COGSCI180 Midterm

Role of hippocampus in memory

"Save" button for explicit memories - Acts as loading dock where brain temporarily holds to-be-remembered info - Items then migrate for storage elsewhere in process called memory consolidation Study on rats: - Removing rat's hippocampus 3 hours after it learns location of food prevents long-term memory formation - Removal 48 hours later does not Training experience: the greater one's heart rate efficiency and hippocampus activity during sleep, the better the next day's memory will be

Functionalism results in...

(Functionalism: understanding how things produce their effects) ...high-level understanding, can be implemented in different ways: - Those functions no longer tied to specific structure/material, e.g., neurons or brain. Ex: silicon-based Martian may have same headache pain as earthling, but because of the Martian's different neurophysiology, different physical properties are instantiated - Allows multiple realizability, unlike strict identity theory which creates ontological commitment to specifics like neurons - Mind-brain identity theory may thus be a kind of reductive physicalism in contrast to non-reductive physicalism of functionalism Also, functional account → implementation of it on hardware - Aligns w/computer science - Some claim: functionalism influential in promoting computer/AI research, but probably an exaggeration since computer scientists generally weren't reading philosophy texts, prob didn't know anything about functionalism

Korsakoff's amnesia

(Part of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome) Amnesia caused by brain damage resulting from thiamine deficiency, usually result of chronic alcoholism - Patients tend to make things up (confabulate) rather than admit they can't remember

Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment

- A person who doesn't understand Chinese in closed room − Person receives paper through one window and passes paper through another window − Paper has Chinese written on them − In the room is huge instruction manual that tells person in the room which papers to pass out depending on which papers he receives − To all intents/purposes, person in room is responding in Chinese, yet he does not understand Chinese ☞ So what does it really mean to "understand" something, to be fully "conscious"?

Left cerebral hemisphere specializes in...

- Analysis of info; recognition of serial events - Language - Categorization - Mathematical computation - logical; linear

Searle's response to robot reply

- Basic problem still remains: simply manipulating symbols cannot create meaning - Must be more to genuine thinking than simply manipulating symbols according to rules

Causes of heautoscopy/doppelgänger effect

- Can be symptom of schizophrenia/epilepsy - study of brain damage patients who also experienced heautoscopic hallucinations found patients show damage to left posterior insula − Insula important in body awareness

Rebuttal to the Chinese room argument

- Chinese room doesn't understand Chinese, but only bc it's disembodied - Ability to understand Chinese includes: carrying out instructions in Chinese, coordinating w/other Chinese speakers, having conversations - To build machine that does all this, need to embed Chinese room in robot, providing some analog of sensory organs, vocal apparatus, limbs - Then system could be said to understand Chinese, behave intelligently

OBE Theories

- Cognitive scientists/psychologists generally consider OBE to be experience from mental state, like a dream - Paranormal account: OBEs occur when subtle body detaches itself from body, visits distant locations, but no scientific evidence for that In any event though, if you would like to experiment w/dualistic experiences yourself, there are many how-to books on: - Astral projection: but aren't really any credible studies in this area - Lucid dream induction: lots of research on this subject (mostly pioneered by Stephen LaBerge), lucid dreams often associated w/OBEs

Dissociative symptoms may be categorized as...

- Detachment dissociation: feeling like you've been taken out of your body - Compartmentalization dissociation: mind represses distressing moments/experiences, usually resulting in memory loss − Amnesia associated w/dissociative disorders is psychogenic, i.e., psychologically caused, rather than organic/physically caused

Dissociative disorders include:

- Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality): person exhibits two or more distinct & alternating personalities - Dissociative amnesia: inability to recall important personal info, usually precipitated by traumatic experience - Dissociative fugue: person has sudden, unexpected episode of travel from home during which he can't remember some/all of past life - study found - incidence of this rises sharply whenever popular film depicting this subject is released

Causes of Alzheimer's

- Genetic component - Higher risk of disease in those who previously suffered stroke/head trauma - Conditions associated w/cardiovascular disease - obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, lack of exercise - increase risk - Associated w/low levels of vitamin D + certain B vitamins - Exposure to lead/toxic substances like air pollutants, may increase risk - Article published in Lancet 2017: hearing loss now known to be largest modifiable risk factor for developing dementia, exceeding smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise, and social isolation - Research: use of anticholinergics associated w/reduced brain volume + lower levels of glucose metabolism, particularly in hippocampus - Those on anticholinergics also showed poorer performance on cognitive tests - Anticholinergics include Tylenol PM, Benadryl, Claritin, Dimetapp, Paxil, and Xanax ☞ Researchers concluded: these drugs could trigger/worsen Alzheimer's (Gray, Anderson, Dublin et al., 2015) - Also, studies found that older people w/tooth and gum disease score lower on memory/cognition tests - Experts speculate - inflammation in diseased mouths migrates to brain

Conclusions from free will studies

- People often believe they are exerting own free will when their actions are determined by external forces - Research on split-brain patients: left brain creates explanations/reasons - that is, "stories" - to help make sense of what is going on, acting as interpreter - But this interpreter often completely wrong Does this mean free will - which many argue is large part of what makes individual a "self" - just illusion/epiphenomenal? Do we just perceive ourselves as having free will, when choices are fully determined by variables that have shaped current functional state of brain, including... − Genetic predispositions − Epigenetic effects of early imprinting − Sum of past experiences − Present constellation of external stimuli Maybe, but not necessarily.... studies might point to fact that much of behavior is driven by unconscious processes

The kind of awareness of the self, assessed by the mirror test is...

- Referred to by philosophers/cognitive psychologists as a "metarepresentation" of self - Prerequisite for... − Expression of self-conscious emotions like embarrassment − Autobiographical memory / memory of events that have happened to "me" − Use of personal pronouns including "me" and "mine"

Preventing Premature Awakening

- Remain calm - relax/engage w/dream rather than withdrawing to inner joy of accomplishment - Look at ground/hands may help stabilize dream - Concentrate on senses other than vision like hearing/touch (listening to voices/music, touch body / external object) ☞ Load perceptual system so cannot change focus from dream world to waking world Spinning technique: - Spin like a top (or fall backwards) - While spinning, remind yourself that next thing you see will probably be dream, do reality test wherever you seem to arrive. Expectation of possible awakening often leads to "false awakening" - dream of waking - Possible reason spinning technique works: engages vestibular/kinesthetic senses, discourages brain from changing from dreaming to waking - Odds in favor of continuing lucid dream: - After spinning: ~22:1 - After hand rubbing (another technique designed to prevent awakening): ~13:1 - After "going with the flow" (a "control" task): 1:2 ☞ To stay in dream, create sensation of motion If you awaken, play dead: - Remain motionless, deeply relax body - good chance that REM sleep will reassert itself, will have opportunity to enter lucid dream consciously

Experiment #2 on split-brain patients

- Researchers presented "walk" to split-brain patient's right brain only - Patient immediately responded to request by standing up + leaving van in which testing took place - When patient asked why he got up to walk, left brain came up w/plausible but completely incorrect explanation: "I'm going into house to get a Coke"

Neurological correlates of DID

- Some EEG studies have shown distinct differences between different alters - In others, there is single consistent read-out ➜ Suggests that EEG may reflect changes in level of arousal/excitement - may accompany switch to new personality in some cases but not others

Right cerebral hemisphere specializes in...

- Synthesis of info - Global processing; ability to perceive things as a whole - Identification of emotional expression - non-verbal; holistic

John Searle's Chinese Room argument

- Tries to show that computational theory of mind & physical symbol system hypothesis are completely mistaken - Describes a situation in which symbols are manipulated to produce right outputs, but no genuine understanding/intelligence

Experiment #3 on split-brain patients

- Word "laugh" presented to split-brain patient's right brain - Patient laughed - when asked why, she said: "You guys come up and test us each month. What a way to make a living!"

Corollary discharge example

- You want to move hand − Motor cortex sends command to hand muscles − Copies of command sent to other brain regions - use copy to predict sensory consequences of hand movement − Meanwhile, hand moves - results in certain sensations (e.g., tactile, proprioceptive, visual) − Brain then compares actual sensations w/predicted sensations - If no mismatch, we feel that we performed the action - If mismatch, we conclude that someone else, an external agency, is responsible

Yogic practices are based on...

... the assumption that there is a body-energy-mind dimension in each of us Most Westerners assume that, energetically, we stop at skin, but that's cultural assumption - not all cultures assume this - Not true @ level of quantum physics - Not true experientially - energy exploration exercises Most of us (esp academics!) tend to be completely in our heads, disconnected from body / energy dimensions of our being

Experiment #1 on split-brain patients

1) Each hemisphere presented pic related to one of four cards placed in front of split-brain participant - Right hemisphere saw picture on the left (a snow scene); left hemisphere saw picture on the right (a chicken foot) - Both hemispheres could see all of the cards 2) Left and right hemispheres easily picked card related to picture it saw - Left hand pointed to right hemisphere's choice - Right hand pointed to left hemisphere's choice 3) Patient then asked why left hand was pointing to shovel. Only left hemisphere can talk, and it did not know answer because the decision to point to the shovel was made in right hemisphere 4) Immediately, left hemisphere made up story based on what it could see - the chicken - and answered w/absolute confidence, "That's simple: the chicken foot goes w/chicken and you need a shovel to clean out chicken coop" ➜ Verbal left side of brain found plausible/reasonable, but completely incorrect explanation based on evidence it had available

Some Potential Problems with the Narrative Self

1) Our "story" is a fiction: what we think we remember often never occurred - we filter info, fill in missing pieces - Reconsolidation: When we retrieve memory, brain rewrites it a bit - altered chemically by new protein synthesis - links to our present concerns/understanding − We are constantly rewriting out memories, but because processes involved in memory reconstruction are unconscious, we're convinced that memories are accurate even when they are partially/wholly wrong - 73 ninth-grade boys interviewed, then re-interviewed 35 years later: when asked to recall how they had reported their attitudes, activities, and experiences, most performed @ rate no better than chance. 1 in 3 remembered having received physical punishment - as ninth graders, 82% said they had 2) Much of material included in stories we tell ourselves are mental elaborations - stories we weave around events - and most negative emotions we feel don't come from aversive events, but from mental elaborations - "The fact that she didn't want to go out with me a second time means I am a total loser and will never be loved" These types of stories associated w/activity of default mode network (DMN): - Important in mental time travel, ability to project forward/backward in time, and in formation of stories - Means DMN is central to identity - our identity is inextricably tied to autobiographical memory - Unfortunately, DMN also often associated with "negative" storytelling - ruminating about past, worrying about future

OBE experiment

1) Volunteers asked to stand in front of camera while wearing video-display goggles 2) Through goggles, volunteers see camera view of own back - a 3D "virtual body" standing in front of them 3) When researchers stroked back of volunteer w/pen, volunteer could see their virtual back being stroked either simultaneously (experimental condition) or wi/time lag (control condition) 4) Volunteers in experimental condition reported sensation seemed to be caused by pen on their virtual back, rather than their real back, making them feel as if virtual body was their own, not hologram ★ Note: though spontaneously occurring OBEs don't involve use of these kinds of contraptions → experiment doesn't really explain phenomenon well

Rise of Materialism in the 20th Century

1900s: world more concerned w/scientific understanding → experimental psychology dominated by behaviorism: - Mind: big black box, can't legitimately say anything verifiable about it - nothing there that you can point to/measure. "Mind" shouldn't be a part of scientific discussion - Psychology instead only study relation between observable stimuli & observable behavioral responses Latter half of 20th century: philosophy aligned more with science - Materialism (physicalism) dominated emerging cognitive science field Middle of 20th century: mind-brain identity theory became popular

Psychotherapeutic treatment for PTSD may take the form of...

