DOCSLIB.ORG

Eugene Toolbox 2004 FINAL

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Eugene Toolbox 2004 FINAL Non-conscious Processes in Perception, Emotion, and Movement Skeptic’s Toolbox 2004 The University of Oregon Barry Beyerstein Brain Behaviour Laboratory Department of Psychology Simon Fraser University Do we have access to the causes of our feelings and our behaviour? The Doctrine of Concordance n The term used by the psychologist Endel Tulving to describe the age-old n Always? tenet of folk-psychology that consci- ous awareness always accompanies (and is always necessary for) percep- tion, memory, decision-making, and n Never? for the enactment and control of our behavior. Endel Tulving, University of Toronto n The notion that we always know what we are doing and why (i.e., what the n Sometimes? causes were) 1 Is introspection a reliable guide A two-pronged attack on the to what is controlling validity of introspection our behaviors? n Wilhelm Wundt (1832- 1920) and the struc- turalists held that Ivan Pavlov introspection was a (1849-1936) valid procedure for John B. Watson observing the workings (1878-1958) B.F. Skinner of one’s own mind. (1904-1990) Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) BEHAVIORISM PSYCHOANALYSIS STIMULUS- RESPONSE PSYCHOLOGY “Everything is concave or convex, so everything has something to do with sex.” Peit Hein: Ode to Freud 2 The Modern View of the Evidence for Unconscious Non-conscious Processing n Although most psychologists and neuro- n Implicit versus explicit knowledge scientists reject both Freud’s peculiar n Performance of highly practiced (“overlearned”) behaviors---e.g., driving, sports and dance movements conceptualization of the unconscious and the n “Blindsight” and prosopagnosia Behaviorists’ dismissal of any causal role for n Ideomotor activities conscious awareness, there is much compelling n Semantic priming effects clinical and experimental evidence to support n Non-conscious effects of unattended stimuli on the claim that much of what we do is choices, moods, social behaviours, etc. influenced, planned, chosen, and initiated by n Conditioning (learning) without awareness brain processes operating outside of n The “mere exposure effect” conscious awareness. n Source amnesia and cryptomnesia n The Implicit Associations Test n Dissociated behaviors, automatisms An Information Processing / Selective Attention Model of the Mind. Kenneth Bowers University of Waterloo n First-Order Consciousness (~Farthing’s “Primary Consciousness”) n Found in all higher mammals n Awareness of events due to attending to them or “noticing” them n Second-Order Consciousness (~Farthing’s “Reflective Consciousness”) n Awareness of being aware n Comprehension of things that have been noticed n Integrates beliefs, knowledge, concepts, theories G. William Farthing about how the world works (1992) 3 Consciousness evolved with successively Bowers more complex brains “A given behaviour has a variety of potential Second-Order Consc. determinants, at least some of which are readily noticeable. First-Order However, whatever is Consc . represented or noticed in first-order conscious- ness never entails a particular understanding of it in second-order consciousness.” 4 The modularity of consciousness: Different specialized “mod- ules” can work in the background without conscious awareness Let’s talk about perception Even relatively simple The visual system encodes perceptions are complex relatively few key details from cognitive constructions the retinal stimulus, which are then “filled in” by the brain, n They are not just a one-to -one rendition using inference and of what’s on the retina n “Perception is sensory reasoning.” information from memory n That reasoning, inferring, etc., is done about what we know about how unconsciously, before the final result is served up to conscious awareness. the world usually works. 5 What did you just see? Answer: 2 Bill Clintons 6 BLINDSIGHT Stuff going on in the visual system that we’re n Lawrence Weiskrantz, not aware of University of Oxford “Blindsight” Lesions in the visual cortex that can cause hemianopsias or scotomata 7 Testing for Blindsight 1. Determine extent of blind area 2. Present stimuli in the blind part of the visual field Pointing at objects inside the blind spot (that the patients cannot see 3. Require a behavioral consciously) is more accurate than the hit rate predicted by chance. response; e.g., pointing How could such a thing happen? We have several visual systems 8 There’s even another branch of the visual system that controls our biological clock WHERE? WHAT? EVIDENCE FOR SIMILAR NON-CONSCIOUS PROCESSESSING OF INFORMATION IN NON- BRAIN INJURED PEOPLE? 9 Mel Goodale, When people who can’t see their hand Univ. of Western and reach out to grasp the 3-D stimulus Ontario that LOOKS to be a different size because of the visual illusion, they still position the gap between their fingers to match the REAL size of the cylinder. 