Human consciousness and brain. Abstract The concept of consciousness. consciousness and the brain
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The human brain is an amazingly complex formation, a delicate nervous apparatus. This is an independent system and at the same time a subsystem, included in the composition of the whole organism and functioning in unity with it, regulating its internal processes and relationships with the outside world. What facts irrefutably prove that the brain is the organ of consciousness, and consciousness is a function of the human brain?
First of all, the fact that the level of reflective-constructive ability of consciousness also depends on the level of complexity of the organization of the brain. The brain of primitive, gregarious man was poorly developed and could serve only as an organ of primitive consciousness. The modern human brain, formed as a result of long-term biosocial evolution, is a complex organ. The dependence of the level of consciousness on the degree of organization of the brain is also confirmed by the fact that the consciousness of a child is formed, as is known, in connection with the development of his brain, and when the brain of a very old man becomes decrepit, the functions of consciousness also fade away.
A normal psyche is impossible without a normally functioning brain. As soon as the refined structure of the organization of brain matter is disrupted, and even more so destroyed, the structures of consciousness are also destroyed. When the frontal lobes are damaged, patients are unable to produce and implement complex behavioral programs; they do not have stable intentions and are easily excited by side stimuli. When the occipito-parietal parts of the cortex of the left hemisphere are damaged, orientation in space, handling of geometric relationships, etc. are impaired. It is known how the spiritual world of a person is deformed, and how complete degradation often occurs if a person systematically poisons his brain with alcohol and drugs.
Experimental data from various sciences, such as psychophysiology, physiology of higher nervous activity, etc., irrefutably indicate that consciousness is inseparable from the brain: it is impossible to separate thought from the matter that thinks. The brain with its complex biochemical, physiological, and nervous processes is the material substrate of consciousness. Consciousness is always connected with these processes occurring in the brain and does not exist apart from them. But they do not constitute the essence of consciousness.
Consciousness is one of the forms of manifestation of our soul, and at the same time it is very significant, full of deep content. Consciousness is the highest function of the brain, characteristic only of humans and associated with speech, which consists in a generalized and purposeful reflection of reality, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and anticipation of their results, in the reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior.
The concept of “consciousness” is ambiguous. In a broad sense, the word refers to the mental reflection of reality, regardless of what level it is carried out - biological or social, sensory or rational, thereby emphasizing its relationship to matter.
Consciousness controls the most complex forms of behavior that require constant attention and conscious control, and is activated in the following cases.
When a person faces unexpected, intellectually complex problems that have no obvious solution. But since consciousness can be improved, a non-obvious solution can be found. One of the most common examples is teaching mathematics. Whose consciousness is more flexible, finds a solution faster.
When a person needs to overcome physical or psychological resistance to the movement of a thought or bodily organ. This is often also called willpower. How difficult it can be to force ourselves to do anything in the morning, since without waking up we cannot fully “turn on” our consciousness, and, therefore, control ourselves.
When it is necessary to realize and find a way out of any conflict situation that cannot resolve itself without a strong-willed decision. This judgment follows from the first two.
When a person unexpectedly finds himself in a situation that contains a potential threat to him if immediate action is not taken. Here consciousness must act in unison with the unconscious instinct of conservation.
In a narrower and more specialized meaning, consciousness means not just a mental state, but the highest, actually human form of mental reflection of reality.
The development of consciousness involves, first of all, enriching it with new knowledge about the world around us and the person himself. Cognition, awareness of things has different levels, depth of penetration into the object and degree of clarity of understanding. Hence the everyday, scientific, philosophical, aesthetic and religious awareness of the world, as well as the sensory and rational levels of consciousness. Sensations, perceptions, ideas, concepts, thinking form the core of consciousness. However, they do not exhaust its structural completeness: it also includes the act of attention as its necessary component.
But not a single voluntary action of a person is equally clearly conscious at all stages of its implementation. First of all, the goal is in the field of consciousness. The unconscious also manifests itself in so-called impulsive actions, when a person does not realize the consequences of his actions. It is known that a hypnotized person holds for some time under the threshold of his consciousness very complex instructions and implements them if those objective conditions arise under which 55 they must be carried out, according to the hypnotist’s instructions. During normal sleep, in the absence of conscious control, pictures of reality flash through a person’s head. It is necessary to distinguish between two types of unconscious actions. The first type includes actions that were never realized, and the second type includes actions that were previously realized. Thus, many of our actions, being in the process of formation under the control of consciousness, are automated and then performed unconsciously. The conscious activity of a person is possible only on the condition that the maximum number of elements of this activity is carried out automatically.
As the child develops, many functions gradually become automated. And consciousness is freed from “concerns” about them. When the unconscious or already automated forcibly invades consciousness, the latter struggles with this flow of “uninvited guests” and often turns out to be powerless to cope with them. This manifests itself in the presence of various types of mental disorders - obsessive and delusional ideas, anxiety states, insurmountable, unmotivated fear, etc.
Consciousness, as an ideal reality, manifests itself through material forms. Such a material form of consciousness is language. Language is an intermediary between thought and the subject we are talking about. Language itself is a system of signs that denote objects represented in words. Language not only serves as a sign, but also plays a role in human understanding of the world.
Language in the implementation of its functions forms an organic unity with consciousness and manifests itself as follows:
– the development of consciousness presupposes simultaneously the development of language and vice versa;
– the presence of a person’s certain knowledge on any issue means the opportunity and ability to express this knowledge in verbal form;
– the beginning of the formation of consciousness means simultaneously the formation of language and vice versa
Consciousness is not the only level at which mental processes, properties and states of a person are represented, and not everything that is perceived and controls a person’s behavior is actually realized by him. In addition to consciousness, a person also has an unconscious mind. These are those phenomena, processes, properties and states that, in their effect on behavior, are similar to conscious mental ones; they are not reflected by a person, that is, they are not realized. According to the tradition associated with conscious processes, they are also called mental.
There are several words that characterize the non-involvement of consciousness in what is happening. For example, supraconscious, subconscious, preconscious - different prefixes in them mean the influence of the unconscious on different aspects of life. There are some differences between these terms that will be mentioned when they are used.
The unconscious principle is one way or another represented in almost all mental processes, properties and states of a person. There are unconscious sensations, which include balance sensations and proprioceptive (muscle) sensations. There are unconscious visual and auditory sensations that cause involuntary reflexive reactions in the visual and auditory centers of the nervous system. In other words, this is a manifestation of the biological component of a person. He is characterized by reflexes and instincts, fears and drives, aggression and depression.
The study of the phenomenon of the unconscious goes back to ancient times; healers of the earliest civilizations recognized it in their practice. For Plato, the recognition of the existence of the unconscious served as the basis for the creation of a theory of knowledge, built on the reproduction of what is in the depths of the human psyche.
The area of the unconscious includes:
Mental phenomena that occur during sleep (dreams). If you look at the definition of sleep in biology, you can read that this state is characterized by a loss of consciousness. Many people have been involved in the interpretation of dreams - from fortune tellers to psychoanalysts, since dreams contain the undistorted essence of a person, albeit veiled in various images. S. Freud studied the psychoanalysis of dreams. In his books, he considered almost any dreams as a consequence of sexual disharmony. With such an unconventional approach, he was not understood during his lifetime, but over time, interest in his works began to grow, and today his theory is one of the most famous. This topic is discussed in more detail in the section “Main directions in psychology.”
Responses that are caused by imperceptible, but actually affecting stimuli (“subsensory” or “subceptive” reactions). For example, some people react to magnetic storms with headaches, while the health of others depends on solar cycles.
Unconscious remembering of facts and events that have strong emotional resonance. As well as unconscious forgetting of information that is indifferent and useless to us.
Movements that were conscious in the past, but through repetition have become automated and therefore no longer conscious. This includes the complex professional movements of a typist, artist or pianist.
Some motivations for activity in which there is no consciousness of purpose. For example, the influence of hypnosis has been repeatedly proven as a powerful factor in inducing seemingly useless action.
Unconscious phenomena also include some pathological phenomena that arise in the psyche of a sick person: delusions, hallucinations, etc. They can occur with strong effects on the nervous system - by illness, psychotropic or hallucinogenic substance.
It would be wrong to say that the unconscious is the opposite of consciousness, to equate it with the animal psyche. The unconscious is as specifically a human mental manifestation as consciousness; it is determined by the social conditions of human existence, acting as uncontrolled, completely or partially unconscious actions.
The unconscious forms the lowest level of the psyche. The unconscious is a set of mental processes, acts and states caused by influences, the influence of which a person is not aware of. Being mental, the unconscious is a form of reflection of reality in which the completeness of orientation in time and place of action is lost, and speech regulation of behavior is disrupted. In the unconscious, unlike consciousness, purposeful control over the actions performed is impossible, and evaluation of their results is also impossible.
