in physics, mathematics, life and cognitive sciences, thus leading to the realizations of higher dimensional algebras in neurosciences and psychology, as well as in human genomics, bioinformatics and interactomics. The presence of strange attractors in modern society dynamics gives rise to very serious concerns for the future

Diagrammatic group theory in quark models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Canning, G.P.

1977-05-01

A simple and systematic diagrammatic method is presented for calculating the numerical factors arising from group theory in quark models: dimensions, casimir invariants, vector coupling coefficients and especially recoupling coefficients. Some coefficients for the coupling of 3 quark objects are listed for SU(n) and SU(2n). (orig.) [de

Environmentally conscious patent histories

Science.gov (United States)

Crouch, Dennis D.; Crouch, Henry L.

2004-02-01

There is a need for investigators, legislators, and business leaders to understand the magnitude of innovation and discovery in the field of environmentally conscious technologies (ECTs). Knowledge of the "big picture" is important to providing a national and global account of actual environmental stewardship over the last twenty-five years. A recitation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supported Acts which have been enacted into law reveals one facet of the multifaceted dynamic of environmental consciousness. The popular discussion and debate, as well as partisan lobbying, which created the political forces leading to environmentally conscious legislation is another facet. A third facet is the corporate response to the threats and opportunities predicted by CEO"s and others through environmental scanning. This paper examines changes in environmentally conscious inventive effort by comparing data from United States Patents issued from 1976 through 2003. Patents are useful tool for measuring technological innovation because they are publicly available records of innovative activity. Although not all inventions result in patent applications, the monopoly rights granted on the invention give the inventor a strong incentive to obtain patents on any viable product or process. Among the results, we found a significant increase in patents relating to environmentally conscious products and processes during the period in question. Specifically, a dramatic increase in patent activity was seen for the decade of the 1990"s. Surprisingly, the patenting rate from 2000 to 2003 seems to have stabilized. Additionally public discussion of ECTs appears to have a positive impact on patent filings.

Manifestations of group covariance in a metric theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halpern, L.

1984-01-01

The requirement to present Dirac's Large Number Hypothesis in one system of units in which the resulting modifications to Einstein's theory are exhibited, led to the construction of generalizations of General Relativity based rigorously on the geometry of semisimple groups. The foundations of such a theory are discussed and some of the possible interpretations are presented. (author)

Theory of the unitary representations of compact groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burzynski, A.; Burzynska, M.

1979-01-01

An introduction contains some basic notions used in group theory, Lie group, Lie algebras and unitary representations. Then we are dealing with compact groups. For these groups we show the problem of reduction of unitary representation of Wigner's projection operators, Clebsch-Gordan coefficients and Wigner-Eckart theorem. We show (this is a new approach) the representations reduction formalism by using superoperators in Hilbert-Schmidt space. (author)

Functional neuroanatomy of disorders of consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Di Perri, Carol; Stender, Johan; Laureys, Steven; Gosseries, Olivia

2014-01-01

Our understanding of the mechanisms of loss and recovery of consciousness, following severe brain injury or during anesthesia, is changing rapidly. Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that patients with chronic disorders of consciousness and subjects undergoing general anesthesia present a complex dysfunctionality in the architecture of brain connectivity. At present, the global hallmark of impaired consciousness appears to be a multifaceted dysfunctional connectivity pattern with both within-network loss of connectivity in a widespread frontoparietal network and between-network hyperconnectivity involving other regions such as the insula and ventral tegmental area. Despite ongoing efforts, the mechanisms underlying the emergence of consciousness after severe brain injury are not thoroughly understood. Important questions remain unanswered: What triggers the connectivity impairment leading to disorders of consciousness? Why do some patients recover from coma, while others with apparently similar brain injuries do not? Understanding these mechanisms could lead to a better comprehension of brain function and, hopefully, lead to new therapeutic strategies in this challenging patient population. © 2013.

Quantum groups, quantum categories and quantum field theory

CERN Document Server

Fröhlich, Jürg

1993-01-01

This book reviews recent results on low-dimensional quantum field theories and their connection with quantum group theory and the theory of braided, balanced tensor categories. It presents detailed, mathematically precise introductions to these subjects and then continues with new results. Among the main results are a detailed analysis of the representation theory of U (sl ), for q a primitive root of unity, and a semi-simple quotient thereof, a classfication of braided tensor categories generated by an object of q-dimension less than two, and an application of these results to the theory of sectors in algebraic quantum field theory. This clarifies the notion of "quantized symmetries" in quantum fieldtheory. The reader is expected to be familiar with basic notions and resultsin algebra. The book is intended for research mathematicians, mathematical physicists and graduate students.

Wigner's little group as a gauge generator in linearized gravity theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scaria, Tomy; Chakraborty, Biswajit

2002-01-01

We show that the translational subgroup of Wigner's little group for massless particles in 3 + 1 dimensions generates gauge transformation in linearized Einstein gravity. Similarly, a suitable representation of the one-dimensional translational group T(1) is shown to generate gauge transformation in the linearized Einstein-Chern-Simons theory in 2 + 1 dimensions. These representations are derived systematically from appropriate representations of translational groups which generate gauge transformations in gauge theories living in spacetime of one higher dimension by the technique of dimensional descent. The unified picture thus obtained is compared with a similar picture available for vector gauge theories in 3 + 1 and 2 + 1 dimensions. Finally, the polarization tensor of the Einstein-Pauli-Fierz theory in 2 + 1 dimensions is shown to split into the polarization tensors of a pair of Einstein-Chern-Simons theories with opposite helicities suggesting a doublet structure for the Einstein-Pauli-Fierz theory

Theory of mind and Darwin's legacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Searle, John

2013-06-18

We do not have an adequate theory of consciousness. Both dualism and materialism are mistaken because they deny consciousness is part of the physical world. False claims include (i) behaviorism, (ii) computationalism, (iii) epiphenomenalism, (iv) the readiness potential, (v) subjectivity, and (vi) materialism. Ontological subjectivity does not preclude epistemic objectivity. Observer relative phenomena are created by consciousness, but consciousness is not itself observer relative. Consciousness consists of feeling, sentience, or awareness with (i) qualitativeness, (ii) ontological subjectivity, (iii) unified conscious field, (iv) intentionality, and (v) intentional causation. All conscious states are caused by lower level neurobiological processes in the brain, and they are realized in the brain as higher level features. Efforts to get a detailed scientific account of how brain processes cause consciousness are disappointing. The Darwinian revolution gave us a new form of explanation; two levels were substituted: a causal level, where we specify the mechanism by which the phenotype functions, and a functional level, where we specify the selectional advantage that the phenotype provides. Sociobiology attempted to explain general features of human society, ethics, etc. It failed. For the incest taboo, it confuses inhibition with prohibition. It did not explain the moral force of the taboo. To explain the function of consciousness we cannot ask, "What would be subtracted if we subtracted consciousness but left everything else the same?" We cannot leave everything else the same because consciousness is necessary for higher functions of human and animal life. The unified conscious field gives the organism vastly increased power.

Direct gauging of the Poincare group V. Group scaling, classical gauge theory, and gravitational corrections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Edelen, D.G.B.

1986-01-01

Homogeneous scaling of the group space of the Poincare group, P 10 , is shown to induce scalings of all geometric quantities associated with the local action of P 10 . The field equations for both the translation and the Lorentz rotation compensating fields reduce to O(1) equations if the scaling parameter is set equal to the general relativistic gravitational coupling constant 8πGc -4 . Standard expansions of all field variables in power series in the scaling parameter give the following results. The zeroth-order field equations are exactly the classical field equations for matter fields on Minkowski space subject to local action of an internal symmetry group (classical gauge theory). The expansion process is shown to break P 10 -gauge covariance of the theory, and hence solving the zeroth-order field equations imposes an implicit system of P 10 -gauge conditions. Explicit systems of field equations are obtained for the first- and higher-order approximations. The first-order translation field equations are driven by the momentum-energy tensor of the matter and internal compensating fields in the zeroth order (classical gauge theory), while the first-order Lorentz rotation field equations are driven by the spin currents of the same classical gauge theory. Field equations for the first-order gravitational corrections to the matter fields and the gauge fields for the internal symmetry group are obtained. Direct Poincare gauge theory is thus shown to satisfy the first two of the three-part acid test of any unified field theory. Satisfaction of the third part of the test, at least for finite neighborhoods, seems probable

Spatial frequency tuning during the conscious and non-conscious perception of emotional facial expressions—an intracranial ERP study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Verena eWillenbockel

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Previous studies have shown that complex visual stimuli, such as emotional facial expressions, can influence brain activity independently of the observers’ awareness. Little is known yet, however, about the informational correlates of consciousness—i.e., which low-level information correlates with brain activation during conscious vs. non-conscious perception. Here, we investigated this question in the spatial frequency (SF domain. We examined which SFs in disgusted and fearful facial expressions modulate activation in the insula and amygdala over time and as a function of awareness, using a combination of intracranial event-related potentials (ERPs, SF Bubbles (Willenbockel et al., 2010a, and Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS; Tsuchiya and Koch, 2005. Patients implanted with electrodes for epilepsy monitoring viewed face photographs (13° x 7° that were randomly SF filtered trial-by-trial. In the conscious condition, the faces were visible; in the non-conscious condition, they were rendered invisible using CFS. Data were analyzed by performing multiple linear regressions on the SF filters from each trial and the transformed ERP amplitudes across time. The resulting classification images suggest that many SFs are involved in the conscious and non-conscious perception of emotional expressions, with those between 6 and 10 cycles per face width being particularly important early on. The results also revealed qualitative differences between the awareness conditions for both regions. Non-conscious processing relied on low SFs more and was faster than conscious processing. Overall, our findings are consistent with the idea that different pathways are employed for the processing of emotional stimuli under different degrees of awareness. The present study represents a first step to mapping with a high temporal resolution how SF information flows through the emotion-processing network and to shedding light on the informational correlates of

Group and representation theory

CERN Document Server

Vergados, J D

2017-01-01

This volume goes beyond the understanding of symmetries and exploits them in the study of the behavior of both classical and quantum physical systems. Thus it is important to study the symmetries described by continuous (Lie) groups of transformations. We then discuss how we get operators that form a Lie algebra. Of particular interest to physics is the representation of the elements of the algebra and the group in terms of matrices and, in particular, the irreducible representations. These representations can be identified with physical observables. This leads to the study of the classical Lie algebras, associated with unitary, unimodular, orthogonal and symplectic transformations. We also discuss some special algebras in some detail. The discussion proceeds along the lines of the Cartan-Weyl theory via the root vectors and root diagrams and, in particular, the Dynkin representation of the roots. Thus the representations are expressed in terms of weights, which are generated by the application of the elemen...