2 forms: 1) Cognitive behavioral therapy: patient retells/reconstructs story of trauma in safe environment (play therapy for children) 2) Somatic therapies: - In trauma, sense of horror gets "frozen" in body → person dissociates - Somatic therapies like bioenergetics, sensorimotor psychotherapy, EMDR focus on helping clients... − Reconnect w/emotions by reconnecting w/body − Express frozen emotions to foster emotional release, heal trauma. Ex: Pat Ogden case - Mindfulness therapy for treatment of trauma may work similarly ★ Case examples of traumatic memories getting frozen in body

Derek Parfit philosopher's views

20th century philosopher Derek Parfit proposed: - Degree of responsibility corresponds to degree of connection to prior self who incurred responsibility - Ex: if you were kindergarten bully who grew up totally sweet guy who would never bully anyone, you don't need to feel any guilt − you're not that person anymore, so you don't bear responsibility for that person's actions

Energy pathways in meditative traditions

3 main energy pathways in meditative traditions: one in center, one on right, one on left - Right/left energy pathways = male/female elements, respectively - Optimal functioning requires balanced flow of energy through channels - Each channel is associated w/particular patterns of thinking/feeling → EMDR might similarly work through balancing flow of energy through channels, bringing energy from side channels to central channel

BIID Disorder seems to involve...

A mismatch between mental body image and physical body - Psychologist asked patient if he would take pill to make BIID go away, should such a treatment exist - Patient reflected & replied: maybe when a lot younger, but not anymore. "Has become core of who/what I am" ➜ Ananthaswamy said everyone w/BIID he interviewed/heard used some variation of words, "This is who I am," to describe condition − When envision themselves whole, image does not include parts of limbs − "Seems like my body stops mid-thigh of my right leg. The rest is not me."

Acupuncture

Acupuncture part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM): - One of the most widely accepted alternative medicine techniques in Western world - Based on view that illness results from improper flow of life force (qi) through body - Involves stimulating specific points on body - usually inserting very fine needles into skin - to unblock flow of qi along energy channels/meridians to restore balance Western research indicates that... - Acupuncture effective in treating physical conditions, in particular, certain types of pain / possibly insomnia. Research in this area sufficiently strong enough - acupuncture now covered by many health insurance companies - Acupuncture treatment causes release of various chemical messengers in brain (neurotransmitters) - Channels that acupuncture stimulates don't correspond to what we know of nervous system/brain

Agency versus Free Will

Agency/free will related concepts but also are subtle distinctions between the two - Agency: our actions not predetermined by external forces - Free will: our choices not predetermined by internal/external causal chains ➜ Can experience sense of agency w/o truly having free will - might be epiphenomenal Free will: - Research has led cognitive scientists to conclude that free will is an illusion... - But results of those studies could also be explained by idea that much of what controls our actions is unconscious

Which Philosophical View Best Explains the Data?

All philosophical views discussed - idealism, dualism, various forms of materialism - can potentially explain anything, including altered states of consciousness - also means there isn't a way to definitively "disprove" another point of view For ex: - Materialist: all kinds of experiences, but all still materially implemented. - Idealist: Yes, but materially-based data is actually just something happening within the mind. - Materialist: perception that it's all something happening within mind is materially covered - epiphenomenal. - Idealist: Yes, but observations/reasoning on subject is still being done by mind. ➜ Either position can be fundamental − Which depends on what people most comfortable with intuitively - neither can be said to be more logical - "At the Supreme Court level where we work, 90% of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections." - Justice William Douglas

Cotard's delusion

Also Cotard's syndrome or walking corpse syndrome Rare mental disorder characterized by delusional belief that... - One is dead/non-existent - Various body parts/organs are missing/putrefying Other symptoms: - Feelings of guilt - Feelings of being damned/condemned − alternatively, feelings of immortality - Dampened intensity of feelings and desires − vividness usually attributed to one's body and/or emotions may be lacking, resulting in conviction that one is dead or non-existent. May be emotional dulling/flat affect - common in many psychiatric disorders like depersonalization/depression - Associated w/extreme depression, as illustrated by the continuum: Normal → Sad → Depressed → Very Depressed → Melancholic....Cotard's

Alzheimer's disease & self

Alzheimer's disease results in cognitive disintegration of autobiographical self - one's story People w/Alzheimer's not able to answer question "Who am I?" w/declarative statements (e.g., I am a musician, a retired nurse, a wife, etc.) because... − Memory is failing and/or − Brain regions that allow us to reflect upon these characteristics are damaged Apart from memory deterioration, Alzheimer's involves selective inability to update info regarding self - Ex: someone w/disorder may not recognize their driving ability is impaired, but no difficulty assessing other people's driving ability − Anosognosia: condition in which patient is unaware of their neurological deficit/psychiatric condition

Computational theory of mind (CTM)

Another 20th century materialist view - Human mind is a computational system that is realized (i.e. physically implemented) by neural activity in the brain - Computation understood in terms of Turing machines - manipulate symbols according to a rule + machine's internal state - A Turing machine has instructions (machine table) - determines what machine will do when it encounters a symbol in a particular cell, depending upon which internal state it is in Means we can abstract away from physical details of machine that is implementing computation - Ex: appropriate computation could be implemented by silicon chips or biological neural networks → CTM: mind is not analogous to computer program, but it is a computational system

The hard problem of consciousness

Another block to materialism: "consciousness," particularly phenomenal consciousness - how/why we experience the world as we do Why/how is it that sentient organisms have qualia or phenomenal experiences? − Qualia: subjective, first-person experience Why/how is it that some internal states are felt states (heat/pain), rather than unfelt states (thermostat/toaster)? ☞ No computational models can yet adequately explain phenomenal consciousness

The Agentive Self

Another key component of self is sense of agency: the feeling that one is controlling one's own actions

The Narrative Self

Another theory of why we feel that we have a unique/separate self: there is a continuum to our life story - Some argue that self is fundamentally a narrative construct - story/stories we tell others/ourselves about who we are John Locke: what defines identity is non-physical part - consciousness/thoughts, esp memories

Disorders that Impair the Subjective Experience of the Body

Another way to examine one's subjective experience of self (and possible neurological correlates) is through research on disorders that impair one's sense of self - Cotard's delusion: believes that one is dead/non-existent - Body integrity identity disorder (BIID): feels that some part of body, usually limbs, is not their own, leading to attempts to sever body part

Memory Disorders

Apart from Alzheimer's disease, other memory disorders that can result in losing story/narrative: - Amnesia: partial/total loss of memory - Retrograde amnesia: inability to remember events before onset of condition − can raze one's whole story & identity - Anterograde amnesia: inability to form lasting memories for new experiences - full temporal lobe amnesia, damage to hippocampus + surrounding areas Ex of anterograde amnesia: Clive Wearing, English musician - Damage to hippocampus from encephalitis − People w/condition have normal IQs + can carry normal conversation but can't remember more than a few min ago - If you walk out of room then come back 10 min later, he won't remember you but can still conduct a choir + play piano/harpsichord beautifully

Implications from Matthieu Ricard

As Matthieu Ricard points out, even if conscious decisions preceded by unconscious neurological preparation, prior conscious thoughts/actions have influenced content of those unconscious processes - Ex: When heroic person jumps into icy waters to save someone drowning, often says afterwards, "What I did is normal. I had to do it. I had no choice but to help." − But isn't really that he had no choice − When things happen quickly, way we spontaneously act is reflection of what we are (e.g., more/less altruistic, more/less courageous), - result of many prior conscious decisions ➜ Final decision = culminating point of life-long experience

The Reminiscence Bump

As memories fade, people w/Alzheimer's will often remember best/focus on early memories, particularly late adolescent/early adulthood years - Generally the period people tend to have strongest memories for - psychologists call this the reminiscence bump - In Alzheimer's as narrative self petrifies then deteriorates, person reverts to critical part of narrative self - to memories formed at a time when self was being defined most strongly The reminiscence bump probably occurs because this period tends to be time of dramatic and emotionally powerful changes - As a result, these memories are powerfully incorporated into sense of self - Memories of highly significant experiences in meeting life goals more strongly associated w/self and its history Late adolescence/early adulthood = critical period when people are cementing identity, defining self-beliefs, self-concepts, life goals - "We form the core of our narrative self during this time" ☞ Make the most of your time now: carpe diem

BIID & hyperawareness

BIID also involves hyperawareness of disowned limbs People w/BIID can precisely delineate limb into part that feels their own & part that doesn't - separation is stable over time - When BIID participants pricked on foreign part of limb, skin conductance response (SCR) 2-3x greater than when normal part of limb pricked ➜ Theory: disowned body part is like foreign object in body - feels threatening, attracts attention → becomes object of obsession

Malleability of Body Representation

BIID suggests what we experience as physical self may not map to what is actually there. Other examples of phenomenon: 1. V.S. Ramachandran's rubber-hand illusion - Illusion demonstrates what we consider our "self" can be shifted → thus somewhat arbitrary - Experimenter strokes visible rubber hand & hidden real hand synchronously → rubber hand temporarily incorporated into one's sense of bodily self ➜ Visual/ tactile info + proprioceptive feedback in sensations from joints, tendons, muscles provide sense of where body ends & rest of world begins - this can be manipulated 2. Phantom limbs - Each part of body's outer surface maps onto part of somatosensory cortex - After patient loses a limb, cortical map may remain intact / be modified in some fashion, sometimes leads to continued perception of limb or even pain in that limb - Even people born w/o limbs can experience phantom arms/legs: woman born w/o forearms/legs experienced phantom limbs. fMRI/TMS study verified her subjective experience ➜ Demonstrated that absent body parts from birth can still be represented in sensory/motor cortices

Why do we tend to have greater confidence in the left brain messages?

