The period of the brain pretending to be the mind The mind is different from the brain , just as psychology is different from biology. Although mental processes are associated with some biochemical/neurological operations, some researchers and the popular media have misrepresented the association between the two systems as the causal relation (biochemical changes cause psychological experiences) or simply seen the two as the same. With the growing use of psychophysiological measures such as fMRI, PET, EEG, MEG, and optical neuroimaging, it has become pervasive to hear that biological events underlie (are more fundamental than) psychological events. For example, announcements such as "depression is a chemical imbalance" or " schizophrenia is a brain disease" became the mainstream during the past two decades. Neuroimaging has also been used to explain political or voting behaviors or attitudes, criminal behavior or other social interactions (e.g., Miller, 2010). First, Correlation is not causation. References
Subliminal Motivation People often do things and can’t say exactly why they did them. While it might seem that “acting without explanation” is the result of poor attention or irrational impulse, it turns out that our brains are wired to do this. It is possible, researchers at INSERM in Paris found, to motivate half the brain without the other half being aware of what’s going on. The INSERM researchers discovered this by measuring how hard subjects could squeeze a grip with each hand. Here’s where the experimenters got tricky: they showed the coin image only to one eye, and only for 17 milliseconds. Although the subjects could not correctly guess which coin they had seen – confirming that they were not conscious of what they saw – they squeezed harder when presented with the larger coin if the hand grip was on the same side of the body as the eye that had seen it. The neuromarketing implications of this work aren’t clear. effort, inserm, motivation, subliminal
Ego death Ego death is a "complete loss of subjective self-identity." The term is being used in various intertwined contexts, with related meanings. In Jungian psychology the synonymous term psychic death is used, which refers to a fundamental transformation of the psyche. In the death and rebirth mythology ego death is a phase of self-surrender and transition, as described by Joseph Campbell in his research on the mythology of the Hero's Journey. In (descriptions of) psychedelic experiences, the term is used synonymously with ego-loss, to refer to (temporary) loss of one's sense of self due to the use of psychedelics. The concept is also used in contemporary spirituality and in the modern understanding of eastern religions to describe a permanent loss of "attachment to a separate sense of self"[web 1] and self-centeredness. Definitions[edit] Various definitions can be found of ego death. Mysticism[edit] Daniel Merkur: Jungian psychology[edit] Ventegodt and Merrick: Comparative mythology[edit] ...
The Roots of Consciousness: Theory, The Biological Perspective The Biological Perspective In the Introduction, I discussed the evolution of organized matter from the photon through particles, atoms and molecules to living cells which begin to differentiate in structure and function forming a wide variety of tissues and organs that play a specialized function in the human body. It is reasonable to assume all these levels of organization including the whole human being play a role in shaping consciousness. Particularly important are the nervous system, comprising brain and spinal cord, and the endocrine system, comprising a number of ductless glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream. The Nervous System Neuron cells are the principle units of the nervous system. The process by which pulses transmit across the neural membrane is electrochemical. Multi-Polar Neuron Bipolar Neurons Neurons are stimulated to fire by either sensory receptors or other neurons. Neuron cell body with synapses from other neurons Cross-section of the human brain Serotonin
What the science of human nature can teach us After the boom and bust, the mania and the meltdown, the Composure Class rose once again. Its members didn’t make their money through hedge-fund wizardry or by some big financial score. Theirs was a statelier ascent. They got good grades in school, established solid social connections, joined fine companies, medical practices, and law firms. Wealth settled down upon them gradually, like a gentle snow. You can see a paragon of the Composure Class having an al-fresco lunch at some bistro in Aspen or Jackson Hole. A few times a year, members of this class head to a mountain resort, carrying only a Council on Foreign Relations tote bag (when you have your own plane, you don’t need luggage that actually closes). Occasionally, you meet a young, rising member of this class at the gelato store, as he hovers indecisively over the cloudberry and ginger-pomegranate selections, and you notice that his superhuman equilibrium is marred by an anxiety. Help comes from the strangest places. Ms.
