Feeling as knowing — Part II

2001 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Järvilehto

In the latter part of this two-article sequence, the concept of emotion as reorganization of the organism-environment system is developed further in relation to consciousness, subjective experience and brain activity. It is argued that conscious emotions have their origin in reorganizational changes in primitive co-operative organizations, in which they get a more local character with the advent of personal consciousness and individuality, being expressed in conscious emotions. However, the conscious emotion is not confined to the individual only, but it gets its content and the emotional quale in the social context, and in relation to the norms of the given culture. Emotion is fundamentally the process of ascription of meaning to the parts of the world which are relevant in the achievement of results of behavior. Although emotions may be studied as reorganizational processes in the organism-environment system with the help of physiological recordings and behavioral observations, it is argued — in contrast to the mainstream cognitive science — that emotions cannot be localized in the brain, although the brain is important in their generation as a part of the organism-environment system. It is suggested that the parts of the brain most closely related to emotional expression contain neurons subserving functional systems which are formed in early development, and which are therefore most intimately related to reorganizational processes in the organism-environment system.

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-28
Author(s):  
E. Bykova ◽  
A. Savostyanov

Despite the large number of existing methods of the diagnosis of the brain, brain remains the least studied part of the human body. Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the most popular methods of studying of brain activity due to its relative cheapness, harmless, and mobility of equipment. While analyzing the EEG data of the brain, the problem of solving of the inverse problem of electroencephalography, the localization of the sources of electrical activity of the brain, arises. This problem can be formulated as follows: according to the signals recorded on the surface of the head, it is necessary to determine the location of sources of these signals in the brain. The purpose of my research is to develop a software system for localization of brain activity sources based on the joint analysis of EEG and sMRI data. There are various approaches to solving of the inverse problem of EEG. To obtain the most exact results, some of them involve the use of data on the individual anatomy of the human head – structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI data). In this paper, one of these approaches is supposed to be used – Electromagnetic Spatiotemporal Independent Component Analysis (EMSICA) proposed by A. Tsai. The article describes the main stages of the system, such as preprocessing of the initial data; the calculation of the special matrix of the EMSICA approach, the values of which show the level of activity of a certain part of the brain; visualization of brain activity sources on its three-dimensional model.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Nakano ◽  
Masahiro Takamura ◽  
Haruki Nishimura ◽  
Maro Machizawa ◽  
Naho Ichikawa ◽  
...  

AbstractNeurofeedback (NF) aptitude, which refers to an individual’s ability to change its brain activity through NF training, has been reported to vary significantly from person to person. The prediction of individual NF aptitudes is critical in clinical NF applications. In the present study, we extracted the resting-state functional brain connectivity (FC) markers of NF aptitude independent of NF-targeting brain regions. We combined the data in fMRI-NF studies targeting four different brain regions at two independent sites (obtained from 59 healthy adults and six patients with major depressive disorder) to collect the resting-state fMRI data associated with aptitude scores in subsequent fMRI-NF training. We then trained the regression models to predict the individual NF aptitude scores from the resting-state fMRI data using a discovery dataset from one site and identified six resting-state FCs that predicted NF aptitude. Next we validated the prediction model using independent test data from another site. The result showed that the posterior cingulate cortex was the functional hub among the brain regions and formed predictive resting-state FCs, suggesting NF aptitude may be involved in the attentional mode-orientation modulation system’s characteristics in task-free resting-state brain activity.


F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 316
Author(s):  
Sheila Bouten ◽  
Hugo Pantecouteau ◽  
J. Bruno Debruille