Because they are logical, whereas right brain arrives at conclusions in more intuitive manner - Set of 6 studies looking at people's confidence in performance/intellectual tasks - participants completed tests involving logical reasoning, intuitive physics, or financial investment ➜ Results: the more they approached tasks in "rational" (consistent, algorithmic) manner - as opposed to more variable/ad hoc approaches - the more confident they became, irrespective of whether they were correct Jill Bolte Taylor talked about how during her stroke, she could see how her left brain self normally inhibited her right brain - to devalue, downplay, dismiss the latter's insights ☞ Generally, right brain is silent - thus considered unconscious, relegated to inferior position by left brain, but has an intelligence all its own

Somatic therapies (methods, goals, example)

Bioenergetics, sensorimotor psychotherapy, EMDR In trauma, horror gets "frozen" in body → person dissociates. Somatic therapies focus on helping clients... − Reconnect w/those emotions by reconnecting with the body − Express frozen emotions as a way to foster emotional release & heal trauma Ex: Pat Ogden case Mindfulness therapy for treatment of trauma may work in a similar way ★ Case examples of traumatic memories getting frozen in body

Body Integrity Identity Disorder

Body integrity identity disorder (BIID) / body identity dysphoria: another condition that gives glimpse of how brain constructs sense of one's bodily self - Rare mental disorder, people feel that part of body, usually limb, is not their own → try to sever that body part - Desire usually arises at early age (8-12), becomes obsession - People w/disorder are predominantly male - Left limb more often affected than right Evidence that BIID has existed for hundreds of years: - Peter Brugger, head of neuropsychology @ University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland: case of Englishman who went to France in late 18th century, asked surgeon to amputate leg − When surgeon refused, Englishman forced him @ gunpoint to perform operation − After returning, sent surgeon 250 guineas & letter of thanks - wrote that his leg had been "an invincible obstacle" to his happiness First modern account of condition 1977, when paper published on "apotemnophilia" - desire to be an amputee

Modern versions of Descartes' evil genius thought experiment

Brain-in-a-vat thought experiment - Mad scientist removes brain from body, suspends in vat of life-sustaining liquid, connects neurons by wires to a supercomputer - delivers sensory signals simulating experience of a coherent reality - Computer also picks up brain's outgoing motor signals, responds appropriately. Ex: Brain sends signal to walk → computer delivers coordinated visual/tactile input of walking - "Disembodied" brain has normal conscious experiences like those of a person with an embodied brain → Is there any way you can know for sure that you aren't a brain in a vat? The Matrix Metaverse + Neuralink?

Physical symbol system hypothesis & implications

CTM can be expressed in terms of the physical symbol system hypothesis, proposed by computer scientists Herbert Simon and Allen Newell in 1975 - Hypothesis: A physical symbol system has the necessary/sufficient means for general intelligent action Implications: 1) Anything capable of intelligent action is a physical symbol system. Humans capable of intelligent action → human mind = physical symbol system 2) Physical symbol system sufficient for intelligence → intelligent machines can be constructed Thinking = manipulation of symbolic representation structures - Humans: symbol systems instantiated in brain - Computer: same symbol systems can also be instantiated

Thought experiment proposed by 20th century philosopher Bernard Williams

Calls into question this view that we are our bodies Maybe?https://nerdfighteria.info/v/trqDnLNRuSc/

Cases of Cotard's delusion

Case 1: "Mademoiselle X," as described by Cotard (1840-89) - Patient denied existence of parts of her body & need to eat - Claimed she was condemned to eternal damnation, therefore couldn't die a natural death - Died of starvation Case 2: Hospital in Paris made film about a Cotard's patient - At one point in film, patient pulled white sheet over head: "I'm so bad, I don't want people looking at that film to be touched by such badness." Convinced he was responsible for the AIDS epidemic & that people would get AIDS just by watching the film. - Many months later, after man had recovered (from electroconvulsive therapy & other treatments), watched the film and said: "Well this is very interesting. But who is it?" Doctor responded, "That's you." He replied, "No, it's not me."

The mind-body problem

Central issue to question of "What is the self?": = mind-body problem: - What is the relationship between mind and body/brain? - Alt: What is relationship between mental and physical properties? Physical properties: public - equally observable by anyone - Some require appropriate equipment, e.g., electron microscope Mental properties: conscious mental events are private to beholder - have a privileged access that no one else has - I may be able to tell you are in pain, but only you can feel directly - Only you know how something looks to you; I can only guess

Brain Regions Associated w/Sense of Self

Certain areas of brain seem to play important roles in sense of self... - Sense of being self w/continuous story: hippocampus, entorhinal cortex - from research on Alzheimer's disease/memory disorders + default mode network - Sense of what constitutes our body and what doesn't: right superior parietal lobule - from research on Body Integrity Identity Disorder - Awareness of our physical/emotional self: insula - from research on Cotard's delusion, dissociative identity disorder, depersonalization disorder, doppelgänger effect - Sense of ourself as individual controlling our movements: corollary discharge signals - from research on schizophrenia - Being integrated self aware of all memories and emotions − Connection between frontal lobe and amygdala/limbic system - from research on PTSD (reduced connection) − Connection between prefrontal/anterior cingulate cortex and hippocampus - from research on dissociative identity disorder (increased inhibitory connections) − Ventral lateral prefrontal cortex (suppression of emotion) - from research on depersonalization disorder

Depersonalization Disorder

Characterized by 4 things: - Disembodiment: feelings of detachment/disconnection from one's body - Subjective emotional numbing: inability to experience emotions/empathy - Anomalous subjective recall: lack of ownership when remembering personal info or imagining things - Derealization: experience of feeling estranged/alienated from one's surroundings Individuals report feeling they are an outside observer of their own thoughts/body, perceiving world around them as foggy, dreamlike, visually distorted Disorder typically chronic + continuous but individual episodes tend to be transient

Induction of OBEs

Chemical induction: - Hallucinogens (esp dissociatives) - psilocybin, ketamine, DMT, MDA (metabolite of MDMA), LSD Mental induction: - Falling asleep w/o losing awareness - yogi almost never fall asleep too - "Astral projection" techniques, involve meditation/visualization Mechanical induction: - Electrical stimulation of brain, esp temporoparietal junction, reliably elicits experiences similar to OBEs - Temporoparietal junction/TPJ: where temporal & parietal lobes meet - region of brain important in perspective taking - Direct stimulation of vestibular cortex: vestibular cortex important in creating sense of balance/spatial orientation - Sensory deprivation: induces disorientation by removal of space/time references - Apparatus that presents false visual-somatosensory input to confuse proprioception − Some aspects of OBEs like people's perception of location can be manipulated using special video camera set-ups + contraptions w/goggles & mirrors − Causes participants to feel as if virtual body seen in front of them was own body, mislocalize themselves toward virtual body

Early studies on autism findings

Children w/autism had difficulty recognizing others' emotions However, follow-up research indicated: poor performance on emotion identification due to children avoiding looking @ people's eyes due to the discomfort/anxiety they feel - Original studies: children w/autism - who are highly sensitive to environmental stimuli - placed in deafening, claustrophobia-inducing MRI tube, instructed to perform tasks involving perception of faces − Follow-up study: children outfitted w/eye-tracking goggles while in fMRI showed that poorer performance on emotional identification task could be wholly explained by the time spent looking away from faces The children with autism also evidenced greater activity in amygdala during face perception − Similarly correlated (negatively) w/gaze fixation ➜ Looking at faces made these children profoundly uncomfortable, even fearful - only by looking away could they stop onslaught, which is what they did!

Mirror Test of Self-Recognition

Classic test of self-awareness or self-recognition - Test subject: if animal, then anesthetized and marked in area of body it can't normally see. If child, no anesthesia used - spot of red rouge would be placed on nose. - Subject given mirror - Subject touching/investigating mark on itself = indication that it perceives the reflected image as image of itself rather than another animal - Relatively few animal species - great apes, Asiatic elephants, dolphins, orcas, Eurasian magpie (bird), and cleaner wrasse (fish) - have passed test - Human children pass test ~18-24 months old. Below age, generally touch mirror/look behind it to find red-nosed child

Problems of consciousness

Cognitive neuroscience no headway in explaining phenomenal self - subjective sense of self - Phenomenal consciousness refers to how we experience world as we do / qualia - Referred to as hard problem of consciousness Easy and hard problems of consciousness - Easy problem: access consciousness, explaining in computational/neural terms how we access/deploy info / how we access memories - Hard problem: phenomenal consciousness, explaining lived experience we have when we see blue or feel warmth/love/hatred − Science has made very little progress in this area ★ Phenomenal consciousness = a lot to do w/our notion of who we are

Common misconception of Buddhists

Common misconception that Buddhists believe material world is "empty" - meaningless, goal: escape from that world - Actually: flip side of emptiness teaching is that reality is also full of "suchness," "Big Mind," "Buddha nature" - "Emptiness is form": it is in the material world that we find the spiritual (nirvana) - Ordinarily cannot see this - meditation practice can effect transformation of perception that makes that possible

Anosognosia definition

Condition in which patient is unaware of their neurological deficit/psychiatric condition

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Congenital developmental disorder characterized by: - Severe deficits in social interaction (e.g., avoidance of physical contact with others) - Impaired development of communicative ability - Tendency toward repetitive actions (e.g., rocking back and forth) - Four times more common in boys than in girls - Affects 1 in 44 children (1 in 27 boys) in US Ananthaswamy speculates that: - Autism spectrum disorder may involve problems w/body awareness (somatosensory cortex) + ability to represent body, (e.g., draw a human body) - Results in difficulty identifying emotions since emotions reside in body + subsequent difficulty identifying emotions/thoughts of others (i.e., theory of mind) Recent research indicates: at least some children on spectrum may be dissociating from their bodies to avoid overload by sensory stimulation ➜ Lack of body awareness/concomitant emotional awareness may be secondary, rather than primary

Dissociative Identity Disorder

DID (multiple personality) Condition in which two or more identities/personalities alternate control of person's behavior - One personality may be diabetic, near-sighted, allergic to substance and the other not − Two personalities may have different brain waves, vital signs and hormonal levels - Personalities "higher on hierarchy" may be aware of other personalities Cause: usually associated w/"severe, sadistic abuse in early childhood" Common symptoms include: − Inability to recall large swarths of memories from childhood − Frequent memory loss / sudden return of memories − Feelings of disconnection/detachment from body/thoughts − Self-harm/suicidal thoughts In traumatic situation - like early childhood abuse experienced by patients w/DID - people tend to freeze then dissociate from body − Natural defense against threat of extreme danger + associated fear − In dissociative identity disorder, dissociation may result in complete memory loss of traumatic event(s) by particular subpersonality/subpersonalities

Dissociation

Defense mechanism - individual unconsciously pushes away conflicting/threatening emotions and compartmentalizes feelings

