Gaulin, Steven J.C., & Mcburney, Donald H. (2004). Consciousness: Evolutionary

Summary of:

Gaulin, Steven J.C., & McBurney, Donald H. (2004). Consciousness: Evolutionary Psychology: 2nd Ed, 101-120

Summary by: Shakeel Ahmad, Christina Galajan, Christopher Jaime, Natalie Soria

Chapter 5: Consciousnessis“one of the most mysterious aspects” of humanity; so much so that it is not entirely defined. According to Gaulin and McBurney, “the term is used in several distinct, albeit related, senses” (p. 101). Consciousness consists of wakefulness, voluntary action, and awareness. Wakefulness: consciousness is to unconsciousness as awake is to asleep. Since a person is not fully aware while asleep, they are not considered to be conscious. During sleep, the body is “powering down” by 25%. Humans spend a third of their life in this state, yet the question of ‘why humans must sleep’ has yet to be answered. Some answers have been proposed. For example, some postulate that, “sleep functions to keep animals quiet and out of harm’s way during the part of the 24 hour cycle to which it is not adapted, the part that constitutes a different ecological niche occupied by another organism” (p. 102). Some studies support that predators sleep more deeply than grazers, since they are not at risk of getting attacked. In addition, when an animal is said to “estivate,” it means that they are drastically reducing their metabolism. This is a valuable function during the winter when food is scarce and any activity is “metabolically expensive.” For human beings, sleeping for 8 hours a day is said to be the difference between life and death, and can even influence reproduction. Some studies suggest the duration of darkness effects human sleep habits. Furthermore, a controlled study endorsed the notion that volunteers kept in a laboratory under controlled lighting slept three hours longer when there were 14 hours of darkness as opposed to 8 hours of darkness. Voluntary action: certain voluntary actions are conscious and are processed in two different ways. One is to display controlled processing, which requires conscious attention, adequate time, and focused energy. Controlled processing, however, can easily be distracted. Unlike control processing, automatic processing is done quickly, effortlessly, and in conjunction with other tasks. One of the main functions of consciousness is “to permit us to focus neural resources on novel problems and let routine ones be handled automatically” (p. 104). One example of controlled processing would be to consume a single bite of food. Psychologists believe that this requires conscious attention,yet digestion does not. Gaulin and McBurney expand by explain how walking involves automatic processing and does not often involve conscious sensation since it is so rountine. Human bodies function automatically when it comes to walking, unless a leg ‘falls asleep’, a person is intoxicated, or a person performs an unfamiliar task. Some other examples of behavior that are not equated with consciousness include eye movement, (where the individual consciously looks at something but is not conscious of the actions performed during the process), swallowing, blinking, breathing, etc. A particularly interesting example involves answering the question, ‘what letters are on either side of R on a keyboard’. Since typing on a keyboard is an automatic routine, it is harder to come up with the answer. Awareness: being “conscious of something, as you are conscious of the fact that you are reading this right now or that you have a mosquito bite on your left hand” (p. 111). Awareness facilitates focusing on specific problems while letting the common routines be handled outside of consciousness. Awareness has been the most puzzling for psychologists specifically how it works in unison with the rest of the body. The issue includes not being able to identify separate sensory experiences. Gaulin and McBurney provide the barbecued potato chip example. People “see the golden color, taste the saltiness, smell the spices, feel the crispness, hear the crunch, and experience the pain from the red pepper” (p. 111). This example describes sensory. When it comes to the senses, those that are greatest in conflict include sight and touch. Visual is always dominant, has been created through evolution, unites the senses since it suppresses any information that conflicts with vision. Self-awareness is also an enormous factor regarding consciousness as awareness. Richard Dawkins holds that, “self-awareness evolved because it is helpful for us to make ourselves the objects of our thought” (112). Furthermore, Daniel Povinelli and John Cant proposed that the problem of swinging through the branches of the jungle canopy led to the development in larger primates the ability to think of themselves as “objects that interact with the world.” In an experiment, chimps were placed in front of a mirror and actually were able to identify and observe themselves while monkeys did not. Gordon Gallup then took the research further by coloring a red dot on the foreheads and ears of chimps and monkeys. Chimps were interested in the red dot and pointed at it, while monkeys did not seem to notice. Consciousness of awareness also involves the oneness of the self, deception, and self- deception. The main issue with the concept of self-deception is that “the deceiver and the deceived are the same person” (p. 115). Most research on self-deception is based on Freudian psychodynamics, in which Freud believes that “one belief is conscious and the other is relegated to the unconscious”. The questionable part of Freud’s belief is “unity of self.” For example, a man might say, “half of me wants to shave my beard and the other half doesn’t” (p. 115). This is an example of inner disharmony. Looking at the mind as modular, it is apparent that these modules are opposed. Michael Gazzaniga and Joseph LeDoux studied a patient back in 1978 who had his corpus callosum surgically severed in order to reduce the symptoms of a medical condition he lived with. After the surgery, studies showed that his left and right brain did not agree with one another. The boy’s left hemisphere controlled speaking while his right controlled his hand. For example, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said “draftsman,” and wrote “race car driver.” This supports that all human beings have constantly disagreeing brains. Gazzaniga and LeDoux believe that “in all normal people the verbal system gains control over the other mental processes to the extent that it becomes the only self that we are aware of” (from Gaulin 116). It is also purposed that a precise perception of oneself is not always best. For example, when it comes to finding mates, a boosted ego might be the decisive factor between two women of even attractiveness. The term “self-serving bias” describes human tendency to view oneself as above average. “The average person rates himself or herself more ethical, more persistent, more original,” etc (Gaulin 117). The final and best form of deception is self-deception. Despite what Freud thought, we do not hold that one belief is conscious and the other unconscious. For example “a married man who really believes that the troubles in the marriage are all his wife’s fault will more easily rationalize his search for another partner” (Gaulin 118). Both are conscious thoughts. Psychologists Byrne and Kurland created a modular model for self-deception where they discovered that “self deceiving individuals performed better than others in a competitive game” (Gaulin 119). The study of consciousness is a scientific quest that is far from finished Outline of:

