There have been a number of threads and posts that challenge the scientific basis for a natural evolved basis for an evolved natural consciousness.
The following are basic definitions of consciousness:
The Cambridge Dictionary defines consciousness as "the state of understanding and realizing something." The Oxford Living Dictionary defines consciousness as "The state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings.", "A person's awareness or perception of something."
I will argue the following:
1. Degrees of consciousness exist through out the evolutionary history of animals with a nervous system and a brain with neurological responses to the awareness of the environment, Consciousness increases with complexity over time.
2. Consciousness represents the collective thoughts, reasoning, understand and realizing relationships and responses to the environment, which have been falsified by scientific methods that originate from the brain and nervous system.
3. Science has reasonable explanation of the nature of consciousness in the animal kingdom.
Research is constantly expand our scientific understanding of consciousness in the animal kingdoms. The following article is representative of the current advances of science:
neurosciencenews.com
Tracing the Evolutionary Roots of Cognitive Flexibility
Summary: A new study provides insights into the evolutionary origins of cognitive flexibility, an essential skill for adaptation and survival.
Participants were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while learning a sensorimotor task, the findings of which showed the importance of sensory brain regions in decision-making. The researchers also discovered surprising similarities between the brain activity of humans and mice during this task.
These results suggest that the interplay between the frontal brain and sensory brain regions for decision-making formed early in evolutionary development.
Key Facts:
Source: RUB
Get up. Go to the kitchen. Prepare some cereal – but a look into the fridge shows: the milk bottle is empty. What now? Skip breakfast? Ask the neighbour for milk? Eat jam sandwiches? Every day, people are confronted with situations that were actually planned quite differently. Flexibility is what helps.
The origin of this skill in the brain is called cognitive flexibility.
A neuroscientific research team at the Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil, University Hospital of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University has now succeeded in getting a little closer to the evolutionary origin of cognitive flexibility.
The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Communications, online since 9. June 2023.
Key factor in many neuropsychiatric diseases
Cognitive flexibility is essential for the survival of all species on Earth. It is particularly based on functions of the so-called orbitofrontal cortex located in the frontal brain.
“The loss of cognitive flexibility in everyday life is a key factor in many neuropsychiatric diseases,” Professor Burkhard Pleger and first author Dr. Bin Wang from the Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil describe their motivation for the study.
“Understanding the underlying network mechanisms is therefore essential for the development of new therapeutic methods.”
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the Bochum team and their cooperation partner Dr. Abhishek Banerjee from the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University examined the brain functions of 40 participants while they were learning a sensorimotor task.
While lying in the MRI, the volunteers had to learn to recognise the meaning of different touch signals – similar to those used in Braille – on the tip of the right index finger. One touch signal told the participants to press a button with their free hand, while another signal instructed them not to do so and to remain still.
The connection between the two different touch signals and pressing the button or not pressing the button had to be learned from trial to trial. The challenge: after a certain time, the touch signals changed their meaning.
What had previously meant “pressing the button” now meant “holding still” – an ideal experimental set-up to investigate the volunteers’ cognitive flexibility. The fMRI provided images of the corresponding brain activity.
Similarities between humans and mice
“Similar studies had already been done with mice in the past,” says Pleger.
“The learning task we chose now allowed us to observe the brains of mice and humans under comparable cognitive demands.”
A surprising finding is the comparability between the Bochum results in humans and the previously published data from mice, Wang points out.
The similarity shows that cognitive functions that are important for survival, such as the flexibility to adapt quickly to suddenly changing conditions, are following comparable rules in different species.
In addition, the Bochum scientists were able to determine a close involvement of sensory brain regions in the processing of the decisions made during tactile learning. Wang emphasises: “Besides the frontal brain, sensory regions are essential for decision-making in the brain.”
More to follow . . .
The following are basic definitions of consciousness:
The Cambridge Dictionary defines consciousness as "the state of understanding and realizing something." The Oxford Living Dictionary defines consciousness as "The state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings.", "A person's awareness or perception of something."
