Transcript The mind-body problem - BECS / CoE in

The mind-body
problem
Correlative versus Systemic
Psychophysiology
To solve or not to solve?
From the behavioristic point of view it is
possible to assume that the way of solving
the mind-body problem does not affect
neither the type of selected scientific
task, nor the formulation of this task
[Watson J.B.].
I believe that it is the solution (even if it is
implicit) of this problem that
determines the conceptual apparatus of
a study, its tasks and even methods.
Correlative
psychophysiology
Correlative
psychophysiology
Correlative psychophysiology
• Traditionally the gap between
psychology and physiology was
filled with the help of
correlative psychophysiology.
• Traditional
goal
of
this
psychophysiology is the search
for
the
physiological
mechanisms
of
psychic
processes.
• This approach implied direct
correlation
between
nonspatially located psychological
processes and physiological
processes located in certain
brain structures.
THE NEURAL BASIS OF ROMANTIC
LOVE
• Nothing is known about the neural substrates involved in
evoking one of the most overwhelming of all affective
states, that of romantic love.
• The activity in the brains of 17 subjects who were deeply
in love was scanned using fMRI, while they viewed
pictures of their partners.
• The activity was restricted to foci in the medial insula and
the anterior cingulate coretx and, subcortically, in the
caudate nucleus and the putamen.
• A unique network of areas is responsible for evoking
this affective state.
Bartels A. & Zeki S. Neuroreport. 2000, 11 (17): 3829-34
A new phase of correlative studies
More recently, advances in methods of neuronal
activity recording in behaving animals, together
with the introduction of modern ideas of
"functional specialization" have inspired a new
phase of such correlative studies. These studies
sought to base “psychological functions” like
imagination, decision making, face recognition,
cognitive mapping of the space, consciousness
etc. not only in particular brain areas but also in
specializations of single neurons.
C- and U-neurons
“I divide the nervous system into two types of
neurons, those concerned with consciousness,
“C” neurons, and those which take care of
unconscious functions, “U” neurons (the use of
the word “neuron” in this context is shorthand for
“otherwise unspecified subpart of the brain”).
The goal of anesthesia is to interfere temporarily
with the function of C neurons without disturbing
the U neurons.”
[John C. Kulli. Is Searle conscious? BBS, 1990, 13:4, 614]
Correlations:
Prediction or Explanation
We might one day have collected so much
detailed information about mind-brain
correlations that we can predict which
mental state will supervene on any specific
brain state. Even so we might still no idea as
to the reasons why this brain state yields
this mental state, and hence no way of
deducing one from the other a priori.
[Humphrey N. How to solve the mind-body problem. J. of Consciousness Studies. 2000, 7 (4), 5-20]
Three blind alleys
The major drawback of traditional psychophysiology is
the direct psycho-physiological correlation which
inevitably results in understanding the mental and
physiological processes either as identical,
parallel (then psychic appears to be an
epiphenomenon), or as interacting (thus admitting
the influence of non-material mind on brain matter).
These solutions of mind-body problem are centuries
old - only the terminology was changed within the
same alternatives. For example, Cartesian
dualism implying the influence of mind upon brain
through epiphysis is substituted by "trialism" of
K.Popper and J.Eccles (1977).
Reductionism and Eliminativism
• Reductionism is the view that the concepts and the laws of a
more basic theory – the reducing theory – can be used to …
explain the phenomena described in a less basic theory – the
reduced theory
• Eliminativism envisages a replacement of psychology by
neurobiology
• Reduction and elimination … are [not different views but] in
fact two ends of continuum
• At one end … is the view that psychology is entirely correct
but that its description is not given in fundamental terms. In
this case, psychology must be reduced to the level of
neurobiology
• At the other end … is the view that psychology is entirely
mistaken … and must be replaced by neurobiology
[I. Gold & S. Daniel. A neuron doctrine in the philosophy and neuroscience. BBS. 22 (5). 1999]
Psychons & Dendrons
• The apical dendrites of the pyramidal cells bundle
together to form neural receptor units of 100 apical
dendrites …, the collective assembladge being called
dendron.
• The mental world, is microgranular, with mental units
called psychons.