10 PROSOPAGNOSIA n Loss of the ability to recognize faces without the loss of visual ability in general Could part of the brain still be able to recognize faces, even though there is no conscious awareness of their familiarity? Antonio Damasio University of Iowa 11 Polygraphs ARE sensitive detectors of A.N.S. responses Half the faces were familiar; half were novel. Autonomic Nervous System In Tranel and Damasio’s experiment n The prosopagnosic patients couldn’t recognize SOME EXAMPLES OF faces of people who were quite familiar to them n At the same time they NON-CONSCIOUS were denying they knew who the familiar faces were, their autonomic INFLUENCES ON nervous systems were showing a bigger response on the polygraph to the BEHAVIOUR familiar faces than they BEHAVIOUR gave to non-familiar faces—all without the patients’awareness 12 The mere exposure effect n Robert Zajonc, University of Michigan n Kunst-Wilson, W. R. and Zajonc, R. B. (1980). Affective discrimination of stimuli that cannot be recognized. Science, 207, 557-558 unconscious odor conditioning The nose knows . 13 UNCONSCIOUS ODOR The Warwick Lab CONDITIONING n Set out to determine if unconscious conditioning to unobtrusive odors in the environment can produce subtle effects on n Kirk-Smith, Van Toller, & Dodd mood or emotions at some later time University of Warwick, U.K. (unbeknownst to the person experiencing these feelings). n Biological Psychology, 1983, Vol. 17, pp. 221-231 n To say that the conditioning was unconscious, after the experiment, people must report having had no awareness of the smell when they were exposed to it earlier and/or no awareness that it had in any way affected their emotional responses at the later time. n Experimental demonstration of the uncon- scious odor conditioning effect requires a subtle, relatively neutral (neither "good" nor "bad"), smell that people in the study are n Two sessions, ostensibly unrelated to unlikely to have been exposed to before. one another, one announced as a n The Warwick group chose TUA (Trimethyl- problem-solving experiment, the second undecylenic aldehyde, a neutral "base" used in one (about a week later) was billed as a the perfume industry) task requiring rating of one’s own n They subtly insinuated TUA, unannounced, into the room environment for half their emotions and those being expressed in participants during the first session. photographs of people’s faces. n There was a "sham task“ in the first session to divert attention from the real independent and dependent variables. 14 SESSION ONE: TASK ONE: SESSION TWO: n Problem solving task n Occurred about a week later, seemingly done with the subtle odor of TUA present unrelated to the first experiment: different for half the partici - experimenters, different lab room, different pants. The odor was weak; no attention was task, etc. drawn to it. n TASK TWO: n Very difficult problems to solve. n 1. Complete a self-report mood scale before n Participants were treat- and after the photo -judging task. ed brusquely. n They were frustrated, n 2. Rate the emotions being expressed in a angry, and made to feel series of facial photographs. inadequate for not performing better. Pictures such as these would have been eliminated RESULTS: n In the second session, participants who had the odor present in both sessions tended to rate their own mood, and the emotions supposedly depicted in the photos, more n Participants did not know that the negatively than those who did not have TUA pictures had actually been pre-selected present during the emotionally-disturbing to remove any photos that a previous first session. group of judges had rated as showing n Debriefing subjects after Session Two revealed very little awareness of ever having any emotion smelled TUA before or that it had anything n In session two, all the experimental to do with the purposes of the experiments in subjects had the TUA odor present in which they had participated. the room. 15 n The authors concluded that subtle Follow-up Experiment conditioning of odors to emotional situational variables can occur without n Van Toller and Dodd used a similar experimental para- awareness. digm, but this time the n When these odor stimuli are encountered measure was autonomic nervous system response to later, they may "reinstate" part of the the unconscious odour negative emotional state without the (similar to Damasio’s experi- ment with prosopagnosics) experiencer knowing where it came from. n In this experiment, people n My extension: This may be a common showed heightened emotional responses on the polygraph source of vague feelings, premonitions, to TUA that had been unexplained attractions, repulsions, present but unnoticed in a previous, emotionally unset- emotional reactions, subtle and sudden tling situation. changes in moods, etc., in everyday life. How might it work? 16 Enough smell stuff already . One of the jobs of consciousness is to make as many operations as possible unconscious The capacity of “focal PRACTICE awareness” is limited n Conscious decision- making and monitoring of behaviour is reserved for novel tasks that require moment-to- moment attention (feedback control).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy-Logotherapy.Pdf