Dilogarithm identities in conformal field theory and group homology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dupont, J.L.

1994-01-01

Recently, Rogers' dilogarithm identities have attracted much attention in the setting of conformal field theory as well as lattice model calculations. One of the connecting threads is an identity of Richmond-Szekeres that appeared in the computation of central charges in conformal field theory. We show that the Richmond-Szekeres identity and its extension by Kirillov-Reshetikhin (equivalent to an identity found earlier by Lewin) can be interpreted as a lift of a generator of the third integral homology of a finite cyclic subgroup sitting inside the projective special linear group of all 2x2 real matrices viewed as a discrete group. This connection allows us to clarify a few of the assertions and conjectures stated in the work of Nahm-Recknagel-Terhoven concerning the role of algebraic K-theory and Thurston's program on hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Specifically, it is not related to hyperbolic 3-manifolds as suggested but is more appropriately related to the group manifold of the universal covering group of the projective special linear group of all 2x2 real matrices viewed as a topological group. This also resolves the weaker version of the conjecture as formulated by Kirillov. We end with a summary of a number of open conjectures on the mathematical side. (orig.)

The consciousness state space (CSS)-a unifying model for consciousness and self.

Science.gov (United States)

Berkovich-Ohana, Aviva; Glicksohn, Joseph

2014-01-01

Every experience, those we are aware of and those we are not, is embedded in a subjective timeline, is tinged with emotion, and inevitably evokes a certain sense of self. Here, we present a phenomenological model for consciousness and selfhood which relates time, awareness, and emotion within one framework. The consciousness state space (CSS) model is a theoretical one. It relies on a broad range of literature, hence has high explanatory and integrative strength, and helps in visualizing the relationship between different aspects of experience. Briefly, it is suggested that all phenomenological states fall into two categories of consciousness, core and extended (CC and EC, respectively). CC supports minimal selfhood that is short of temporal extension, its scope being the here and now. EC supports narrative selfhood, which involves personal identity and continuity across time, as well as memory, imagination and conceptual thought. The CSS is a phenomenological space, created by three dimensions: time, awareness and emotion. Each of the three dimensions is shown to have a dual phenomenological composition, falling within CC and EC. The neural spaces supporting each of these dimensions, as well as CC and EC, are laid out based on the neuroscientific literature. The CSS dynamics include two simultaneous trajectories, one in CC and one in EC, typically antagonistic in normal experiences. However, this characteristic behavior is altered in states in which a person experiences an altered sense of self. Two examples are laid out, flow and meditation. The CSS model creates a broad theoretical framework with explanatory and unificatory power. It constructs a detailed map of the consciousness and selfhood phenomenology, which offers constraints for the science of consciousness. We conclude by outlining several testable predictions raised by the CSS model.

Teaching Group Theory Using Rubik's Cubes

Science.gov (United States)

Cornock, Claire

2015-01-01

Being situated within a course at the applied end of the spectrum of maths degrees, the pure mathematics modules at Sheffield Hallam University have an applied spin. Pure topics are taught through consideration of practical examples such as knots, cryptography and automata. Rubik's cubes are used to teach group theory within a final year pure…

Electrocortical (EEG correlates of music and states of consciousness

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Lazar Skaric

2007-11-01

Full Text Available The study of the perception of music is a paramount example of multidisciplinary research. In spite of a lot of theoretical and experimental efforts to understand musical processing, attempts to localize musical abilities in particular brain regions were largely unsuccessful, save for the difference between musicians and non musicians, especially in hemispheric specialization and in EEG correlational dimensions. Having in mind that human emotional response to music and to art in general is limbic dependent, this motivated us to address our question to a similar possible neurobiological origin of musicogenic altered states of consciousness and its possible EEG correlates, “resonantly” induced by deep spiritual music. For example, as in sound-induced altered states of consciousness cultivated in some Eastern yogic practices. The musicogenic states of consciousness are evaluated within a group of 6 adults, upon the influence of 4 types of spiritual music. The most prominent changes in theta or alpha frequency bands were induced in two subjects, upon the influence of Indian spiritual music, Bhajan.

Is Phenomenal Consciousness a Complex Structure?

OpenAIRE

Stieg, Chuck

2004-01-01

Evolutionary explanations of psychological phenomena have become widespread. This paper examines a recent attempt by Nichols and Grantham (2000) to circumvent the problem of epiphenomenalism in establishing the selective status of consciousness. Nichols and Grantham (2000) argue that a case can be made for the view that consciousness is an adaptation based on its complexity. I set out this argument and argue that it fails to establish that phenomenal consciousness is a complex system. It ...

Bridging consciousness and cognition in memory and perception: evidence for both state and strength processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Aly, Mariam; Yonelinas, Andrew P

2012-01-01

Subjective experience indicates that mental states are discrete, in the sense that memories and perceptions readily come to mind in some cases, but are entirely unavailable to awareness in others. However, a long history of psychophysical research has indicated that the discrete nature of mental states is largely epiphenomenal and that mental processes vary continuously in strength. We used a novel combination of behavioral methodologies to examine the processes underlying perception of complex images: (1) analysis of receiver operating characteristics (ROCs), (2) a modification of the change-detection flicker paradigm, and (3) subjective reports of conscious experience. These methods yielded converging results showing that perceptual judgments reflect the combined, yet functionally independent, contributions of two processes available to conscious experience: a state process of conscious perception and a strength process of knowing; processes that correspond to recollection and familiarity in long-term memory. In addition, insights from the perception experiments led to the discovery of a new recollection phenomenon in a long-term memory change detection paradigm. The apparent incompatibility between subjective experience and theories of cognition can be understood within a unified state-strength framework that links consciousness to cognition across the domains of perception and memory.

A hierarchy of event-related potential markers of auditory processing in disorders of consciousness

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Steve Beukema

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Functional neuroimaging of covert perceptual and cognitive processes can inform the diagnoses and prognoses of patients with disorders of consciousness, such as the vegetative and minimally conscious states (VS;MCS. Here we report an event-related potential (ERP paradigm for detecting a hierarchy of auditory processes in a group of healthy individuals and patients with disorders of consciousness. Simple cortical responses to sounds were observed in all 16 patients; 7/16 (44% patients exhibited markers of the differential processing of speech and noise; and 1 patient produced evidence of the semantic processing of speech (i.e. the N400 effect. In several patients, the level of auditory processing that was evident from ERPs was higher than the abilities that were evident from behavioural assessment, indicating a greater sensitivity of ERPs in some cases. However, there were no differences in auditory processing between VS and MCS patient groups, indicating a lack of diagnostic specificity for this paradigm. Reliably detecting semantic processing by means of the N400 effect in passively listening single-subjects is a challenge. Multiple assessment methods are needed in order to fully characterise the abilities of patients with disorders of consciousness.

Groups, generators, syzygies, and orbits in invariant theory

CERN Document Server

Popov, V L

2011-01-01

The history of invariant theory spans nearly a century and a half, with roots in certain problems from number theory, algebra, and geometry appearing in the work of Gauss, Jacobi, Eisenstein, and Hermite. Although the connection between invariants and orbits was essentially discovered in the work of Aronhold and Boole, a clear understanding of this connection had not been achieved until recently, when invariant theory was in fact subsumed by a general theory of algebraic groups. Written by one of the major leaders in the field, this book provides an excellent, comprehensive exposition of invariant theory. Its point of view is unique in that it combines both modern and classical approaches to the subject. The introductory chapter sets the historical stage for the subject, helping to make the book accessible to nonspecialists.

Contemplative Neuroscience as an Approach to Volitional Consciousness

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Evan

This chapter presents a methodological approach to volitional consciousness for cognitive neuroscience based on studying the voluntary self-generation and self-regulation of mental states in meditation. Called contemplative neuroscience, this approach views attention, awareness, and emotion regulation as flexible and trainable skills, and works with experimental participants who have undergone training in contemplative practices designed to hone these skills. Drawing from research on the dynamical neural correlates of contemplative mental states and theories of large-scale neural coordination dynamics, I argue for the importance of global system causation in brain activity and present an "interventionist" approach to intentional causation.

Time and Consciousness in Cognitive Naturalism: Four Questions

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Paolo Parrini

2015-12-01

Full Text Available By referring to two paradigm shifts - the passage from classical physics to relativistic physics on the one hand and the one from folk psychology to cognitive science on the other - Nannini aims at explaining “why neurological theories that reduce consciousness and the Self to aspects of brain dynamics appear implausible from a common sense perspective despite being sound from a scientific point of view”. In the comment I underline the importance of the articulated attempt made by Nannini, whilst asking at the same time for some clarifications regarding four epistemological aspects of the perspective he defends.

