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Consciousness rests on the brain's ability to sustain rich dynamics of neural activity
Thus, consciousness is humans' ability to perceive reality and report it, and it is revealed through the expression of the subjective experience. The question is: how can consciousness be inferred in the absence of communication? Several theories agree that consciousness relates to a self-sustained, coordinated dynamic process of brain activity, which helps humans tune into a constantly changing environment. Therefore, over time, brain signals combine, dissolve, reconfigure and recombine, allowing perception, emotion and cognition to occur.
[...] "Adopting the theoretical viewpoint of brain dynamics as the cornerstone of consciousness, in this study we aimed to determine whether the coordination of brain signals could provide a specific pattern of functional connectivity characteristic of conscious and unconscious states," states Gustavo Deco.
[...] "Our results establish that human consciousness rests on the brain's ability to sustain rich dynamics of neural activity that lose prevalence in unconscious states," points out Gustavo Deco, co-author of the study.
The authors conclude that, following the loss of consciousness, coordinated brain activity is largely restricted to a positive pattern of interareal coherence dominated by the anatomical connections between brain regions. In contrast, conscious states are characterized by a higher prevalence of a complex configuration of interareal coordination that, although still constrained by the anatomy of the brain, also deviates from it and presents positive and negative long-distance interactions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:58PM (4 children)
Would be a letdown if something banal like this explains it.
I’m still hoping for some kind of quantum effect underlying consciousness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:08PM
Consciousness really just means being biased. If you look around at what you would call "conscious" behaviour it is also going to be from organisms who have a bias. I keep hearing about how AI is racist/sexist, etc and thinking how that means it is becoming conscious.
On the flip side that means to defeat racism/sexism/etc biases we need to get rid of consciousness. Possibly the best way forward is to have a few "queen" human who may still have bias but then mostly unbiased "drones". At least then the amount of bias will be decreased. As a plus, it will be easier for the "queens" to stop global warming if they only have to tell unbiased drones what to do/think.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:15PM (2 children)
Technically you haven't proved anything about a conscience until you have implemented one. And then you still reached no definitive conclusion if you resorted to the same hacks the human brain resorts to, that is, being analogic it is tied to outcomes in the quantum scale so it depends on a randomness whose origin is outside the currently explorable domain.
I am pretty confident a psychopath mind can be modeled, and maybe a psychopath who tries to pass off as a normal guy too. Whereas a normal guy who has all those altruistic and selfless traits, hm, it requires a lot of cheating or an awful lot of modeling. Because those traits go beyond selfish genes and darwin, to a notion of life as a single process. Basically you have to start from scratch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:52PM
How does altruism go beyond "selfish genes"? Self-sacrifice for the sake of the family/tribe enhances the chances of similar genes propagating.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:50PM
Technically you haven't proved anything about a conscience until you have implemented one.
That's not true, we can study all sorts of phenomena without building it ourselves. Most of science is like that.