Unconscious impulses were studied in situations of so-called post-hypnotic states. For experimental purposes, it was suggested to a hypnotized person that he must perform certain actions after emerging from hypnosis; for example, approach one of the employees and untie his tie. The subject, experiencing obvious awkwardness, followed the instructions, although he could not explain why it occurred to him to commit such a strange act. Attempts to justify his action by saying that the tie was poorly tied, not only for those around him, but also for himself, looked clearly unconvincing. However, due to the fact that everything that happened during the hypnotic session fell out of his memory, the urge functioned at the level of the unconscious, and he was confident that he had acted to some extent purposefully and correctly.
The variety of forms and manifestations of the unconscious is extremely great. In some cases, we can talk not only about the unconscious, but also about the supraconscious in human behavior and activity. The assimilation of social experience, culture, spiritual values and the creation of these values by an artist or scientist, while being accomplished in reality, do not always become the subject of reflection and in fact turn out to be a combination of consciousness and the unconscious. Therefore, at different times and in different countries there are many movements in fine arts and poetry. Each new historical era is uniquely reflected in the consciousness of its contemporaries, and with changes in the historical conditions of people’s existence, their unconscious changes. There are many examples regarding science, religion and their mutual influences. For example, in the XIV-XVI centuries, during the Renaissance, the scientist Nicolaus Copernicus lived and worked. They say about him, “Having stopped the sun, he moved the earth.” Despite the qualitatively new approach in science, it was not recognized by religion, which preached the theory of the Earth as the center of the Universe. Over the long centuries of existence of this advantageous point of view, it simply did not raise doubts and was understood as a matter of course. Since religion at that time had much more powers, Nicholas, true to his discovery, was burned at the stake. Naturally, over time, views changed, and today this story sounds more than absurd, although at that time it could not have been otherwise. “The true religious position depends on an unshakable sense of its value, and not on logical arguments” (Joseph Henderson). And Copernicus tried to undermine it with his scientific theory.
Continuing the topic, it can be noted that the unconscious is a concept that has a very wide range of interpretation, starting from the automatic actions of a person (not reflected in his consciousness) and ending with a special sphere of mental reality, which largely determines the lives and actions of people.
Consciousness and the unconscious are constantly intertwined in many human actions; they are capable of influencing each other and the human psyche as a whole. Sometimes we consciously trust the unconscious (“inner voice,” intuition, premonition) when we cannot find a more suitable solution. Using the thought of D.I. Dubrovsky, we can say that unconsciously, mental phenomena are organically included in subjective reality.
There is even a theory that the unconscious is connected with the cosmic through the biofield, which is found in people, plants, and animals. Through it, their interaction occurs at a level that is not directly accessible to consciousness. With this assumption they tried to explain the extrasensory abilities of some people, who were able to indicate the location of a person within a radius of tens of kilometers. Supposedly they sensed his biofield. “Confirmation” of this leaked into the yellow press in the 70-90s, when it was simply customary to take everything on faith. Today, journalists have realized that this has already gone out of fashion, and have stopped delighting us with such interesting articles. People who did such things do not have extrasensory abilities at all, and they should be called accordingly.
However, if we assume the existence of the above connection between consciousness and the unconscious, then we can assume that this is the way in which our own unconscious influences the course of events from time to time. Intuition is a premonition - in other words, these are our inclinations (as Marx would put it) and fears, which do not always allow events to go against our feelings.
The understanding of cosmic communication is based on many facts and theoretical developments carried out by 3. Freud and his followers. However, he somewhat changed this approach, and the opinion began to be established that consciousness is connected with the cosmic through the unconscious. More details about this in the corresponding section.
The sphere of the unconsciously mental includes that part of the psyche whose cognitive images are directly unconscious. Their existence can only be judged indirectly, through the use of special methods and the high art of revealing the inner world. At the same time, the unconscious is not separated by an impregnable wall of the conscious. But the possibilities of translation are very specific, difficult, and in many ways directly unattainable. So, manifestations of the unconscious in the conscious:
Unconscious memory is that memory that is associated with long-term and genetic memory. This is the memory that controls thinking, imagination, attention, determining the content of a person’s thoughts at a given moment in time, his images, objects to which attention is directed. Unconscious thinking appears especially clearly in the process of solving creative problems by a person, and unconscious speech is inner speech.
There is also unconscious motivation that influences the direction and nature of actions, and much more that is not realized by a person in mental processes, properties and states.
The unconscious in a person’s personality is those qualities, interests, needs, etc. that a person is not aware of in himself, but which are inherent in him and manifest themselves in a variety of involuntary reactions, actions, and mental phenomena.
One of these phenomena is erroneous actions, slips of the tongue, and clerical errors.
Another group of unconscious phenomena is based on involuntary forgetting of names, promises, intentions, objects, events - everything that has little significance for a person.
The third group of unconscious phenomena of a personal nature belongs to the category of ideas and is associated with perception, memory and imagination: dreams, reveries, daydreams. Daydreams and daydreams occur with a working, but somewhat weakened consciousness, and dreams occur completely without its control.
Consciousness is also connected with the public information field. It regulates the behavior of the human body in accordance with the requirements of society. It does not understand the language of the unconscious and its control of the body often runs counter to the demands of the unconscious. The discord between the conscious and unconscious leads to dramatic situations. A person experiences dissatisfaction with life, he is visited by depression, fear, and irritability increases. On the contrary, when they work in unison, a person achieves happiness in life. Hence the eternal desire of man to find this state, to capture its moment. Philosophical reflections on the conscious and unconscious are aimed at searching for this harmony. They speak of it as the unity of body and spirit, cosmic and human.
The third type of unconscious phenomena are those that 3. Freud speaks of regarding the personal unconscious. These are desires, thoughts, intentions, needs, displaced from the sphere of human consciousness under the influence of censorship. Each type of unconscious phenomena is differently associated with human behavior and its conscious regulation.
2. The principle of universal evolutionism
If we briefly characterize modern trends in the synthesis of scientific knowledge, they are expressed in the desire to build a general scientific picture of the world based on the principles of universal evolutionism. The principle of evolution has received its most complete development within the framework of biology. However, until now it has not been dominant in natural science. This was largely due to the fact that for a long time physics was the leading scientific discipline. The paradigmatic incompatibility of classical physics and biology was revealed in the 19th century as a contradiction between the provisions of Darwin's evolutionary theory and the second law of thermodynamics.
According to evolutionary theory, there is a continuous emergence of increasingly complex living systems in the world. The second law of thermodynamics demonstrated that the evolution of physical systems leads to a situation where an isolated system is purposefully and irreversibly shifted towards a state of equilibrium.
Universal evolutionism is characterized as a principle that ensures the extrapolation of evolutionary ideas, substantiated in biology, to all spheres of reality and the consideration of matter as a single universal evolutionary process.
Universal evolutionism is a combination of the idea of evolution with the ideas of a systems approach. Three directions played a decisive role: the theory of a non-stationary Universe; synergetics; theory of biological evolution. The anthropic principle: the assumption that there are many Universes, and life arises where special conditions exist for this. According to one version of the anthropic principle, “what we expect to observe must be limited by the conditions necessary for our existence as observers.
The systemic way of combining elements expresses their fundamental unity: thanks to the hierarchical inclusion of systems of different levels into each other, each element of any system is connected with all elements of all possible systems. The scientific picture of the world and the natural science that creates it are organized in a similar way. All its parts are now closely interconnected - now there is practically no “pure” science. Everything is permeated and transformed by physics and chemistry.
Global evolutionism is the recognition of the impossibility of the existence of the Universe and all the smaller systems generated by it without development and evolution. The evolving nature of the Universe, in addition, testifies to the fundamental unity of the world, each component of which is a historical consequence of the global evolutionary process begun by the Big Bang.
Self-organization is the observed ability of matter to become more complex and create more and more ordered structures in the course of evolution. The mechanism of transition of material systems into a more complex and ordered state is apparently similar for systems of all levels.
These fundamental features of the modern natural science picture of the world mainly determine its general outline, as well as the very way of organizing diverse scientific knowledge into something whole and consistent.
However, there is one more feature of the modern scientific picture of the world that distinguishes it from previous versions. It lies in the recognition of historicity, and, consequently, the fundamental incompleteness of the present, and indeed any other scientific picture of the world. The one that exists now is generated both by previous history and by the specific sociocultural characteristics of our time. The development of society, changes in its value orientations, awareness of the importance of studying unique natural systems, in which man is an integral part, change the strategy of scientific research, the very attitude of man to the world.
The principles of global (universal) evolutionism make it possible to uniformly describe the huge variety of processes occurring in inanimate nature, living matter, and society. This concept is based on a certain body of knowledge obtained within specific scientific disciplines, and at the same time includes a number of worldviews.
Universal (global) evolutionism is often characterized as a principle that ensures the extrapolation of evolutionary ideas, substantiated in biology, as well as astronomy and geology, to all spheres of reality and the consideration of inanimate, living and social matter as a single universal evolutionary process. This is indeed a very important aspect in understanding global evolutionism. But it does not exhaust the content of this principle.
The emergence in the 40-50s of our century of the general theory of systems and the formation of a systems approach introduced fundamentally new content into the concept of evolutionism. A systematic consideration of an object involves, first of all, identifying the integrity of the system under study, its relationships with the environment, and analyzing, within the framework of an integral system, the properties of its constituent elements and their relationships with each other.