• In mind-brain interaction one psychon is linked to one
dendron through quantum physics.
• The active cerebral cortex may be a detector of “mind
influences” even if they existed at an intensity below
that detectable by physical instruments.
John E. Eccles
Psychokinesis & Telepathy
• The active cerebral cortex may be a detector of “mind
influences” even if they existed at an intensity below that
detectable by physical instruments.
• There is a two-way traffic between mind and the matterenergy system.
• The psycho-kinetics experiments indicate that very slight
changes can be produced by mental concentration on
moving physical objects such as dice.
• There are, too, the very carefully controlled experiments on
extra-sensory perception. Telepathic communication may
be explicable as a direct influence of mind on mind.
• The slight and irregular telepathic communications being
accepted, it is not possible to answer the question: how is it
that a given self is in liaison exclusively with a given brain?
John E. Eccles
Correlative
psychophysiology
Systemic solution of the Mind –
Body problem
For the "conceptual bridge" between
psychology and physiology, systemic
psychophysiology uses the concept of
qualitative specificity, emergent
properties of systemic processes, into
which separate, local physiological
processes are organized to achieve
behavioral result, but which cannot be
reduced to the latter processes.
Correlative
psychophysiology
Parameters
of the result
Decision
making
Acceptor
of action’s
result
Program
of the action
Result
of the action
Action
Motivation
Afferent
synthesis
Systemic
psychophysiology
Memory
Memory
Parameters
of the result
Decision
making
Acceptor
of action’s
result
Program
of the action
Result
of the action
Action
Motivation
Afferent
synthesis
Systemic
psychophysiology
Correlative
psychophysiology
The essence of systemic solution of the mindbody problem
Mental
processes,
that
characterize an organism
and behavioral act as a
whole, and physiological
processes that take place at
the level of separate elements
may be related not directly,
but
only
through
the
informational
systemic
processes, i.e. processes of
organization of elementary
mechanisms into a functional
system.
Memory
Parameters
of the result
Decision
making
Acceptor
of action’s
result
Program
of the action
Result
of the action
Action
Motivation
Afferent
synthesis
Systemic
psychophysiology
Correlative
psychophysiology
Systemic solution of the Mind – Body problem
·
Psychological
and
physiological processes are
different aspects of the
same
informational
mechanisms that organize
elements of an organism
into a system, which is
directed to achieve a
specific result.
Thus, physiology and
psychology describe the
same systemic mechanisms
but in different terms.
Memory
Parameters
of the result
Decision
making
Acceptor
of action’s
result
Program
of the action
Result
of the action
Action
Motivation
Afferent
synthesis
Systemic
psychophysiology
Correlative
psychophysiology
Systemic solution of the Mind – Body problem
This solution of the mindbody problem forces one to
describe the relationship
between psychological and
physiological processes,
which is only possible using
the all-organism nonspatially based systemic
mechanisms, not through
the direct correlation of
psychological and
physiological indices.
Systemic solution of the Mind – Body problem
Memory
Parameters
of the result
Decision
making
Acceptor
of action’s
result
Program
of the action
Result
of the action
Action
Motivation
Afferent
synthesis
David J. Chalmers, Facing up to the problem
of consciousness, 1995
 Body and mind, therefore, are not two
separate things but two ways of describing
the same thing – or better, the same process,
namely the activity of the organism-person
in his or her environment.
Systemic
psychophysiology
Correlative
psychophysiology
 The double-aspect principle: Information
(or at least some information) has two basic
aspects, a physical aspect and a phenomenal
aspect.
Tim Ingold, Evolving skills, 2000
The dual-aspect principle
Mind and Body
Mind and matter are manifest aspects of something deeper in Nature.
B. Spinoza, 1677
Mind and physical are two aspects of united reality.
G.W.F. Hegel, 1830
Psychological and physiological descriptions are partial descriptions of the
same systemic informational processes.
V.B. Shvyrkov, 1978
Consciousness and its correlated brain states may be thought of as dual aspects
of a particular kind of “information”, which is in turn, a fundamental
property of nature.
M. Velmans, 1991
Information has two basic aspects, a physical aspect and a phenomenal aspect.
