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Does brain activity cause consciousness? A thought experiment

Rapid advances in neuroscience have provided remarkable breakthroughs in understanding the brain on many fronts. Although promising, the role of these advancements in solving the problem of consciousness is still unclear. Based on technologies conceivably within the grasp of modern neuroscience, we...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gidon, Albert, Aru, Jaan, Larkum, Matthew Evan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9187086/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35687582
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001651
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author Gidon, Albert
Aru, Jaan
Larkum, Matthew Evan
author_facet Gidon, Albert
Aru, Jaan
Larkum, Matthew Evan
author_sort Gidon, Albert
collection PubMed
description Rapid advances in neuroscience have provided remarkable breakthroughs in understanding the brain on many fronts. Although promising, the role of these advancements in solving the problem of consciousness is still unclear. Based on technologies conceivably within the grasp of modern neuroscience, we discuss a thought experiment in which neural activity, in the form of action potentials, is initially recorded from all the neurons in a participant’s brain during a conscious experience and then played back into the same neurons. We consider whether this artificial replay can reconstitute a conscious experience. The possible outcomes of this experiment unravel hidden costs and pitfalls in understanding consciousness from the neurosciences’ perspective and challenge the conventional wisdom that causally links action potentials and consciousness.
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spelling pubmed-91870862022-06-11 Does brain activity cause consciousness? A thought experiment Gidon, Albert Aru, Jaan Larkum, Matthew Evan PLoS Biol Essay Rapid advances in neuroscience have provided remarkable breakthroughs in understanding the brain on many fronts. Although promising, the role of these advancements in solving the problem of consciousness is still unclear. Based on technologies conceivably within the grasp of modern neuroscience, we discuss a thought experiment in which neural activity, in the form of action potentials, is initially recorded from all the neurons in a participant’s brain during a conscious experience and then played back into the same neurons. We consider whether this artificial replay can reconstitute a conscious experience. The possible outcomes of this experiment unravel hidden costs and pitfalls in understanding consciousness from the neurosciences’ perspective and challenge the conventional wisdom that causally links action potentials and consciousness. Public Library of Science 2022-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9187086/ /pubmed/35687582 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001651 Text en © 2022 Gidon et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Essay
Gidon, Albert
Aru, Jaan
Larkum, Matthew Evan
Does brain activity cause consciousness? A thought experiment
title Does brain activity cause consciousness? A thought experiment
title_full Does brain activity cause consciousness? A thought experiment
title_fullStr Does brain activity cause consciousness? A thought experiment
title_full_unstemmed Does brain activity cause consciousness? A thought experiment
title_short Does brain activity cause consciousness? A thought experiment
title_sort does brain activity cause consciousness? a thought experiment
topic Essay
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9187086/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35687582
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001651
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