I will argue the following:
1. Degrees of consciousness exist through out the evolutionary history of animals with a nervous system and a brain with neurological responses to the awareness of the environment, Consciousness increases with complexity over time.
2. Consciousness represents the collective thoughts, reasoning, understand and realizing relationships and responses to the environment, which have been falsified by scientific methods that originate from the brain and nervous system.
3. Science has reasonable explanation of the nature of consciousness in the animal kingdom.
Research is constantly expand our scientific understanding of consciousness in the animal kingdoms. The following article is representative of the current advances of science:
Tracing the Evolutionary Roots of Cognitive Flexibility - Neuroscience News
A new study provides insights into the evolutionary origins of cognitive flexibility, an essential skill for adaptation and survival.
neurosciencenews.com
Tracing the Evolutionary Roots of Cognitive Flexibility
Summary: A new study provides insights into the evolutionary origins of cognitive flexibility, an essential skill for adaptation and survival.
Participants were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while learning a sensorimotor task, the findings of which showed the importance of sensory brain regions in decision-making. The researchers also discovered surprising similarities between the brain activity of humans and mice during this task.
These results suggest that the interplay between the frontal brain and sensory brain regions for decision-making formed early in evolutionary development.
Key Facts:
- Cognitive flexibility, which allows quick adaptation to changing conditions, is crucial for survival and is based on the functions of the orbitofrontal cortex located in the frontal brain.
- Sensory brain regions are critical in decision-making processes as discovered in the study, suggesting the need for further investigation in this area.
- The similarity in cognitive processes between mice and humans suggests that these decision-making mechanisms likely developed early in evolutionary history.
Source: RUB
Get up. Go to the kitchen. Prepare some cereal – but a look into the fridge shows: the milk bottle is empty. What now? Skip breakfast? Ask the neighbour for milk? Eat jam sandwiches? Every day, people are confronted with situations that were actually planned quite differently. Flexibility is what helps.
The origin of this skill in the brain is called cognitive flexibility.
A neuroscientific research team at the Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil, University Hospital of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University has now succeeded in getting a little closer to the evolutionary origin of cognitive flexibility.
The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Communications, online since 9. June 2023.
Key factor in many neuropsychiatric diseases
Cognitive flexibility is essential for the survival of all species on Earth. It is particularly based on functions of the so-called orbitofrontal cortex located in the frontal brain.
“The loss of cognitive flexibility in everyday life is a key factor in many neuropsychiatric diseases,” Professor Burkhard Pleger and first author Dr. Bin Wang from the Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil describe their motivation for the study.
“Understanding the underlying network mechanisms is therefore essential for the development of new therapeutic methods.”
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the Bochum team and their cooperation partner Dr. Abhishek Banerjee from the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University examined the brain functions of 40 participants while they were learning a sensorimotor task.
While lying in the MRI, the volunteers had to learn to recognise the meaning of different touch signals – similar to those used in Braille – on the tip of the right index finger. One touch signal told the participants to press a button with their free hand, while another signal instructed them not to do so and to remain still.
The connection between the two different touch signals and pressing the button or not pressing the button had to be learned from trial to trial. The challenge: after a certain time, the touch signals changed their meaning.
What had previously meant “pressing the button” now meant “holding still” – an ideal experimental set-up to investigate the volunteers’ cognitive flexibility. The fMRI provided images of the corresponding brain activity.
Similarities between humans and mice
“Similar studies had already been done with mice in the past,” says Pleger.
“The learning task we chose now allowed us to observe the brains of mice and humans under comparable cognitive demands.”
A surprising finding is the comparability between the Bochum results in humans and the previously published data from mice, Wang points out.
The similarity shows that cognitive functions that are important for survival, such as the flexibility to adapt quickly to suddenly changing conditions, are following comparable rules in different species.
In addition, the Bochum scientists were able to determine a close involvement of sensory brain regions in the processing of the decisions made during tactile learning. Wang emphasises: “Besides the frontal brain, sensory regions are essential for decision-making in the brain.”
More to follow . . .
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