Weeks 1-3

Question 1

What is the consciousness problem

Answer 1

1) How do we acquire PERCEPTION of the outer world from the neurochemical input we receive

Question 2

We have a _______ perception of external and and this causes _________ responses between different people

Answer 2

SUBJECTIVE perception of external stimuli causing DIFFERENT responses between different people

Question 3

Consciousness is briefly defined as_____

Answer 3

some state relating to selective attention + STM

Question 4

Qualia refer to

Answer 4

feelings /sensations that make up conscious experience i.e. seeing sun, hearing tone

Question 5

Content of consciousness refers to

Answer 5

any percept that may form a part of the stream of consciousness

Question 6

The inability to concisely and logically explain the correlation between phenomenological sensation and its associated neural correlates refers to the

Answer 6

Chalmer’s HARD problem

Question 7

The easy problem refers to

Answer 7

identifying the material / neuronal description of consciousness // what are the mechanisms of consciousness

Question 8

The easy problem + hard problem are independent

T/F

Answer 8

False - solving easy will likely help solve hard problem

Question 9

Everything we experience can be described in________

Answer 9

First person - unique viewpoint of conscious being experiencing X phenomena
Third person perspective - stand point of an EXTERNAL being that has access to others’ behaviour + brain states (i.e. EEG) but NOT to its experience

Question 10

Binocular rivalry refers to___________ and depends on stimulus________

Answer 10

When perception of stimuli competes from what left/right eyes see independently (like red/green gratings that can swap direction when you WANT them to)
Depends on stimulus STRENGTH

Question 11

When you can’t recall the SECOND of two stimuli presented in quick succession ____________

Answer 11

Attentional blink

Question 12

The binding problem refers to

Answer 12

How do we get a single phenomenological experience if all features are processed in different brain areas? i.e. colour, face, location, voice recognition are all processed in different areas BUT we just see person talking coherently

Question 13

Synapse refers to _________

Answer 13

specialised point of contact between presynaptic + post synaptic neurons across which NT are sent

Question 14

Synchrony of neurons refers to______

Answer 14

The extent to which neurons spike/fire at the same time. The more they synchronise, the stronger the effect will be on the target cells

Question 15

How is an attentional blink explained

Answer 15

• brain may be eliminating distracting stimuli

- close proximity of stimuli may cause perceptual confusion and so we don’t encode it

Question 16

Backwards masking involves________

Answer 16

Backwards masking involves TARGET being presented first, then is ‘masked’ with a second stimuli –> stops the perception of target stimulus (first image)

Question 17

AB is different from backwards masking because

Answer 17

AB - target is the SECOND stimuli, mask appears first

BM - target is FIRST, mask presented second

Question 18

What are the 2 key theories explaining AB and BM?

Answer 18

Global neuron workspace theory

Recurrent processing theory

Question 19

The assumption of global neuronal workspace theory is that

Answer 19

Stimuli enters eye –> thalamus –> V1 –> and then propagate signal to rest of the brain REGARDLESS if you are conscious or not

Question 20

According to global neuronal workspace theory, how are we able to verbally describe qualia?

Answer 20

After signal from V1 reaches frontal lobes, gets AMPLIFIED and propogated to other regions i.e. broca’s area for speech production

Question 21

GNWT explains backwards masking effects by suggesting_________

Answer 21

By the time that the FIRST stimulus reaches the global workspace –> the SECOND (mask) slows down the propagation of the first stim to higher areas = erases it

Question 22

Acoording to GNWT we will ONLY be conscious of a stimuli if

Answer 22

That stimuli is STRONG and we ATTEND to it

Question 23

Top - down attention and bottom up attention are ________

Answer 23

Top down - voluntary, directed attention

Bottom up - stimulus based i.e. clap captures attn automatically

Question 24

If a signal is weak and we do not apply top down attention to it, we ____________ able to report it

Answer 24

will NOT be able

Question 25

Attenting to a sitmulus is enough to perceive it (T/F)

Answer 25

FALSE - needs to be strong enough or the activation will decrease in strength as it gets propagated = no reportability

Question 26

Recurrent processing theory suggests that attention and consciousness is___________

Answer 26

INDEPENDENT

Question 27

What evidence is there for levels of consciousness in those who can't communicate?

