PSYC 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Two-Streams Hypothesis, Temporal Lobe, Francis Crick
29 May 2018
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• Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC)
• Francis Crick pioneered quest to understand the neural basis of conscious
awareness (or NCC)
• Some of the working assumptions that he outlined
• 1. There is something to be explained; it’s not magic
• 2. Conscious awareness has a physical instantiation in the brain. This is
the assumption of materialism or physicalism, and denies dualistic
notions of consciousness
• 3. Some animal species possess at least some aspects of conscious
awareness, particularly with regard to sensory experience. Evidence:
• Monkeys behave very much like humans would when they are
shown certain sensory events
• The neuroanatomy of monkeys and humans is very similar
• 4. Claim 3 is largely as a convenience..
• Check slide
• What are the neural correlates? Is it a particular area? Multiple areas? How are
they connected?
• 2 general approaches
• 1) what happens to perception/behavior without that brain area?
• 2) examine neural activity during periods in which perceptual
experience fluctuates despite an unchanging visual input (e.g.,
binocular rivalry)
• Blindsight
• Disorder where individuals have selective damage to V1 → blind in
affected part of visual space
• I.e., Damage to right V1 → reports being blind in left visual field
• But if these individuals are asked to POINT to object in
“blind” field, they can do so accurately (!!!) even though
they claim they are just guessing!
• If asked to report on object in good visual field→
simultaneous presentation of objects in the impaired field
can influence those reports
• Some visual info is getting thru to the parts of brain that
control action, not entering awareness
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Document Summary
Neural correlates of consciousness (ncc, francis crick pioneered quest to understand the neural basis of conscious awareness (or ncc, some of the working assumptions that he outlined, 1. There is something to be explained; it"s not magic: 2. Conscious awareness has a physical instantiation in the brain. This is the assumption of materialism or physicalism, and denies dualistic notions of consciousness: 3. Some animal species possess at least some aspects of conscious awareness, particularly with regard to sensory experience. Evidence: monkeys behave very much like humans would when they are shown certain sensory events, the neuroanatomy of monkeys and humans is very similar, 4. I. e. , damage to right v1 reports being blind in left visual field: but if these individuals are asked to point to object in. Blind field, they can do so accurately (!!!) even though they claim they are just guessing! Is activation in that region not just you seeing it but being.