Almost all objects that modern science includes in the scope of its research are systemic and evolutionary in nature. The subject of scientific research is not individual, isolated parts of the whole, which were previously studied in isolation, but integral complexes, which include man as an integral component.
Systemic cognition and transformation of the world presupposes:
– consideration of the object of activity (theoretical and practical) as a system, i.e. as a limited set of interacting elements;
– determination of the composition, structure and organization of elements and parts of the system, detection of the main connections between them.
– identifying the external connections of the system, identifying the main ones;
– determination of the function of the system and its role among other systems;
– analysis of the dialectics of the structure and function of the system;
– detection on this basis of patterns and trends in the development of the system.
Thus, to study objects within the framework of a systems approach, element-by-element analysis is not enough, since in the process of research a level of objects can be discovered where experimentation on a part inevitably affects the whole, which leads to a radical transformation of the entire system in a direction not aimed at preserving the given one. system, and calls into question the possibility of human existence.
All this means that in the process of studying objects, it is necessary to analyze them not in isolation, but as part of a broader integral system, taking into account that the preservation of the entire system depends on manipulating this part.
The set of connections between elements forms the structure of the system; stable connections determine the orderliness of the system. Horizontal connections are coordinating and provide correlation of the system; no part of the system can change without changing the others. Vertical connections are connections of subordination; some elements of the system are more significant than others and are subordinate to them.
The system has a sign of integrity - this means that all its component parts, when combined into a single whole, form something with qualities that cannot be reduced to the qualities of individual elements.
According to modern scientific views, all natural objects are ordered, structured, hierarchically organized systems.
The emergence of the concept of global evolutionism is largely due to the expansion of the boundaries of the evolutionary approach adopted in the biological and social sciences. The very fact of the historical appearance and evolution of these systems (or, as some scientists call them, types of motion) casts doubt on the absolute staticity and eternity of other systems. The mystery of qualitative leaps to the biological and from the biological to the social world can certainly be comprehended only based on the assumption of the need for similar transitions between other systems. That is, based on the fact of the evolution of the world in the last stages of its history, we can make the assumption that it as a whole is an evolutionary system, that is, all other systems (besides the biological and social) were formed as a result of evolution. This statement is the most general formulation of the paradigm of global evolutionism.
The evolutionary approach to existing evolutionary systems does not imply that they are all in a constant process of evolution, but, on the contrary, states the need for their consistent formation at certain stages of history. In general, evolution, as a process that applies to the entire Universe at each moment of time, is realized locally in only one type of movement. That is, there is always only one local system (that is, not identical to the whole world), which can be called evolutionary, in which fundamentally new, unique definitions of the world appear.
To distinguish this system from others that have already undergone evolution, we can introduce the term “avant-garde of evolution.” Naturally, the vanguard of evolution is always the latest form of movement to appear in the world (now the social system). All previous types of movements, having gone through the evolutionary stage and reaching an equilibrium state (not static, but most likely a state of slow changes in parameters, or a repeating process of development of individual elements) serve as the basis for the formation and evolution of a new movement. It is possible that new characteristics may appear in “previous” movements, but they are necessarily associated with the evolution of the most recent type of movement (system) – the vanguard of evolution.
The principle of evolution has received the most complete development within the framework of biology and has become its fundamental principle since the time of Charles Darwin. However, up to the present day it has not been dominant in natural science. This was largely due to the fact that for a long time the leading scientific discipline was physics, which transmitted its ideals and norms to other branches of knowledge.
According to Darwin's evolutionary theory, the world is experiencing a continuous emergence of increasingly complexly organized living systems, ordered forms and states of living things.
In other words, biological theory speaks of the creation in the process of evolution of increasingly complex and ordered living systems.
Here it is necessary to highlight an important characteristic of the direction of self-organizing processes, which can be designated as the principle of entropy saving, which gives an “advantage” to complex systems over simple ones. This principle sounds like this: if, under given conditions, several types of organization of matter are possible that do not contradict the laws of conservation and other principles, then the one that allows the utilization of external energy on the largest scale, most effectively, will be realized and will retain the greatest chances for stability and subsequent development.
In this case, the formation of self-organizing systems can be considered as a special stage of a developing object, a kind of “synchronous slice” of a certain stage of its evolution. Evolution itself can be presented as a transition from one type of self-organizing system to another (“diachronic cut”). As a result, the analysis of evolutionary characteristics turns out to be inextricably linked with the systemic consideration of objects. Universal evolutionism is precisely a combination of the idea of evolution with the ideas of a systems approach.
In classical science (19th century), the prevailing belief was that matter initially had a tendency to destroy any order, a desire for initial equilibrium, which in the energetic sense meant disorder, i.e. chaos. This view of things was formed under the influence of equilibrium thermodynamics.
This science deals with the processes of interconversion of various types of energy. She established that the mutual transformations of heat and work are unequal. Work can be completely converted into heat by friction or other means, but it is fundamentally impossible to completely convert heat into work. This means that in the mutual transitions of one type of energy to another, there is a direction allocated by nature itself. The famous second law of thermodynamics, as formulated by the German physicist R. Clausius, sounds like this: “Heat does not spontaneously transfer from a cold body to a hotter one.” The law of conservation and transformation of energy, in principle, does not prohibit such a transition, as long as the amount of energy is maintained in the same volume. But in reality this never happens. It is this one-sidedness, one-directionality of energy redistribution in closed systems that is emphasized by the second principle.
To reflect this process, a new concept was introduced into thermodynamics - entropy. Entropy began to be understood as the measure of disorder of a system. A more precise formulation of the second law of thermodynamics took the following form: “During spontaneous processes in systems having constant energy, entropy always increases.” The physical meaning of the increase in entropy boils down to the fact that an isolated (with constant energy) system consisting of a certain number of particles tends to move into a state with the least orderliness of the movement of particles. This is the simplest state of the system, or the state of thermodynamic equilibrium, in which the movement of particles is chaotic. Maximum entropy means complete thermodynamic equilibrium, which is equivalent to complete chaos.
The overall result is quite sad: the irreversible direction of energy conversion processes in isolated systems will sooner or later lead to the conversion of all types of energy into heat, which will dissipate, i.e. on average will be evenly distributed among all elements of the system, which will mean thermodynamic equilibrium, or complete chaos. If our Universe is closed, then just such an unenviable fate awaits it. It was born from chaos, as the ancient Greeks claimed, and into chaos, as classical thermodynamics suggests, it will return.
However, an interesting question arises: if the Universe evolves only towards chaos, then how could it arise and organize itself to its current ordered state? However, classical thermodynamics did not ask this question, because it was formed in an era when the non-stationary nature of the Universe was not even discussed. At this time, the only silent reproach to thermodynamics was Darwin's theory of evolution. After all, the process of development of the plant and animal world assumed by this theory was characterized by its continuous complication, an increase in the height of organization and order. For some reason, living nature strived away from thermodynamic equilibrium and chaos. Such an obvious “inconsistency” in the laws of development of inanimate and living nature was surprising, to say the least.
This surprise increased many times after replacing the model of a stationary Universe with a model of an evolving Universe, in which the increasing complexity of the organization of material objects was clearly visible - from elementary and sub-elementary particles in the first moments after the Big Bang to the currently observed stellar and galactic systems. After all, if the principle of increasing entropy is so universal, how could such complex structures arise? They can no longer be explained by a random “perturbation” of the generally equilibrium Universe. It became clear that in order to maintain the consistency of the general picture of the world, it is necessary to postulate the presence of matter as a whole not only of a destructive, but also of a creative tendency.
These contradictions led to the formation of synergy.
Universal evolutionism allows us to consider not only living and social matter in relationship, but also to include inorganic matter in the holistic context of the developing world. It creates the basis for considering man as an object of cosmic evolution.
The principles of universal evolutionism are demonstrating their value precisely now, when science has moved on to the study of self-developing systems. At the present stage, the general scientific picture of the world, based on the principles of global evolutionism, acts as the basis of future science, uniting the sciences of nature and the sciences of the spirit.
Test
- Inertial reference systems……
Fundamental Life Systems Natural science and humanitarian cultures. History of the development of natural science OPARIN-HAILDEN THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
About the author: Ivanitsky Alexey Mikhailovich, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences. Head of the Laboratory of Human Higher Nervous Activity, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences.
05.2005. No. 11 "IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE"
Emergence of consciousness- one of the greatest mysteries of nature, the solution of which physicists and writers, philosophers and clergy, doctors and psychologists have been struggling for thousands of years. In recent years, knowledge about how the brain works has accumulated very quickly. Therefore, science has come close to solving the riddle of consciousness. What is it like a modern view of the relationship between consciousness and processes occurring in the brain?