Symmetry an introduction to group theory and its applications

CERN Document Server

McWeeny, Roy

2002-01-01

Well-organized volume develops ideas of group and representation theory in progressive fashion. Emphasis on finite groups describing symmetry of regular polyhedra and of repeating patterns, plus geometric illustrations.

Neural plasticity lessons from disorders of consciousness

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Athena eDemertzi

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Communication and intentional behavior are supported by the brain’s integrity at a structural and a functional level. When widespread loss of cerebral connectivity is brought about as a result of a severe brain injury, in many cases patients are not capable of conscious interactive behavior and are said to suffer from disorders of consciousness (e.g., coma, vegetative state /unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, minimally conscious states. This lesion paradigm has offered not only clinical insights, as how to improve diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, but also put forward scientific opportunities to study the brain’s plastic abilities. We here review interventional and observational studies performed in severely brain-injured patients with regards to recovery of consciousness. The study of the recovered conscious brain (spontaneous and/or after surgical or pharmacologic interventions, suggests a link between some specific brain areas and the capacity of the brain to sustain conscious experience, challenging at the same time the notion of fixed temporal boundaries in rehabilitative processes. Altered functional connectivity, cerebral structural reorganization as well as behavioral amelioration after invasive treatments will be discussed as the main indices for plasticity in these challenging patients. The study of patients with chronic disorders of consciousness may, thus, provide further insights not only at a clinical level (i.e., medical management and rehabilitation but also from a scientific-theoretical perspective (i.e., the brain’s plastic abilities and the pursuit of the neural correlate of consciousness.

Stapp`s quantum dualism: The James/Heisenberg model of consciousness

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Noyes, H.P.

1994-02-18

Henry Stapp attempts to resolve the Cartesian dilemma by introducing what the author would characterize as an ontological dualism between mind and matter. His model for mind comes from William James` description of conscious events and for matter from Werner Heisenberg`s ontological model for quantum events (wave function collapse). His demonstration of the isomorphism between the two types of events is successful, but in the author`s opinion fails to establish a monistic, scientific theory. The author traces Stapp`s failure to his adamant rejection of arbitrariness, or `randomness`. This makes it impossible for him (or for Bohr and Pauli before him) to understand the power of Darwin`s explanation of biology, let along the triumphs of modern `neo-Darwinism`. The author notes that the point at issue is a modern version of the unresolved opposition between Leucippus and Democritus on one side and Epicurus on the other. Stapp`s views are contrasted with recent discussions of consciousness by two eminent biologists: Crick and Edelman. They locate the problem firmly in the context of natural selection on the surface of the earth. Their approaches provide a sound basis for further scientific work. The author briefly examines the connection between this scientific (rather than ontological) framework and the new fundamental theory based on bit-strings and the combinatorial hierarchy.

Yang-Mills theory for non-semisimple groups

CERN Document Server

Nuyts, J; Nuyts, Jean; Wu, Tai Tsun

2003-01-01

For semisimple groups, possibly multiplied by U(1)'s, the number of Yang-Mills gauge fields is equal to the number of generators of the group. In this paper, it is shown that, for non-semisimple groups, the number of Yang-Mills fields can be larger. These additional Yang-Mills fields are not irrelevant because they appear in the gauge transformations of the original Yang-Mills fields. Such non-semisimple Yang-Mills theories may lead to physical consequences worth studying. The non-semisimple group with only two generators that do not commute is studied in detail.

Music therapy with disorders of consciousness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Magee, Wendy L.; O'Kelly, Julian

, evidence-based therapeutic methods are developed from an understanding of music perception and cognition. However, there are several key challenges. First, developing a theory-based clinical and research approach is necessary to deepen understandings of the complex interactions between music stimulus......Music therapy is a clinical healthcare discipline that draws its evidence base from a number of theoretical frameworks, including psychology and music neuroscience to improve the health and well-being in individuals from varied clinical populations. Working with individuals across the lifespan...... is to present the latest developments in music therapy intervention and measurement with people with disorders of consciousness stemming from acquired profound brain injury. We will share a standardized clinical protocol and examine recent research findings that illustrate the benefits of music-based methods...

Consciousness in Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder

OpenAIRE

Reuber, M.; Kurthen, M.

2011-01-01

Non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD) is one of the most important differential diagnoses of epilepsy. Impairment of\\ud consciousness is the key feature of non-epileptic attacks (NEAs). The first half of this review summarises the clinical research\\ud literature featuring observations relating to consciousness in NEAD. The second half places this evidence in the wider context\\ud of the recent discourse on consciousness in neuroscience and the philosophy of mind. We argue that studies of consci...

Does perceptual learning require consciousness or attention?

Science.gov (United States)

Meuwese, Julia D I; Post, Ruben A G; Scholte, H Steven; Lamme, Victor A F

2013-10-01

It has been proposed that visual attention and consciousness are separate [Koch, C., & Tsuchiya, N. Attention and consciousness: Two distinct brain processes. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 16-22, 2007] and possibly even orthogonal processes [Lamme, V. A. F. Why visual attention and awareness are different. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 12-18, 2003]. Attention and consciousness converge when conscious visual percepts are attended and hence become available for conscious report. In such a view, a lack of reportability can have two causes: the absence of attention or the absence of a conscious percept. This raises an important question in the field of perceptual learning. It is known that learning can occur in the absence of reportability [Gutnisky, D. A., Hansen, B. J., Iliescu, B. F., & Dragoi, V. Attention alters visual plasticity during exposure-based learning. Current Biology, 19, 555-560, 2009; Seitz, A. R., Kim, D., & Watanabe, T. Rewards evoke learning of unconsciously processed visual stimuli in adult humans. Neuron, 61, 700-707, 2009; Seitz, A. R., & Watanabe, T. Is subliminal learning really passive? Nature, 422, 36, 2003; Watanabe, T., Náñez, J. E., & Sasaki, Y. Perceptual learning without perception. Nature, 413, 844-848, 2001], but it is unclear which of the two ingredients-consciousness or attention-is not necessary for learning. We presented textured figure-ground stimuli and manipulated reportability either by masking (which only interferes with consciousness) or with an inattention paradigm (which only interferes with attention). During the second session (24 hr later), learning was assessed neurally and behaviorally, via differences in figure-ground ERPs and via a detection task. Behavioral and neural learning effects were found for stimuli presented in the inattention paradigm and not for masked stimuli. Interestingly, the behavioral learning effect only became apparent when performance feedback was given on the task to measure learning

Group-geometric methods in supergravity and superstring theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castellani, L.

1992-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to give a brief and pedagogical account of the group-geometric approach to (super)gravity and superstring theories. The authors summarize the main ideas and apply them to selected examples. Group geometry provides a natural and unified formulation of gravity and gauge theories. The invariance of both are interpreted as diffeomorphisms on a suitable group manifold. This geometrical framework has a fruitful output, in that it provides a systematic algorithm for the gauging of Lie algebras and the construction of (super)gravity or (super)string Lagrangians. The basic idea is to associate fundamental fields to the group generators. This is done by considering first a basis of tangent vectors on the group manifold. These vectors close on the same algebra as the abstract group generators. The dual basis, i.e. the vielbeins (cotangent basis of one-forms) is then identified with the set of fundamental fields. Thus, for example, the vielbein V a and the spin connection ω ab of ordinary Einstein-Cartan gravity are seen as the duals of the tangent vectors corresponding to translations and Lorentz rotations, respectively

Quantum gravity with matter and group field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krasnov, Kirill

2007-01-01

A generalization of the matrix model idea to quantum gravity in three and higher dimensions is known as group field theory (GFT). In this paper we study generalized GFT models that can be used to describe 3D quantum gravity coupled to point particles. The generalization considered is that of replacing the group leading to pure quantum gravity by the twisted product of the group with its dual-the so-called Drinfeld double of the group. The Drinfeld double is a quantum group in that it is an algebra that is both non-commutative and non-cocommutative, and special care is needed to define group field theory for it. We show how this is done, and study the resulting GFT models. Of special interest is a new topological model that is the 'Ponzano-Regge' model for the Drinfeld double. However, as we show, this model does not describe point particles. Motivated by the GFT considerations, we consider a more general class of models that are defined not using GFT, but the so-called chain mail techniques. A general model of this class does not produce 3-manifold invariants, but has an interpretation in terms of point particle Feynman diagrams

Philosophical foundations of artificial consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Chrisley, Ron

2008-10-01

Consciousness is often thought to be that aspect of mind that is least amenable to being understood or replicated by artificial intelligence (AI). The first-personal, subjective, what-it-is-like-to-be-something nature of consciousness is thought to be untouchable by the computations, algorithms, processing and functions of AI method. Since AI is the most promising avenue toward artificial consciousness (AC), the conclusion many draw is that AC is even more doomed than AI supposedly is. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the soundness of this inference. The results are achieved by means of conceptual analysis and argumentation. It is shown that pessimism concerning the theoretical possibility of artificial consciousness is unfounded, based as it is on misunderstandings of AI, and a lack of awareness of the possible roles AI might play in accounting for or reproducing consciousness. This is done by making some foundational distinctions relevant to AC, and using them to show that some common reasons given for AC scepticism do not touch some of the (usually neglected) possibilities for AC, such as prosthetic, discriminative, practically necessary, and lagom (necessary-but-not-sufficient) AC. Along the way three strands of the author's work in AC--interactive empiricism, synthetic phenomenology, and ontologically conservative heterophenomenology--are used to illustrate and motivate the distinctions and the defences of AC they make possible.