Qualia, the individual instances of subjective conscious experience, are private events. However, in everyday life, we assume qualia of others and their perceptual worlds, to be similar to ours. One way this similarity is possible is if qualia of others somehow contribute to the production of qualia by our own brain and vice versa. To test this hypothesis, we focused on the mean voltages of event-related potentials (ERPs) in the time-window of the P600 component, whose amplitude correlates positively with conscious awareness. These ERPs were elicited by images of the international affective picture system in 16 pairs of friends, siblings or couples going side by side through hyperscanning without having to interact. Each of the 32 members of these 16 pairs faced one half of the screen and could not see what the other member was presented with on the other half. One stimulus occurred on each half simultaneously. The sameness of these stimulus pairs was manipulated as well as the participants’ belief in that sameness by telling subjects’ pairs that they were going to be presented with the same stimuli in two blocks and with different ones in the two others. ERPs were more positive at all electrode subsets for stimulus pairs that were inconsistent with the belief than for those that were consistent. In the N400 time window, at frontal electrode sites, ERPs were again more positive for inconsistent than for consistent stimuli. As participants had no way to see the stimulus their partner was presented with and thus no way to detect inconsistence, these data might reveal an impact of the qualia of a person on the brain activity of another. Such impact could provide a research avenue when trying to explain the similarity of qualia across individuals.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eligiusz Wronka ◽  
Wioleta Walentowska

Recent ERP studies demonstrate that the processing of facial emotional expression can be modulated by attention. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neural correlates of attentional influence on the emotional expression processing at early stages. We recorded ERP responses to facial stimuli containing neutral versus emotional expression in two different conditions. The first task was to discriminate facial expressions, while the second task was to categorize face gender. Enhanced positivity at occipital and occipito-temporal locations between 110 and 170 ms poststimulus was elicited by facial stimuli presented in the expression task when compared to the gender task. This effect temporally overlapped with the P1 and N170 components, which reflect the early stages of face processing. To localize the sources of the brain activity underlying observed attentional modulation, we used Standardized Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography. Enhanced activity within the extrastriate cortex for the expression task was obtained as the reflection of early ERP effect. Additionally, we found stronger activation within the superior temporal and the fusiform gyrus of the right hemisphere in the expression task when compared to the gender task. Our findings undoubtedly confirm that early stages of the emotional expression processing can be modified by top-down attention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
D. A. Funtova ◽  

High technologies have stimulated a rapidly growing knowledge-based paradigm. Therewith particular sciences seem to have separated from each other. Respectively, it brought to a certain misunderstanding about knowledge being differently directed and unreliable. Take, for instance, artificial intelligence, which is often discussed today by science and mass media. This phenomenon serves as a good example of a knowledge-based paradigm in action: it combines chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, medicine, physics, philosophy and psychology. Culturology, as the broadest of the sciences, allows to comprehend artificial intelligence and opportunities it grants. Theoretically, a complete decoding of the brain cognitive processes will allow to predict the actions of the individual, to imitate and prototype him, as well as to create a model of artificial intelligence based on human intelligence. However, the modern science has not yet produced the method of such a decoding. The article considers the key differences between artificial intelligence and the human mind in accordance with relevant scientific data. The philosophy of mind and sensual subjective experience (qualia) are discussed, with the latter’s impact on culture and on individual’s life (a case study of the author’s experience of smell loss and its transformation) being analyzed. The article specifies how artificial intelligence shapes the axiological dimension of culture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Luis Espino-Díaz ◽  
Jose-Luis Alvarez-Castillo ◽  
Hugo Gonzalez-Gonzalez ◽  
Carmen-Maria Hernandez-Lloret ◽  
Gemma Fernandez-Caminero

In order to link learning and the brain, it is necessary to carry out a restructuring of pedagogical practice so that it can be linked to the contributions of Neurosciences. In this sense, Neuro-education is emerging as a new science that has as its main objective the synergy of Pedagogy, Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience, and with this, being able to bring the different educational agents the necessary resources in terms of the brain and learning binomial This article focuses on the importance of education in values, and the acquisition of prosocial behavior and how this educational field can be developed from the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The challenge before us is to build the map of values, which make the individual a fulfilled being and, in turn, a collaborator of the social environment. On the other hand, ICTs offer enormous potential in terms of their application in the field of education. In this article we will show the role that this type of tools can play in the learning and assimilation of values, bearing in mind the contributions of neuro-education.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Anauate ◽  
E Peters Kahhale