Highlights of neurological findings on depersonalization

Depersonalization & sense of dissociation from body also associated w/significantly reduced skin conductance response in reaction to unpleasant stimuli Overall, neurological findings highlight: - The primacy of physical sensations in making of emotion - Importance of the latter in creating sense of the self

Causes of depersonalization disorder

Depersonalization Disorder: feeling as an outside observer of thoughts/body, perceiving world as foggy, dreamlike, visually distorted Causes: 1) Largely caused by early childhood trauma, e.g., particularly severe emotional abuse/neglect - "The Man Who Wasn't There": case of Nicholas - raised by parents addicted to alcohol, opiates, and cocaine - experienced constant verbal abuse + violence growing up - Stepfather chased mother around house w/machete at one point - Age 4: tried to make cereal for 2-year-old sister. Social services arrived, found him standing on chair @ kitchen sink, trying to wash dishes - Like dissociative identity disorder, depersonalization disorder involves dissociation from body as a result of traumatic experience. In depersonalization though, still located in body, but vividness of being embodied compromised 2) Depersonalization may also be induced by drug use - Case of Sarah: took some Adderall, followed by pot + alcohol − Depersonalization persisted several days, though drugs should have cleared her body − Went to ER, prescribed Ativan for anxiety, didn't help − Finally, massage therapist/"energy healer" advised: "Do yoga; you need to feel back in your body. Stomp your feet, do whatever you need to feel back in your body." ... That did the trick

Depersonalization & emotions

Depersonalization associated w/emotional numbing - Ex: Family living next door to patient had suffered horrible tragedy: their young child had been killed in terrible accident − Patient knew appropriate things to say (e.g., That's terrible, I'm so sorry, that's awful"), but didn't feel anything about it - Though people w/depersonalization unable to feel emotions intensely, may paradoxically be deeply distressed/panicked about inability to feel emotions − "I don't have any emotions - it makes me so unhappy." → May experience a lot of internal emotional distress but don't have emotional reactivity to external things

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Develops in response to a shocking/scary/dangerous event Symptoms: disturbing thoughts/feelings/dreams related to events, mental/physical distress to trauma-related cues Neurologically, PTSD characterized by: hyperarousal, dissociation, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, negative changes in thinking and mood, increase in fight-or-flight response

Alzheimer's Disease

Disease occurring in latter part of life - characterized by deterioration of memory, reasoning, language abilities Common form of neurocognitive disorder (deterioration of intellectual abilities; vascular dementia = another common cause) - Occurs in 7% of population 65+, 40% of people 80+ Associated w/loss of neurons in cortical/sub-cortical regions: ventricles (fluid filled cavities) may be enlarged, patients might lose as much as 50% brain mass - Produces severe degeneration of large parts of brain: can eventually destroy most of hippocampus/cortical gray matter Brains of patients contain many amyloid plaques - contain core of misfolded β-amyloid protein surrounded by degenerating axons/dendrites + neurofibrillary tangles - dying neurons that contain twisted filaments of tau protein

Schizophrenia

Disorder in which sense of agency is compromised - Many primary symptoms of schizophrenia involve disruption in sense of agency: − Delusions, e.g., of persecution or control (belief that someone else is controlling one's actions) − Hallucinations: perception of nonexistent object or event, usually auditory In "The Man Who Wasn't There," Sophie describes how... "My hands never look like my own hands. There must be some sort of split-second gap between the movement of my hand and me registering that as my own action, or a self-initiated action."

Dissociation from the Self

Dissociation/dissociative disorders often linked to trauma During traumatic experiences, intense desire to act happens while paralyzed with horror - body/brain "freeze" → dissociate to avoid physical/emotional pain

Causes of OBEs (5)

Dreaming − Some OBEs report preceding + initiating lucid-dream state, being on verge of sleep/ being asleep before experience Near-death experiences (NDE) − Some OBEs during severe physical trauma: near-drownings, major surgery − May include subjective impressions of being outside the physical body, and transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries (remember the Jill Bolte Taylor experience from Lecture 1?) Traumatic brain injuries and dissociative disorders Psychedelic drugs, sensory deprivation (not enough scientific evidence, but lots of random reports of sensory deprivation chambers) Electrical stimulation of the brain

Causes of OBEs

Dreaming: − Those experiencing OBEs sometimes report preceding + initiating lucid-dream state − Usually report being on verge of sleep, or already asleep shortly before experience Near-death experiences (NDE) another common form of spontaneous OBE: − Some report having OBE during severe physical trauma like near-drownings/major surgery − Near-death experiences include subjective impressions of being outside physical body and transcendence of ego/spatiotemporal boundaries Traumatic brain injuries and dissociative disorders Psychedelic drugs, sensory deprivation Electrical stimulation of the brain

Neurological correlates between schizophrenics, the very young, and those who are intoxicated

Each case (i.e., the very young, schizophrenics those who are intoxicated), as well as aforementioned traits (i.e., dominance of the literal, sensory, external, immediate) characterized neurologically by: - Reduced prefrontal activity - Increased levels of dopamine (inhibits prefrontal activity) One of neurological hallmarks of schizophrenia is hypofrontality - Some dendritic pruning normally occurs during adolescence, but cortical gray matter loss is twice as great in schizophrenics All of this suggests that prefrontal cortex probably also plays central role in identity

Idealism

Everything - including the material world - is actually mind George Berkeley (1685-1753): one of most famous idealistic philosophers - Everything you can know is actually mental − Everything else colored by perception. Ex: How would you know if what you perceive as blue is what other people perceive as red? Subtype: Transcendental idealism: subtype of idealism that integrates idealism with empiricism, which emphasizes importance of sensory experience

Left- and Right-Brain Selves

Evidence: sense of self we ordinarily experience w/sensations, perceptions, memories primarily localized in left hemisphere - Jill Bolte Taylor reported her left hemisphere stroke took the verbalizing, categorizing left hemisphere self she normally identified with temporarily offline - showed her this was part of brain associated w/experiencing herself "as a solid separate from everything" in contrast to more expansive right-brain self/consciousness that stroke allowed her to access. Also realized her left-brain self was source of constant mind chatter ordinarily preventing her from experiencing deep inner peace associated with right-brain consciousness Similarly, neuroscience research: − Left/right cerebral hemispheres generally have different functions − Conscious self identified wi/left cerebral hemisphere

Autoscopic Phenomena (AP)

Experience in which an individual perceives the surrounding environment from a different perspective or perceives their body from a position outside of their own body (autos = "self"; scopy = "watcher")

Treatment of depersonalization disorder

Factors that diminish symptoms: − Intense focus of attention − Intense physical exercise/activity (e.g., playing tennis, drumming) Medications also used to manage symptoms

True or false: your body replaces itself every 7 years

False: vast majority of cells in body do get replaced within 7-10 years, but not all − Eye's cornea can regenerate itself in as little as one day − Cells that line stomach renew every 2-5 days - constantly battered by stomach acid − Skin cells rejuvenate every 2-4 weeks − Red blood cells live for 4 months before cycled out − Hair life span = 6 years for women, 3 years for men − Cells in skeletal system regenerate almost constantly, but process takes 10 years − Many neurons, like those in cerebral cortex, are with us from birth to death ➜ You are constantly being replaced by new physical versions of yourself ★ If you are your body, then how much of you can change until you become a new you? Identity does seem to be tied w/awareness & subjective experience of body

fMRI study on Alzheimer's patients with anosognosia

Found that these patients far better at judging traits of close friends, caregivers, or relatives than they are at judging themselves − Also revealed that medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and left anterior temporal lobe - areas of brain important in appraisal - are less active during self-appraisal than during task that requires appraisal of others - Control participants & mild cognitive impairment showed no such difference

Identity from a neurological perspective

From neurological perspective, identity involves "the personalization of brain through unique dynamic configurations of neuronal connections, driven by unique experiences" (Susan Greenfield) - Our unique experiences leave a unique brain signature/memory trace - May be compared to way unique prenatal experience results in unique fingerprint - formation of fingerprint influenced by fetal environmental factors: o Position of fetus o Exact composition/density of surrounding amniotic fluid swirling around fingers o Movement of baby + speed/size with which baby grows

Objections to mind-brain identity theory

Functionalism: loci of brain functionality doesn't help us understand what is going on → We need to emphasize function/understand how things produce their effects What makes something a thought, desire, pain (or any mental state) is its function/role in its cognitive system Identity of mental states is determined by its causal relations to sensory stimulations, mental states, behavior - Ex: pain caused by bodily injury → produces belief that something is wrong w/body + desire to be out of state → produces anxiety

Alcohol-related blackouts

Gaps in person's memory for events while intoxicated − Happen when person drinks enough alcohol to temporarily block memory consolidation - transfer of memories from short-term to long-term storage

Other techniques to induce lucid dreaming

Get ample sleep: - Relative likelihood of lucid dreaming continuously increases w/each successive REM period - If you sleep 8 hours, probability of having lucid dream during last 2 hours of sleep is more than twice as great as probability of having lucid dream in previous 6 hours Napping: - Trick if you can't spend 8 hours in bed: get up one hour earlier than usual, stay awake for 30-60 minutes, then go back to sleep - During wakeful period, read about lucid dreaming, practice reality checks, then do MILD as you are falling asleep ☞ Study found 15-20x increased likelihood of lucid dreaming for those practicing nap technique Test different sleeping positions Practice reality testing throughout day, tips: - Ask: "Am I dreaming?", test your state... - Pinch test doesn't work - Try flying - Find some writing or digital watch, read once, look away, then reread - check if it stays the same. In dreams, text changes 75% of the time if re-read once; 95% if re-read twice - Try to turn on a light - usually can't be done in a dream - Things more changeable in dreams than in waking life: often all you have to do is look around for unusual transmutations - Lastly, anytime you find yourself seriously suspecting you just might be dreaming, you probably are Use autosuggestion/dream inoculation: - Imagine as vividly as possible that surroundings are a dream - During day, think continuously: "all things are of substance of dreams" Strengthen desire/intention: - Resolve to recognize dreaming - tell yourself: "Tonight I will have a lucid dream," "Tonight I will fly" - esp in early morning hours / during awakening in latter part of sleep period - Visualize yourself recognizing dreaming - Imagine yourself carrying out intended dream action ☞ Paul Tholey: most participants who consistently practice reality testing/intention techniques will experience at least one lucid dream every night

Mind-brain identity theory became popular around middle of the 20th century

Holds that states/processes of mind = states/processes of brain → Experiences of pain/seeing something/having a mental image are brain processes, not merely correlated with brain processes View of materialists/identity theorists: things like self & free will are epiphenomenal − There are brain processes that create sense of self/free will, but functionally don't really do anything

Awakening at Will

How to awaken at will: - Yell - directs attention away from dream, may also activate vocal muscles of sleeping body - Fixate gaze on stationary point: will generally cause fixation point to blur, followed by dissolution of entire dream scene + awakening within 4-12 seconds

Caveat of schizophrenic neurological correlates

Important to remember: when certain structural/functional differences associate w/disorder, does not necessarily mean that those differences cause disorder - Profound withdrawal from social interactions, work and school in late adolescence/early adulthood (prodromal symptoms of schizophrenia) often precede onset of disorder - Such a pattern of withdrawal involving absence of cognitive enrichment and task engagement, continued over several years... − Will likely result in internally generated experience becoming more and more prominent − Will almost certainly have a serious impact on brain systems

Famous amnesia patient "H.M." (Henry Molaison)

In 1953 @ age 27, most of hippocampus + entire entorhinal cortex removed to control severe intractable epilepsy → loss of ability to form new memories - Entorhinal cortex: interface between hippocampus and neocortex, said to be most heavily damaged of all cortical areas in Alzheimer's H.M. didn't know where he lived / what he ate for last meal, guesses to current year off by as much as 43 years. Lived only in the present but seemingly still had the notion of self − Brenda Milner followed H.M. for decades until he died in 2008. Noted: - He clearly had an image of himself - Would react w/satisfaction at being praised, become upset when someone criticized him, got annoyed when asked to do something he could not accomplish ➜ Experiencing oneself as product of one's history doesn't seem necessary for constitution of self

Perception of other in AH, HAS, OBE

In AH and HAS, subjects generally report being in a sitting/standing position whereas OBE generally involves a supine position

Might lucid dreaming be dangerous for some people?