Consciousness: a unique way of processing information.

Science.gov (United States)

Marchetti, Giorgio

2018-02-08

In this article, I argue that consciousness is a unique way of processing information, in that: it produces information, rather than purely transmitting it; the information it produces is meaningful for us; the meaning it has is always individuated. This uniqueness allows us to process information on the basis of our personal needs and ever-changing interactions with the environment, and consequently to act autonomously. Three main basic cognitive processes contribute to realize this unique way of information processing: the self, attention and working memory. The self, which is primarily expressed via the central and peripheral nervous systems, maps our body, the environment, and our relations with the environment. It is the primary means by which the complexity inherent to our composite structure is reduced into the "single voice" of a unique individual. It provides a reference system that (albeit evolving) is sufficiently stable to define the variations that will be used as the raw material for the construction of conscious information. Attention allows for the selection of those variations in the state of the self that are most relevant in the given situation. Attention originates and is deployed from a single locus inside our body, which represents the center of the self, around which all our conscious experiences are organized. Whatever is focused by attention appears in our consciousness as possessing a spatial quality defined by this center and the direction toward which attention is focused. In addition, attention determines two other features of conscious experience: periodicity and phenomenal quality. Self and attention are necessary but not sufficient for conscious information to be produced. Complex forms of conscious experiences, such as the various modes of givenness of conscious experience and the stream of consciousness, need a working memory mechanism to assemble the basic pieces of information selected by attention.

The Evolution of Consciousness as a Planetary Imperative:An Integration of Integral Views

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Jennifer Gidley

2007-12-01

Full Text Available In this article I aim to broaden and deepen the evolution of consciousnessdiscourse by integrating the integral theoretic narratives of Rudolf Steiner, Jean Gebser,and Ken Wilber, who each point to the emergence of new ways of thinking that couldaddress the complex, critical challenges of our planetary moment. I undertake a widescan of the evolution discourse, noting it is dominantly limited to biology-based notionsof human origins that are grounded in scientific materialism. I then broaden the discourseby introducing integral evolutionary theories using a transdisciplinary epistemology towork between, across and beyond diverse disciplines. I note the conceptual breadth ofWilber's integral evolutionary narrative in transcending both scientism andepistemological isolationism. I also draw attention to some limitations of Wilber’sintegral project, notably his undervaluing of Gebser's actual text, and the substantialomission of the pioneering contribution of Steiner, who, as early as 1904 wroteextensively about the evolution of consciousness, including the imminent emergence of anew stage. I enact a deepening of integral evolutionary theory by honoring the significantyet undervalued theoretic components of participation/enactment and aesthetics/artistryvia Steiner and Gebser, as a complement to Wilber. To this end, I undertake an in-depthhermeneutic dialogue between their writings utilizing theoretic bricolage, a multi-modemethodology that weaves between and within diverse and overlapping perspectives. Thehermeneutic methodology emphasizes interpretive textual analysis with the aim ofdeepening understanding of the individual works and the relationships among them. Thisanalysis is embedded in an epic but pluralistic narrative that spans the entire human storythrough various previous movements of consciousness, arriving at a new emergence atthe present time. I also discuss the relationship between these narratives andcontemporary academic literature

Group field theory and simplicial quantum gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oriti, D

2010-01-01

We present a new group field theory for 4D quantum gravity. It incorporates the constraints that give gravity from BF theory and has quantum amplitudes with the explicit form of simplicial path integrals for first-order gravity. The geometric interpretation of the variables and of the contributions to the quantum amplitudes is manifest. This allows a direct link with other simplicial gravity approaches, like quantum Regge calculus, in the form of the amplitudes of the model, and dynamical triangulations, which we show to correspond to a simple restriction of the same.

Intuitive decisions on the fringes of consciousness

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Mark C. Price

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Decision making research often dichotomises between more deliberative, cognitive processes and more heuristic, intuitive and emotional processes. We argue that within this two-systems framework (e.g., Kahneman, 2002 there is ambiguity over how to map the System 1/System 2 axis, and the notion of intuitive processing, onto the distinction between conscious and non-conscious processes. However the convergent concepts of experience-based metacognitive judgements (Koriat, 2007 and of fringe consciousness (Mangan, 1993 can clarify intuitive processing as an informative extit{conscious feeling} without conscious access to the antecedents of the feeling. We stress that these intuitive feelings can be used to guide behaviour in a controlled and contextually sensitive manner that would not be permitted by purely non-conscious influences on behaviour. An outline is provided for how to empirically recognise these intuitive feelings. This is illustrated with an example from research on implicit learning where intuitive feelings may play an important role in peoples' decisions and judgements. Finally we suggest that our approach to understanding intuitive feelings softens rather than reinforces the two-systems dichotomy.

From Light to Consciousness Journey to the End of Science or Fin de Siecle Malaise

CERN Document Server

Cooper, L

1996-01-01

As the twentieth century gropes toward its uncertain conclusion, the pontification quotient increases. We hear that the end of history and science are near; that the questions we face today (in contrast with the end of the 19th century) are no longer soluble or present theories verifiable. These arguments will be examined using two examples. The first, familiar to all physicists, already resides securely in the museum of intellectual achievement. The second is a work in progress : the physiological and/or molecular basis for brain functions such as learning and memory storage. How do these lead to various higher level system properties - in particular, consciousness ? About consciousness, much has been said and written - not all of it illuminating. We discuss some of this, in particular a recent argument of Penrose. We consider whether the nature of consciousness is a (possibly) soluble scientific question. If so, how should it be posed ? Finally, if the end is not near, when will it come ? Are there any limi...

Reference group theory with implications for information studies: a theoretical essay

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E. Murell Dawson

2001-01-01

Full Text Available This article explores the role and implications of reference group theory in relation to the field of library and information science. Reference group theory is based upon the principle that people take the standards of significant others as a basis for making self-appraisals, comparisons, and choices regarding need and use of information. Research that applies concepts of reference group theory to various sectors of library and information studies can provide data useful in enhancing areas such as information-seeking research, special populations, and uses of information. Implications are promising that knowledge gained from like research can be beneficial in helping information professionals better understand the role theory plays in examining ways in which people manage their information and social worlds.

Embodied mind and phenomenal consciousness

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Maria VENIERI

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In recent years, a central debate in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science concerns the role of the body in perception and cognition. For many contemporary philosophers, not only cognition but also perception is connected mainly with the brain, where the processing of input from the senses takes place; whereas for the proponents of ‘embodied cognition’ other aspects of the body beyond the brain, including the environment, play a constitutive role in cognitive processes. In terms of perception, a new theory has emerged which stresses percep‑ tion’s active character and claims that the embodied subject and the environment, with which it interacts, form a dynamic system. Supporters of ‘enactive perception’ such as Susan Hurley and Alva Noë maintain that the physical substrate or the supervenience basis of perceptual experience and phenomenal consciousness may include besides the brain and the nervous system other bodily and environmental features. Yet, it will be argued in this paper that the interaction between the subject and the environment forms a system of causal relations, so we can theoretically interfere in the causal chains and create hallucinations, which cannot be distinguished from veridical perception, or a virtual reality as in the film Matrix (1999. This kind of argument and its related thought experiments aim to stress the primacy of the brain in determining phenomenal states, and show that the body and certain interactions with the environment have a causal, but not a constitutive or essential role, in forming phenomenal consciousness.

Renormalization group evolution of the universal theories EFT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wells, James D.; Zhang, Zhengkang

2016-01-01

The conventional oblique parameters analyses of precision electroweak data can be consistently cast in the modern framework of the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) when restrictions are imposed on the SMEFT parameter space so that it describes universal theories. However, the usefulness of such analyses is challenged by the fact that universal theories at the scale of new physics, where they are matched onto the SMEFT, can flow to nonuniversal theories with renormalization group (RG) evolution down to the electroweak scale, where precision observables are measured. The departure from universal theories at the electroweak scale is not arbitrary, but dictated by the universal parameters at the matching scale. But to define oblique parameters, and more generally universal parameters at the electroweak scale that directly map onto observables, additional prescriptions are needed for the treatment of RG-induced nonuniversal effects. We perform a RG analysis of the SMEFT description of universal theories, and discuss the impact of RG on simplified, universal-theories-motivated approaches to fitting precision electroweak and Higgs data.

Reflective self-awareness and conscious states

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjaer, Troels W; Nowak, Markus; Lou, Hans C

2002-01-01

A recent meta-analysis has shown precuneus, angular gyri, anterior cingulate gyri, and adjacent structures to be highly metabolically active in support of resting consciousness. We hypothesize that these regions constitute a functional network of reflective self-awareness thought to be a core...... function of consciousness. Seven normal volunteers were asked to think intensely on how they would describe the personality traits and physical appearance of themselves and a neutral reference person known to all the subjects (the Danish Queen). During each of the four conditions cerebral blood flow...... during reflective self-awareness. The commonality between the neural networks of the resting conscious state and self-awareness reflects the phenomenological concept of a fundamental contribution of reflective self-awareness to the contents and coherence of the conscious state....