Answer 27

1) spike in activation when hearing mothers voice compared to strangers 2) when asked to IMAGINE playing tennis, same motor areas were activated as those that would be used

Question 28

Ablation of the cerebellum markedly impairs function (T/F)

Answer 28

FALSE

Question 29

Subliminal messaging refers to________ they occur when _________

Answer 29

experiences that are below the conscious threshold, occur when they are of LOW INTENSITY

Question 30

In which direction does the brain develop

Answer 30

From posterior to anterior // caudal to rostral (back to front --> PFC is last to develop)

Question 31

Species with a more developed PFC may have greater information processing, this is bc PFC is important for_________

Answer 31

exec functions such as amplifying + selecting which inputs to attend to

Question 32

Which part of the human brain is likely to be the 'global workspace'

Answer 32

PFC

Question 33

Motion induced blindness phenomenology involves________

Answer 33

fixate on one dot, other 2 stationary dots disappear bc of BACKGROUND being in motion

Question 34

Coalition of neurons idea proposes that_________

Answer 34

There is always competition on GROUPS of neurons in different areas responding to diff stimuli, group that has the MOST firing = dictates what we are conscious of

Question 35

Notice how you are able to distinguish one grating from another by its size/location, indicating that there is a neuronal network REPRESENTING this info in the brain, this refers to_________

Answer 35

Explicit representations - for every conscious experience, there is ALWAYS explicit neural representations

Question 36

You can either experience XX through your personal viewpoint or ____________

Answer 36

from inference (third person)

Question 37

Someone arguing that the first person perspective is too subjective/unreliable, is likely to be a___________

Answer 37

Behavourist - only believes in measuring observable behaviour

Question 38

All theories of consciousness are attempting to explain the same concepts and have the same explanatory power (T/F)

Answer 38

False - try to address many issues i.e. visual perception,self awareness etc., + vary in CONSISTENCY of results

Question 39

All theories of consciousness must be biologically sound, the evolutionary perspective proposes 2 domains of describing function__________

Answer 39

Proximal - how the mechanism for X conc experience works | Ultimate - why X phenomenon has been evolved to use Y function

Question 40

Which paradigm attempts to look at the reliability of using monkeys to measure consciousness

Answer 40

Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) finds that

Question 41

A majority of neurons are___________

Answer 41

Excitatory (80%)

Question 42

Monkeys' neurons in the Infero temporal lobe responded to_________

Answer 42

configuration of a paperclip - single neuron correspondence

Question 43

Studies show that groups of neurons in the _________ will likely have preference for firing in response to animals, particular faces i.e. Clinton

Answer 43

Medial Temporal lobe

Question 44

The mechanisms of binocular rivalry are not yet known but roughly relate to__________

Answer 44

the signals from each eye are linked and trying to inhibit each other, because low level neurons are equipped to deal with faces bc they're common, we see that clearer than we see gratings bc low exp

Question 45

Micorconsciousness refers to__________

Answer 45

Each brain area responsible for ____stimulus has its own 'microconsciousness'

Question 46

The synchrony hypothesis trying to explain the binding problem states that ____________

Answer 46

If EEG 'spikes' at the same time cross the brain (in sync) = how it BINDS all info coherently

Question 47

'masking' erases conscioussness and makes the stimulus invisible (T/F)

Answer 47

FALSE - we just see the mask, not the target stimulus --> 'see something' but not nothing

Question 48

GNWT explains AB __________

Answer 48

we exhibit top down attention to process the first stimulus (mask) and bc this takes effort, we block processing of the second stimuli (target) 'blink' in attention

Question 49

'preconscious' occurs when __________

Answer 49

There is SUFFICIENTLY STRONG stimulus but it is not attnedned to --> can't propagate, cant report

Question 50

Recurrent processing theory is different from GWT ________

Answer 50

RPT - suggests that attn + conc are SEPARATE and as long as there is recurrent processing in the V1 etc., we WILL become conscious of it, REGARDLESS of if we employ top-down attention from the PFC

Question 51

Local recurrency is neccesary and sufficient for conscious experience - idea of which theory

Answer 51

Recurrent processing theory

Question 52

How come the cerebellum is a small structure but has much more neruons than cortex?

Answer 52

Bc theyare small + densely packed neuons, whereas cortica neurons have long axons // dendrites

Question 53

More neruons = more conciousness (T/F)

Answer 53

FALSE