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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...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9187086 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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