Binocular rivalry: a gateway to consciousness


Book Description

Brain-mind problems like consciousness have been stimulating the interest of philosophers and scientists since the ancient times. In the last decades, the dramatic development of neuroscience has allowed studying such phenomena at several different levels – from single neurons to behavior. Binocular rivalry, a paradigm dissociating the sensory input from the conscious perception during dichoptic viewing of incongruent images, has been a celebrated example of such a tool. During the last century, empirical research on binocular rivalry contributed the first important insights into the neuronal mechanisms of subjective visual perception. Recent advances in brain imaging and electrophysiological recording/stimulating techniques as well as novel theoretical concepts and analytical methods could be exploited to expand our knowledge on this fascinating phenomenon of visual perception and elucidate the neural processes underlying visual consciousness. This Research Topic aims to bring together contributions that could expand the current frontiers of knowledge in binocular rivalry. In particular we would like to focus on reviews, hypothesis & theory or original research articles that specifically combine novel concepts, analytical tools and neurophysiological techniques with binocular rivalry. We expect that these contributions will a) integrate the vast knowledge already existing in the field b) formulate and, when possible, address questions under the light of recent methodological advances in neuroscience and c) provide a benchmark that will stimulate future cutting edge research.




Binocular Rivalry


Book Description

Recent work on perceptual ambiguity and its implications for the correlation between neural events and perceptual experience. Researchers today in neuroscience and cognitive psychology increasingly turn their attention to binocular rivalry and other forms of perceptual ambiguity or bistability. The study of fluctuations in visual perception in the face of unchanging visual input offers a means for understanding the link between neural events and visual events, including visual awareness. Some neuroscientists believe that binocular rivalry reveals a fundamental aspect of human cognition and provides a way to isolate and study brain areas involved in attention and selection. The eighteen essays collected in Binocular Rivalry present the most recent theoretical and empirical work on this key topic by leading researchers in the field. After the opening chapter's overview of the major characteristics of binocular rivalry in their historical contexts, the contributors consider topics ranging from the basic phenomenon of perceptual ambiguity to brain models and neural networks. The essays illustrate the potential power of the study of perceptual ambiguity as a tool for learning about the neural concomitants of visual awareness, or, as they have been called, the "neural correlates of consciousness."




The Constitution of Visual Consciousness


Book Description

This volume examines the neuroscience of visual consciousness, drawing on the phenomenon of binocular rivalry. It provides overviews of brain structure and function, the visual system, and neuroscientific methodologies, and then focuses on binocular rivalry from multiple perspectives: historical, psychophysical, electrophysiological, brain-imaging, brain stimulation, clinical and computational, with a glimpse also into the future of research in this exciting field. This is the first collected volume on binocular rivalry in nearly a decade and will be of special interest to researchers, scholars and students in the vision sciences, and more broadly in the psychological and clinical sciences. In addition, it lays foundations for a forthcoming interdisciplinary volume in this series on the constitution of phenomenal consciousness, making it essential reading for anyone interested in the science and philosophy of consciousness.




The Evolution of Consciousness


Book Description

The Evolution of Consciousness brings together interdisciplinary insights from philosophy, neuroscience, psychology and cognitive science to explain consciousness in terms of the biological function that grounds it in the physical world. Drawing on the novel analogy of a house of cards, Paula Droege pieces together various conceptual questions and shows how they rest on each other to form a coherent, structured argument. She asserts that the mind is composed of unconscious sensory and cognitive representations, which become conscious when they are selected and coordinated into a representation of the present moment. This temporal representation theory deftly bridges the gap between mind and body by highlighting that physical systems are conscious when they can respond flexibly to actions in the present. With examples from evolution, animal cognition, introspection and the free will debate, this is a compelling and animated account of the possible explanations of consciousness, offering answers to the conceptual question of how consciousness can be considered a cognitive process.




The Welfare of Fish


Book Description

This book investigates how fish experience their lives, their amazing senses and abilities, and how human actions impact their quality of life. The authors examine the concept of fish welfare and the scientific knowledge behind the inclusion of fish within the moral circle, and how this knowledge can change the way we treat fish in the future. In many countries fish are already protected by animal welfare legislation in the same way as mammals, but in practice there is still a major gap between how we ethically view these groups and how we actually treat them. The poor treatment of fish represents a massive animal welfare problem in aquaculture and fisheries, both in terms of the number of animals affected and the severity of the welfare issues. Thanks to its interdisciplinary scope, this thought-provoking book appeals to professionals, academics and students in the fields of animal welfare, cognition and physiology, as well as fisheries and aquaculture management.