EEG entropy measures indicate decrease of cortical information processing in Disorders of Consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Thul, Alexander; Lechinger, Julia; Donis, Johann; Michitsch, Gabriele; Pichler, Gerald; Kochs, Eberhard F; Jordan, Denis; Ilg, Rüdiger; Schabus, Manuel

2016-02-01

Clinical assessments that rely on behavioral responses to differentiate Disorders of Consciousness are at times inapt because of some patients' motor disabilities. To objectify patients' conditions of reduced consciousness the present study evaluated the use of electroencephalography to measure residual brain activity. We analyzed entropy values of 18 scalp EEG channels of 15 severely brain-damaged patients with clinically diagnosed Minimally-Conscious-State (MCS) or Unresponsive-Wakefulness-Syndrome (UWS) and compared the results to a sample of 24 control subjects. Permutation entropy (PeEn) and symbolic transfer entropy (STEn), reflecting information processes in the EEG, were calculated for all subjects. Participants were tested on a modified active own-name paradigm to identify correlates of active instruction following. PeEn showed reduced local information content in the EEG in patients, that was most pronounced in UWS. STEn analysis revealed altered directed information flow in the EEG of patients, indicating impaired feed-backward connectivity. Responses to auditory stimulation yielded differences in entropy measures, indicating reduced information processing in MCS and UWS. Local EEG information content and information flow are affected in Disorders of Consciousness. This suggests local cortical information capacity and feedback information transfer as neural correlates of consciousness. The utilized EEG entropy analyses were able to relate to patient groups with different Disorders of Consciousness. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The geometry and physics of Abelian gauge groups in F-theory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keitel, Jan

2015-07-14

In this thesis we study the geometry and the low-energy effective physics associated with Abelian gauge groups in F-theory compactifications. To construct suitable torus-fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds, we employ the framework of toric geometry. By identifying appropriate building blocks of Calabi-Yau manifolds that can be studied independently, we devise a method to engineer large numbers of manifolds that give rise to a specified gauge group and achieve a partial classification of toric gauge groups. Extending our analysis from gauge groups to matter spectra, we prove that the matter content of the most commonly studied F-theory set-ups is rather constrained. To circumvent such limitations, we introduce an algorithm to analyze torus-fibrations defined as complete intersections and present several novel kinds of F-theory compactifications. Finally, we show how torus-fibrations without section are linked to fibrations with multiple sections through a network of successive geometric transitions. In order to investigate the low-energy effective physics resulting from our compactifications, we apply M- to F-theory duality. After determining the effective action of F-theory with Abelian gauge groups in six dimensions, we compare the loop-corrected Chern-Simons terms to topological quantities of the compactification manifold to read off the massless matter content. Under certain assumptions, we show that all gravitational and mixed anomalies are automatically canceled in F-theory. Furthermore, we compute the low-energy effective action of F-theory compactifications without section and suggest that the absence of a section signals the presence of an additional massive Abelian gauge field. Adjusting our analysis to four dimensions, we show that remnants of this massive gauge field survive as discrete symmetries that impose selection rules on the Yukawa couplings of the effective theory.

The geometry and physics of Abelian gauge groups in F-theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keitel, Jan

2015-01-01

In this thesis we study the geometry and the low-energy effective physics associated with Abelian gauge groups in F-theory compactifications. To construct suitable torus-fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds, we employ the framework of toric geometry. By identifying appropriate building blocks of Calabi-Yau manifolds that can be studied independently, we devise a method to engineer large numbers of manifolds that give rise to a specified gauge group and achieve a partial classification of toric gauge groups. Extending our analysis from gauge groups to matter spectra, we prove that the matter content of the most commonly studied F-theory set-ups is rather constrained. To circumvent such limitations, we introduce an algorithm to analyze torus-fibrations defined as complete intersections and present several novel kinds of F-theory compactifications. Finally, we show how torus-fibrations without section are linked to fibrations with multiple sections through a network of successive geometric transitions. In order to investigate the low-energy effective physics resulting from our compactifications, we apply M- to F-theory duality. After determining the effective action of F-theory with Abelian gauge groups in six dimensions, we compare the loop-corrected Chern-Simons terms to topological quantities of the compactification manifold to read off the massless matter content. Under certain assumptions, we show that all gravitational and mixed anomalies are automatically canceled in F-theory. Furthermore, we compute the low-energy effective action of F-theory compactifications without section and suggest that the absence of a section signals the presence of an additional massive Abelian gauge field. Adjusting our analysis to four dimensions, we show that remnants of this massive gauge field survive as discrete symmetries that impose selection rules on the Yukawa couplings of the effective theory.

Theory of mind and Darwin’s legacy

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Searle, John

2013-01-01

We do not have an adequate theory of consciousness. Both dualism and materialism are mistaken because they deny consciousness is part of the physical world. False claims include (i) behaviorism, (ii) computationalism, (iii) epiphenomenalism, (iv) the readiness potential, (v) subjectivity, and (vi) materialism. Ontological subjectivity does not preclude epistemic objectivity. Observer relative phenomena are created by consciousness, but consciousness is not itself observer relative. Consciousness consists of feeling, sentience, or awareness with (i) qualitativeness, (ii) ontological subjectivity, (iii) unified conscious field, (iv) intentionality, and (v) intentional causation. All conscious states are caused by lower level neurobiological processes in the brain, and they are realized in the brain as higher level features. Efforts to get a detailed scientific account of how brain processes cause consciousness are disappointing. The Darwinian revolution gave us a new form of explanation; two levels were substituted: a causal level, where we specify the mechanism by which the phenotype functions, and a functional level, where we specify the selectional advantage that the phenotype provides. Sociobiology attempted to explain general features of human society, ethics, etc. It failed. For the incest taboo, it confuses inhibition with prohibition. It did not explain the moral force of the taboo. To explain the function of consciousness we cannot ask, “What would be subtracted if we subtracted consciousness but left everything else the same?” We cannot leave everything else the same because consciousness is necessary for higher functions of human and animal life. The unified conscious field gives the organism vastly increased power. PMID:23754416

Nabokov's impressionistic expression of free consciousness

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Lončar-Vujnović Mirjana

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The most interesting thing about Nabokov's narrative technique is the way in which he always manages to impress the presence of the implied author on the reader's consciousness without making direct intrusion intonation. Narration through the confined consciousness of an individual is really, it seems, only a springboard for Nabokov. He takes an impressionistic device (consciously or unconsciously, it makes no difference and pushes it to its limits without technically violating the point of view to which he has committed himself.

Evidence that logical reasoning depends on conscious processing.

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DeWall, C Nathan; Baumeister, Roy F; Masicampo, E J

2008-09-01

Humans, unlike other animals, are equipped with a powerful brain that permits conscious awareness and reflection. A growing trend in psychological science has questioned the benefits of consciousness, however. Testing a hypothesis advanced by [Lieberman, M. D., Gaunt, R., Gilbert, D. T., & Trope, Y. (2002). Reflection and reflexion: A social cognitive neuroscience approach to attributional inference. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 199-249], four studies suggested that the conscious, reflective processing system is vital for logical reasoning. Substantial decrements in logical reasoning were found when a cognitive load manipulation preoccupied conscious processing, while hampering the nonconscious system with consciously suppressed thoughts failed to impair reasoning (Experiment 1). Nonconscious activation (priming) of the idea of logical reasoning increased the activation of logic-relevant concepts, but failed to improve logical reasoning performance (Experiments 2a-2c) unless the logical conclusions were largely intuitive and thus not reliant on logical reasoning (Experiment 3). Meanwhile, stimulating the conscious goal of reasoning well led to improvements in reasoning performance (Experiment 4). These findings offer evidence that logical reasoning is aided by the conscious, reflective processing system.

Opposing effects of attention and consciousness on afterimages.

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van Boxtel, Jeroen J A; Tsuchiya, Naotsugu; Koch, Christof

2010-05-11

The brain's ability to handle sensory information is influenced by both selective attention and consciousness. There is no consensus on the exact relationship between these two processes and whether they are distinct. So far, no experiment has simultaneously manipulated both. We carried out a full factorial 2 x 2 study of the simultaneous influences of attention and consciousness (as assayed by visibility) on perception, correcting for possible concurrent changes in attention and consciousness. We investigated the duration of afterimages for all four combinations of high versus low attention and visible versus invisible. We show that selective attention and visual consciousness have opposite effects: paying attention to the grating decreases the duration of its afterimage, whereas consciously seeing the grating increases the afterimage duration. These findings provide clear evidence for distinctive influences of selective attention and consciousness on visual perception.

Brain networks predict metabolism, diagnosis and prognosis at the bedside in disorders of consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Chennu, Srivas; Annen, Jitka; Wannez, Sarah; Thibaut, Aurore; Chatelle, Camille; Cassol, Helena; Martens, Géraldine; Schnakers, Caroline; Gosseries, Olivia; Menon, David; Laureys, Steven

2017-08-01

Recent advances in functional neuroimaging have demonstrated novel potential for informing diagnosis and prognosis in the unresponsive wakeful syndrome and minimally conscious states. However, these technologies come with considerable expense and difficulty, limiting the possibility of wider clinical application in patients. Here, we show that high density electroencephalography, collected from 104 patients measured at rest, can provide valuable information about brain connectivity that correlates with behaviour and functional neuroimaging. Using graph theory, we visualize and quantify spectral connectivity estimated from electroencephalography as a dense brain network. Our findings demonstrate that key quantitative metrics of these networks correlate with the continuum of behavioural recovery in patients, ranging from those diagnosed as unresponsive, through those who have emerged from minimally conscious, to the fully conscious locked-in syndrome. In particular, a network metric indexing the presence of densely interconnected central hubs of connectivity discriminated behavioural consciousness with accuracy comparable to that achieved by expert assessment with positron emission tomography. We also show that this metric correlates strongly with brain metabolism. Further, with classification analysis, we predict the behavioural diagnosis, brain metabolism and 1-year clinical outcome of individual patients. Finally, we demonstrate that assessments of brain networks show robust connectivity in patients diagnosed as unresponsive by clinical consensus, but later rediagnosed as minimally conscious with the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised. Classification analysis of their brain network identified each of these misdiagnosed patients as minimally conscious, corroborating their behavioural diagnoses. If deployed at the bedside in the clinical context, such network measurements could complement systematic behavioural assessment and help reduce the high misdiagnosis rate reported