Human consciousness- is, in essence, his life, consisting of an endless change of impressions, thoughts and memories. The mystery of our brain is multifaceted and affects the interests of many sciences that study the mysteries of existence. One of the main questions is How is consciousness connected to the brain?. This problem is at the intersection of natural science and humanities, since consciousness arises on the basis of processes occurring in the brain, but its content is largely determined by social experience. The solution to this puzzle could build a bridge between the two main types of scientific knowledge and contribute to the creation of a unified picture of the universe that organically includes man and his spiritual world. This is probably the highest goal of science, the achievement of which is necessary to satisfy the inherent human desire for comprehensive knowledge. But the practical significance of this problem for medicine, education, and the organization of work and leisure is also great.
Interest in the relationship between consciousness and the brain has been around for a long time. For Russian physiology, starting from the time of I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlova, he is to a certain extent traditional. However, for a long time the solution to such a complex problem was considered a matter of the distant future. The understanding that the study of the problem of consciousness is an urgent task of today came to physiologists relatively recently: the rapid progress of brain science brought this topic to the front pages of neuroscience journals. There even arose, in the figurative expression of the English scientist John Taylor, a “race for consciousness.” The breakthrough in this field was largely due to the advent of “living brain imaging” techniques such as positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance, and multichannel recording of the brain’s electric and magnetic fields. The latest devices have made it possible to see on the display screen which zones are activated when performing various tasks that require mental effort, as well as to accurately determine the location of lesions in diseases of the nervous system. Scientists have gained the ability to obtain corresponding images in the form of colorful maps of the brain.
From a philosophical point of view, one may wonder how legitimate it is at all to try to explain by the movement of nerve impulses what we perceive as color or sound. Feeling- a purely personal feeling, the “inner theater” of each of us, and the task of brain science is to understand what nervous processes lead to the emergence of a subjective image. At the same time, the mystery of the human psyche is not unique in its methodological complexity and stands among other mysteries of nature. Essentially, the emergence of a new quality occurs at each stage of fundamental complication of natural processes. American scientists F. Crick and K. Koch consider the origin of life as a result of the action of DNA chains and enzyme proteins to be an example of a qualitative transition comparable in complexity to the emergence of consciousness. The properties inherent in living objects do not follow directly from the physicochemical properties of each of these molecules. This example seems especially convincing in the mouth of F. Crick, one of the discoverers of the genetic code.
The experience of scientific knowledge shows that a complex phenomenon, as a rule, does not arise out of nothing, but develops in the process of evolution from simpler forms. The same fully applies to subjective experiences. They progress from elementary manifestations, such as sensations and emotions, to higher-order consciousness associated with abstract thinking and speech. Based on these considerations, there are several approaches to the study of consciousness, which, however, do not exclude, but complement each other, explaining phenomena of varying degrees of complexity. At the same time, some basic principles of the organization of nervous processes, discovered in the early stages of the evolution of the psyche, gradually acquire more complex forms to ensure their highest manifestations.
Return of excitation and mechanism of sensations
The first approach to understanding the principles of the nature of the psyche is based on the idea that subjective experience arises as a result of a certain organization of processes occurring in the brain comparison in cortical areas of new information with that extracted from memory . Information about external events is, as it were, projected onto the individual experience of the subject. This occurs as a result of the circular movement of excitation, which, after additional processing in other brain structures, returns to the places of initial projections. We first put forward such a hypothesis in the 1970s. as a result of research into the brain mechanisms of sensation. Currently, it is shared by many specialists.
As already mentioned, this hypothesis was based on our studies of the mechanism of sensations. We studied evoked potentials (VP) of the brain, that is, its electrical reaction to a newly received signal. The EP is a complex oscillation consisting of a number of sequential components, and it was necessary to understand what information processes of the brain they reflect. Data analysis led to the conclusion that early waves of EP are associated with the receipt of impulses into the cortex along sensory pathways from the senses . They reflect the physical parameters of the stimulus. Late waves caused by the transfer of excitation from motivational centers characterize the significance of the signal . Next, the question arose of how these information processes relate to subjective experience. I turned to the director of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences - in those years this post was held by Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences B.F. Lomov. His answer was unexpected and interesting. He said that in psychology there is a theory that is close in its provisions to our views. It was about the theory of signal detection, which considers perception as the result of the interaction of sensory and motivational factors , which are called, respectively, sensory sensitivity indicator and decision criterion . It is interesting that this approach was borrowed by psychology from technology, in particular, from the principle of radar design, consisting of a sensitive receiver and a signal identification system.
In the course of further research, it was necessary to compare two concepts in one experiment: physiological and psychological. The difficulty was that the detection theory works in the region of weak signals close to the threshold, since calculation of the corresponding perception indices is based on the ratio of correct and erroneous reactions
. At the same time, recording EP with its early waves requires fairly intense stimuli. It was decided to use not absolute, but differential threshold. The participant in the experiment had to distinguish the intensity of two stimuli of similar strength (visual in one series, cutaneous in the other), while brain EPs to the presented stimuli were recorded. To obtain quantitative parameters of sensations, methods of signal detection theory were used to calculate the two mentioned indicators. Then a correlation was obtained between physiological and psychological indicators, and the results were, in principle, similar for vision and skin sense
. As expected it was the correspondence of the early waves of EPs with the sensory factor of psychophysics was established, and the later ones - with the decision criterion
. It turned out to be somewhat unexpected and therefore most interesting
relationship between intermediate waves of EP
projection cortex (where impulses from the senses are received) with both indices of perception, that is, both with an indicator of sensory sensitivity and with a decision criterion. This double correlation reflects the synthesis of information about the physical and signal properties of the stimulus on the neurons of the projection cortex. These waves appeared in the EP 150-180 ms after the stimulus.
It is fundamentally important that this time coincided quite accurately with the speed at which sensations arose
, obtained earlier in the course of psychophysical experiments.
Back in the 20-30s. last century it was found that sensations appear only 100-150 ms after the presentation of the stimulus . In this case, methods were used based mainly on the phenomenon " reverse masking ". Its essence is this: if after one weak stimulus a second, stronger one follows after a short interval, the first is not perceived . By gradually increasing the time interval between both signals, it is possible to calculate the moment when the masking effect disappears, since the sensation of the first stimulus has time to form. It was found that the sensation appears approximately 150 ms after the stimulus. The most reliable data, however, were obtained when direct stimulation of the cortex with a short magnetic pulse, which was applied to the scalp directly above the corresponding area of the cerebral cortex, was used as a masking signal - the results obtained practically coincided with those given above. Important, that the magnetic pulse caused a masking effect only if it affected the occipital cortex, which projects for visual stimuli, then exists only where the above-described double correlation of EP waves with perception indicators was observed . An interval of 150 ms is called " psychological refractory period ", and mental experience cannot be shorter than it. It is interesting to compare the given indicators with physiological data on the duration of information processing for a single stimulus in the visual cortex, which is about 200 ms (I.A. Sheelev).
Based on data on the physiological mechanism of evoked potential waves and their connection with parts of the brain, we described the process that ensures the synthesis of information. It includes circular movement of excitation across parts of the brain . From the projection cortex, which receives signals from the sensory organs, excitation enters the associative cortex (inferotemporal for visual stimuli), where information is compared with a standard and recognized. Then the excitation moves to the entorhinal cortex, located on the inner surface of the temporal lobe of the hemispheres and related to memory. There the significance of the signal is determined, its relationship to one or another need of the body. Then the excitation impulses move to the motivational centers of the diencephalon, from where they return again through a system of diffuse projections to the cortex, including the primary projection zones. After 100 ms, connections also arise between the projection and frontal cortex. This cycle, which lasts about 150 ms, is called " circle of sensations". Its essence is that it provides comparison of the sensory signal with information extracted from memory , including data on the significance of the information received, which presumably underlies transition of a physiological process to the mental level , subjective experience . As a result, the resulting sensation not only accurately conveys the physical characteristics of the stimulus, but is also emotionally charged. The above concept is called the information synthesis hypothesis.
In subsequent years, it was confirmed by the results of many studies, including data on the topography of the parts of the brain included in the “circle of sensations”, and the use of the idea itself return of excitation to explain the mechanisms of consciousness. Among the most significant are the works of Nobel laureate J. Edelman, who used the term " re-entry(re-entering)", denoting not feedback, which is usually understood as a correction signal, but receipt of additional information obtained as a result of a survey of brain structures related to memory function and motivation.
In addition to information synthesis, the return of excitation along diffuse projections also ensures the integration of individual stimulus features into a single image. Research in recent years has shown that the rhythm of the electroencephalogram (EEG) with a frequency of about 40 Hz plays an important role. Exactly synchronization of brain biopotentials at a certain rhythm creates conditions for combining neural networks into a single system , which is necessary to maintain consciousness.
Sensation refers to fairly simple mental phenomena, which some scientists attribute to the so-called primary consciousness , which also includes emotions, to the study of which P.V. made an outstanding contribution. Simonov. He was the first to propose a formula according to which the strength of emotion E is proportional to the need P, multiplied by the difference between the information available to the individual and what he needs to satisfy this need :
E = P (Inf. available - Inf. required)
From this formula it follows that emotions, like sensations, arise as a result of comparison of two information flows . Thus, there is a certain universal pattern at work here.