In general, for people who are not "neurotic beyond the bounds of normality," it is completely harmless.

Research on reason vs. intuition

In making purchasing decisions, better to weigh all pros/cons of various options or go w/gut instinct? - After leaving stores, shoppers asked how much time they had spent deliberating before buying - Shoppers called few weeks later to find how happy they were w/purchases ➔ Results: - Low-cost items like oven mitts/shampoo - the longer people spent deliberating, the more satisfied they were w/purchases - Reverse true of more complicated/expensive purchases like furniture, cars, homes Freud: - Minor decisions more advantageous to consider all pros/cons - Vital matters - mate/profession - decision should come from unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves - Important decisions of personal life should be governed by deep inner needs of our nature Caution: - In daily life, "following intuition" or "going w/flow" can get us into trouble because of our tendency to repeat bad habits − Can be seen in case of addictions − Also, even if we don't have diagnosable addiction, we all tend to have problematic habits of mind/action, takes active effort to break those - of going against our natural predilections rather than just going with the flow

Unsolved Questions of self

In sum, some brain regions more important than others for our sense of self like prefrontal cortex and insular cortex Neuroscience not yet identified any discrete region in brain linked to self ➜ None of regions discussed can really be said to be seat of self

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form lasting memories for new experiences - Full temporal lobe amnesia: caused by damage to hippocampus + surrounding areas Ex: Clive Wearing, English musician - Damage to hippocampus from encephalitis − People w/condition have normal IQs + can carry normal conversation but can't remember more than a few min ago - If you walk out of room then come back 10 min later, he won't remember you but can still conduct choir + play piano/harpsichord beautifully

Retrograde amnesia

Inability to remember events before onset of condition − can raze one's whole story & identity

Brain regions more important than others for sense of self

Insular cortex, default mode network, parts of prefrontal cortex However, doesn't mean that those regions are "centers for" self − Just because neuroimaging shows correlation of activity in brain region w/certain behavior doesn't mean that area is necessarily "center for" that behavior − In same way, just because light on in iron when iron is working doesn't mean that light is "center for" functioning of iron

Free Will and the Legal System

Issue of agency related to concept of free will, has potentially important implications for neurolaw - Most scientists today are materialists, adhere to determinism - would say true free will is impossible - However, court system based on belief people can be held accountable for committing certain crimes (provided of sound mind/body) - Seems to be a contradiction here because... - If actions completely predetermined by genes, environment, situation at hand, etc., how can we really be held accountable for our actions? Notion of free will/accountability highlighted by insanity defense: - Test takes into account both cognitive & volitional capacity: − Defendant is not responsible for criminal conduct "if @ time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law." - Percentage of accused felons that plead insanity? 1%

Dreamsigns in lucid dreaming

Learn to recognize your frequent/characteristic dreamsigns - elements of dreams that indicate you are dreaming (e.g., miraculous flight, purple cats, malfunctioning devices, meeting deceased people) - Becoming familiar w/personal dreamsigns will help you recognize them / become lucid in future dreams

Summary of neuroscience of self

Left brain activity includes the constant internal dialogue we experience - we tend to identify self w/constant voice in our head However, as seen from split-brain/anosognosia, potential problems w/left-brain domination 1) Left brain may make false inferences / creates stories that aren't true to make sense of reality seem rational/stable 2) Jill Bolte Taylor realized in her "stroke of insight," constant mind chatter of left brain prevents us from experiencing deep inner peace Caveat: Whether left/right-brain functions can be neatly divided like cognitive scientists Jill Bolte Taylor and Chris Niebauer claim is controversial - Most researchers believe left/right halves of brain function in different ways, but many argue that differences are more subtle than is popularly believed. Ex: left processes small details of things you see, right processes overall shape - Also, except in brain injury, halves of brain don't work in isolation; rather, work together as whole/system - Lastly, extent of hemispheric differences in brain function depend on number of different factors like whether person is right/left-handed. Lefties have more evenly-distributed brain functions In addition, stark contrast to positive mood effects of Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke, Gainotti (1972) found: - Stroke patients w/left frontal damage exhibited pathological crying + symptoms of depression - Damage to right frontal exhibited pathological laughter - ...so Jill Bolte Taylor's experience may be a bit of an anomaly

John Locke

Locke did not think most essential aspect of person is body − Instead, said that what defines identity is non-physical part - consciousness/thoughts, esp memories - Memory critical because we don't maintain single consciousness over lifetime - when we wake up, our conscious selves remember who we were the day before

Locke's later theory after memory theory of personal identity

Locke later posited another theory - personal identity made up of "sameness of consciousness," not sense of continuity of memory but of character - Thought experiment: If demon offered choice between remembering everything but feeling/valuing very differently vs. feeling/valuing same sorts of things but remembering nothing, most would choose latter, Locke said ➜ If we had to boil personal identity down to essence, seems to come to values, inclinations, and temperament rather than just memory

Neurological correlates of BIID

MRI study on BIID connected to left leg showed less gray matter in right side of superior parietal lobule − Amount of gray matter missing correlated to strength of patients' desire to remove leg - Right superior parietal lobule: brain region important in construction of body maps Another study found right superior parietal lobule (SPL) is thinner, may function differently in those w/BIID - Control participants: when feet tapped, SPL lit up - BIID patients: when disowned foot tapped, right SPL showed reduced activity. When other foot tapped, right SPL showed normal activity ➜ Suggests that affected limb not adequately represented in brain

Neurological correlates of depersonalization

Many different brain regions probably implicated in depersonalization, but largest study ever run on this group highlighted 2 areas: 1) Left anterior insula shows reduced activity − When viewing aversive images, patients showed reduced activity in this area compared to controls - Insula specializes in body awareness ➜ because emotions are built up from somatosensory information, insula is correlated w/"every conceivable kind of feeling" 2) Ventral lateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) is overactive - Involved in top-down control of emotions ➜ Depersonalization may involve vlPFC suppressing emotional responses Successful pharmacological treatment of depersonalization disorder results in increased activity in left anterior insula, decreased activity in vlPFC relative to: - Pretreatment group - Patients who reported no improvement

View that most cognitive scientists hold today

Materialism: All things - including mind - are physical

Materialism

Materialism: All things - including mind - are physical - Mental states are just physical states - Mind is just the brain - everything that happens in the mind is happening in the brain - Aristotle: brain is like lump of clay; the different thoughts mind can take on during patterns of activity are like shapes clay can assume - Most cognitive scientists today hold this view - Examples of materialism: behaviorism, mind-brain identity theory, functionalism, computational theory of mind

Schizophrenia described neurologically

May involve malfunction in what Roger Sperry called corollary discharge: - 2 pathways to sensory discrepancy - Motor Command → Efference Copy (Corollary Discharge) → Forward Model → Predicted Sensory Input (Estimated Sensory Feedback) → Sensory discrepancy - Efference copy (i.e., corollary discharge) used to generate predicted sensory input, estimates (somato)sensory consequences of motor command - Motor Command → Motor System → Sensory System → Sensory Feedback (Re-afference) → Sensory discrepancy - Sensory consequences of executed motor command - compared w/corollary discharge to inform central nervous system whether action was internally or externally generated

Organic amnesia

Memory loss due to physical cause - Brain injury through accident/stroke - in most trauma-induced organic amnesia cases, there is spontaneous recovery after minutes/hours - Korsakoff's amnesia (part of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome): amnesia caused by brain damage resulting from thiamine deficiency, usually result of chronic alcoholism. Patients tend to make things up (confabulate) rather than admit they can't remember - Alcohol-related blackouts: gaps in person's memory for events while intoxicated − Happen when person drinks enough alcohol to temporarily block memory consolidation - transfer of memories from short-term to long-term storage

Fourth subtype of AP

Merely involves "feeling of a presence," / "hallucination du compagnon" − Feel another person close by without actually seeing that person - One of most famous cases of this latter (quoted in The Man Who Wasn't There, p. 199) is that of the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton who wrote in his diaries that he and expedition team members Frank Worsley and Tom Crean, on the last leg of an unimaginably dangerous and difficult journey to find help to save the other stranded members of their trans-Antarctic expedition, began feeling the presence of a fourth person. Shackleton wrote, "I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards Worsley said to me, 'Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us.' Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels 'the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech' in trying to describe things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a reference to a subject very near to our hearts."