The consciousness state space (CSS – a unifying model for consciousness and self

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Aviva eBerkovich-Ohana

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Every experience, those we are aware of and those we are not, is embedded in a subjective timeline, is tinged with emotion, and inevitably evokes a certain sense of self. Here, we present a phenomenological model for consciousness and selfhood which relates time, awareness, and emotion within one framework. The consciousness state space (CSS model is a theoretical one. It relies on a broad range of literature, hence has high explanatory and integrative strength, and helps in visualizing the relationship between different aspects of experience.Briefly, it is suggested that all phenomenological states fall into two categories of consciousness, core and extended (CC and EC, respectively. CC supports minimal selfhood that is short of temporal extension, its scope being the here and now. EC supports narrative selfhood, which involves personal identity and continuity across time, as well as memory, imagination and conceptual thought. The CSS is a phenomenological space, created by three dimensions: time, awareness and emotion. Each of the three dimensions is shown to have a dual phenomenological composition, falling within CC and EC. The neural spaces supporting each of these dimensions, as well as CC and EC, are laid out based on the neuroscientific literature.The CSS dynamics includes two simultaneous trajectories, one in CC and one in EC, typically antagonistic in normal experiences. However, this characteristic behavior is altered in states in which a person experiences an altered sense of self. Two examples are laid out, flow and meditation. The CSS model creates a broad theoretical framework with explanatory and unificatory power. It constructs a detailed map of the consciousness and selfhood phenomenology, which offers constraints for the science of consciousness. We conclude by outlaying several testable predictions raised by the CSS model.

Group Dynamics as a Critical Component of Successful Space Exploration: Conceptual Theory and Insights from the Biosphere 2 Closure Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Mark; Allen, John P.

As space exploration and eventually habitation achieves longer durations, successfully managing group dynamics of small, physically isolated groups will become vital. The paper summarizes important underlying research and conceptual theory and how these manifested in a well-documented example: the closure experiments of Biosphere 2. Key research breakthroughs in discerning the operation of small human groups comes from the pioneering work of W.R. Bion. He discovered two competing modalities of behavior. The first is the “task-oriented” or work group governed by shared acceptance of goals, reality-thinking in relation to time, resources and rational, and intelligent management of challenges presented. The opposing, usually unconscious, modality is what Bion called the “basic-assumption” group and alternates between three “group animal” groups: dependency/kill the leader; fight/flight and pairing. If not dealt with, these dynamics work to undermine and defeat the conscious task group’s goal achievement. The paper discusses crew training and selection, various approaches to structuring the work and hierarchy of the group, the importance of contact with a larger population through electronic communication and dealing with the “us-them” syndrome frequently observed between crew and Mission Control. The experience of the first two year closure of Biosphere 2 is drawn on in new ways to illustrate vicissitudes and management of group dynamics especially as both the inside team of biospherians and key members of Mission Control had training in working with group dynamics. Insights from that experience may help mission planning so that future groups in space cope successfully with inherent group dynamics challenges that arise.

[Recovery of consciousness: process-oriented approach].

Science.gov (United States)

Gusarova, S B

2014-01-01

Traditionally psychological neurorehabilitation of neurosurgical patients is provided subject to availability of clear consciousness and minimal potential to communicate verbally. Cognitive and emotional disorders, problems in social adaptation, neurotic syndromes are normally targets in such cases. We work with patients having survived severe brain damage being in different states of consciousness: vegetative state, minimal state of consciousness, mutism, confusion, posttraumatic Korsaroff syndrom. Psychologist considers recovery of consciousness as the target besides traditional tasks. Construction of communication with patient is central part of such job, where the patient remains unable to contact verbally, yet it is impossible to consider potential aphasia. This is a non-verbal "dialogue" with patient created by psychologist with gradual development and involving other people and objects of environment. Inline with modern neuroscientific achievements demonstrating ability to recognize by patients with severe brain injury (A. Owen, S. Laureys, M. Monti, M. Coleman, A. Soddu, M. Boly and others) we base upon psychological science, on psychotherapeutic approaches containing instruments inevitable to work with patients in altered states of consciousness and creation of non-verbal communication with patient (Jung, Reich, Alexander, Lowen, Keleman, Arnold and Amy Mindell, S. Tomandl, D. Boadella, A. Längle, P. Levin etc). This article will include 15 years of experience to apply Process-oriented approach by A. Mindell to recovery of consciousness of neurosurgical patients based on work with "minimal signals" (micro moves, breath, mimic reactions etc.), principle of feedback, psychosomatic resonance, empathy.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Patients with Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness: Combined Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Evidence

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Ye Zhang

2017-11-01

Full Text Available BackgroundThe electrophysiological evidence supporting the therapeutic efficacy of multiple transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS sessions on consciousness improvement in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (DOCs has not been firmly established.ObjectivesTo assess the effects of repeated tDCS in patients with prolonged DOCs by Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R score and event-related potential (ERP.MethodUsing a sham-controlled randomized double-blind design, 26 patients were randomly assigned to either a real [five vegetative state (VS and eight minimally conscious state (MCS patients] or sham (six VS and seven MCS patients stimulation group. The patients in the real stimulation group underwent 20 anodal tDCS sessions of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC over 10 consecutive working days. The CRS-R score and P300 amplitude and latency in a hierarchical cognitive assessment were recorded to evaluate the consciousness level before tDCS and immediately after the 20 sessions.ResultsThe intra-group CRS-R analysis revealed a clinically significant improvement in the MCS patients in the real stimulation group. The inter-group CRS-R analysis showed a significant difference in CRS-R between VS and MCS patients at baseline in both the real and sham stimulation groups. The intra-group ERP analysis revealed a significant increase in P300 amplitude after tDCS in the MCS patients in the real stimulation group, but no significant differences in P300 latency. For the inter-group ERP analysis, we observed significant differences regarding the presence of P300 at baseline between the VS and MCS patients in both groups.ConclusionThe repeated anodal tDCS of the left DLPFC could produce clinically significant improvements in MCS patients. The observed tDCS-related consciousness improvements might be related to improvements in attention resource allocation (reflected by the P300 amplitude. The findings support the use of tDCS in

The neural correlates of consciousness: new experimental approaches needed?

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Hohwy, Jakob

2009-06-01

It appears that consciousness science is progressing soundly, in particular in its search for the neural correlates of consciousness. There are two main approaches to this search, one is content-based (focusing on the contrast between conscious perception of, e.g., faces vs. houses), the other is state-based (focusing on overall conscious states, e.g., the contrast between dreamless sleep vs. the awake state). Methodological and conceptual considerations of a number of concrete studies show that both approaches are problematic: the content-based approach seems to set aside crucial aspects of consciousness; and the state-based approach seems over-inclusive in a way that is hard to rectify without losing sight of the crucial conscious-unconscious contrast. Consequently, the search for the neural correlates of consciousness is in need of new experimental paradigms.

Group work is political work: a feminist perspective of interpersonal group psychotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bender, A; Ewashen, C

2000-01-01

When practicing as group leaders, mental health nurses often incorporate Irvin Yalom's (1995, 1998) concepts of social microcosm and here-and-now. This article examines these concepts from a feminist perspective and offers an approach to group psychotherapy that processes gender issues and fosters collective consciousness-raising. A feminist perspective in group therapy challenges us to view the social microcosm as a reenactment of sociopolitical contexts and the here-and-now as a medium for developing personal and social responsibility. Therapy is not only about individual and interpersonal change in group members, but is an opportunity for healthy social change. Therapy becomes political work, raising the social consciousness of each participant as well as the group as a whole.

The cognitive approach to conscious machines

CERN Document Server

Haikonen, Pentti O

2003-01-01

Could a machine have an immaterial mind? The author argues that true conscious machines can be built, but rejects artificial intelligence and classical neural networks in favour of the emulation of the cognitive processes of the brain-the flow of inner speech, inner imagery and emotions. This results in a non-numeric meaning-processing machine with distributed information representation and system reactions. It is argued that this machine would be conscious; it would be aware of its own existence and its mental content and perceive this as immaterial. Novel views on consciousness and the mind-

Estimating the Integrated Information Measure Phi from High-Density Electroencephalography during States of Consciousness in Humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hyoungkyu; Hudetz, Anthony G; Lee, Joseph; Mashour, George A; Lee, UnCheol

2018-01-01

The integrated information theory (IIT) proposes a quantitative measure, denoted as Φ, of the amount of integrated information in a physical system, which is postulated to have an identity relationship with consciousness. IIT predicts that the value of Φ estimated from brain activities represents the level of consciousness across phylogeny and functional states. Practical limitations, such as the explosive computational demands required to estimate Φ for real systems, have hindered its application to the brain and raised questions about the utility of IIT in general. To achieve practical relevance for studying the human brain, it will be beneficial to establish the reliable estimation of Φ from multichannel electroencephalogram (EEG) and define the relationship of Φ to EEG properties conventionally used to define states of consciousness. In this study, we introduce a practical method to estimate Φ from high-density (128-channel) EEG and determine the contribution of each channel to Φ. We examine the correlation of power, frequency, functional connectivity, and modularity of EEG with regional Φ in various states of consciousness as modulated by diverse anesthetics. We find that our approximation of Φ alone is insufficient to discriminate certain states of anesthesia. However, a multi-dimensional parameter space extended by four parameters related to Φ and EEG connectivity is able to differentiate all states of consciousness. The association of Φ with EEG connectivity during clinically defined anesthetic states represents a new practical approach to the application of IIT, which may be used to characterize various physiological (sleep), pharmacological (anesthesia), and pathological (coma) states of consciousness in the human brain.

