Secondary consciousness
By contrast, secondary consciousness depends on and includes such features as self-reflective awareness, abstract thinking, volition and metacognition.
Since Descartes's proposal of dualism, it became a general consensus that the mind had become a matter of philosophy and that science was not able to penetrate the issue of consciousness- that consciousness was outside of space and time.
Damasio has demonstrated that emotions and their biological foundation play a critical role in high level cognition,[3][4] and Edelman has created a framework for analyzing consciousness through a scientific outlook.
[1] The author puts forward the belief that consciousness is a particular kind of brain process; linked and integrated, yet complex and differentiated.
He claims the potential connectivity in the neural net "far exceeds the number of elementary particles in the universe"[1][8] Dynamic core hypothesis Edelman elaborates on the dynamic core hypothesis (DCH), which describes the thalamocortical region- the region believed to be the integration center of consciousness.
It has been shown through computer models that neuronal groups existing in the cerebral cortex and thalamus interact in the form of synchronous oscillation.
"Re-entry", as Edelman states, "provides the critical means by which the activities of distributed multiple brain areas are linked, bound, and then dynamically altered in time during perceptual categorization.
[1][8] While animals with primary consciousness have long-term memory, they lack explicit narrative, and, at best, can only deal with the immediate scene in the remembered present.
It is present in its richest form in the human species, which is unique in possessing complex language made up of syntax and semantics.
In considering how the neural mechanisms underlying primary consciousness arose and were maintained during evolution, it is proposed that at some time around the divergence of reptiles into mammals and then into birds, the embryological development of large numbers of new reciprocal connections allowed rich re-entrant activity to take place between the more posterior brain systems carrying out perceptual categorization and the more frontally located systems responsible for value-category memory.
[1] The ability of an animal to relate a present complex scene to its own previous history of learning conferred an adaptive evolutionary advantage.
At much later evolutionary epochs, further re-entrant circuits appeared that linked semantic and linguistic performance to categorical and conceptual memory systems.
The findings show that magpies respond in the mirror and mark test in a manner similar to apes, dolphins and elephants.
Ursula Voss of the Universität Bonn believes that the theory of protoconsciousness may serve as adequate explanation for self-recognition found in this bird species, as they would develop secondary consciousness during REM sleep.
These include self-observation, planning, prioritizing and decision-making abilities, which are, in turn, based upon more basic cognitive abilities such as attention, working memory, temporal memory and behavioral inhibition[20][21] Some experimental data which display differences between the self-awareness experienced in waking and its diminution in dreaming can be explained by deactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during REM sleep.
It has been proposed that deactivation results from a direct inhibition of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortical neurons by acetylcholine, the release of which is enhanced during REM sleep.
[23] Other well-known contributing scholars involved with lucid dream research and consciousness, yet primarily based in fields such as psychology and philosophy include: The theory of protoconsciousness, developed by Allan Hobson, a creator of the Activation-synthesis hypothesis, has been developed through dream research and involves the idea of a secondary consciousness.
Ultimately, he proposes the idea that REM sleep provides opportunities to the brain to prepare itself for its main integrative functions, including secondary consciousness, which would explain the developmental and evolutionary considerations to be taken with birds.
