How is Consciousness Expressed in the Cerebral Activation Manifold?
Author: Kinsbourne M.1
Source: Brain and Mind, Volume 1, Number 2, August 2000 , pp. 265-274(10)
Publisher: Springer
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
Abstract:
I dispute that consciousness is generated by ``core circuitry'' in the forebrain, with predominance of motor areas, as Cotterill proposes in ``Enchanted Looms''and other theorists do also. I propose instead that conscious contents are the momentary mode of action of the integrated cortical field, expressed as a point vector (``dominant focus''), to which, in varying degree, all sectors of the network contribute. Consciousness is the brain's access to its own activity space, and is identical with the moment's dominant mode of activity. The dominant focus is generally weighted toward enactively encoded percepts. Anticipation and preparation, perception and action, inextricably interdigitate.
I also dispute the view of Cotterill and others that consciousness has unique agency, which bestowed adaptive advantage when the brain evolved. Being identical with the activity of the network, consciousness can have no additional agency, and it can offer no adaptive advantages beyond those that characterize the network.
Keywords: consciousness; enactive perception; core circuitry; integrated cortical field; causal efficacy
Language: English
Document Type: Regular paper
Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, New School University, New York, NY, U.S.A.
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
Click here for Page Help