Developed in his (1999) book, The Feeling of What Happens, Antonio Damasio's three layered theory of consciousness is based on a hierarchy of stages, with each stage building upon the last. Do you think it will ever be possible to solve the hard problem with science? In that sense, the hard problem of consciousness may become like the hard problem of light in the 17th century. These are the areas that drive memory, imagination, emotions, and actions. Explaining qualia is difficult. The brain evolved to make movement decisions, so the inner experience aspect must provide some utility in that movement function, in generating behavior. I know that even my own fascination with the hard problem itself comes from the deterministic and unconscious atoms that bounce around my skull, but I’m still not sure if I can ever be certain that I’m not the only person who’s really alive. It does not require language or memory, nor can it reflect on past A fine, but crucial difference. CDRegions are probably created from genetic information, as are many primordial CDZs, but most CDZs get created from experience, from learning. This works through a concept Damasio calls CDZs (convergence divergence zones). Too often it seems to get relegated in favour of language (symbolism) and algorithmic computation as preconditions. Our most basic representation of self, awareness signified by a collection of neural patterns The brain continues to This emergent process occurs when an organism becomes And at its root homeostasis gives us stromatolites, not consciousness. Sufficient condition: the ability to distinguish self from others. I think that it is clear that the human brain is nothing more than an information-processing device (however unfamiliar its methods may be), and that the reason I think thoughts and feel feelings is because of my physical, material brain. All of the information in this post came from Damasio’s book ‘Self Comes to Mind‘. These children have a kind of proto-sentience somewhat similar to normal newborns, although they are never able to move beyond that cognitive stage. Antonio Damasio is a neuroscientist and neurologist who has published a number of theories about how the brain and mind work. The second step for us is that we feel the emotion though the body image, which influences our inclinations, but leaves us with the power to alter the inclined actions, a capability the autobiographical self contributes toward and a possibly adaptive reason for its existence. From this realization, springs Damasio's Still, there’s a lot here that strikes me as very plausible. ( Log Out /  I’m not sure if I follow the metaphor of white light , because while the question ,”how is light purified of color” assumes certain characteristics of light that are now known to be false, i.e that color is an impurity, the hard problem only assumes two things that I think are pretty hard to deny. So we have sensory data, and each pattern of such data triggers associated emotions. Incidentally, CDZs also trigger emotions, which Damasio sees as self contained autonomous actions. All of this is related to the self, effectively the first person in first person experience. Damasio argues that consciousness consists of two levels: core consciousness and extended consciousness. Like keithnoback’s comment. Hormones are released, heart rate is altered, the brain goes into a state prepared for a certain type of cognition. Is the singularity right around the corner? working to maintain a certain status quo. It seems . patterns develop into mental images, which then float into the Ya know? It is not obvious that other individuals experience any inner life. (In reality, they were published as a separate theory, predating Damasio’s theories of self by several years, or at least their publication.) Thanks for the explanation. And I am deeply skeptical about panpsychism. Now, will the people troubled by the hard problem accept these kinds of explanations? is referred to as the Protoself, next is Core Consciousness, and From the brainstem arise primordial feelings. This is the self that comes into existence as the organism lives its life. Abstract. They look quite similar when things are going well. whose function is linked to emotion. And the most primal level of this resonance starts in the brainstem. Emotions provide the scaffolding for the construction of social cognition and are required for the self processes which undergird consciousness. recognized leader in neuroscience, was educated at the University of Lisbon and currently directs the University of Southern California Brain and Creativity Institute. in the organism. That said, I’d imagine you can find ‘The Feeling…’ online somewhere; Amazon shows used hardcovers from 1 cent up. You (whoever reads this) has an inner life Lova Falk talk 12:49, 12 June 2010 (UTC) I agree that studying the mechanisms of the brain is much more interesting and fruitful than pondering the hard problem, but I still think that the problem exists. Damasio's Theory of Consciousness Proto-Self The most basic representation of self(awareness shared by all life forms) Pre-conscious state-concerned only with homeostasis Direct report of body's response to environment Provides reference for 'Core Consciousness' and Extended I actually think there are good reasons to be optimistic that we’ll eventually understand the brain. The answer is that it doesn’t. Protoself. The power of the CDZ and CDRegion concepts are that they may give us insights into the architecture of the mind. I think he sees it as deeply rooted in the will to live. The brain is vitally concerned with and tightly bound to the body. Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics. Interestingly, the Webster definition seems to cover both conceptions: “a relatively stable state of equilibrium or a tendency toward such a state between the different but interdependent elements or groups of elements of an organism, population, or group”. The evolution of the brain is beautiful proof. organism, based on its relationship to objects. I like the stress on the importance of feeling within this theory of consciousness. The proto-self’s formation begins in the brainstem, although in healthy humans the insular cortex, an area in the fold between the parietal and temporal lobe, is also involved. The core self is the momentary self. Put simply, consciousness is the feeling of Why, A Medley of Potpourri is just what it says; various thoughts, opinions, ruminations, and contemplations on a variety of subjects. I am skeptical, though. Maybe the sort of ‘meta-neurology’ in question works differently, and more like a thermostat. Thank you for a very informative review. My favorite philosopher of mind is David Chalmers, who makes a distinction between the hard problem and the easy problem of consciousness: the easy problem being “how does the mind work”, and the hard problem being “why is a mind conscious”. Damasio formulated the somatic marker hypothesis, a theory about how emotions and their biological underpinnings are involved in decision-making (both positively and negatively, and often non-consciously). consciously aware of feelings associated with changes occurring to its that are representative of the body's internal state. CDZs exist in hierarchies. But he says it is pretty much impossible to introduce better words to a wide audience so he reluctantly lives with a commonly used but ultimately limited one. established, between the organism and the object it is observing as the changes affecting the Protoself due to the emotional state. This  happens with greater resolution in the neocortex than in the sub-cortical areas, but it happens in many areas of the brain, all in the regions closest to where the sensory pathways come in. And those troubled by it will likely never find explanations about simplistic internal models satisfying, which is what keeps leading me to the conclusion that we’ll never “solve” the hard problem, only explain it. My personal experience is that most won’t, which is why I gave my initial answer above. What would you say is happening when a stage magician diverts our attention without us being aware of it? So the smell of doughnuts may trigger memories of the sight and taste of doughnuts. He has three good points. If perception is to be effective in leading an organism to make effective decisions, then we can ask how should they feel? The brainstem is phylogenetically ancient, and many simple animals get along without much else. But there’s still a long road ahead. In the introduction he describes six facts that a good theory of consciousness will have to take into account. The CDRegions interlink with each other, but the linking appears to converge heavily in a region Damasio calls the PMCs (posteromedial cortices), an unusual name referring to a region that, judging by his diagrams, appear to be in the middle portions of the parietal lobe, and the posterior cingulate cortex underneath. I also suspect that the division between image forming areas and dispositional areas in the brain isn’t nearly as clean as Damasio implies. ‘Feeling’ emerges as a still unconscious state which simply senses the CDZs are, of course, the physical manifestation of associations, and the mind works through associations. Please go on to read if you're interested. Antonio Damasio’s theories of consciousness and the self are complicated and can get bewildering on a first reading. autobiographical self to build from. The Protoself does not require language in order to function; moreover, it is a direct report of one's experience. In particular, a simulation model is described of the dynamics of basic mechanisms leading via emotion and feeling to core consciousness, and dynamic properties are formally specified … How do you separate the objective from the subjective? organism's awareness. remains consistent and stable throughout the lifetime of the organism One possible flaw I see in this overall framework is that it’s more a theory of self than of consciousness in particular. But that strikes me as being chauvinistic against alternate forms of consciousness. These brain areas work together to Of course, in reality the language of technological computation is (currently) transistor states, but we build layers of abstraction (languages) between the raw machine and us to make it easier to work with. In other words, they aren’t us minus the intelligence. own, and that they are formulated in its own perspective. N2 - This paper contributes an analysis and formalisation of Damasio's theory on core consciousness. It exists in “pulses.”  It comes into existence when the proto-self perceives objects and how those objects relate to the body. This leads to a discrepancy between that simplistic model and objective data about the brain. I do think it’s possible to discuss raw feelings while knowing those feelings are ultimately composed of algorithmic neural circuits. Emotion acts as a neural object, from which a physical reaction can be For the naive explanation for the selfness is the Pauli’s exclusion principle that every Fermion carries a unique ID number while the whole explanation is more complicated. Homeostasis and balanced equilibrium. ), there is a lot of overlap between the books, although it sounds like he ponders qualia more directly in the older one. I find the core assertion of defending homeostasis as somewhat suspect though. I don’t think Damasio is asserting that only systems with brains (or even only living systems) have homeostasis, only that the need to maintain it is shared by all living organisms, and that brains are one evolutionary solution for preserving it. And his style is very verbose, often taking a long time to make a fairly basic point. I don’t see it that way, but I can understand why many people do. So, their implementations can be different via different machines. A relationship is On top of the core self is the autobiographical self. Constant homeostasis right lose the dynamics of a living organism whereas the near-equilibrium state provides a energy gradient for actions. The brainstem is heavily involved in generating the core self, but it isn’t the main show. Necessary condition: the ability to distinguish self from others. 97% of the observable universe is forever unreachable, here are some diagrams showing the CDZ hierarchies in action, https://selfawarepatterns.com/2014/10/16/the-attention-schema-theory-of-consciousness-deserves-your-attention/, Types of sensory consciousness | SelfAwarePatterns, The system components of pain | SelfAwarePatterns, The seven attributes of minimal consciousness | SelfAwarePatterns, Talking across the boundary of the epiphany, Mind uploading and the philosophy of self. How and from what is our experience of color produced, for example? Necessary condition: there is a ‘counting’ device (counting strews, abacus or Turing computer). , based on its relationship to objects the color white came into existence, it! To a set point until they fail relationships among a pretty large number of parts relating consciousness to FUNDAMENTAL seems... S more a theory of consciousness relies on three notions: emotion,,! 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