Malleability of body representation & therapeutic purposes

Mirror therapy: used in stroke rehabilitation + relieves phantom limb pain - Patient places intact limb on one side of mirror, injured limb on other side - Reflection of intact hand = artificial visual feedback - "resurrected" limb now moving easily when patient moves good hand Research using "body-ownership" experiments, including rubber-hand illusion, identified network of brain regions that integrate sensations from body & immediate surroundings - Includes areas from cerebral cortex (top of brain) to brain stem - Neuroimaging research found differences in nearly all parts of this network in BIID patients Caveat: important to note that these neural anomalies don't necessarily cause BIID - could be effects - Physiological correlates usually found for psychological states, but this does not mean brain states cause mental states - could be that repeated mental activity (obsessively thinking "this leg is not mine") led to brain changes

Different viewpoints which developed in Western philosophy

Monism: materialism (behaviorism, mind-brain identity theory, functionalism, computational theory of mind), idealism, transcendental idealism Dualism:

Eastern Philosophical Views

Most scientists today = materialists; on the other hand, Eastern contemplatives - people who study inner workings of mind using meditation, etc. - thought as dualists/idealists - Yes, some contemplatives are dualists/idealists, but also some are materialists - Those terms don't mesh well w/way contemplatives think about nature of mind/reality ➜ Eastern philosophical traditions like Buddhism: no distinction between material and spiritual, but impossible to understand what that means w/o doing meditation practice

Neurological Correlates of Lucid Dreams

Neuroimaging data scant but preliminary results suggest parts of prefrontal/parietal regions involved in lucid dreaming - Currently, only one fMRI study contrasting lucid/non-lucid REM sleep - is a case study - Interestingly, results of study converge w/MRI studies that have evaluated individual differences in lucid dreaming frequency Compared to non-lucid REM sleep, lucid REM sleep is associated with increased activity in... - Prefrontal cortex: metacognition/self-reflection - Parietal cortex/precuneus: self-referential processing, episodic memory, and experience of agency - Occipital/inferior temporal regions: visual processing - Lucid dreams often associated w/ increased visual vividness/clarity of dream scene

Neurological causes/neurophysical research findings of Cotard's

Neurological causes: - Whatever it is that tags objects in our consciousness as mine or not, self or not-self may be malfunctioning in Cotard's - Disorder is relatively rare, so unclear neurological underpinnings Neuropsychological research findings: - Syndrome associated w/neural misfiring in fusiform face area - when patient sees their own face, might perceive no association btwn face & own sense of self - In general, Cotard patients... - Show greater brain atrophy, esp of median frontal lobe, than controls - Often present w/lesions in parietal lobe Activity of the medial frontoparietal network correlates more w/awareness of internal world as opposed to lateral frontoparietal - correlates more w/awareness of external world

Susan Greenfield's alternative theory to identity formation

Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield alt theory: identity formation involves establishment of... - Robust, long-lasting, internally consistent thought processes - Complex neural connections btwn multiple regions of brain (which are neurological correlates of former) ➜ Identity arises from increased cognitive associations/neural connections Greenfield: certain conditions/disorders involve excessive focus on immediate sensory stimuli @ expense of complex inner thought processes necessary for sense of identity - Characteristic of very young children who have not yet developed sense of identity + people w/schizophrenia and those sufficiently intoxicated that they lose sense of identity - In all of these cases, there is absence of associative powers typical of normal adult - allows them to see one thing in terms of something else, to think metaphorically. As a result, tends to be literal interpretation of things − Ex: Schizophrenic asked meaning of saying "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" − Typical reply: if you live in glass house and someone throws stone at wall, then wall will break − Similar to how small child will respond - In addition, these individuals may be easily distracted

Some considerations for legal ramifications of crimes by tumors?

Neurosurgeries now can remove tumors like Whitman's tumor: - What are legal ramifications? - If murderer has tumor removed, is he same self? Should he be held accountable? - Should person be exonerated or given lighter sentence after surgery since presumably would no longer be violent?

Autism spectrum's fundamental problem

New theory: fundamental problem in autism spectrum disorder may be hypersensitivity to experience - induces an overwhelming fear response Some children on spectrum have specifically said they feel "abject terror" when looking at faces, esp eyes - "I can walk into a room and feel what everyone is feeling. The problem is that it all comes in faster than I can process it."

Monism

Only one kind of substance in the universe Ex: - Materialism: everything that exists is physical: behaviorism, mind-brain identity theory, functionalism, computational theory of mind - Idealism: everything is actually mind, including material world - Transcendental idealism: subtype of idealism that integrates idealism with empiricism, which emphasizes importance of sensory experience

Subtypes of Autoscopic Phenomena include:

Out-of-body experience (OBE): Leaving body, seeing it from outside perspective like ceiling looking down on body in bed - Dualism of body/mind: center of awareness floats free of body - Ex: Subject sees himself immobile in bed, but feels as if floating above bed Autoscopic hallucination (AH): Person experiences seeing double of themselves in extrapersonal space without the experience of leaving their body − Individual perceives world from usual visuo-spatial perspective Ø Ex: Subject suddenly notices a seated figure on his left. "It wasn't hard to realize that it was I myself who was sitting there." Heautoscopy (HAS): Person experiences seeing double of themselves, but it is difficult for them to decide whether the self is localized within the physical body or in the autoscopic body − Individual may report seeing in an alternating or simultaneous fashion from different visuo-spatial perspectives Ø Ex: Subject feels as if she were standing at the foot of her bed and looking down at herself, yet she also has the impression of "seeing" from the visuo-spatial perspective of her physical body, which looks at the wall immediately in front of her o Asked at which of these two positions she thinks herself to be, she answers that "I am at both positions at the same time" v May take form of doppelgänger effect, where person perceives and interacts with a duplicate of their own body - The person hallucinating finds their identity and location shifting from the physical body to the illusory body, sometimes moving back and forth in rapid succession - The experience is usually accompanied by the presence of strong emotions Ø Ex: Ananthaswamy described case of man shaking his double, trying to get the latter to get up out of bed and go to work, while the double laid in bed with a hangover, unwilling to move

What did imaging of a Cotard's patient reveal?

PET imaging of Cotard's patient by neurologist Steven Laureys: extremely reduced levels of activity in default mode network (DMN) &precuneus - almost down to state of unresponsive wakefulness - May be tied to greatly reduced sense of self - DMN is active during self-referential activity - Key hub in network is precuneus, one of the most connected brain regions MRI scan of another patient showed atrophy of frontotemporal and in particular, the insula − Insula important in body awareness & subjective perception of body states

Amnesia

Partial/total loss of memory

What are the particular delusions that manifest in Cotard's influenced by?

Particular delusions that manifest in Cotard's tend to be influenced by one's personal narrative & even dominant cultural norms Ex 1: Patient w/delusion she had no teeth seemed to have repressed attraction toward her dentist brother-in-law Ex 2: Patients today may report they are "brain dead," something that did not tend to happen in past when brain death not considered important criterion in determination of death Ex 3: Historically, some patients with Cotard's convinced they had syphilis. In recent years, that is relatively rare. Rather, patients more likely to believe they have AIDS Cotard's may be comorbid w/schizophrenia or other disorders

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Patient asked to retell/reconstruct story of trauma in safe environment (play therapy for children) - Story should include emotional reactions experienced + events - Goal: put entire memory into words to capture dissociated parts from conscious recall - Memories are thereby brought more under control of neocortex - reactions they kindle can be more manageable - Also, retelling story in safety/security, with trusted therapist enables security rather than terror to be associated/connected to trauma memories May need to focus more on Cognitive Behavior Therapy, relaxation techniques, or physical exercise initially, esp in cases of severe trauma

Anosognosia

Patient's right brain severely damaged by stroke, leaving left side of body paralyzed, unaware of paralysis - Patient deny paralysis + rationalize to support view they are not paralyzed − When Ramachandran asked patient if she could move her paralyzed left hand, answered "Yes." When asked show him, she made excuses: "Oh, doctor, I didn't move my arm because I have arthritis in my shoulder and it hurts." or "The medical students have been prodding me all day and I don't really feel like moving my arm right now." - Ramachandran asked another patient if she could touch him on nose (w/paralyzed hand), responded, "I am touching your nose with my left hand" - even though she wasn't! ➜ As w/split brain patients, patients seem only conscious of/identify w/left brain self, which is not aware of right brain/left arm paralysis

Locke's Memory Theory of Personal Identity

Personal identity persists over time because we retain memories of ourselves @ diff points - each of those memories is connected to the one before it - Advantage of this theory over Body Theory: physical body changes, but consciousness/memory persists through changes - Problem w/memory Theory: what if you don't/can't remember? - We don't remember events from first years of life (infantile amnesia) - does that mean we didn't become who we are until age of two? − What happens when people lose memory, e.g., dementia/amnesia - do they stop being that person?

Lucid Dream Induction Techniques

Practice dream recall, else could have lots of lucid dreams but not know anything about them! - Set intention: remember dreams before going to sleep, set aside time in morning for dream recall - Get into habit of asking yourself when waking up: "What was I dreaming?" Do this first or you'll forget some/all of dream! - In sleep labs, abrupt arousal aids dream recall - if subjects distracted from remembering for even seconds, then dream often forgotten - Don't move from position in which you awaken - Don't think of the day's concerns - If you remember nothing, keep trying for several minutes w/o moving/thinking of anything else - usually, pieces/fragments of dream will come to you - If you still can't remember, ask: "What was I just thinking?" / "How was I just feeling?" to obtain necessary clues to retrieve entire dream - Cling to clues of what you might have been experiencing, try to rebuild story from them: when you recall scenes, ask yourself what happened before that, and before that... - If you still can't recal, note present feelings, list current concerns, ask: "Did I dream above that? - Keep a dream diary! - Jot down dreams when waking in middle of night - if you can afford to lose some sleep ☞ Research: people who recall dreams at least once a night report having at least one lucid dream a month

Brain region with central role in identity

Prefrontal cortex PFC connects more areas of brain than any other, so the more active, the more cohesive overall brain functioning ★ The latter is probably central for sense of identity Remember, PFC is key brain region that shows huge quantitative difference that sets us apart from other animals − Accounts for 33% of adult human brain but only 17% in chimpanzees Also the last part of brain to develop, only becoming fully mature/functional in late twenties ➜ A baby, non-human animals, or intoxicated person may be conscious but probably has no clear sense of identity

MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams) technique

Preliminary training: prospective memory exercise - Look for pre-specified targets each day for at least a week and do a reality test as soon as you notice the target When you awaken from a dream period - Recall as many details as possible from your dream - See yourself becoming lucid: Imagine that you are back in the dream from which you have just awakened, but this time you recognize that it is a dream - Focus your intent: tell yourself "Next time I'm dreaming, I want to remember I'm dreaming" - and really mean it! - Repeat procedure till you fall back asleep - LaBerge found that with autosuggestion, he had a lucid dream on only 1 out of 6 nights in the lab; with MILD, he had one or more lucid dreams on 20 out of 21 nights in the lab

Turing Test

Proposed by Alan Turing in 1950 as criterion for whether machine is displaying real intelligence. Observer communicating w/machine can't tell between computer & human → computer is genuinely intelligent - Participants: human interrogator/judge, human responder, machine responder - Neutral communication: No visibility/other clues (e.g., all three responding through computer terminals - no handwriting/voice clues) - Interrogation: Interrogator asks agents (human and machine) a series of questions - Resolution: After time interval, interrogator tries to decide which responder is human

People w/schizophrenia may try to compensate for disturbed feeling of agency by...