Of interest is the question of how, in the course of evolution, a system for returning excitation and comparing two information flows could arise. In accordance with the concept of N. Humphrey, the psychic appeared as a result of the action of branches of motor fibers extending from the cortex to sensitive paths heading to the cortex, which made it possible directional regulation of information arriving to the cortex
. In simpler systems, such a process could occur on the periphery, but gradually developed intracortical methods of filtering by executive centers the most significant information for determining behavior
, which could act in the absence of motor commands. N. Humphrey called such a mechanism " sensual loop
"(sentient loop), which is even terminologically close to our “circle of sensations”.
Speaking about the mechanisms of sensations, it is appropriate to recall the words once spoken by I. Goethe: “If I did not carry the whole world within me, I would be blind with healthy eyes.”
Consciousness and speech. Thinking. Frontal cortex
More complex mental phenomena, primarily associated with the appearance of speech, are classified as higher-order consciousness. According to P.V. Simonov, it arose as a result of communication between people. This process is also associated with the specialization of the hemispheres. An interesting opinion was expressed by M. Corballis: he believes that speech developed from the need to convey rather complex information, first at the level of exchange of gestures. Only later, when the forelimbs were occupied with tools, hand movements began to be combined with vocal signals, which gradually turned into the main means of communication. Since the vocal centers in many animals are located on the left, cortical speech centers also arose in the left hemisphere. At the same time, the functions of Broca's area - the motor center of speech, located in a person's left frontal region - also changed. Monkeys have similar cortical zones in both hemispheres, but their function is somewhat different: there are “mirror neurons” that control actions that repeat the movements of another individual (“monkeying”). It's interesting that in young children, speech motor centers are also bilateral , and damage to one of them does not lead to loss of speech, as happens in adults. Speaking about the mechanisms of higher mental functions, especially thinking, it is necessary to say about the works of N.P. Bekhtereva and her school.
The last years of the last century, declared the “decade of the brain,” were marked by the rapid accumulation of knowledge about the principles of the cortical organization of mental functions. Using "living brain imaging" it was found that certain fields of the cortex are responsible for individual cognitive, mental operations . However higher mental functionsarise as a result of the combination of specialized fields due to cortical connections .
Mental function arises on the basis of the synthesis of three types of information: emanating from the external environment (sensory), extracted from memory and coming from motivation centers. The first determines the connection of consciousness with the outside world. On brain maps, cortical areas are color coded, depending on the normalized number of connections that connect to them. In figurative thinking, the foci are located in the parietotemporal cortex, and in verbal thinking, in the frontal cortex. The speech perception center in the left temporal cortex (Wernicke's area) is involved in both cases. Cortical connections in two subranges of beta rhythm frequencies when solving a spatial (bottom left) and verbal (bottom right) task. In the first case, the subject had to determine whether the two figures shown to him were identical or mirror symmetrical; in the second, he had to find a word belonging to a different semantic category than the other three. Connections are shown as they appear in the process of solving the problem, in accordance with the given time scale. |
In the study of connections - the central problem of brain integration - the idea put forward by the Russian neurophysiological school turned out to be particularly fruitful: a nerve connection is formedbased on coordinating the rhythms of work of neural ensembles located in different parts of the cortex, whichresembles the phenomenon of resonance . Wherein nerve impulses from one group of neurons constantly approach anotherin the increased phase of its excitability , that is, a phenomenon occurs that is to a certain extent similar to the “green wave” when traffic moves. Research by M.N. Livanov and V.S. Rusinov found that the indicator of connection is synchronization of EEG rhythms , including individual components of its spectrum.
In our work on the study of thinking using a new method of mapping cortical connections, we were the first to describe the pattern of connections typical for different types of thinking. The subject was offered tasks on figurative, spatial and abstract-verbal thinking on the monitor screen, and he reported the finished answer verbally or by moving the joystick. In this case, multichannel EEG recording was carried out during the period between the formulation of the problem and its solution.
As a result of the research, it was found that the pattern of connections, symmetrical in the resting state, changes when solving the problem: the connections begin to converge to certain fields of the cortex, which were designated as interaction focuses
. At the same time, their
topography varies depending on the type of mental activity
. Yes, when imaginative thinking(let’s say we need to determine what emotions the faces in the photographs express) the foci were localized in the parietotemporal cortex.
At abstract-verbal thinking(solving anagrams or categorizing words) they are located in the frontal cortex.
At spatial thinking, including elements of both figurative and abstract thinking, connections converged to the parietal and frontal cortex.
It was also found that information comes to focusfrom various parts of the cortexhaving their own specialization, communications,which are supported at different frequencies
. A certain role is played in the synthesis. motivational component
I, just like when sensations arise.
In the focus, the neural groups of which are connected by rigid connections, the synthesis of incoming information occurs, as a result of which, probably, a decision is made. In these works, the idea of information synthesis was extended to thinking, since it turned out that
the principle of organization of nervous processes during sensation and thinking is to a certain extent similar
. The difference is that
in the first case, two streams of information are compared, and
in the second - several.
Besides, synthesis centers when thinking, they are not in the projection cortex, as when sensations arise, but in the associative cortex. I wonder what when solving any problems, not even requiring a verbal response, at the last stage of the thought process, foci arise in the left temporal region, where the center of speech perception is located
(the so-called Wernicke's area), which suggests that verbalization - an important component of human thinking
. So,
mental perception
arises on the basis of a certain organization of nervous processes during which return of excitation to the places of initial projections
. With more complex functions, parts of the frontal cortex are involved in this process.
This conclusion was confirmed in our studies of the cortical mechanism of verbal associations, conducted jointly with the laboratory of M. Posner in the USA. The subject had to choose a verb associated with the proposed noun (for example, hammer - hit). Since such a search took less than one second, we developed a method whose time resolution was 100 ms, i.e. was close to duration of individual mental operations
. When searching for associations, first a diffuse system of connections arose, which covered fairly large areas of the cortex, then more specialized connections were formed between the left and right frontal cortex
. Then powerful connections arose between the frontal and left temporo-parietal cortex. Temporal cortex , thus activated twice
: in the first 100-150 ms after the presentation of the word and then in the interval 185-460 ms. Semantics, that is, the meaning of a word, is determined mainly in the frontal, rather than in the temporal cortex. At the same time, to determine the meaning of a sentence - the elementary unit of verbal thinking - it is necessary to interact with the frontal cortex with a zone located in Wernicke's left temporal cortex, the defeat of which leads to impaired understanding of speech.
Remembering the sequence of events. Declarative memory and the hippocampus. Selective attention
An important property of consciousness is the ability to retain in the head the sequence of events that have taken place and to arbitrarily retrieve them from the depths of memory. The French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1944) called this property " memory of the soul", Unlike " body memory", responsible for motor and other skills. Modern terminology calls them declarative and procedural memory, respectively.
Recent decades have seen breakthroughs in the study of their brain mechanisms. Long-term memory is thought to be associated with the association cortex. In addressing memory traces to certain areas of the cortex, an important role is played by the medial parts of the temporal region of the hemispheres, including the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus (it is a curved strip of neurons, reminiscent of a seahorse in shape, hence the name /see first figure/). The above-mentioned formations have extensive connections both among themselves and with the projection (those where signals from the sensory organs arrive) and associative sections of the cortex. When memorizing, they send a signal to the associative cortex for long-term retention in memory, and if it is necessary to remember, they indicate the address where information related to the received signal is stored. Let's give a simple example. Long-term memory corresponds to a book depository in a library, and the hippocampal complex can be compared to a catalog that shows where the desired book is kept. The difference between the two structures of the hippocampal complex is that the entorhinal cortex is involved in storing information outside of its context (procedural and, for more complex signals, semantic memory), while the hippocampus is important for declarative memory.
To explain the differences between types of memory, we can give the following example. Suppose you meet a person whose face is familiar to you, but you cannot figure out who he is - this recognition, or semantic memory . If you remember who this person is and under what circumstances you met, we are talking about remembering , O declarative memory . Both types of memory have a certain electrophysiological expression in the EP pattern in the form of a positive shift of its late “cognitive” waves with a latency of about 400 ms for semantic and 500-700 ms for declarative memory, which was proven, in particular, using direct assignment of EPs from the hippocampal structures through implanted electrodes. Damage to the hippocampus leads to declarative memory impairment. Such patients can assimilate new information quite well, including language, acquire complex motor skills, study successfully at school and have a high intellectual quotient. At the same time, they are helpless in everyday life, since they do not remember the sequence of events, do not orient themselves in time, and cannot make a plan for the future. English-speaking authors talk about the violation of two properties: belongings (belonging) and appointments (event timing). It is interesting that this disease manifests itself only from the age of 5-6, that is, from the moment when a healthy person begins to remember himself.
Along with the hippocampus, the frontal cortex plays an important role in storing a sequence of events in memory. It is possible to highlight three groups of neurons: alone react to an active signal, others save its trace until the moment when it is necessary to give a behavioral response, and, finally, third include response. Neurons fire sequentially and, as it were, pass the baton from one group to another. We can conclude that the “memory of the soul,” the same one that the writer D. Granin compared to a read book, which you can leaf through, stopping at the desired page, is ensured by the interaction of the frontal cortex and the hippocampus.