Caregiver orientation is very important to promote neurodevelopment on babies. Considering that relations are the key for this development of superior mental functions, we believe that all caregivers, teachers and parents should be present and paying attention to the children, providing opportunity for an ideal neurodevelopmentand humanization. It is important to orientate caregivers so that they can provide qualitative conditions, which integrate affection, conscience and action to promote development to occur according to the potential of the child. We believe that the individual constitutes himself by means of social contact. This work has the goal toapproach the theory which orientates, with specific guidelines and practical work, caregivers aiming a better child neurodevelopment. Bonds are necessary for a better and trustful relation. When you are present in a relation nervous connections are promoted and these lead to a more effective motor, cognitive and affectivedevelopment of the superior mental functions such as memory, attention, language, psychomotricity and executive functions. It uses didactically the following principles of the Social Historical theory of Luria and Vygotsky: mediation, functional units and zone of proximal development. Interactions between the brain and the formation of mental functions require the maturity of the nervous system as well as an active process that emphasizes relations of two or more human beings. Keywords: neurodevelopment, childhood, relation


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene Meyer ◽  
Johanna E van Schaik ◽  
Francesco Poli ◽  
Sabine Hunnius

When teaching infants new actions, parents tend to modify their movements. Infants prefer these infant-directed actions (IDAs) over adult-directed actions and learn well from them. Yet, it remains unclear how parents’ action modulations capture infants’ attention. Typically, making movements larger than usual is thought to draw attention. Recent findings, however, suggest that parents might exploit movement variability to highlight actions. We hypothesized that variability in movement amplitude rather than higher amplitude is capturing infants’ attention during IDAs. Using EEG, we measured 15-month-olds’ brain activity while they were observing action demonstrations with normal, high, or variable amplitude movements. Infants’ theta power (4-5Hz) in fronto-central channels was compared between conditions. Frontal theta was significantly higher, indicating stronger attentional engagement, in the variable compared to the other conditions. Computational modelling showed that infants’ frontal theta power was predicted best by how surprising each movement was. Thus, surprise induced by variability in movements rather than large movements alone engages infants’ attention during IDAs. Infants with higher theta power for variable movements were more likely to perform actions successfully and to explore objects novel in the context of the given goal. This highlights the brain mechanisms by which IDAs enhance infants’ attention, learning, and exploration.


Author(s):  
Shun’ichi Doi ◽  
Takahiro Wada ◽  
Eiji Kobayashi ◽  
Masayuki Karaki ◽  
Nozomu Mori

As a result, it is verified that not only characteristics of the scent but also the driver’s preference and subjective judgment of scent changes affect on the each driving performance. The brain activity change by olfactory stimulation and the brain blood flow change by other stimulation were also investigated. The effects of the functional brain imaging of olfactory activity were measured and the comfortable scent for the individual subject was verified to be effective for maintaining the arousal level.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Parker Singleton ◽  
Andrea I Luppi ◽  
Robin L. Carhart-Harris ◽  
Josephine Cruzat ◽  
Leor Roseman ◽  
...  

Psychedelics like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) offer a powerful window into the function of the human brain and mind, by temporarily altering subjective experience through their neurochemical effects. The RElaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics (REBUS) model postulates that 5-HT2a receptor agonism allows the brain to explore its dynamic landscape more readily, as suggested by more diverse (entropic) brain activity. Formally, this effect is theorized to correspond to a reduction in the energy required to transition between different brain-states, i.e. a ″flattening of the energy landscape.″ However, this hypothesis remains thus far untested. Here, we leverage network control theory to map the brain′s energy landscape, by quantifying the energy required to transition between recurrent brain states. In accordance with the REBUS model, we show that LSD reduces the energy required for brain-state transitions, and, furthermore, that this reduction in energy correlates with more frequent state transitions and increased entropy of brain-state dynamics. Through network control analysis that incorporates the spatial distribution of 5-HT2a receptors, we demonstrate the specific role of this receptor in flattening the brain′s energy landscape. Also, in accordance with REBUS, we show that the occupancy of bottom-up states is increased by LSD. In addition to validating fundamental predictions of the REBUS model of psychedelic action, this work highlights the potential of receptor-informed network control theory to provide mechanistic insights into pharmacological modulation of brain dynamics.


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