Relying more on judgment of agency: - Latter depends on external factors like visual feedback + more complex cognitive processing - May explain split-second delay Sophie said she experiences between moving her hands and feeling she initiated action - a delay that makes her question whether her hands are her own

Schizophrenia & hyperconnectivity in the brain

Research found: in people w/schizophrenia, there is hyperconnectivity between various parts of brain Mammalian brains tend to be small-world networks - Most nodes make short-range connections to one another, tend to be clustered in densely connected modules − One or more nodes in each module serves as hub, makes long-range connections all over network - However, brain of schizophrenic tends to be measurably less of a small-world network, shows increased diversity of functional connections More specifically, brains of schizophrenics show hyperconnectivity between: − Language centers (Broca's area) and putamen, a deep-brain region associated w/conscious perception of sound - may cause activity in language production areas to enter consciousness as audible voices − Amygdala/parahippocampal gyrus (both involved in fear response) and parts of brain involved in self-referential thought (medial prefrontal cortex) and language processing - may increase levels of fear, uncertainty, and suspicion associated w/the voices Finally, Judith Ford's research: inner speech not tagged as belonging to self may be misperceived as foreign / belonging to someone else - results in auditory verbal hallucinations - In patients who hear voices, Broca's area & auditory cortex less well-connected, might corrode pathway for corollary signal to reach auditory cortex, resulting in voices that sound foreign According to Ford, raw material of auditory verbal hallucinations = one's unbidden thoughts/ruminations - Ex: "When my mind is wandering and unbidden thoughts are becoming conscious, I can hear the tonality, prosody, and affect of my mother's voice telling me 'you are trying to do too much, dear.' I do not think she is speaking to me from her grave. But if I were psychotic, I might."

Studies on healthy participants about free will and decisions

Research on healthy participants using "masking" technique suggests: what we perceive as free will isn't free - determined by unconscious factors Subliminal perception studies: - Written words presented very briefly for a few hundred milliseconds - subliminally flashed - Instructions contained in these subliminally presented messages passed "unseen" (below threshold of consciousness) but still processed by brain + elicited appropriate action - If experimenter then asked participants "Why did you do this?" Response: "I did it because I wanted to," then gave invented reason ➜ We have a need to find reasons for whatever we do − when we have no access to actual reason for our action because motivation is subconscious, we invent a story to explain actions and believe it

BIID treatment/prognosis & controversy

Research on how voluntary amputations affect lives of patients very limited - Numerous case reports that amputation permanently resolves desire in affected individuals − After amputation, BIID person expresses no regret, actually greatly relieved − Nor do they tend to come back for more amputations of other limbs Controversy: - ~20 years ago, when media attention to BIID was at peak, bioethicist Arthur Caplan called it "absolute, utter lunacy to go along with a request to maim somebody" - Others have argued it's analogous to gender reassignment surgery - Debate rages on today - At present, patients contact doctors in foreign countries w/underground network for surgeries

Neurobiology of repression

Research shows in repression/dissociation, prefrontal cortex (executive control) disengages processing in hippocampus (memory) - Participants asked to memorize word pairs, e.g., ordeal-roach or steam-train − Respond condition: Participants shown cue word, asked to recall matched word − Suppress condition: Participants shown cue word, asked to actively suppress matched word ➜ Word suppression associated w/activation of prefrontal cortex to disengage processing in hippocampus ➜ Suppressing matched word reduced recall of word ★ The brain is more active when avoiding recalling a memory than during recall itself Other studies similarly found repression associated w/: − Increased activation of prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex (associated w/response selection / processing conflicting pieces of info) − Deactivation of hippocampus Research by Simone Reinders suggests repression of memory associated w/dissociative identity disorder reduces activity in amygdala/insula - presumably w/attendant dampening of negative emotions - When patients w/dissociative identity disorder read stories related to their trauma, alters unaware of trauma, relative to alters aware of trauma, showed: − Increased activity in cingulate gyrus − Reduced amygdala/insula activity

Studies that have indicated either free will is illusory / much of decision-making is unconscious

Research: either free will is illusory / much of decision-making is unconscious - Include studies in which participants believe they are executing actions of free will when they are actually responding unconsciously to commands given by experimenter Split-brain patients research by Michael Gazzaniga - Split-brain procedure pioneered by Robert Sperry: corpus callosum (tract of neural fibers connecting left/right cerebral hemispheres) severed to control epileptic seizures - Left hemisphere = speech-dominant, associated w/material of which we are conscious for most right-handed people - Right hemisphere associated w/material of which we are unconscious - Normally, the two hemispheres continuously share info - However, when connection between them is disrupted (as in split-brain patients), it becomes possible to study job of each side of brain in isolation - N.B.: Each side of brain projects to opposite side of body Other split-brain patient studies

The disorder in which sense of agency is compromised

Schizophrenia Symptoms: - Delusions, e.g., of persecution or control (belief that someone else is controlling one's actions) − Hallucinations: perception of nonexistent object or event, usually auditory

Searle on Turing Test

Searle also thinks that the Chinese room argument reveals a fundamental problem with the so-called Turing Test

On a singular locus where intentional agent/self can be found in the brain

Striking discrepancy between intuitions about brain's organization and scientific evidence - We assume brain possesses singular center that coordinates all neuronal functions - Would be place where all sensory signals converge to be interpreted coherently - where decisions reached, plans formulated, responses programmed - Finally, would be place where intentional, autonomous self has its seat However, no singular locus in brain where intentional agent/self can be found - Instead, highly distributed system - consists of multiple interconnected modules operating in parallel, each devoted to specific cognitive/executive functions - Coordination between subsystems achieved through self-organized interactions in networks rather than through top-down orchestration by superordinate command center ➜ May be that self is emergent property of physical brain - can't be fully explained by understanding of component parts

"Feeling of a presence" (also known as "hallucination du compagnon")

Subtype of Autoscopic Phenomena (AP) One has convincing feeling there is another person close by w/o actually seeing that person Most famous case (quoted in The Man Who Wasn't There, p. 199): Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton wrote in diaries that he & expedition team members Frank Worsley + Tom Crean, on last leg of dangerous/difficult journey to find help to save other stranded members of trans-Antarctic expedition, began feeling presence of fourth person. Shackleton wrote: - "I know that during long/racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards Worsley said to me, 'Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us.' Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels 'the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech' in trying to describe things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a reference to a subject very near to our hearts."

Out-of-body experience (OBE)

Subtype of Autoscopic Phenomena (AP) Person experiences leaving physical body, seeing it from outside perspective - like from ceiling looking down at body lying in bed − Gives strong sense of dualism of body/mind: one's center of awareness, which usually anchored in body, floats free of it Ex: Subject sees himself in bed in front of him, feels as if he were floating in space above bed, could see his own immobile body in bed

Autoscopic hallucination (AH)

Subtype of Autoscopic Phenomena (AP) Person experiences seeing double of themselves in extrapersonal space wi/o experience of leaving body − Individual perceives world from usual visuo-spatial perspective Ex: Subject notices seated figure on his left. "It wasn't hard to realize that it was I myself who was sitting there."

Heautoscopy (HAS)

Subtype of Autoscopic Phenomena (AP) Person experiences seeing double of themselves, but difficult to decide whether the self is localized within physical or autoscopic body − May report seeing alternating/simultaneous fashion from different visuo-spatial perspectives Ex: Subject feels she were standing at foot of bed and looking down at herself, yet she also has impression of "seeing" from visuo-spatial perspective of physical body, which looks at wall in front of her - Asked at which of these two positions she thinks herself to be, answers: "I am at both positions at the same time" May take form of doppelgänger effect: person perceives/interacts w/duplicate of their own body − Person hallucinating finds identity/location shifting from physical to illusory body, sometimes moving back and forth in rapid succession − Experience usually accompanied by presence of strong emotions - Ex: Ananthaswamy described case of man shaking his double, trying to get double to get out of bed to work while double laid in bed w/hangover, unwilling to move

Transcendental idealism

Subtype of idealism - integrates idealism with empiricism, emphasizes importance of sensory experience Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): transcendental idealist − Wanted to find more balanced position combining empiricism/rationalism/idealism − Emphasized observation - examining what is revealed by sensory experience and reason, also held that there are categories and structures from the mind ("add-ons") that are imposed on perceptions − Anticipated modern cognitive science Monism > Idealism

Why isn't the materialist position a definite position?

Tend to think of materialist position as definite position - involves known components - but domain of the physical is a moving target 17th/early 18th century: scientists explained chemical processes in terms of phlogiston theory − Combustible substances have fire-like element called phlogiston - will dephlogisticate when burned, releasing stored phlogiston − Growing plants absorb phlogiston - why air doesn't combust + why plant matter burns ➜ Then Antoine Lavoisier came along, showed they were wrong - combustion = type of oxidation Early 20th century: Bohr atom model became new theory of what exists @ fundamental level − Electrons in defined circular orbits around nucleus ➜ But we know model is wrong - electrons not in orbit like in planetary astronomy, but probabilistic matter waves (quantum theory) Then Einstein w/theory of relativity: contrary to classical physics, space/time not standard background/absolute features of universe, but malleable and... - Depend on observer's inertial framework, e.g., motion, relative to system being observed - Transformed by presence of mass & energy Fundamentals of science have undergone dramatic changes over time ☞ Scientists will continue to understand the physical in new ways + find it's different than they thought

Dissociative aspect of trauma

The trauma experience entails urge to take action (fight or flight) @ same time that one is paralyzed by helplessness - Sense of horror "frozen" in body → person dissociates As a result, little/no connections form between neocortex & memory storage/emotional centers (e.g., amygdala) PTSD associated with over-activation of brain's opioid system → numbing of feelings, sense of being cut off from life/concern about others' feelings

Dualism

Theory that mental & physical - or mind & body/brain - are different kinds of things Both mental & physical are real - neither can be assimilated to the other. Ex: belief in a soul that is distinct and separate from body - Few cognitive scientists are dualists - Mind-body dualism is most closely associated with thought of Rene Descartes (1596-1650) - "I think, therefore I am"

Evidence that impairments in brain's corollary-discharge mechanism might underlie loss of sense of agency in people with schizophrenia

Theory was proposed by Irwin Feinberg @ San Francisco VA Hospital - may explain primary symptoms of schizophrenia, such as delusions of control, auditory verbal hallucinations, and thought insertion Tickling: - Impossible to tickle yourself bc brain (cerebellum) stifles response to self-generated touch sensations - However, people experiencing auditory hallucinations/delusions of control feel touch as equally intense/ticklish regardless of themselves' or experimenter's → people w/schizophrenia can tickle themselves! ➜ Suggests inability to distinguish self-generated actions from non-self actions, impaired sense of agency may explain delusions of control/thought insertion in people with schizophrenia Dampening of self-generated vocal sounds: - Healthy people generally dampen response to self-generated sounds - their brains make own vocalized sounds seem softer − Just before person utters sound, EEG signals show synchrony - suggests copy of command to move vocal cords is sent to auditory cortex − An EEG signal called N1, indicative of auditory cortex activity, is damped about 100 milliseconds after person makes sound, suggests: predicted sound has been compared w/actual sound, causing external sound to be tagged as self-generated and thus inhibited - This mechanism seems to be impaired in schizophrenics − N1 signal not suppressed to self-generated sounds − Patients hear own vocalizations in same way they hear external sounds

