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
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
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
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
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
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."
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"?
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
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
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"
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
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
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
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."
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
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
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
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
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
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
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/
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
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
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
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
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
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")
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
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."
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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?
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."
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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!
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
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
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
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