    Logotherapy Paul T. P. Wong Trinity Western University, British Columbia, Canada I. Introduction Known as the “Third Viennese School of Psychother- II. The Spiritual Dimension apy,” logotherapy was developed in the 1930s because of III. The Meaning of Meaning Frankl’s dissatisfaction with both Freud and Adler. IV. Basic Tenets Frankl accepts Sigmund Freud’s concept of uncon- V. Existential Frustration and Noogenic Neurosis sciousness but considers the will to meaning as more VI. Logotherapeutic Techniques and Applications VII. Recent Developments fundamental than the will to pleasure. Existential Further Reading analysis is designed to bring to consciousness the “hid- den” meaning or spiritual dimension of the client. Frankl received training in individual psychology GLOSSARY from Adler. He differs from Adler because he focuses on the will to meaning, while Adler emphasizes social dereflection A logotherapeutic technique to redirect clients’ attention away from their problems to more positive as- interest and the will to power. However, some of the pects of their lives. It is built on the human capacity for basic concepts of logotherapy, such as freedom and re- self-distancing and self-transcendence. sponsibility, bear the imprint of Adler’s influence. existential analysis Developed by Viktor Frankl, it refers to A major difference between logotherapy and psycho- therapeutic techniques that bring the hidden meaning of analysis is that both Freud and Adler focus on the past, existence into consciousness. while logotherapy focuses rather on the future—on the logotherapy Developed by Viktor Frankl, it refers to a spiri- meanings to be fulfilled. tually, existentially oriented therapy that seeks to achieve Although logotherapy and existential analysis tend healing and health through meaning.
    [Show full text]
  • The Biological Approach to Psychiatry: History and Prospects
    The Journal of Neuroscience, June 1990, IO(6): 1707-1710 Feature Article The Biological Approach to Psychiatry: History and Prospects Samuel H. Barondes Department of Psychiatry, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143 Medicine is becoming an increasingly molecular discipline, and An example of a major psychiatric disorder with an overt in none of its specialities is this change causing more of a stir brain pathology is dementia paralytica which, at the beginning than in psychiatry. This is because psychiatry has been domi- of the twentieth century, affected about half the patients in psy- nated, for many years, by subjective approaches to mental ill- chiatric hospitals (Henry, 194 1). It is a progressive mental illness ness that are as far as one can get from quantitative science. No that may begin with manic behavior and grandiosity, and pro- wonder psychiatrists have been unsettled by the realization that gress to dementia and paralysis. Originally considered to be the next major advances in their field are bound to come from caused by psychological factors, it is actually a late manifestation genetics and molecular biology. of syphilis, with psychotic symptoms appearing only many years This article is written for neurobiologists who are becoming after the initial venereal infection. Once its etiology was estab- interested in this changing psychiatry. My goal is to put current lished, antimicrobial agents provided a cure. The eradication developments into a historical perspective and especially to show of neurosyphilis is, therefore, a clear illustration of the value of that psychiatry already accommodates a biological approach.
    [Show full text]
  • About Psychoanalysis
    ABOUT PSYCHOANALYSIS What is psychoanalysis? What is psychoanalytic treatment for? Freud’s major discoveries and innovations • The Unconscious • Early childhood experiences • Psychosexual development • The Oedipus complex • Repression • Dreams are wish-fulfilments • Transference • Free association • The Ego, the Id and the Super-Ego Major discoveries and additions to psychoanalytic theory since Freud: the different strands and schools within psychoanalysis today • Classical and contemporary Freudians • Sándor Ferenczi • Ego-Psychology • Classical and contemporary Kleinians • The Bionian branch of the Kleinian School • Winnicott’s branch of the Object-Relations Theory • French psychoanalysis • Self-Psychology • Relational Psychoanalysis The core psychoanalytic method and setting • Method • Setting Various Psychoanalytic Treatment Methods (adult, children, groups, etc) • Psychoanalysis • Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychotherapy • Children and adolescents • Psychoanalytic psychodrama • Psychoanalytic Couples- and Family-Psychotherapy • Psychoanalytic Groups Psychoanalytic training Applied psychoanalysis The IPA, its organisation and ethical guidelines Where to encounter psychoanalysis? What is psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis is both a theory of the human mind and a therapeutic practice. It was founded by Sigmund Freud between 1885 and 1939 and continues to be developed by psychoanalysts all over the world. Psychoanalysis has four major areas of application: 1) as a theory of how the mind works 2) as a treatment method for psychic problems 3) as a method of research, and 4) as a way of viewing cultural and social phenomena like literature, art, movies, performances, politics and groups. What is psychoanalytic treatment for? Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are for those who feel caught in recurrent psychic problems that impede their potential to experience happiness with their partners, families, and friends as well as success and fulfilment in their work and the normal tasks of everyday life.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-86288-2 - Memory in Autism Edited by Jill Boucher and Dermot Bowler Excerpt More information Part I Introduction © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-86288-2 - Memory in Autism Edited by Jill Boucher and Dermot Bowler Excerpt More information 1 Concepts and theories of memory John M. Gardiner Concept. A thought, idea; disposition, frame of mind; imagination, fancy; .... an idea of a class of objects. Theory. A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explan- ation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are known to be the general laws, principles, or causes of some- thing known or observed. From definitions given in the Oxford English Dictionary The Oxford Handbook of Memory, edited by Endel Tulving and Fergus Craik, was published in the year 2000. It is the first such book to be devoted to the science of memory. It is perhaps the single most author- itative and exhaustive guide as to those concepts and theories of memory that are currently regarded as being most vital. It is instructive, with that in mind, to browse the exceptionally comprehensive subject index of this handbook for the most commonly used terms. Excluding those that name phenomena, patient groups, parts of the brain, or commonly used exper- imental procedures, by far the most commonly used terms are encoding and retrieval processes.