Toward a Psychological Study of Class Consciousness: Development and Validation of a Social Psychological Model

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Lucas A. Keefer

2015-12-01

Full Text Available While social class has recently become a prominent topic in social psychological research, much of this effort has focused on the psychological consequences of objective and subjective indices of class (e.g., income, perceived status. This approach sheds light on the consequences of social class itself, but overlooks a construct of central importance in earlier theorizing on class: class consciousness, or the extent to which individuals acknowledge and situate themselves within class relations. The current paper offers a psychological model of class consciousness comprised of five elements: awareness of social class, perceptions of class conflict, beliefs about the permeability of class groups, identification with a class group, and personal experience of being treated as a member of one’s class. We offer a measure assessing those central dimensions and assess differences in these dimensions by age, gender, indices of social class, political ideology, and among different class groups. Finally, we offer suggestions for how an awareness of class consciousness may enrich social psychology and ultimately foster political change.

Weight-related actual and ideal self-states, discrepancies, and shame, guilt, and pride: examining associations within the process model of self-conscious emotions.

Science.gov (United States)

Castonguay, Andree L; Brunet, Jennifer; Ferguson, Leah; Sabiston, Catherine M

2012-09-01

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between women's actual:ideal weight-related self-discrepancies and experiences of weight-related shame, guilt, and authentic pride using self-discrepancy (Higgins, 1987) and self-conscious emotion (Tracy & Robins, 2004) theories as guiding frameworks. Participants (N=398) completed self-report questionnaires. Main analyses involved polynomial regressions, followed by the computation and evaluation of response surface values. Actual and ideal weight self-states were related to shame (R2 = .35), guilt (R2 = .25), and authentic pride (R2 = .08). When the discrepancy between actual and ideal weights increased, shame and guilt also increased, while authentic pride decreased. Findings provide partial support for self-discrepancy theory and the process model of self-conscious emotions. Experiencing weight-related self-discrepancies may be important cognitive appraisals related to shame, guilt, and authentic pride. Further research is needed exploring the relations between self-discrepancies and a range of weight-related self-conscious emotions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Making CSB + -Trees Processor Conscious

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Samuel, Michael; Pedersen, Anders Uhl; Bonnet, Philippe

2005-01-01

of the CSB+-tree. We argue that it is necessary to consider a larger group of parameters in order to adapt CSB+-tree to processor architectures as different as Pentium and Itanium. We identify this group of parameters and study how it impacts the performance of CSB+-tree on Itanium 2. Finally, we propose......Cache-conscious indexes, such as CSB+-tree, are sensitive to the underlying processor architecture. In this paper, we focus on how to adapt the CSB+-tree so that it performs well on a range of different processor architectures. Previous work has focused on the impact of node size on the performance...... a systematic method for adapting CSB+-tree to new platforms. This work is a first step towards integrating CSB+-tree in MySQL’s heap storage manager....

INTERACTION OF EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS

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A. Tyrtyshny

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This article provides an overview of certain ideologemes of Western (European and Russian legal consciousness – prominent works of Ivan Ilyin and Duncan Kennedy are taken as examples. The article analyzes the tabula rasa principle and its place in legal consciousness. We use legal scholarship, judicial practice and opinion polls to examine the relationship between legal consciousness and the lack of trust in Russian courts, as well as their inefficiency from the point of view of public opinion. There are a number of shocking cases of torture of innocent people by the Russian police. Why is this so? The answer lies in the legal consciousness of police officers and of judges. This is something that has been inherited from the Soviet period. It is completely different from the Western legal consciousness, one of the key features of which is denial of authority. The critical legal studies branch of American legal realism almost denies the very existence of law, and, perhaps for this reason, American culture is less open to abuses like torture. At the same time, there is no possibility to shift legal consciousness immediately, the tabula rasa principle does not work. The final objective of the article is to provide a perspective on the reform of higher legal education and its relation to legal consciousness and legal anthropology. We propose that a greater part of the university curriculum is devoted to legal anthropology.

Bosman and self-conscious fiction

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N. Meihuizen

1991-05-01

Full Text Available Bosman, in a number of ways, underlines his fascination with his medium. In this article, an attempt is made to indicate some of the ways in which he does this. Particular attention is paid to Bosman’s use of commentary, his own self-conscious reflections on the text before the reader. Using two stories, “Unto Dust”, and “Old Transvaal Story”, I present the ways in which Bosman’s self-consciousness manifests itself in his art. If he is so adept at undermining illusion, what yet entertains us in the most self-conscious of his texts? It is argued that his fascination with his medium is buttressed by his ability to delude us, which displaces our reliance on illusion.

Non-rigid molecular group theory and its applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balasubramanian, K.

1982-06-01

The use of generalized wreath product groups as representations of symmetry groups of nonrigid molecules is considered. Generating function techniques are outlined for nuclear spin statistics and character tables of the symmetry groups of nonrigid molecules. Several applications of nonrigid molecular group theory to NMR spectroscopy, rovibronic splitting and nuclear spin statistics of nonrigid molecules, molecular beam deflection and electric resonance experiments of weakly bound Van der Waal complexes, isomerization processes, configuration interaction calculations and the symmetry of crystals with structural distortions are described. 81 references

DSR Theories, Conformal Group and Generalized Commutation Relation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leiva, Carlos

2006-01-01

In this paper the relationship of DSR theories and Conformal Group is reviewed. On the other hand, the relation between DSR Magueijo Smolin generators and generalized commutation relations is also shown

On the standard model group in F-theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Kang-Sin

2014-01-01

We analyze the standard model gauge group SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) constructed in F-theory. The non-Abelian part SU(3) x SU(2) is described by a surface singularity of Kodaira type. Blow-up analysis shows that the non-Abelian part is distinguished from the naive product of SU(3) and SU(2), but that it should be a rank three group along the chain of E n groups, because it has non-generic gauge symmetry enhancement structure responsible for desirablematter curves. The Abelian part U(1) is constructed from a globally valid two-form with the desired gauge quantum numbers, using a similar method to the decomposition (factorization) method of the spectral cover. This technique makes use of an extra section in the elliptic fiber of the Calabi-Yau manifold, on which F-theory is compactified. Conventional gauge coupling unification of SU(5) is achieved, without requiring a threshold correction from the flux along the hypercharge direction. (orig.)

Non-conscious vs. deliberate dynamic decision-making—a pilot experiment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grössler, A.; Rouwette, E.A.J.A.; Vennix, J.A.M.; Größler, A.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of non-conscious vs. deliberate ways of making decisions in a dynamic decision-making task. An experimental setting is used to study this question; three experimental groups are distinguished: immediate decision-making (only very limited time for

Converging intracranial markers of conscious access.

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Raphaël Gaillard

2009-03-01

Full Text Available We compared conscious and nonconscious processing of briefly flashed words using a visual masking procedure while recording intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG in ten patients. Nonconscious processing of masked words was observed in multiple cortical areas, mostly within an early time window (<300 ms, accompanied by induced gamma-band activity, but without coherent long-distance neural activity, suggesting a quickly dissipating feedforward wave. In contrast, conscious processing of unmasked words was characterized by the convergence of four distinct neurophysiological markers: sustained voltage changes, particularly in prefrontal cortex, large increases in spectral power in the gamma band, increases in long-distance phase synchrony in the beta range, and increases in long-range Granger causality. We argue that all of those measures provide distinct windows into the same distributed state of conscious processing. These results have a direct impact on current theoretical discussions concerning the neural correlates of conscious access.

Brain, conscious experience and the observing self

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baars, Bernard J.; Ramsøy, Thomas; Laureys, Steven

2003-01-01

Conscious perception, like the sight of a coffee cup, seems to involve the brain identifying a stimulus. But conscious input activates more brain regions than are needed to identify coffee cups and faces. It spreads beyond sensory cortex to frontoparietal association areas, which do not serve...... as properties of the subject, rather than the object, of experience - the 'observing self' that appears to be needed to maintain the conscious state...

Consciousness and Attention: On sufficiency and necessity

OpenAIRE

Jeroen J A Van Boxtel; Naotsugu Tsuchiya; Naotsugu Tsuchiya; Christof Koch; Christof Koch; Christof Koch

2010-01-01

Recent research has slowly corroded a belief that selective attention and consciousness are so tightly entangled that they cannot be individually examined. In this review, we summarize psychophysical and neurophysiological evidence for a dissociation between top-down attention and consciousness. The evidence includes recent findings that show subjects can attend to perceptually invisible objects. More contentious is the finding that subjects can become conscious of an isolated object, or the...

Quantum group gauge theory on quantum spaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brzezinski, T.; Majid, S.

1993-01-01

We construct quantum group-valued canonical connections on quantum homogeneous spaces, including a q-deformed Dirac monopole on the quantum sphere of Podles quantum differential coming from the 3-D calculus of Woronowicz on SU q (2). The construction is presented within the setting of a general theory of quantum principal bundles with quantum group (Hopf algebra) fiber, associated quantum vector bundles and connection one-forms. Both the base space (spacetime) and the total space are non-commutative algebras (quantum spaces). (orig.)

New topological theories and conjugacy classes of the Weyl group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hollowood, T.J.; Miramontes, J.L.

1993-01-01

The problem of interpreting a set of W-algebra constraints constructed in terms of an arbitrarily twisted scalar field as recursion relations of some topological theory is addressed. In this picture, the models of topological gravity coupled to A, D or E topological matter, correspond to taking the scalar field twisted by the Coxeter element of the Weyl group. It turns out that not all conjugacy classes of the Weyl group lead to models which allow for such an interpretation. For example, it is shown that for the A algebras there are two possible choices for the conjugacy class, giving a new set of theories in addition to the conventional ones. Furthermore, it is shown how the new series of theories contains the conventional series as a subsector. A tentative interpretation of this new series in terms of intersection theory is presented. (orig.)