Psychotherapeutic treatment

Therapy traditionally aimed to integrate various alters, but intensive long-term therapy is required to achieve full integration Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/mindfulness therapies most commonly used − Techniques used similar to treatment of PTSD

Astral Projection vs. Lucid Dreaming

There are... - Many overlaps between astral projection & lucid dreaming - Controversy regarding differences between these two phenomena Difference #1: − Lucid dreaming: becoming aware that you are dreaming while you are dreaming − Astral projection: moving from waking state to dream state w/o loss of consciousness - Note: meditation traditions from which lucid dream/"dream yoga" practices derive distinguish between Dream-Initiated Lucid Dreams and Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreams (i.e., similar to astral projection) ★ Cautionary note: some report astral projection induction techniques, esp induction tapes, may induce sleep paralysis Difference #2 − Esoteric literature: there are many planes of consciousness − Astral projection may take place on planes closer to material realm than those of lucid dreaming - Texts on astral projection often mention "sensitive" people can see those who are astral projecting, something not reported w/lucid dreaming - However, all highly speculative because isn't any credible research on astral projection

Autoscopic Phenomena

Things we take for granted about our self - being grounded in body, identifying w/it, viewing world from behind our eyes - can be disrupted − These experiences mess w/one's center of awareness - creates strong sense of Cartesian duality Experience where individual perceives surrounding environment from different perspective / perceives body from position outside own body (autos = "self"; scopy = "watcher") Subtypes: - Out-of-body experience (OBE): Person leaves physical body, sees it from outside perspective - Autoscopic hallucination (AH): Person sees double of themselves in extrapersonal space w/o leaving body - Heautoscopy (HAS): Person sees double of themselves, but difficult to decide whether self is localized within physical or autoscopic body. Includes doppelgänger effect - person perceives/interacts with duplicate of body - "Feeling of a presence"/"hallucination du compagnon": Feeling there is another person close by w/o actually seeing person In AH and HAS, subjects generally report being in a sitting/standing position, OBE generally involves supine position

How to have lower risk of developing Alzheimer's

Those who stay physically active/are nonobese have lower risk of developing disease: Heart health → brain health Studies found that people who keep minds active show less loss of intellectual functioning as they age - Study of convent nuns: education/intellectual activity seem to protect against Alzheimer's - Also found that degree of sentence complexity/amount of positive affect expressed in writing samples when in 20's were negatively associated w/incidence of disease, positively associated w/longevity → Have been cases where autopsies showed disease present, but no symptoms Use it so you don't lose it!

Treatment and prognosis of Cotard's

Treatment may involve ECT, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers Prognosis: Cotard's is transient in most people

Qigong

Type of movement meditation - coordinates slow flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and calm meditative state of mind - Practice aims to align body/mind, cultivate/balance qi - Traditionally, qigong training esoteric/secretive - knowledge passing from master to student in lineages that maintained unique interpretations/methods - Today many different forms of qigong (includes tai chi) − Research: many benefits of qigong practices like tai chi for physical/mental health Qigong also been used to cultivate qi/life force for martial arts training... like in Star Wars!

How long does it take to learn lucid dreaming?

Varies btwn individuals - may take days to months to induce first lucid dream w/practices. In general, will take years to get to point where able to have lucid dreams at will

Realistic conclusions from Jill Bolte Taylor and other resulting/following studies on neuroscience of self

We tend to experience continual stream of mental chatter + our self tends to identify w/stories created by this constant internal dialogue − Most of what we think about the self consists of stories that aren't necessarily true Possible to experience more expansive sort of self that is not just limited story-making self, a more expansive kind of consciousness - like what Jill Bolte Taylor experienced during her stroke - under various circumstances

Do we usually identify with the left-brain or right-brain self?

We tend to only be conscious of / identify with left-brain self, prob because language centers primarily located in left brain (for "righties") Research w/split-brain patients (with severed corpus callosums): - Picture of patient looking at screen, apple on right side, pencil on left side, can't see what hands are doing − If patient asked what he sees, will say "apple" − If asked to pick up w/left hand what he sees, he will pick up pencil ➜ If participant asked why he picked up pencil, will not know, but will make up completely false but plausible story like "I wanted to write a note"

Why don't functionalists today have to be materialists?

We usually think of functionalists today as materialists, but they don't have to be - Functionalism is neutral between materialism and dualism/idealism - for ex, logically possible for non-physical substrates → mental states, such as subtle type of "vibrational energy" However, functionalism today associated w/materialism - specifically that each type of mental state identical w/particular type of neural state − This type of "species-chauvinism" = modern phenomenon due to ↑ emphasis on neuroscience in last 25 years

Early Philosophers' Views of the Self

West(ancient Greeks)/East early philosophers primarily interested in questions: − How does one lead a good life? − How does one find meaning in life? Concern: thinking what is the real self & how to merge with that, no distinction btwn philosophy/religion Not interested in questions about self that modern people focus on - "Who am I"... − What is my personality like? What are my memories, goals, interests? − What is the self? Where is it in the brain?

Western scientists & subtle body concept

Western scientists have started to explore the subtle body concept in relation to research on meditation Also, number of derivative health practices based on concept of qi that are quite popular in the West today, backed by research, includes - Acupuncture - Qigong

Agency and Sense of Self

What are the minimal attributes to create embodied sense of self - what Thomas Metzinger & Olaf Blanke call a minimal phenomenal self? - Rubber-hand illusion suggests: agency not one of those attributes − Subject thinks rubber hand is his own hand though he can't move it - Nonetheless, most agree that feeling that we control what we do = big part of what makes us a "self"

Body Theory of Personal Identity

What is it that makes you quintessentially you, preserves your identity through time, despite all changes that happen to you? - Philosophers have struggled w/this question for a long time - One theory: personal identity persists over time because you remain in same body from birth to death - default position most people have - true, but you don't consist of same physical stuff you had when you were born

What does BIID, phantom limbs, and the rubber-hand illusion all indicate?

What we experience as our physical self may not map to what is actually there

Subtle Bodies

What we think of as "our body" may be culturally dependent In many Asian cultures / Western esoteric traditions, body thought to include number of interlocking functional systems - Physical body is one component, but there are other subtle bodies as well, which... - Are connected by channels (nadis, meridians) through which energy (prana, qi, lung) flows − Have focal points (chakras, acupuncture points) - Interpenetrate @ successive layers of subtlety - at least in view of schools that hold there are multiple subtle bodies Understanding/working with these subtle bodies in various ways can promote physical health + help attain higher states of consciousness Descriptions of subtle bodies found in Yogic, Tantric Hinduism, Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism, Neoplatonism+ Western esoteric traditions

Evidence that corollary signal may be necessary for experience of will/intention

When Wilder Penfield stimulated part of motor cortex of patient undergoing exploratory surgery for treatment of epilepsy, patient's arm moved but patient insisted that he had not moved arm - Had not willed motor command, so no corollary signal → brain attributed movement not to self but to external agency

On proving whether free will is epiphenomenal

Whether free will is epiphenomenal is impossible to prove/disprove - like how it is impossible to prove validity of idealism/materialism However, some research indicates believing we don't have free will may have deleterious consequences − Ricard points out: if you think "It's not me who made that decision - it's my neuronal networks," you are dissociating yourself from your actions, become unable to take responsibility for them Study in which participants read either... - Selection claiming all behavior is fully determined by brain - Selection asserting existence of free will - Results: - Relative to folks who read article on free will, people made to believe in brain determinism more prone to deviate from moral standards/cheat − Probably because felt they weren't responsible for cheating behavior

Won't efforts/exercises for becoming lucid lead to loss of sleep? Won't I feel more tired after being awake in my dreams?

Yes, lucid dream practices may result in loss of sleep. However, how tired you feel after dream depends on what you did in dream - if you battled endlessly w/frustrating situations in non-lucid dream, prob very tired afterwards On other hand, exciting flight over glamorous landscape can leave person emotionally vitalized for days: "I customarily wake [from a lucid dream] w/cheerful 'afterglow' that carries me through the day" ☞ People who find lucid dreams exhausting/unpleasant not able to exercise much control over dreams

Descartes view

Zhuangzi quote: How can anyone know that they actually exist, rather than being in some sort of dream? Human senses are unreliable - Descartes: didn't know whether actually sitting in room in dressing gown next to a fire or just dreaming Evil genius thought experiment: - Descartes posited existence of evil genius whose purpose in life = deceive us - everything we believe, every sense experienced, every thought could all have been put in our minds by evil genius. How could we know that this was not the case? - On point of despair, but then realized he couldn't know he had a body - what he believed as his body could be part of deception, but must have a mind or else he wouldn't be having these thoughts/doubts

What studies have worked with the notion that free will is epiphenomenal?

fMRI research: people become aware of a decision's outcome seconds after moment at which analysis of brain's activity allows an outside observer to predict what decision will be − Participants asked to decide when/with which hand they want to press a key and immediately signal outcome of decision by executing respective motor movement − Time required for programming/execution of motor act (as determined by prior research) is subtracted from moment of pressing button to calculate time at which participant became aware of having decided − Brain imaging reveals: neuronal processes preparing this decision start quite some time (up to 7 secs) before participant becomes aware of decision Possible conclusions: • We believe we have free will, but free will is epiphenomenal, i.e., merely consequence of neuronal activity, rather than its cause OR • Much of what controls thoughts/decisions is unconscious

High-functioning autism study

fMRI study of high-functioning autism vs. controls − When those w/autism asked to think of social interactions like adore/hug/humiliate, showed significantly less activation in areas associated with self - Specifically reduced activity in posterior cingulate/precuneus (posterior midline region) - suggests they thought of words more like definitions - Cortical activation patterns used now to distinguish between autism and controls, 97% accuracy

Plato's dualistic view

• Universe = ordinary dusty world + higher realm of ideal perfection - the Forms − Forms = truth, beauty, moral goodness, eudaimonia (deeply meaningful happiness), etc. → point towards a higher dimension - nothing in ordinary world can explain So there is... − Apparent world of concrete objects, grasped by the senses, constantly changing − Forms: unchanging, unseen world of abstract objects grasped by reason ➜ World is mere shadows of the Forms Intellect is immaterial because Forms are immaterial, intellect must have affinity w/Forms it apprehends ★ Emphasis in Platonic philosophy was on higher world of Forms to which real self belongs & merging with that