Gaulin, Steven J.C., & McBurney, Donald H. (2004). Consciousness: Evolutionary Psychology: 2nd Ed, 101-120

Outline by: Shakeel Ahmad, Christina Galajan, Christopher Jaime, Natalie Soria

A. Defining Consciousness 1. Wakefulness 2. Voluntary action 3. Awareness B. Why do we sleep? 1. Stay safe during the day 2. Cost/Benefit of being awake C. Being aware of what we do 1. The influence of consciousness on behavior is often overestimated D. Consciousness Responsible For 1. Problem Solving 2. Motor Movements 3. Voluntary Behavior E. Many cognitive processes are unavailable to consciousness 1. Cognitive unconscious 2. Cognitive impenetrability 3. Benefits outweigh costs F. Some behaviors are conscious while they are being learned, but become lost to consciousness 1. Controlled processes 2. Automatic processes G. Consciousness is not required for learning to take place 1. Learning outside consciousness H. Implicit learning 1. How rather than what 2. Innumerable practical skills 3. Evolutionary consideration I. Unity Self, Deception, and Self-Deception 1. Brain causes deception 2. Inner Disharmony 3. Confabulation 4. Self-Serving Bias 5. Deception is widespread J. Consciousness as Awareness 1.The Unity of Consciousness a. Binding problem b. Common sense c. Visual dominance/capture 2. Self-Awareness

Summary of:

Alkire, Michael T., Anthony G. Hudetz, and Giulio Tononi. "Consciousness and anesthesia." Science 322.5903 (2008): 876-880.

