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A thought experiment: what kind of functional MRI result would convince you that human consciousness is real and an important part of decision making? Note: if

A thought experiment: what kind of functional MRI result would convince you that human consciousness is real and an important part of decision making? Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?"

pixl97 3y ago
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/our-brains-reveal-our-choices-we%E2%80%99re-even-aware-them-study https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/our-brains-re... An important statement in the article is this... >“As the decision of what to think about is made, executive areas of the brain choose the thought-trace which is stronger. In, other words, if any pre-existing brain activity matches one of your choices, then your brain will be more likely to pick that option as it gets boosted by the pre-existing brain activity. If you observe con men, politicians, and advertisers, they'll commonly use precursors to pre-prime the pump in influencing what you'll agree to.
famouswaffles 3y ago
>Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?" This is not how we figure conscious explanations are often(always?) post-hoc rationalizations. See - Split brain experiments - https://www.nature.com/articles/483260a https://www.nature.com/articles/483260a Experiments on Choice preferences -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196841/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196841/
vjerancrnjak 3y ago
https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/21/7/1269/4764/Posterior-Beta-and-Anterior-Gamma-Oscillations https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/21/7/1269/4764/... Here's a study from 2009 showing that the problem gets solved but it takes up to 8 seconds for the person to announce that the problem is solved. Showing that even for problem solving, there's a giant unconscious machinery that is active. Although I assume they cannot discount the effects of the conscious bits (struggle, suffering, anxiety, active as a mirror of that problem solving effort being a feedback loop to this unconscious effort).
omginternets 3y ago
>Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?" My Ph.D is actually about this. Here's a paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148504 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

pixl97 3y ago

https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/our-brains-reveal-our-choices-we%E2%80%99re-even-aware-them-study https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/our-brains-re... An important statement in the article is this... >“As the decision of what to think about is made, executive areas of the brain choose the thought-trace which is stronger. In, other words, if any pre-existing brain activity matches one of your choices, then your brain will be more likely to pick that option as it gets boosted by the pre-existing brain activity. If you observe con men, politicians, and advertisers, they'll commonly use precursors to pre-prime the pump in influencing what you'll agree to.

famouswaffles 3y ago

>Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?" This is not how we figure conscious explanations are often(always?) post-hoc rationalizations. See - Split brain experiments - https://www.nature.com/articles/483260a https://www.nature.com/articles/483260a Experiments on Choice preferences -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196841/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196841/

vjerancrnjak 3y ago

https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/21/7/1269/4764/Posterior-Beta-and-Anterior-Gamma-Oscillations https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/21/7/1269/4764/... Here's a study from 2009 showing that the problem gets solved but it takes up to 8 seconds for the person to announce that the problem is solved. Showing that even for problem solving, there's a giant unconscious machinery that is active. Although I assume they cannot discount the effects of the conscious bits (struggle, suffering, anxiety, active as a mirror of that problem solving effort being a feedback loop to this unconscious effort).

omginternets 3y ago

>Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?" My Ph.D is actually about this. Here's a paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148504 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...