D. J. Chalmers, 1995
Electricity and Magnetism
At the beginning of the nineteenth century electricity and magnetism were thought to be
quite distinct, and it was the work of Michael Faraday and, later, James Clerk
Maxwell which showed that they were basically two aspects of the same
phenomenon.
Mind is considered to be a subjective
reflection of the objective relation
between an organism and environment,
while the structure of mind - a "system
of interrelated functional systems" that
were accumulated in the course of
evolutionary and individual development.
Studying this structure is studying the
subjective, psychic reflection.
The tasks of systemic psychophysiology
In accordance with the proposed solution of the
mind-body problem, the tasks of systemic
psychophysiology are formulated. The range
of tasks of systemic psychophysiology
includes
studies
of
formation
and
actualization of systems, which are elements
of subjective experience, studies of their
taxonomy, and dynamics of intersystemic
relations in behavior which may be described
qualitatively as well as quantitatively.
Correlative
psychophysiology
Parameters
of the result
Decision
making
Acceptor
of action’s
result
Program
of the action
Result
of the action
Action
Motivation
Afferent
synthesis
Systemic
psychophysiology
Memory
The right way to remedy the Cartesian split […division
between mind and matter, between the physical sciences
and humanistic ways of thinking…] is not for one half of
the intellectual world to swallow the other but to avoid
making that split in the first place.
A human being is … a single item – a whole person. …
various ways of thinking are like a set of
complementary tools on a workbench or a set of remedies
to be used for different diseases. THEIR VARIETY IS
THE VARIETY OF OUR NEEDS.
[Mary Midgley. Why memes? In: Alas, poor Darwin. H. Rose &
S. Rose eds. Harmony Books, N.Y. 2000, pp. 82, 84]
Different kinds of description do different kind of work.
Explanation of complex things has to proceed
pluralistically and convergently …
[Mary Midgley. The ethical primate. Humans, Freedom and Morality. London &
New York. Routledge. 1994, pp. 55, 90]
Mind and evolution
I. Panpsychism
II. Emergentism
• anthropopsychism
• neuropsychism
• biopsychism
Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B (2003) 270, 1115–1121
Do fishes have nociceptors? Evidence for the
evolution of a vertebrate sensory system
Administration of noxious
substances to the lips of the trout
affected both the physiology and
the behaviour of the animal and
resulted in a significant increase
in opercular beat rate and the
time taken to resume feeding, as
well as anomalous behaviours.
This study provides significant
evidence of nociception in
teleost fishes and furthermore
demonstrates that behaviour
and physiology are affected
over a prolonged period of
time, suggesting discomfort.
Emotion in Snail
If the snail performs instrumental behavior
for getting self-stimulation of the
mesocerebrum it simply means that snail
likes it and realizes approach behavior
with E+ characteristic of it and gives
author the possibility to consider this
area of the snail nervous system “as a
structure with an “emotional” role in
behavior”.
[ Balaban & Maksimova 1993, p. 773]
Annals of Botany 92: 1-20, 2003
© 2003 Annals of Botany Company
Aspects of Plant Intelligence
ANTHONY
TREWAVAS
Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JH, UK
• although as a species we are clearly more intelligent than
other animals, it is unlikely that intelligence as a biological
property originated only with Homo sapiens.
• Stenhouse (1974) examined the evolution of intelligence
in animals and described intelligence as ‘Adaptively variable
behaviour within the lifetime of the individual’.
• a simple definition of plant intelligence can be coined as
adaptively variable growth and development during the
lifetime of the individual.
• Learning, memory, goal-directedness, choice etc.
EMOTION in ALGAE
In complex animals, the latter [mechanisms for detecting information in
the internal milieu] are recognized to be feelings and desires –
emotions and motives – but I suggest that they have an essential
continuity with the mechanisms by which a simple animal or plant
coordinates the presence of, for example, water in the external
environment with the fluid balance within the organism.
The reader may ask if I am suggesting that the
equivalent of subjective, expressive, and
peripheral bodily components of emotion
exist in algae. The answer is YES. (pg. 200202)
[Ross Buck. Subjective, expressive, and peripheral bodily components of emotion. Handbook of Social
Psychophysiology. H. Wagner & A. Manstead eds. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1989, pg. 199-221]