Summary by: Shakeel Ahmad, Christina Galajan, Christopher Jaime, Natalie Soria

General anesthetics can be classified in two categories: intravenous agents (induction) and volatile agents (maintenance). Anesthetics are believed to work through the interruption of ion channels that regulate synaptic transmission in areas of the spinal cord and brain. These areas are very important in functions such as perception and responsiveness. Anesthesia hyperpolarizes neurons by increasing inhibition, decreasing excitation, and altering neuronal activity. As the dosage of anesthesia differs, the effects are different. As doses increase, the state of unconsciousness increases and the differences can be seen in the electroencephalogram (EEG). At low doses, symptoms are similar to drunkenness (analgesia, amnesia, distorted time perception, etc.). As does increase signs of failure to respond is considered unconsciousness. This is similar to sleep because we can imagine and move during sleep however due to our inhibition by the brainstem we do not allow unwanted movements. Anesthetics can impair a person’s willfulness to respond through certain regions of the brain where executive decisions are made. Not an issue for anesthetics that globally affect the brain however those that do not such as ketamine it can be. Ketamine can cause worrisome signs at higher doses such as blank stares with unresponsive behavior. In one case, a woman who was clinically unresponsive was asked to think of playing tennis and showed cortical activation patterns identical to those of healthy subjects. The difference between unconscious and unresponsive comes to the point of memory. A technique called the isolated forearm technique gives reason to believe that patients can be aware and responsive during surgeries. Consciousness is often associated with wakefulness. One of the methods of deliberately losing consciousness is by anesthetics. Anesthetics not only provide a means to attain unconsciousness, they also present some regional changes in the brain that could be possible clues for which parts of the brain are responsible for consciousness. During the loss of consciousness produced by anesthetics, the Thalamus experiences a drop in blood flow and metabolic activity. Furthermore, damage to the Thalamus is often observed in people in a vegetative state. While these findings are not enough to fully conclude that the Thalamus is a major part of consciousness, it is difficult to absolutely deny the possibility. Because it is known that the brain is a modular and compartmentalized, some postulate that certain parts are affected by anesthetics more than others. Some data suggests that the mesial parietal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus are the areas most impacted by anesthetics. These regions have been shown to be deactivated while in a state of unconsciousness propagated by anesthetics. Furthermore, these regions also reveal low signs of activity in vegetative subjects and seizing subjects. In fact, the first sign of recovery for a vegetative person is often the reactivation of these centers. Both the primary sensory cortices and frontal cortex, however, do not show many conclusive signs that they are primary targets of anesthetics. Finally, it is also possible that the areas responsible for motor actions can be a potential point of deactivation during unconsciousness. The mesial cortical core is one such area. A loss of consciousness does not necessarily correlate to neurons in posterior brain areas becoming inactivated, but rather dynamic aspects of neural activity change, especially those that affect the brain’s ability to integrate information. Anesthetics affect a number of processes in the brain: EEG coherence between cortical regions drops, cortical integration is disrupted, synchronization among distant areas is disrupted by slowing neural processes, and most critically, there is a loss of feedback interactions in the cortex. Anesthetics also affect information (loosely defined as the number of discriminable activity patterns). When the number of activity patterns diminishes, neural activity becomes less informative, even though it may be globally integrated. Several anesthetics produce a burst-suppression pattern of activity, and during deep anesthetic unconsciousness the corticothalamic system can still be active and even in fact hyperexcitable and can produce global, integrated responses. The only time that healthy humans lose consciousness is during sleep. The very essence of consciousness could possibly be integration and information. Thus, every experience cannot be subdivided into individual components but rather integrated as a whole. This approach allows us to evaluate both loss of integration, and loss of information. From this theoretical perspective, consciousness is not an all-or-none property; but rather, it increases in proportion to a system’s repertoire of discriminable states In conclusion, by focusing-directly or indirectly- a posterior lateral corticothalamic complex centered around the inferior parietal lobe, and perhaps a medial cortical core, most anesthetic agents appear to cause unconsciousness. . By either preventing integration or reducing information, anesthetics would produce unconsciousness. Overall, these ideas should help in developing agents with more specific actions, in better monitoring their effects on consciousness, and in employing anesthesia as a tool for characterizing the neural substrates of consciousness.

Outline of:

Alkire, Michael T., Anthony G. Hudetz, and Giulio Tononi. "Consciousness and anesthesia." Science 322.5903 (2008): 876-880.

Outline by: Shakeel Ahmad, Christina Galajan, Christopher Jaime, Natalie Soria

A. Categorizing Anesthesia 1. Inducer 2. Maintenance B. Hyperpolarizing Neurons 1. Increasing Inhibition 2. Decreasing Excitation C. Changes seen in EEG 1. Electrical recording from the scalp D. Anesthesia Levels 1. Low Doses similar to drunkenness 2. Higher Doses can cause unresponsiveness 3. Certain point at which EEG takes over into unconsciousness. E. The Thalamus 1. Anesthetics Lower Thalamus Activity 2. Vegetative State F. Cortical Effects 1. Regions Affected by Anesthetics 2. Unaffected Regions G. Disruption of cortical integration 1. Loss of consciousness does not equal inactivation of neurons 2. Dynamics aspects change 3. Anesthetics negatively affect brain processes a. EEG coherence b. Cortical integration c. Synchronization d. Feedback interactions H. Disruption of cortical information capacity 1. Anesthetics affect information 2. Neural activity becomes less informative I. A bit like sleep 1. Anesthesia is not the same as natural sleep 2. Brain arousal systems are deactivated J. Consciousness and Integrated Information 1. Loss of consciousness is associated with a breakdown of cortical connectivity. 2. Every experience is an integrated whole that cannot be subdivided 3. Consciousness is an all-or-none property. K. Conclusion 1. Developing agents with more specific actions 2. Anesthesia as a tool

Test Questions 1. Which of the following is a way to described consciousness: A. Wakefulness B. Awareness C. Voluntary Action D. All of the above 2.Larger animals pay a higher metabolic cost for being awake than smaller animals T/F 3.One theory suggests sleep is closely related to the niche of the animal T/F 4.Consciousness is to wakefulness as unconsciousness is to A. Coma B. Sleep C. Semi-consciousness D. Hypertension 5.Consciousness is not responsible for motor movements T/F 6.Some behaviors are conscious while they are being learned:

A. But become lost to consciousness

B. But become present to consciousness