Consciousness is closely related to attention : Only what is paid attention to is realized. Our research has shown that memory plays an important role in the mechanisms of selective perception of verbal signals, when a person must react only to certain words, distinguishing them from the mass of others. This situation occurs, for example, when a person is reading a book with the radio on. The difficulty lies in the fact that a word always has a certain significance and carries a semantic load. Our work used recordings of brain EPs to words that simultaneously appeared on a monitor screen and were heard through computer speakers. The subject's task was to remember as many words as possible that came through one of the channels, ignoring the others. In the next series of experiments, it was necessary to determine whether the word meant an abstract or concrete concept. As already mentioned, memorization and retrieval of verbal information from memory has a certain electrophysiological expression in the “cognitive” components of EP with a latency from 400 to 700 ms. It was found that the EP to a significant stimulus was characterized by a positive shift, while in response to an ignored signal there was a negative shift in potential, that is, a shift opposite in polarity to that which occurs during memorization, which indicates active inhibition of memorization processes (see . rice.). Apparently, selectivity of attention is ensured due to the fact that although unnecessary information is perceived (since the components of the EP responsible for this process are preserved; a person can also recognize this word if he is shown a list of words that he should have ignored), but then the transmission of information to the hippocampal structures is blocked. The advantages of such an organization of verbal attention are that a person can respond to an unexpected signal if a changed situation requires it (in our example, an important message on the radio). Under normal conditions, unnecessary information is simply not stored in the mind.
Thus, the idea of the important role of memory in the emergence of subjective experience receives additional confirmation in attention studies. The results obtained provide grounds for approaching from a new perspective the understanding of the nature of some childhood and senile diseases. The first includes motor hyperactivity and attention deficit syndrome in school-age children, the second includes memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease and cerebral atherosclerosis. It can be assumed that in the latter case, especially in the early stages of the disease, not only memory is weakened, but also the ability to focus attention on the necessary information (such attention disorders are known to clinicians). In this case, a new class of drugs may be recommended to combat the disease. The fact is that the parts of the brain that regulate attention and the structures responsible for memory use different mediators. In the first case it is dopamine, in the second it is acetylcholine and glutamate. Available clinical observations indicate the promise of this approach.
Let us summarize the ideas about the most probable mechanisms of consciousness. The fundamental principle is the return of excitation to the sites of original projections, which ensures information synthesis ; the frontal cortex plays an important role in the formation of abstract ideas and speech; The medio-basal regions of the temporal region of the hemispheres are important for maintaining declarative memory and ensuring the processes of selective attention. The comparison of newly received information with past experiences determines the content of consciousness as a constant adjustment of personal experience and what can be called the sense of the inner “I”. At the heart of consciousness is the idea of renewal, which gives life its highest meaning and determines a person’s constant desire for novelty.
Consciousness and artificial intelligence
In conclusion, a few words about another problem that has recently attracted more and more attention - comparisons of the living brain with artificial intelligence. Let us dwell on that aspect of the problem that is most related to consciousness. According to the famous English mathematician and physicist R. Penrose, consciousness cannot be reduced to calculations, since a living brain differs from a computer in that it has the ability to understand. To the question of what understanding is and what its brain mechanisms are, the answer must be given by a physiologist. It appears that understanding arises as a result that, as already mentioned, again the information received is constantly compared in the brain with accumulated experience, with what is stored in memory as a result of learning. It is important that the role of the motivational component in information synthesis is very significant. Thanks to this, the external stimulus is correlated with the past actions of the subject and the satisfaction of a certain need. Understanding, therefore, has a deep vital, adaptive meaning. It is characteristic not only of humans, but also of animals. The animal learns to perform certain actions in order to satisfy a particular need, that is, it begins to understand the connection between external events, its behavior and the achievement of the desired result. Training is also based on this: in order to teach the dog to carry out, that is, understand, certain commands, the trainer uses reinforcement in the form of food or punishment. Essentially, all this initially applies to a person, starting from early childhood. Thus, gaining life experience, the child begins to understand “what is good and what is bad.” A good student receives high grades, a good worker has a higher salary, and a careless worker is fined, a hero receives a reward, and a criminal is sent to prison so that he understands that he cannot break the law. Almost all behavior is based on the same principles.
To substantiate his views, R. Penrose uses Gödel's theorem that it is impossible to prove by calculation the correctness of the basic operations of arithmetic, for example, that 1+1=2. But a living being is convinced of this when it receives two bananas, two enemies or two wives, adding a second (or second) to the first object (or subject) as a result of certain actions. Wherein understanding the essence of doubling(or addition in general) arises in evolution earlier than the ability to count. For example, a case is described when a native inhabitant of the north did not know how many deer he had, but could easily list each one according to their characteristics. The child can also sort out in his memory all the people around him or his toys, although he does not yet know the count. This may seem paradoxical, but understanding both in evolution and in the process of individual developmentprecedes calculation . The point is that calculation is based on abstraction, and this is a function of a more advanced brain. The adaptive effect is achieved when these complex functions, such as the ability to abstract, are combined with simpler ones.
Human consciousness is the result of a long evolution. As the higher functions of the brain improved, the understanding based on the fundamental principles of its operation became more complete.
The above is, of course, far from complete. There is still much we do not know about how the brain works, and especially about what underlies its higher functions and human consciousness. However, progress in this area in recent years is quite obvious, and brain science is gradually moving closer to revealing this secret of nature.
The work was carried out with the support of the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Basic Sciences for Medicine" and the program of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Integrative Mechanisms of Regulation of Functions and Organisms".
See further
article by academician P.V. Simonova" About two varieties of the unconscious: Sub- and Superconscious "
article "Mechanisms of memory and oblivion
"
collections of short news articles" How memory is stored in the brain..."
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Penrose R. Shadows of the Mind. In search of a science of consciousness. Part 1. Understanding the mind and new physics. M., Izhevsk: Institute of Computer Technologies, 2003. 368 p.
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Every person constantly comes up with various thoughts, but where do they come from? Why can’t thoughts be stopped, and do they belong to a person at all? Is the mind (consciousness) a person? Or is a person something more than the mind? To answer these questions, I invite you on a journey into the world of the human being and its secrets.
What is consciousness?
“Any person will say: “I control my consciousness. This is my consciousness. I do what I want". We talked about this a lot. Sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and write down everything that it shows and tells you. And then read and see: is this what you wanted? Did you order these thoughts? Have you ordered these wishes? And why is all this happening.”
Man is not thoughts or consciousness. By nature, we have two principles: Animal (material body and consciousness) and Spiritual (Soul and Personality). In reality, a person is a Personality, i.e. Personality is who you really are. Life force constantly flows from the Soul to the Personality, and the Personality already chooses where to redirect it, i.e. which of the two began to give her attention. And what the Personality chooses, it strengthens with its attention.
Consciousness is the mediator between the Personality and this material world. With the help of consciousness, we communicate, see, hear, grieve or enjoy this world. Pictures in the head, thoughts, emotions, desires, habits, sensations of the physical body - these are all elements of the work of human consciousness.
To understand that a person is not consciousness, we can give an associative example with theater. The personality is the spectator, and the “artists on stage” are consciousness. And so the “artists” show you, as Personalities, various scenes: they tell you what you need in life to make you happy; argue with each other, prove their point of view; They show you various fantasies, making you out to be a winner in arguments, a superhero, or something else. They show you something that did not happen in reality, twisting everything beyond recognition, which is essentially magic. Those. “artists on stage” offer and impose on you, as a viewer, to live their life. And the brighter the picture, the more attention the Personality puts into this illusory “theater in the head.” And this is funding for “artists”. Those. “artists” do everything in order to evoke emotion in you, to attract your attention. And you won’t be able to escape from these “artists.”
But this does not mean that a person does not need to develop his consciousness.
“Tatiana: Just now, Igor Mikhailovich, you said that consciousness is a tool, and I remembered how one person, talking about Knowledge, or rather... his consciousness betrayed the other extreme: “Since consciousness bothers me, since it deceives me so much, then , that’s it, I won’t develop it”...
Igor Mikhailovich: Well, and thus become equal in consciousness to a monkey. That is, to have an underdeveloped consciousness, to be disoriented in modern times and to do what others order you to do. Weak-minded, let's say so. This is the dream of so many managers: to have a stupid, uncomprehending, unconscious society.”
From the program " CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERSONALITY. From obviously dead to eternally alive»
The essence of consciousness is to be a tool for communication in this three-dimensional world. Without consciousness, a person will not be able to communicate, analyze, or even know simply that his body needs to eat. Therefore, it is impossible to live in the material world without consciousness, but it, like any instrument, must fulfill its functions and be well developed. The wider your horizons, the more you understand, the more you have to understand this three-dimensional world, and then you can easily come to the conclusion that the material world originated from the Spiritual world.
“If you are developing as a Personality, then a well-trained consciousness is only a help, it is not a detriment... A well-developed consciousness makes it easier to understand this world, improves communication with other people.”