The Death Delusion « Kensho By Bard Canning “Afraid of dying? Don’t be. It’s never going to happen to you, and I can prove it.” It’s said that Albert Einstein once commented that the most fundamental question we can ever ask ourselves is whether or not the universe we live in is friendly or hostile. Surely death is the greatest threat that we all face. I do not agree. Before outlining my hypothesis, I should make it clear that the aim of my writing is the excavation and study of the truth. To put it simply: I do not believe in death. I do not think that we are immortal, far from it. It has been my experience that once the spectre of death is stripped of its shadowy mask it becomes much easier to contend with as a concept. The Alpha and the Omega “Death, in itself, is nothing; but we fear, To be we know not what, we know not where.” John Dryden Everyone eventually reaches the point in their lives where they become fully aware of the inevitability of their own death. It’s All in Your Mind Morpheus – The Matrix Mark Twain
How does anesthesia disturb self-perception? An Inserm research team in Toulouse, led by Dr Stein Silva (Inserm Unit 825 "Brain imaging and neurological handicaps"), working with the "Modelling tissue and nociceptive stress" Host Team (MATN IFR 150), were interested in studying the illusions described by many patients under regional anaesthetic. In their work, to be published in the journal Anesthesiology, the researchers demonstrated that anaesthetising an arm affects brain activity and rapidly impairs body perception. The ultimate aim of the work is to understand how neuronal circuits are reorganised at this exact moment in time and to take advantage of anaesthesia to reconfigure them correctly following trauma. This would allow anaesthetic techniques to be used in the future to treat pain described by amputated patients in what are known as "phantom limbs." Neuroscience research in recent years has shown that the brain is a dynamic structure. Persons under regional anaesthetic describe these very same false images.
Sleep Helps Us Remember What We Need To Sleep Helps Us Remember What We Need To. The jury is back and the verdict is in. The long-term storage of memories occurs during sleep. The brain constructs and reorganizes its circuits while we sleep. The pivotal question is, This past week, a significant study caught my eye, one that can help us eventually answer that question. Sleep researcher Jan Born. In this study, a team of researchers led by Jan Born of the University of Lübeck set up two experiments to test memory. In both groups, half the volunteers were told immediately following the learning tasks that they would be tested in 10 hours. Sleep compared with wakefulness produced a strong improvement on test performance if the subjects had been informed about the test. The researchers also recorded electroencephalograms (EEGs) from the individuals who slept. For More Information: I. F. F. Sleep photo credit.
Biological Consciousness and the Experience of the Transcendent 2. Biological Consciousness and the Experience of the Transcendent: William James and American Functional Psychology Eugene Taylor Harvard University Medical School Reproduced by permission of the Author. All trends pertaining to the mind/body problem in the late 19th century, from both popular and high culture, seem now in retrospect to culminate in the functionalism of the American philosopher-psychologist, William James (1842-1910). James [see figure 50] was, first of all heir to the older moral philosophy. Thus, he first became a defender of consciousness as an efficacious force in the biological evolution of the species. As a young professor of psychology at Harvard, James then anchored the study of consciousness to experimental physiology. At the height of his professional career, in 1890, James produced perhaps the most important text still available in the discipline, his two volume Principles of Psychology [60, see figure 51]. Table of Contents Citation: Wozniak, Robert H.
Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio - review Consciousness has become a hot topic for brain scientists. Once, we were content to leave the interminable mind/brain problem to philosophers and theologians. Speculation remained a CLM – a career-limiting move — for ambitious young researchers. No longer. Armed with novel tools, from genetic manipulation to brain imaging, flush with funding, and convinced that neuroscience has the key to the human condition, the hunt is on. Neuroscientists, especially those of us trained in the Anglo-American tradition, tend to be as mechanically materialist as was "Darwin's bulldog", Thomas Huxley, in the 19th century, when he remarked that mind is to brain as the whistle is to the steam train – a mere epiphenomenon. Consciousness is a term with multiple meanings. For biologists though, consciousness, if not an accidental epiphenomenon, must be an evolved property with a function of some benefit to its possessor. This, briefly summarised, is the latest version of Damasio's theory.
Museumgoing in the Brain The question is, What is going on in your brain when you look at a painting "aesthetically"? Or why don't we touch things in museums? For a long time, people thinking about the arts have said that we go into some special state of mind when we look at paintings or other works of visual art. The idea has been floating around since the Greeks, but some English aestheticians, Lord Shaftesbury and Frances Hutcheson, spelled it out in the early eighteenth century. who most aestheticians follow. Now, we're beginning to get evidence as to how brains embody Kant's idea. In 2009, Gerald Cupchick , Oshin Vartanian , Adrian Crawley , and David Mikulis conducted an experiment on aesthetics that differed from most others. The experimenters who ask subjects to judge beauty or non-beauty are asking them to abandon Kant's "free play of the imagination" and replace it with reason and decision and will. By contrast, the Cupchik group did not ask their subjects to do anything. Work I've referred to:
Can your body sense future events without any external clue? Wouldn't it be amazing if our bodies prepared us for future events that could be very important to us, even if there's no clue about what those events will be? Presentiment without any external clues may, in fact, exist, according to new Northwestern University research that analyzes the results of 26 studies published between 1978 and 2010. Researchers already know that our subconscious minds sometimes know more than our conscious minds. Physiological measures of subconscious arousal, for instance, tend to show up before conscious awareness that a deck of cards is stacked against us. "What hasn't been clear is whether humans have the ability to predict future important events even without any clues as to what might happen," said Julia Mossbridge, lead author of the study and research associate in the Visual Perception, Cognition and Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern. "I like to call the phenomenon 'anomalous anticipatory activity,'" she said. Source: Northwestern University