Consciousness Flashcards
Teacher: Pennartz
What are possible criteria for having ‘consciousness’?
Basic behavior
Complex behavior
Similar brain anatomy & physiology as in humans
Computational & representational abilities
What is direct and indirect evidence that consciousness exists?
Direct: Being conscious yourself
Indirect: External evidence
What is phenomenal content?
Having qualitatively rich experiences - content of percepts, dreams, imagery
What are modes of consciousness?
Perception, imagery, dreaming (phenomenal consciousness)
What is NOT ‘consciousness’?
- Decision-making/volition
- self awarness
Are memory, emotion, motricity, language bare-bone necessities for consciousness?
nope, you can loose them and still be conscious
What is conscious vision?
What cannot be peeled away
In which components can conscious vision be broken into?
Color vision (V4/inferotemporal patches)
Motion vision (MT/V5)
Form and face vision (FFA,IT)
Vision in entire hemifield
What happens when a person has a stroke in the MT/V5?
Snapshot vision –> motion blindness: Akinotopsia
What can happen when there is a stroke in the FFA area?
Visual agnosia
What is consciousness in other modalities depended on?
(auditory, somatosensory, olfaction, taste)
Thalamocortical system
What are hallmarks in consciousness?
- Qualitative (multimodel) richness
- Situatedness & immersiveness –> how you look at something
- Integration & unity –> multiple signals create a unit sensation
- Dynamics & stability –> flow of consciousness = experience changes but also stable-imaging
- Interpretation, interference, intentionality
What is the definition of conscious experience?
Inferential presentation that is spatially encompassing and multimodally rich
What is consciousness good for?
- Reflexes & habits (performed largely unconsciously + limited action depth)
- Goal-directed behavior (requieres representation of the goal before action –> to select the goal, the brain must be aware of the whole situation & body state)
- Complex multi-factorial decisions
What is the global workspace theory?
Sees consciousness as a global workspace which is a hub from which important sensory information can be broadcast via corticocortical fibers
–> pre-conscious vs conscious stages of processing by crossing a threshold (ignition)
What is the critique on the GW theory?
- does not adress phenomenal content
- GW models are classic neural network models –> linked to prefrontal cortex
What is the Integrated Information Theory?
Conscious state is a higher degree of differentiation of information coded –> higher degree of integration
What is the critique on the IIT?
- Key element = information –> only in sense of staitstical dependence (not content)
- Also silent neurons contribute to conscious experiences
- Does not explain ‘intentionality’
- Heavily underconstrained: leads to Panpsychism
Predicitve processing of consciousness can be through the hierarchy in visual cortical areas.
How is the rank in hierarchy determined?
- By ascending vs. descending projections received and emitting feedback/forward
What brain areas do not restrictly conform to the hierarchy in the visual cortical areas?
Prefrontal and temporal regions
What are possible function of the hierarchy in the visual cortical areas?
- Predictive processing
- Low-level processing of local features to high-level, wide-field processing of complex objects
What are 2 ways to interpret neural responses in the sensory cortex?
First classic interpretation: Brain responds to features in the world
Second interpretation: brain constructs explanations of whats out there
What is the goal of deep predicitve coding?
Representation of causal structure underlying sensory inputs
What are the 2 processes in deep predictive coding?
- Inference: infer causes sensory input
- Learning: adapt the model to better infer causes
Where are object-selective neurons found?
Inferotemporal cortex