From the program “CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERSONALITY. From the obviously dead to the eternally Alive"
However, one must understand that although consciousness is a tool, it is an instrument with its own character. And if the Personality does not control consciousness and does not use it for its intended purpose, then consciousness turns from a tool and servant into a dictator. Which begins to exploit the Personality and impose its programs on it. Consciousness does not have its own source of energy; it functions only due to the investment of the attentional power of the Personality. Just as a computer is powered and operates from electricity, so consciousness is powered and exists only due to the fact that the Personality invests the power of its attention in the programs proposed by consciousness - in the form of pictures and thoughts. If you turn off the computer from the outlet, then all programs, all pictures will disappear and it simply will not function... Unfortunately, for most people in modern society, consciousness has turned from a convenient tool into a dictator. And now it is not the Personality that controls consciousness, but consciousness that controls the Personality and imposes its priorities on it.
Scientists have already scientifically confirmed that if the consciousness is not occupied with activities that are necessary for the Personality, but is in a state of so-called rest, then 80% of the thoughts proposed by the consciousness are negative. Why? Because negative thoughts accepted by the Personality cause stronger emotions. And emotions are like additional food for consciousness. For a Personality, emotions are destructive, because... the life force coming from the Soul for spiritual growth is redirected to the dead and spent on nothing. And instead of Living, investing attention in Love, Joy, Happiness - the Personality chooses emptiness, illusion. Consciousness is a liar! And the result of such a choice of the Personality is death.
It’s just that the Personality needs to rationally invest its attention, and precisely in what the Personality itself needs, and not in what the consciousness, that is, the “artists” in the head, imposes on it. You must always remember that consciousness is not the real you, that all thoughts and pictures are what consciousness offers.
Research by scientists and their statements about consciousness
Official psychology believes that consciousness is connected with the human brain, and this is the person himself. This erroneous assumption misleads society and has serious consequences for future generations.
Consciousness — it is not the human brain, and the most important thing is that consciousness is not the person himself. This fact has already been confirmed by many neurophysiologists and other people who study this issue, and at least observe themselves.
A research team of scientists led by Sam Parnia conducted an experiment over 4.5 years involving 2,060 patients in 15 hospitals. Scientists have collected evidence that human consciousness still works, even if the rest of the body (including the brain as an organ) can already be considered dead.
Charles Scott Sherrington (British scientist in the field of physiology and neurobiology) in his book “Man and His Nature” (1946) wrote that “the brain cooperates with the psyche,” considering the brain and the psyche (by “psyche” he meant consciousness), as independent and separated from each other, connected only by the principle of interaction.
Wilder Graves Penfield (a Canadian neurosurgeon of American origin), after many years of studying brain activity, came to the conclusion that “the energy of the mind is different from the energy of the brain’s neural impulses.” (Penfield W. The mystery of the mind. Princeton, 1975. P. 25-27).
Used sources:
- A. Novykh "AllatRa"
- Program “CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERSONALITY. From the obviously dead to the eternally Alive"
- http://mirpozitiva.ru/pozitiv/pritchi/pritchi29.html
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CONSCIOUSNESS AND BRAIN
Consciousness is a function of the human brain. Consciousness is the highest level of mental reflection of reality, inherent only to man. A person is aware not only of the world around him, but also of himself. P.V. Simonov, in his characterization of consciousness, emphasizes that this is knowledge that can be transmitted to other members of society with the help of words. To realize means to convey your knowledge to others. Everything that cannot be communicated to others is not yet realized. Scientists believe that the emergence of consciousness is associated with the emergence and development of speech. This is a verbal theory of consciousness. It is confirmed by neurophysiological data. The inability to express something in words means a lack of awareness of this phenomenon. Restoring consciousness after a coma in people goes through several stages. First - opening the eyes, then fixing the gaze on familiar faces, then understanding speech and, lastly, one’s own speech. It was found that in the patient only at the stage of speech understanding the characteristic connections between the motor-speech zones of the left hemisphere and other cortical zones at the alpha rhythm frequency are restored.
To become aware of any external stimulus, activation of connections between the sensitive areas of the cortex (auditory, visual, etc.) and the motor center of speech is necessary. This nonspecific activation occurs through thalamic structures. Scientists have found that if the duration of an electrical impulse is less than 500 ms, then it is not realized. If it is longer, then the stimulus is realized. Kropotov et al. found that recognition of letters and numbers under difficult observation conditions occurs if the neuron reaction lasts at least 300 ms. In his experiments, Kostandov presented words with an exposure of 15 ms; they were unconscious, while evoked potentials were recorded in the occipital and other areas of the cortex. During conscious words, impulses arose only in the occipital lobe. THAT. found that with conscious signals (stimuli), local activation of cortical neurons occurs, and with unconscious stimuli, activation of the cortex is weaker and diffuse. It has been established in experiments that consciousness is associated with the functions of the dominant speech hemisphere.
Unconscious mental processes are widespread in our brain and psyche. generally. P.V. Simonov divides them into 2 groups:
1. The subconscious is information, skills, norms and everything that was previously conscious and can again become conscious under certain conditions. These are automated skills in playing instruments, driving, skating, skiing, and motivational conflicts. The subconscious mind protects a person from excessive energy consumption and protects against stress.
2. Superconsciousness or intuition is associated with creative processes that are not controlled by consciousness. Superconsciousness is the source of discoveries. The neurophysiological basis of intuition is the transformation of memory traces and the formation of new combinations from them, the creation of new temporary connections, and the generation of analogies. Consciousness retains the function of selecting hypotheses based on analysis. The development of superconsciousness is determined by a dominant need. Superconsciousness underlies discoveries, works of art, images.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN HUMAN GNI
It has long been noted that different people behave differently in the same situations. General types of behavior were identified. The Greek physician Hippocrates and other scientists of Arab-Persian medicine recognized the four elements of nature: air, water, fire, earth, and accordingly, four liquids or matter were isolated in the human body: blood, bile, black bile and mucus. The mixture of these liquids determines the behavior and uniqueness of a person. In Greek, mixture is temperamentum. Hence, the classification of individuals was called the classification of temperaments. Pavlov created the doctrine of the types of GNI, which was based on the properties of the central nervous system….
TEMPERAMENT IN THE STRUCTURE OF INDIVIDUALITY
4 types of temperament determine 4 types of behavior, therefore TMP is a behavioral category. TMP is a set of formal, dynamic characteristics of behavior. TMP does not characterize the substantive side of a person - views, beliefs, interests. The content side of personality is related to character. TMP characterizes the energy level of behavior: its intensity, speed, tempo. Many properties of TMP have been identified - impulsivity, anxiety, emotional excitability, reactivity, strength of emotions. However, the most important characteristics of behavior are considered general activity and emotionality. Activity, according to Ya. Strelyau, is a manifestation of the energy level of behavior. TMP activity correlates with the strength and balance of neural processes. Emotionality manifests itself in anxiety, excitability, and strength of emotions. And it manifests itself in autonomic reactions and EEG.
The properties of TMP are stable. A person cannot be either choleric or phlegmatic. It is difficult to change your temperament, but targeted influences from the environment, education, and volitional efforts can lead to changes in the formal-dynamic characteristics of behavior.
TMT is the result of the interaction of 2 factors - heredity and environment. People and animals can be divided into active and passive. Among the rats, they were divided into active and passive, and after several generations they obtained pure lines: active and passive, based on different motor activity. It's similar for people.
The inheritance of TMP activity was studied using the twin method. Differences in TMP in identical twins should be smaller than in just relatives (other brothers and sisters). It has been proven that complex movements, the passage of a labyrinth, and subtle movements of the hands are hereditarily determined. And the individual pace of performing a variety of actions is also controlled, to a large extent, by genotype.
Due to the fact that many properties of TMP are determined by heredity - genotype, TMP is relatively stable and should be little influenced by education and the environment. The opinion that in the process of education TMP can be transformed is erroneous and its change is unlikely. Education_environment is changed only by habits and skills. And this creates the appearance of a change in TMP. Proper education means the targeted formation in a given person of those skills and habits that would correspond to his TMP and smooth out the natural shortcomings of the TMP. With good upbringing, the behavior of a person or animal is not an indicator of its natural TMP.
For example, a passive-defensive reaction (cowardice) can be combined with any type of dog’s GND. It is much more common in weak type dogs (16 out of 17). And among 34 dogs of the strong type, only in 19 cases.
The child’s TMT, for its part, influences the upbringing of his parents. From the moment the child is born (calm, loud, stubborn...), the characteristics of his temperament provoke certain behavior of the parents. By repeating their behavior, adults create a certain system of directed influences in relation to the child, which influence the formation of the child’s personal qualities and character traits. THAT. The child’s temperament changes and modifies the educational influences of others directed at him. Thus, the environment acts on the child indirectly through the properties of his temperament.
Changes in the properties of the n.s. that occur in childhood are not the result of upbringing, but a result of the maturation of the n.s. Up to 6 years of age, children have weak excitation processes, unbalanced processes with a predominance of excitation over inhibition. Then there comes balance and development of inhibition and regulation processes.
