consciousness Flashcards
What is consciousness
Anything an everything one can experience
Composed in multiple contents
Can change from time to time based on what is more dominant
Why does consciousness matter
We live in the same world and receive the same sensory inputs
Our conscious experience can be incredibly different
Our conscious experience gives us our unique identity
Relations between consciousness and inputs and outputs
By looking at the relation between consciousness and external world we can see how consciousness underlies physics
By looking at the relation between consciousness and behaviour we can see how consciousness defines death and life
Consciousness and external physical world
Can be conscious without sensory inputs from physical world, shown by dream consciousness during sleep
The physical world as we know it is a reflection of our consciousness
Binocular rivalry
Visual consciousness changing every two seconds by alternating the different stimuli
Even with no change in input there can be a change in consciousness
Consciousness and behaviour
Can be conscious without behaviour
40% of vegetative state patients are conscious
Consciousness can’t be observed like behaviour can
AI and consciousness
Artificial intelligence is built to have intelligent behaviour but not consciousness
Intelligence without consciousness
Babies and consciousness
Babies do not have intelligent behaviour but have consciousness
Consciousness without intelligence
How to measure consciousness
Dynamic measure makes it hard to measure
Need to quantitively measure contents and structure
That super long questionnaire that asks different elements of sensing and perceiving and how linked they are in certain scenarios
Easy problem of consciousness
Studied using conventional methods in psychology and neuroscience, because it only concerns the comparison between the presence versus absence of consciousness
Hard problem of consciousness
Cannot be studied using conventional methods in psychology and neuroscience, because it concerns the quantification of the phenomenal aspects of consciousness
Localisation of consciousness
To see which brain regions are essential and sufficient for consciousness - disassociate brain regions generating consciousness from brain regions producing behavioural output and brain regions processing sensory input
Wake consciousness regions
Produce behavioural output
Process sensory input
Do not generate consciousness
Dream consciousness regions
Generate consciousness without behavioural output and sensory input
Old theory on brain localisation of consciousness
Anterior brain generates consciousness and posterior brain produces behavioural output and processes sensory input
New theory on brain localisation consciousness
Posterior brain generates consciousness and anterior brain produces behavioural output and processes sensory input
Wakefulness
Has behaviour output
Has sensory input
Has consciousness
Dreamless sleep
No behaviour output
No sensory input
No consciousness
Dream sleep
No behaviour output
No sensory input
Has consciousness
Artificial intelligence
Has behaviour output
Has sensory input
No consciousness
Areas of brain contributing to consciousness
FFA is face area
PPA is object area
Measured using patients with blind spots
Dream percentage of occurring
Dream occurs in 34% of NREM sleep
Dream occurs in 77% of REM sleep
Serial awakening paradigm
Wake up participant from sleep every 10 minutes and go through series of questions to see when conscious dreams are experienced
Structural uniqueness of brain that allows consciousness
Organised neuron structure with many connections
No redundancy or degeneration of neurons
Diverse neurons with many functions
Functional basis of consciousness - global workspace theory
Signals need to be broadcasted or duplicated between neurons to give rise to consciousness
Functional basis of consciousness - integrated information theory
Neurons need to be segregated and integrated in their activities to give rise to consciousness