The clinical relevance of the duration of loss of consciousness provoked by tilt testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Zyśko, Dorota; Gajek, Jacek; Kozluk, Edward; Agrawal, Anil Kumar; Smereka, Jacek; Checiński, Igor

2010-04-01

The authors assessed the relationships between the duration of loss of consciousness (dLOC) during tilt testing-induced syncope (TTS) and demographics, medical history as well as tilt testing results. Previous research focused on the relevance of the type of neurocardiogenic reaction during TTS. The importance of dLOC has not been assessed so far. The study was carried out in 274 patients with suspected neurally mediated syncope and total loss of consciousness during tilt testing. The syncope burden, demographics, and data regarding spontaneous syncope orTTS were compared between group I with dLOC > or =47 seconds and group 2 with dLOC <47 seconds. Medical history revealed that patients in group I had more syncopal spells, more frequent syncope-related traumatic injuries, urine incontinence, jerking movements and typical vasovagal history than in group 2. Moreover, group I patients had more frequently a cardioinhibitory type of reaction and a shorter active phase duration. In addition, they manifested more frequent accompanying cerebral hypoperfusion signs and reproduction of symptoms during TTS than patients in group 2. The loss of consciousness during tilt testing-induced syncope differs in terms of duration among patients with neurally mediated syncope. The dLOC during TTS is associated with medical history and tilt-testing data which confirm the vasovagal aetiology of spontaneous events. The longer dLOC suggests deeper cerebral haemodynamic disturbances during either spontaneous or provoked syncope.

Time and Consciousness in Cognitive Naturalism

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Sandro Nannini

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Eliminative materialists argue that we can overcome the phenomenological gap between two different ways of referring to our subjective experiences – either as introspectively grasped in terms of folk psychology or as explained in neurological terms – by abandoning the pre-scientific concepts of folk psychology. However, unless these theorists can offer a plausible explanation for why the scientific view of the human mind proposed by cognitive neuroscience is so deeply counter-intuitive, this argument will remain unconvincing. In order to address the difficulties involved in making the paradigm shift from folk psychology to cognitive neuroscience I (a briefly review the theoretical revolution that marked the transition from classical mechanics to the theory of relativity at the beginning of 20th century; (b identify some similarities between this paradigm shift in physics and the birth of a new scientific view of the mind; (c explain by means of (a and (b why neurological theories that reduce consciousness and the Self to aspects of brain dynamics appear implausible from a common sense perspective despite being sound from a scientific point of view.

The Role of Consciousness in Human Cognitive Activity

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Victor M. Allakhverdov

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The problem of consciousness is examined in the article. It is argued that all the existing approaches to consciousness do not explain the role consciousness plays in human life. An attempt of revealing and describing the principles of the mind’s work is made. Experimental phenomena observed by the author and his followers, particularly, the tendency of previously non-realized ideas not to be realized subsequently, are reviewed. The discussion of these phenomena allows to formulate a novel view on the nature of consciousness.

An introduction to tensors and group theory for physicists

CERN Document Server

Jeevanjee, Nadir

2015-01-01

The second edition of this highly praised textbook provides an introduction to tensors, group theory, and their applications in classical and quantum physics.  Both intuitive and rigorous, it aims to demystify tensors by giving the slightly more abstract but conceptually much clearer definition found in the math literature, and then connects this formulation to the component formalism of physics calculations.  New pedagogical features, such as new illustrations, tables, and boxed sections, as well as additional “invitation” sections that provide accessible introductions to new material, offer increased visual engagement, clarity, and motivation for students.   Part I begins with linear algebraic foundations, follows with the modern component-free definition of tensors, and concludes with applications to physics through the use of tensor products. Part II introduces group theory, including abstract groups and Lie groups and their associated Lie algebras, then intertwines this material with that of Part...

Do cortical midline variability and low frequency fluctuations mediate William James' "Stream of Consciousness"? "Neurophenomenal Balance Hypothesis" of "Inner Time Consciousness".

Science.gov (United States)

Northoff, Georg

2014-11-01

William James famously characterized consciousness by 'stream of consciousness' which describes the temporal continuity and flow of the contents of consciousness in our 'inner time consciousness'. More specifically he distinguished between "substantive parts", the contents of consciousness, and "transitive parts", the linkages between different contents. While much research has recently focused on the substantive parts, the neural mechanisms underlying the transitive parts and their characterization by the balance between 'sensible continuity' and 'continuous change' remain unclear. The aim of this paper is to develop so-called neuro-phenomenal hypothesis about specifically the transitive parts and their two phenomenal hallmark features, sensible continuity and continuous change in 'inner time consciousness'. Based on recent findings, I hypothesize that the cortical midline structures and their high degree of variability and strong low frequency fluctuations play an essential role in mediating the phenomenal balance between sensible continuity and continuous change. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Renormalization group aspects of 3-dimensional Pure U(1) lattice gauge theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gopfert, M.; Mack, G.

1983-01-01

A few surprises in a recent study of the 3-dimensional pure U(1) lattice gauge theory model, from the point of view of the renormalization group theory, are discussed. Since the gauge group U(1) of this model is abelian, the model is subject to KramersWannier duality transformation. One obtains a ferromagnet with a global symmetry group Z. The duality transformation shows that the surface tension alpha of the model equals the strong tension of the U(1) gauge model. A theorem to represent the true asymptotic behaviour of alpha is derived. A second theorem considers the correlation functions. Discrepiancies between the theorems result in a solution that ''is regarded as a catastrophe'' in renormalization group theory. A lesson is drawn: To choose a good block spin in a renormalization group procedure, know what the low lying excitations of the theory are, to avoid integrating some of them by mischief

Self-Consciousness and Assertiveness as Explanatory Variables of L2 Oral Ability: A Latent Variable Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Ockey, Gary

2011-01-01

Drawing on current theories in personality, second-language (L2) oral ability, and psychometrics, this study investigates the extent to which self-consciousness and assertiveness are explanatory variables of L2 oral ability. Three hundred sixty first-year Japanese university students who were studying English as a foreign language participated in…

More than Meets the Eye: Adult Education for Critical Consciousness in Luis Camnitzer's Art

Science.gov (United States)

Zorrilla, Ana Carlina

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the connection between art and adult education for critical consciousness through the conceptual art of Luis Camnitzer. The theoretical framework grounding this research was critical public pedagogy, influenced by both critical theory and Stuart Hall's systems of representation (1997). This framework…

Baseline brain energy supports the state of consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Shulman, Robert G; Hyder, Fahmeed; Rothman, Douglas L

2009-07-07

An individual, human or animal, is defined to be in a conscious state empirically by the behavioral ability to respond meaningfully to stimuli, whereas the loss of consciousness is defined by unresponsiveness. PET measurements of glucose or oxygen consumption show a widespread approximately 45% reduction in cerebral energy consumption with anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness. Because baseline brain energy consumption has been shown by (13)C magnetic resonance spectroscopy to be almost exclusively dedicated to neuronal signaling, we propose that the high level of brain energy is a necessary property of the conscious state. Two additional neuronal properties of the conscious state change with anesthesia. The delocalized fMRI activity patterns in rat brain during sensory stimulation at a higher energy state (close to the awake) collapse to a contralateral somatosensory response at lower energy state (deep anesthesia). Firing rates of an ensemble of neurons in the rat somatosensory cortex shift from the gamma-band range (20-40 Hz) at higher energy state to energy state. With the conscious state defined by the individual's behavior and maintained by high cerebral energy, measurable properties of that state are the widespread fMRI patterns and high frequency neuronal activity, both of which support the extensive interregional communication characteristic of consciousness. This usage of high brain energies when the person is in the "state" of consciousness differs from most studies, which attend the smaller energy increments observed during the stimulations that form the "contents" of that state.

A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Regan, J K; Noë, A

2001-10-01

Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see, the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting. It is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The outside world serves as its own, external, representation. The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the governing laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Several lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor adaptation, visual "filling in," visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.

Workspace and sensorimotor theories : Complementary approaches to experience

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Degenaar, J.; Keijzer, F.

A serious difficulty for theories of consciousness is to go beyond mere correlation between physical processes and experience. Currently, neural workspace and sensorimotor contingency theories are two of the most promising approaches to make any headway here. This paper explores the relation between

Magnetic correlates in electromagnetic consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Liboff, A R

2016-01-01

We examine the hypothesis that consciousness is a manifestation of the electromagnetic field, finding supportive factors not previously considered. It is not likely that traditional electrophysiological signaling modes can be readily transmitted throughout the brain to properly enable this field because of electric field screening arising from the ubiquitous distribution of high dielectric lipid membranes, a problem that vanishes for low-frequency magnetic fields. Many reports over the last few decades have provided evidence that living tissue is robustly sensitive to ultrasmall (1-100 nT) ELF magnetic fields overlapping the γ-frequency range often associated with awareness. An example taken from animal behavior (coherent bird flocking) lends support to the possibility of a disembodied electromagnetic consciousness. In contrast to quantum consciousness hypotheses, the present approach is open to experimental trial.

Balancing Fairness and Efficiency: The Impact of Identity-Blind and Identity-Conscious Accountability on Applicant Screening

Science.gov (United States)

Self, William T.; Mitchell, Gregory; Mellers, Barbara A.; Tetlock, Philip E.; Hildreth, J. Angus D.

2015-01-01