Thus, the individual differences of a person, manifested in his mental activity and behavior, depend on heredity and environment, that is, on his life experience gained as a result of upbringing and training. Individuality, the personality of a person, is the unity of the natural and the social.
It is important for learning to highlight the natural inclinations of abilities. Teplov B.M. gives such a definition of abilities - these are individual psychological characteristics that affect the success of performing a particular activity. The natural basis of various abilities can be various combinations of general and special individual psychological properties. General abilities are performance, activity, flexibility of thinking, self-regulation, etc. For special abilities, complex systems are formed. For example. musician Capabilities.
A person’s individuality determines his greater or lesser adaptive capabilities. Pavlov believed that sanguine and phlegmatic people have the best chances. However, different types of activities make different demands on human properties, and this is the success of career guidance for young people.
Modern science proceeds from the idea of the biological unity of animals and humans. And because of this, sometimes conclusions are drawn about the complete analogy of mental processes in humans and animals. But human consciousness arose and developed in close dependence with the emergence and development of the human brain, this is indicated by the fact that the level of reflective ability of consciousness also depends on the level of complexity of the organization of the brain.
The main function of the human brain is the storage and processing of information received by a person in the process of cognitive activity. The human brain is symmetrical (hemispheres), but functionally there is a great difference between the hemispheres.
The left hemisphere is responsible for all types of speech activity (understanding, speaking), ensures the processes of speech and writing, reading, carries out counting operations, and classifies objects into certain classes.
The right hemisphere controls orientation in one’s own body (perception of spatial relationships, correct coordination).
Consciousness not only reflects reality, but also allows us to express certain attitudes towards it. Therefore, the structure of consciousness includes: memory, emotions, feeling, will, motivation.
Spirkin's concept
By consciousness we mean the ability to ideally reflect reality, the transformation of the objective content of an object into the subjective content of a person’s mental life.
Consciousness is not just an image, but a mental (ideal) form of activity that is focused on reflecting and transforming reality.
Consciousness is the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to humans and associated with speech, which consists in a generalized, evaluative and purposeful reflection and transformation of reality, as well as in the preliminary mental construction of actions and the anticipation of their results.
Ivanov's concept (consciousness according to Ivanov)
Ivanov represents the field of consciousness in the form of a circle. Each sector is responsible for a specific function.
The first sector: the sphere of bodily-perceptual abilities and knowledge obtained on their basis. These abilities include: sensations, perception, specific ideas, with the help of which a person receives primary information about the external world, about his own body and about its relationships with other bodies. The main goal of this sphere of knowledge is the usefulness and expediency of the behavior of the human body in the world of natural, social, human bodies surrounding it.
Second sector: logical-conceptual components of consciousness. With the help of thinking, a person goes beyond the immediate sensory data into the essential levels of cognizable objects. This area includes: general concepts, analytical-synthetic mental operations, hard logical proofs. The main goal is truth.
Sectors 1 and 2 form the external-cognitive component of consciousness.
Third sector: it is associated with the emotional component of consciousness. She is deprived of direct communication with the outside world. This is the sphere of personal, subjective psychological experiences, memories, premonitions. This area includes:
· Instinctive-affective states (premonition, vague experiences, stress, hallucinations)
· Emotions (anger, fear, delight)
· Feelings that are more distinct (pleasure, love, sympathy, antipathy)
The main goal of the sphere is the principle of pleasure.
Fourth sector: value-motivational component. It contains the highest motives of activity and spiritual ideals of the individual, as well as the ability to form them and creatively understand them in the form of fantasies and imagination. The main goal of the sector is beauty, truth and justice.
Sectors 3 and 4 form the value-emotional component of consciousness.
The problem of consciousness is related to the question of self-awareness. It is believed that objective consciousness is focused on understanding the world around a person; with self-awareness, the subject makes himself an object. The object of analysis becomes one’s own ideas, thoughts, feelings, experiences, goals, actions, position in the family and team.
Sources of consciousness
1. External objective and spiritual world, natural social and spiritual phenomena that are reflected in consciousness in the form of conceptual images
2. Sociocultural environment, general concepts, ethical and aesthetic attitudes, social ideals, legal norms, knowledge accumulated by society
3. The spiritual appearance of the individual, his own unique experience of life, experiences, i.e. in the absence of direct external influences, a person is able to rethink his past and control his future
4. Brain. The chemical and biological state of the brain is one of the factors influencing the nature of perception of the world.
5. Cosmic information-semantic field (the brain takes information from space)
Unconscious
consciousness brain spiritual human
Along with consciousness, in the human psyche there is a sphere of the unconscious.
The unconscious is a set of mental phenomena and actions that lie outside the sphere of the human mind, are unconscious and cannot (at the moment) be controlled by knowledge. The unconscious includes:
Hypnotic state
State of insanity
Reservations, clerical errors
Everything that is not currently in the focus of the individual’s consciousness, but can be included in consciousness through memory, should not be classified as unconscious.
Instincts can and do generate subconscious desires, emotions, and volitional impulses in a person, but later they can enter the sphere of consciousness, or the other way around can happen. The so-called “Automatisms” and intuition can arise with the help of consciousness, but then move into the sphere of the unconscious.
The unconscious according to Freud.
S. Freud came to the conclusion about the essential, and sometimes even decisive, role of the unconscious. According to Freud, the human psyche has three spheres: “It”, “I”, “super-self”.
“It” is the sphere of the unconscious, in which various biological influences are concentrated: sexual desires, and ideas repressed from consciousness. The principles of pleasure and enjoyment dominate here.
“I” is the sphere of the conscious, a kind of mediator between a person’s unconscious influences and external reality, cat. includes the natural and social environment. The “I” level strives to replace the principle of pleasure with the principle of reality, although it does not always succeed.
“Super-th” - intrapersonal conscience, attitudes of society, ideals, norms, values, i.e. a kind of moral censorship.
“I” strives to be a mediator between the world and “It” and for the world “It”.
Freud exaggerated the importance of the unconscious. Freud exaggerated the importance of the “Id” in relation to the “I” and said that a person is forced to constantly be tormented and torn between biological influences and perceived social norms. According to Freud, the biological unconscious is decisive.
G. Jung identified the so-called “archetypes” in the sphere of the unconscious. If the complexes of experiences repressed from consciousness into the unconscious in Freud are the result of individual life, then Jung’s archetypes are associated with the collective life of people and are fixed in a person’s life, passed on from generation to generation.
The “Shadow” archetype represents the image of the base and antisocial in a person.
The “Persona” archetype is a mask; underneath it lies the “shadow” archetype; a person very often uses it to hide an antisocial essence.
The “Anime” archetype is the feminine principle of a man.
Archetype "Animus" - the masculine principle of a woman
They lead to mutual understanding between men and women, but can lead to mental crises when idealized ideas do not coincide with a real person.
The “Self” archetype predetermines all human life activities aimed at achieving values and unity of its constituent parts.
The unconscious and the conscious are two relatively independent sides of a single psychological reality of a person. Contradictions and conflicts often arise between them, but they are still interconnected, interact with each other and are capable of achieving harmonious unity.
Language and thinking
Language is a specific way of a person - a way of being of consciousness. It serves to record, reproduce, transmit and receive thoughts. Although thoughts usually arise before they are expressed in language, it is through language that they gain their clarity. There are 2 language functions:
thinking
Thinking is a complex, multifaceted mental process that has its own structure. From the point of view of the method of its external expression, it has 2 forms:
silent inner speech, wordless thinking, outwardly expressed by silence.
A physically expressed form of thinking, having a verbal or non-verbal form, forms of words, gestures and facial expressions (verbal and non-verbal)
Thinking can also be classified depending on the nature of the objects it reflects:
concrete thinking, which is expressed in terms, words, signs, denoting individual specific things. This type of thinking is associated with material reality.
Abstract thinking, expressed in generalizing, abstract concepts, denoting invisible connections between types, genera, classes of objects and phenomena. He is separated from material reality.
Both abstract and concrete thinking are expressed in signs, symbols, words, in oral and written speech, in language.
Language is a material medium of expression of the ideal spirit, consciousness, thinking.
Types of languages:
speech form - oral and written speech
non-verbal - facial expressions, gestures, body movements.
Special languages - language of sciences (mathematics, chemistry)
Various signaling systems - road signs, marine signals, diagrams.
Language could only arise in society, i.e. it is socially conditioned. Language, as a means of communication, plays an important role in the social and labor activities of people.
The commonality between consciousness and language is that they 1) historically arose simultaneously, i.e. ideas cannot exist separately from language. 2) both thinking and language are the product of a long socio-historical process. Language and thinking are not identical.
a word reflects only the essence of an object, not the entire object, with all its diverse properties. Thought covers a larger number of properties of an object.
In the triad, consciousness, word, reality, the word occupies the middle position, connecting consciousness with reality. Thus, the word influences both thinking (explaining it) and reality (transformation).
Thought is fleeting, unstable, mortal. The word is more stable, stable and immortal. The word is a sparrow - if it flies out, you won’t catch it.