    [Show full text]
  • Psychology – Year 11 Transition Work
    Psychology – Year 11 transition work Introduction to Psychology We would like you to do some preparation for your Psychology A level. You probably have not studied Psychology before, so this will be a good way of getting to know some very famous researchers that we will come across next year. What do I need to do? We would like you to research at least 5 of following psychologists using the internet or any books you have access to and put together a poster that contains: • A brief summary of their most famous work, which might include what they have found or a theory that they have proposed • If you can, an image of the psychologist The poster can be hand written or done on the computer, whichever is easiest for you. Here is an example: HARRY HARLOW Dr Harlow conducted most of his research using rhesus monkeys. His most famous work demonstrated that when infant monkeys were given the choice of a wire model monkey that provided food or a wire model monkey covered with soft cloth, which provided no food, the infant monkeys spent all of the time with the cloth model. This work showed us that attachment to parents is not just for food, but actually primarily for love and comfort. Here is a list of famous psychologists we would like you to research at least 5: • Sigmund Freud • Soloman Asch • John Bowlby • Albert Bandura • Burrhus Skinner • Alan Baddeley • Elizabeth Loftus • Philip Zimbardo We will be • Mary Ainsworth • Korad Lorenz displaying the best • Stanley Milgram • Michael Rutter posters on the classroom wall • Aaron Beck • Wilhelm Wundt • Albert Ellis • Abraham Maslow .
    [Show full text]
  • Session 5. Learning and Memory
    Picton Session 5: Learning and Memory Brain and Mind Learning and Memory … those short, plump little cakes called ‘petites madeleines,’ which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim’s shell. … I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin (Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, 1913) Lulu Durand, 2012 René Depasse This is the famous quotation about memory by Marcel Proust. It describes how the past can be re-experienced. How simple sensory triggers can bring forth complex memories. How these memories are at first indistinct and mysterious and only later become clear. How emotions are the glue that ties memories together. Where to get madeleines in Toronto? Try Madeleines bespoke pastry http://www.madeleines.ca/ For green-tea madeleines – Uncle Tetsu’s at Bay and Dundas. Brain and Mind: Course Outline 1. Introduction. Brain anatomy. 5. Learning and Memory. Synaptic Stroke. Neurons. Excitation. Action changes. Motor skills. Priming. potentials. Synaptic transmission.. Episodic vs semantic memory. Body sensations. Braille. Amnesia. Alzheimer’s Disease. 2. Moving to the Music. Muscles. 6. Language and Emotion. Language. Stretch reflexes. Basal ganglia. Humans vs chimps. Aphasia. Dyslexia. Cerebellum. Parkinson’s Disease. Basic emotions. Autonomic Nervous Balance.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief History of Logotherapy
    Advanced Diploma in Logotherapy Module 1 Unit 1 Reading 2 READING 1.1.2 A Brief History of Logotherapy Stephen Kalmar The history of a new school of thought is, in its first phase, largely the history of its founder, following step by step as the new line of thought is developed. In its second phase, the views of the founder find acceptance and gather disciples. Then, in a third phase, the followers of the founder apply and expand these ideas to test, then deepen and modify them as they feel it necessary and justified. The flowers which grow from the original seeds may often surprise the founder. Freud, Marx, and Jesus would be astonished to see all the things that have been said, written, and done in their names. At this moment the history of Logotherapy has reached the threshold between its second and third phases, with the founder fortunately still actively participating and watching the developments of his Logotherapy, offering guidance and criticism. Viktor E. Frankl‟s writings are to a large extent autobiographical. We can see how his thoughts from the earliest beginnings have developed, both chronologically and systematically, until they became what is often referred to as the third Viennese school of psychotherapy—Sigmund Freud‟s being the first and Alfred Adler‟s the second. Frankl, with his usual sense of humor, gives us in An Autobiographical Sketch (Frank 1981a, p.144) what might be said to be the exact “birthday” of Logotherapy. One evening, he recalls, before falling asleep at the age of four, in 1909, a frightening thought struck him: “One day I, too, will die.