Anxious


Book Description

“A rigorous, in-depth guide to the history, philosophy, and scientific exploration of this widespread emotional state . . . [LeDoux] offers a magisterial review of the role of mind and brain in the generation of unconscious defense responses and consciously expressed anxiety. . . . [His] charming personal asides give an impression of having a conversation with a world expert.” —Nature A comprehensive and accessible exploration of anxiety, from a leading neuroscientist and the author of Synaptic Self Collectively, anxiety disorders are our most prevalent psychiatric problem, affecting about forty million adults in the United States. In Anxious, Joseph LeDoux, whose NYU lab has been at the forefront of research efforts to understand and treat fear and anxiety, explains the range of these disorders, their origins, and discoveries that can restore sufferers to normalcy. LeDoux’s groundbreaking premise is that we’ve been thinking about fear and anxiety in the wrong way. These are not innate states waiting to be unleashed from the brain, but experiences that we assemble cognitively. Treatment of these problems must address both their conscious manifestations and underlying non-conscious processes. While knowledge about how the brain works will help us discover new drugs, LeDoux argues that the greatest breakthroughs may come from using brain research to help reshape psychotherapy. A major work on one of our most pressing mental health issues, Anxious explains the science behind fear and anxiety disorders. Praise for Anxious: “[Anxious] helps to explain and prevent the kinds of debilitating anxieties all of us face in this increasingly stressful world.” —Daniel J. Levitin, author of The Organized Mind and This Is Your Brain on Music “A careful tour through the current neuroscience of fear and anxiety . . . [Anxious] will reward the informed reader.” —The Wall Street Journal “An extraordinarily ambitious, provocative, challenging, and important book. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience (including work in his own laboratory), LeDoux provides explanations of the origins, nature, and impact of fear and anxiety disorders.” —Psychology Today




Brain Function and Responsiveness in Disorders of Consciousness


Book Description

This book provides up-to-date information on all aspects of brain function and responsiveness in patients with severe disorders of consciousness. Topics considered include the mechanisms and measures of consciousness; perfusional, metabolic, and fMRI markers of responsiveness; responsiveness to pain; the role of brain–computer interface techniques; electrophysiology; cortical excitability; autonomic responsiveness; the natural history of vegetative and minimally conscious states; and prediction of outcome. Brain neuroimaging has documented residual responsiveness in the vegetative state. The scientific impact of this seminal evidence has generated a schism between neuroscience and the clinical criteria defining consciousness and responsiveness. Our current understanding of human consciousness must be reconsidered also in view of the emotional impact on the public and the far-reaching implications for diagnosis, prognosis, medical treatment, human costs, medical and individual responsibility, logistics, healthcare, ethics, etc. It is hoped that this book will help to bridge the gap between neuroscience and clinical routine.




The Boundaries of Consciousness: Neurobiology and Neuropathology


Book Description

Consciousness is one of the most significant scientific problems today. Renewed interest in the nature of consciousness - a phenomenon long considered not to be scientifically explorable, as well as increasingly widespread availability of multimodal functional brain imaging techniques (EEG, ERP, MEG, fMRI and PET), now offer the possibility of detailed, integrated exploration of the neural, behavioral, and computational correlates of consciousness. The present volume aims to confront the latest theoretical insights in the scientific study of human consciousness with the most recent behavioral, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, pharmacological and neuropathological data on brain function in altered states of consciousness such as: brain death, coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, locked-in syndrome, dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia, hysteria, general anesthesia, sleep, hypnosis, and hallucinations. The interest of this is threefold. First, patients with altered states of consciousness continue to represent a major clinical problem in terms of clinical assessment of consciousness and daily management. Second, the exploration of brain function in altered states of consciousness represents a unique lesional approach to the scientific study of consciousness and adds to the worldwide effort to identify the "neural correlate of consciousness". Third, new scientific insights in this field have major ethical and social implications regarding our care for these patients.




The Science of Consciousness


Book Description

Psychology students are fascinated by consciousness but often find the topic puzzling. This is probably because there are different ways within the discipline to approach it. In The Science of Consciousness, top researchers from each of the three main areas of study introduce their angle and lead the student through the basic debates and research to date, ending with suggestions for further reading. Max Velmans has structured this collection especially for use as a base for a course of lectures or seminars on consciousness. The Science of Consciousness will rapidly become known as the best student text in this field for undergraduates, graduates and lecturers.




Consciousness


Book Description

A fascinating exploration of the human brain that combines “the leading edge of consciousness science with surprisingly personal and philosophical reflection . . . shedding light on how scientists really think”—this is “science writing at its best” (Times Higher Education). In which a scientist searches for an empirical explanation for phenomenal experience, spurred by his instinctual belief that life is meaningful. What links conscious experience of pain, joy, color, and smell to bioelectrical activity in the brain? How can anything physical give rise to nonphysical, subjective, conscious states? Christof Koch has devoted much of his career to bridging the seemingly unbridgeable gap between the physics of the brain and phenomenal experience. This engaging book—part scientific overview, part memoir, part futurist speculation—describes Koch’s search for an empirical explanation for consciousness. Koch recounts not only the birth of the modern science of consciousness but also the subterranean motivation for his quest—his instinctual (if “romantic”) belief that life is meaningful. Koch describes his own groundbreaking work with Francis Crick in the 1990s and 2000s and the gradual emergence of consciousness (once considered a “fringy” subject) as a legitimate topic for scientific investigation. Present at this paradigm shift were Koch and a handful of colleagues, including Ned Block, David Chalmers, Stanislas Dehaene, Giulio Tononi, Wolf Singer, and others. Aiding and abetting it were new techniques to listen in on the activity of individual nerve cells, clinical studies, and brain-imaging technologies that allowed safe and noninvasive study of the human brain in action. Koch gives us stories from the front lines of modern research into the neurobiology of consciousness as well as his own reflections on a variety of topics, including the distinction between attention and awareness, the unconscious, how neurons respond to Homer Simpson, the physics and biology of free will, dogs, Der Ring des Nibelungen, sentient machines, the loss of his belief in a personal God, and sadness. All of them are signposts in the pursuit of his life's work—to uncover the roots of consciousness.