1
|
Bayne T, Seth A, Massimini M, Shepherd J, Cleeremans A, Fleming SM, Malach R, Mattingley JB, Menon DK, Owen AM, Peters MAK, Razi A, Mudrik L. Animals and the iterative natural kind strategy. Trends Cogn Sci 2024:S1364-6613(24)00196-7. [PMID: 39179423 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.07.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2024] [Accepted: 07/29/2024] [Indexed: 08/26/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Tim Bayne
- Department of Philosophy, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada.
| | - Anil Seth
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; Centre for Consciousness Science and School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex, Sussex, UK
| | - Marcello Massimini
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Joshua Shepherd
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; ICREA/Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Axel Cleeremans
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; Center for Research in Cognition & Neuroscience, ULB Institute of Neuroscience, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Stephen M Fleming
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
| | - Rafael Malach
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; The Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Jason B Mattingley
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; Queensland Brain Institute & School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - David K Menon
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
| | - Adrian M Owen
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Megan A K Peters
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Adeel Razi
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK; Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Liad Mudrik
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brain Mind and Consciousness Program, Toronto, Canada; School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Vrettou CS, Kominis IK. Letter to the Editor for: "Covert Consciousness in Acute Brain Injury Revealed by Automated Pupillometry and Cognitive Paradigms". Neurocrit Care 2024; 41:314-315. [PMID: 38862710 DOI: 10.1007/s12028-024-02023-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2024] [Accepted: 05/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Charikleia S Vrettou
- First Department of Critical Care Medicine, Evangelismos Hospital, Medical School, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, 10676, Athens, Greece.
| | - Iannis K Kominis
- Department of Physics, University of Crete, 70013, Heraklion, Greece
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Chis-Ciure R, Melloni L, Northoff G. A measure centrality index for systematic empirical comparison of consciousness theories. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 161:105670. [PMID: 38615851 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2024] [Revised: 03/15/2024] [Accepted: 04/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
Consciousness science is marred by disparate constructs and methodologies, making it challenging to systematically compare theories. This foundational crisis casts doubts on the scientific character of the field itself. Addressing it, we propose a framework for systematically comparing consciousness theories by introducing a novel inter-theory classification interface, the Measure Centrality Index (MCI). Recognizing its gradient distribution, the MCI assesses the degree of importance a specific empirical measure has for a given consciousness theory. We apply the MCI to probe how the empirical measures of the Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNW), Integrated Information Theory (IIT), and Temporospatial Theory of Consciousness (TTC) would fare within the context of the other two. We demonstrate that direct comparison of IIT, GNW, and TTC is meaningful and valid for some measures like Lempel-Ziv Complexity (LZC), Autocorrelation Window (ACW), and possibly Mutual Information (MI). In contrast, it is problematic for others like the anatomical and physiological neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) due to their MCI-based differential weightings within the structure of the theories. In sum, we introduce and provide proof-of-principle of a novel systematic method for direct inter-theory empirical comparisons, thereby addressing isolated evolution of theories and confirmatory bias issues in the state-of-the-art neuroscience of consciousness.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Robert Chis-Ciure
- New York University (NYU), New York, USA; International Center for Neuroscience and Ethics (CINET), Tatiana Foundation, Madrid, Spain; Wolfram Physics Project, USA.
| | - Lucia Melloni
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Georg Northoff
- University of Ottawa, Institute of Mental Health Research at the Royal Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Mudrik L, Hirschhorn R, Korisky U. Taking consciousness for real: Increasing the ecological validity of the study of conscious vs. unconscious processes. Neuron 2024; 112:1642-1656. [PMID: 38653247 PMCID: PMC11100345 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.03.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Revised: 03/23/2024] [Accepted: 03/29/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
The study of consciousness has developed well-controlled, rigorous methods for manipulating and measuring consciousness. Yet, in the process, experimental paradigms grew farther away from everyday conscious and unconscious processes, which raises the concern of ecological validity. In this review, we suggest that the field can benefit from adopting a more ecological approach, akin to other fields of cognitive science. There, this approach challenged some existing hypotheses, yielded stronger effects, and enabled new research questions. We argue that such a move is critical for studying consciousness, where experimental paradigms tend to be artificial and small effect sizes are relatively prevalent. We identify three paths for doing so-changing the stimuli and experimental settings, changing the measures, and changing the research questions themselves-and review works that have already started implementing such approaches. While acknowledging the inherent challenges, we call for increasing ecological validity in consciousness studies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Liad Mudrik
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
| | - Rony Hirschhorn
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Uri Korisky
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| |
Collapse
|