    [Show full text]
  • Reflective Imagination: the Cognitive Process Underlying the Experience of Meaning Through Music
    journal of interdisciplinary music studies 2019, volume 9, art. #19091203, pp. 33-48 Reflective Imagination: The Cognitive Process Underlying the Experience of Meaning through Music Alejandra Wah Department of Arts, Culture and Media Studies, University of Groningen Background in philosophy. Over the past few decades several philosophers have drawn parallels between the engagement with music and imagination. For instance, Kendall L. Walton (1994; 1999) maintains that the same kind of imagining is involved in experiencing music as in experiencing narratives. Andrew Kania (2015) underlines that our experience of musical space and movement, much like our experience of fiction, is imaginative. Jerrold Levinson (1996) suggests that listeners experience music imaginatively—specifically, imagining others expressing emotions through the music (Gendler 2018). Background in cognitive science. Anna Abraham and Andreja Bubic (2015) have recently argued that semantic memory is the root of all aspects of human imagination. Abraham (2016) proposes five categories to analyze the human imaginative mind: (i) perceptual/motor related mental imagery, (ii) recollective or intentionality processing, (iii) generative or novel combinatorial processing, (iv) exceptional phenomenology in the aesthetic response, and (v) altered psychological states such as dreams, hallucinations, and delusions (2016: 4197). Aims. To shed light on the experience of meaning through music, I expand upon the assertions of philosophers who argue that the experience of music is underlain by imagination—but miss the role played by the development of memory retrieval mechanisms on this experience—and upon the findings of cognitive scientists who—while recognizing how memory retrieval mechanisms help to explain imagination—confuse aesthetic processing with artistic experience.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Unconscious,” by Freud
    MINI REVIEW published: 15 July 2015 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01001 Possible relation between psychosis and the unconscious: a review of “The Unconscious,” by Freud Jacqueline de Oliveira Moreira1* and Carlos R. Drawin2 1 Extended General Practice in Health, Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, 2 Philosophy, Federal University of Minas Gerais and Jesuit School of Philosophy and Theology, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil This review intends to present some elements of the Freudian thinking on psychosis, focusing on the relations between psychosis and the unconscious. The unconscious Edited by: phenomena which episodically cross the neurotic individual are massively and Diogo Telles-Correia, continuously shown on psychosis. The psychotic individual appears to be constantly University of Lisbon, Portugal invaded by the other, like a strange person, which bursts inside of him/her and presents Reviewed by: itself as a threat to the process of construction of this person’s identity. But what is João Gama Marques, Faculdade de Medicina da the relation between the unconscious and psychosis in the Freudian text? It could be Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal hypothesized that the psychotic individual may be invaded by a pulsating unconscious João Silva Gonçalves, which demands a symbolic mediation. This reveals the importance of associating verbal Hospital Santa Maria – Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, Portugal construction to medication in cases of psychosis. Filipe Pinheiro Hargreaves Arantes-Gonçalves,
    [Show full text]
  • Before They Called It Psychopharmacology* Heinz E
    NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY 1993-VOL. 8, NO. 4 291 SPECIAL LECTURE Before They Called It Psychopharmacology* Heinz E. Lehmann, M.D. BEFORE THEY CALLED IT Johns Hopkins, who called the domain of psychophar­ PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY macology "certainly very meager." Macht conducted pharmacologic experiments with opium narcotics and It is a great privilege and honor to be here today, giv­ coal tar analgesics on reaction time, tapping speed, etc., ing the second annual lecture on the history of psy­ much as Kraepelin as early as 1883 had done in Wundt's chopharmacology. My friend Frank Ayd did such an laboratory with alcohol and caffeine, calling it then Phar­ admirable job with his lecture last year, on the early macopsychologie (Macht 1920). history, that I have had a hard problem finding gaps W. Freeman, in 1931, wrote a more general paper to fill. What I have finally chosen to do is to trace for in the Journal of the American Medical Association on you some of the early history, complete with anecdotes, what he called psychochemistry, and in 1935 Thorner which preceded our modern notions of psychology and wrote the fIrst paper resembling our modern concept pharmacology and then to tell you something of my of the term with "Psychopharmacology of Sodium own experiences and findings in the psychiatric world Amytal in Catatonia." I will discuss this paper in more of the 1940s and 1950s, a world that was remarkably detail later . After a careful search of the modern litera­ different and simplistic compared to today. I also in­ ture, I came to the conclusion that official general use tend to give you a subjective "oral history" of my own of the term psychopharmacology in publications dates stumbling attempts to make some sense out of the only to 1960, following a paper by Ross and Cole enti­ vague and somewhat chaotic potpourri of ideas and tled "Psychopharmacology," when also psychophar­ pharmacologic approaches to psychiatric problems a macology appears for the fIrst time as a free-standing half century ago.
    [Show full text]
  • Ego” Admits: Neuropsychoanalytic and Primal Consciousness Perspectives on the Interface Between Affective and Cognitive Neuroscience
    Brain Sci. 2012, 2, 147-175; doi:10.3390/brainsci2020147 OPEN ACCESS brain sciences ISSN 2076-3425 www.mdpi.com/journal/brainsci/ Review The “Id” Knows More than the “Ego” Admits: Neuropsychoanalytic and Primal Consciousness Perspectives on the Interface Between Affective and Cognitive Neuroscience Mark Solms 1,* and Jaak Panksepp 2 1 Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7701, South Africa 2 Department of VCAPP, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +27-21-650-3437; Fax: +27-21-650-4104. Received: 16 January 2012; in revised form: 2 March 2012 / Accepted: 22 March 2012 / Published: 17 April 2012 Abstract: It is commonly believed that consciousness is a higher brain function. Here we consider the likelihood, based on abundant neuroevolutionary data that lower brain affective phenomenal experiences provide the “energy” for the developmental construction of higher forms of cognitive consciousness. This view is concordant with many of the theoretical formulations of Sigmund Freud. In this reconceptualization, all of consciousness may be dependent on the original evolution of affective phenomenal experiences that coded survival values. These subcortical energies provided a foundation that could be used for the epigenetic construction of perceptual and other higher forms of consciousness. From this perspective, perceptual experiences were initially affective at the primary-process brainstem level, but capable of being elaborated by secondary learning and memory processes into tertiary-cognitive forms of consciousness. Within this view, although all individual neural activities are unconscious, perhaps along with secondary-process learning and memory mechanisms, the primal sub-neocortical networks of emotions and other primal affects may have served as the sentient scaffolding for the construction of resolved perceptual and higher mental activities within the neocortex.
    [Show full text]
  • Memory Systems of the Brain
    Memory systems of the brain Alvaro Pastor Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications Department, Barcelona, Spain [email protected] January 1, 2020 Abstract Humans have long been fascinated by how memories are formed, how they can be damaged or lost, or still seem vibrant after many years. Thus the search for the locus and organization of memory has had a long history, in which the notion that is is composed of distinct systems developed during the second half of the 20th century. A fundamental dichotomy between conscious and unconscious memory processes was first drawn based on evidences from the study of amnesiac subjects and the systematic experimental work with animals. The use of behavioral and neural measures together with imaging techniques have progressively led researchers to agree in the existence of a variety of neural architectures that support multiple memory systems. This article presents a historical lens with which to contextualize these idea on memory systems, and provides a current account for the multiple memory systems model. Introduction Memory is a quintessential human ability by means of which the nervous system can encode, store, and retrieve a variety of information [1, 2]. It affords the foundation for the adaptive nature of the organism, allowing to use previous experience and make predictions in order to solve the multitude of environmental situations produced by daily interaction. Not only memory allows to recognize familiarity and return to places, but also richly imagine potential future circumstances and assess the consequences of behavior. Therefore, present experience is inexorably interwoven with memories, and the meaning of people, things, and events in the present depends largely on previous experience.
    [Show full text]