The asynchrony of consciousness.
by Zeki S, Bartels A.
in Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1998 Aug 22;265(1405):1583-5


We present below a simple hypothesis on what we believe is a characteristic of visual consciousness. It is derived from facts about the visual brain revealed in the past quarter of a century, but it relies most especially on psychophysical evidence which shows that different attributes of the visual scene are consciously perceived at different times. This temporal asynchrony in visual perception reveals, we believe, a plurality of visual consciousnesses that are asynchronous with respect to each other, reflecting the modular organization of the visual brain. We further hypothesize that when two attributes (e.g. colour and motion) are presented simultaneously, the activity of cells in a given processing system is sufficient to create a conscious experience of the corresponding attribute (e.g. colour), without the necessity for interaction with the activities of cells in other processing systems (e.g. motion). Thus, any binding of the activity of cells in different systems should be more properly thought of as a binding of the conscious experiences generated in each system.

it would be interesting to see if Zeki still maintains this position on consciousness, and to compare it with Searle's unified field theory of consciousness.

Here are some of Zeki and Bartels recent publications, and it looks like he's still clinging to his position:


Vision Res. 2005
The temporal order of binding visual attributes.

Bartels A, Zeki S.

Laboratory of Neurobiology, Department of Anatomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.

The brain processes distinct attributes such as colour and motion in anatomically largely segregated systems. Moreover, these two attributes are perceived with different latencies. Here, we show that the time required to bind these two attributes differs too. In psychophysical experiments, we determined minimal presentation times required to perceptually pair spatially separate pairs of stimuli consisting of colour or motion. Binding two colours required longer presentation times than binding the directions of two moving stimuli. Cross-attribute binding between colour and motion took longer than within-attribute binding. This was so even when the relative perceptual delay between colour and motion was compensated for, which accelerated colour-motion binding. Moreover, stimuli could be discriminated but not bound at fast presentation rates. Our results thus show that spatial binding is an attribute-specific process and faster within the same than across different attributes. Furthermore, the time required to bind attributes is independent of that required to process them, since colour is perceived before motion but requires longer time for binding. Finally, our results suggest that binding acts on attribute-specific neural representations of the stimuli at a late, perceptually explicit stage. These results lead us to conclude that spatial binding is separate from, and subsequent to, stimulus processing and that it is an attribute-dependent and post-conscious process.



2: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2005 Apr 29;360(1456):733-50.

The chronoarchitecture of the cerebral cortex.

Bartels A, Zeki S.

Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. andreas.bartels@tuebingen.mpg.de

We review here a new approach to mapping the human cerebral cortex into distinct subdivisions. Unlike cytoarchitecture or traditional functional imaging, it does not rely on specific anatomical markers or functional hypotheses. Instead, we propose that the unique activity time course (ATC) of each cortical subdivision, elicited during natural conditions, acts as a temporal fingerprint that can be used to segregate cortical subdivisions, map their spatial extent, and reveal their functional and potentially anatomical connectivity. We argue that since the modular organisation of the brain and its connectivity evolved and developed in natural conditions, these are optimal for revealing its organisation. We review the concepts, methodology and first results of this approach, relying on data obtained with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) when volunteers viewed traditional stimuli or a James Bond movie. Independent component analysis (ICA) was used to identify voxels belonging to distinct functional subdivisions, based on their differential spatio-temporal fingerprints. Many more regions could be segregated during natural viewing, demonstrating that the complexity of natural stimuli leads to more differential responses in more functional modules. We demonstrate that, in a single experiment, a multitude of distinct regions can be identified across the whole brain, even within the visual cortex, including areas V1, V4 and V5. This differentiation is based entirely on the differential ATCs of different areas during natural viewing. Distinct areas can therefore be identified without any a priori hypothesis about their function or spatial location. The areas we identified corresponded anatomically across subjects, and their ATCs showed highly area-specific inter-subject correlations. Furthermore, natural conditions led to a significant de-correlation of interregional ATCs compared to rest, indicating an increase in regional specificity during natural conditions. In contrast, the correlation between ATCs of distant regions of known substantial anatomical connections increased and reflected their known anatomical connectivity pattern. We demonstrate this using the example of the language network involving Broca's and Wernicke's area and homologous areas in the two hemispheres. In conclusion, this new approach to brain mapping may not only serve to identify novel functional subdivisions, but to reveal their connectivity as well.

Publication Types:

* Review



3: Neuroimage. 2005 Jan 15;24(2):339-49.
Brain dynamics during natural viewing conditions--a new guide for mapping connectivity in vivo.

Bartels A, Zeki S.

Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. andreas.bartels@tuebingen.mpg.de

We describe here a new way of obtaining maps of connectivity in the human brain based on interregional correlations of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal during natural viewing conditions. We propose that anatomical connections are reflected in BOLD signal correlations during natural brain dynamics. This may provide a powerful approach to chart connectivity, more so than that based on the 'resting state' of the human brain, and it may complement diffusion tensor imaging. Our approach relies on natural brain dynamics and is therefore experimentally unbiased and independent of hypothesis-driven, specialized stimuli. It has the advantage that natural viewing leads to considerably stronger cortical activity than rest, thus facilitating detection of weaker connections. To validate our technique, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record BOLD signal while volunteers freely viewed a movie that was interrupted by resting periods. We used independent component analysis (ICA) to segregate cortical areas before characterizing the dynamics of their BOLD signal during free viewing and rest. Natural viewing and rest each revealed highly specific correlation maps, which reflected known anatomical connections. Examples are homologous regions in visual and auditory cortices in the two hemispheres and the language network consisting of Wernicke's area, Broca's area, and a premotor region. Correlations between regions known to be directly connected were always substantially higher than between nonconnected regions. Furthermore, compared to rest, natural viewing specifically increased correlations between anatomically connected regions while it decreased correlations between nonconnected regions. Our findings therefore demonstrate that natural viewing conditions lead to particularly specific interregional correlations and thus provide a powerful environment to reveal anatomical connectivity in vivo.



4: Neuroimage. 2004 May;22(1):419-33.
The chronoarchitecture of the human brain--natural viewing conditions reveal a time-based anatomy of the brain.

Bartels A, Zeki S.

Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. andreas.bartels@tuebingen.mpg.de

A dominant tendency in cerebral studies has been the attempt to locate architecturally distinct parts of the cortex and assign special functions to each, through histological, clinical or hypothesis-based imaging experiments. Here we show that the cerebral cortex can also be subdivided into different components temporally, without any a priori hypotheses, based on the principle of functional independence. This states that distinct functional subdivisions have activity time courses (ATCs) that are, if not independent, at least characteristic to each when the brain is exposed to natural conditions. To approach a time-based anatomy experimentally, we recorded whole-brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and analyzed the data with independent component analysis (ICA). Our results show that a multitude of cortical areas can be identified based purely on their characteristic ATCs during natural conditions. We demonstrate that a more "rich" stimulation (free viewing of a movie) leads to more areas being activated in a specific way than conventional stimuli, allowing for a more detailed dissection of the cortex into its subdivisions. We show that stimulus-driven functionally specialized areas can be identified by intersubject correlation even if their function is unknown. Chronoarchitectonic mapping thus opens the prospect of identifying previously unknown cortical subdivisions based on natural viewing conditions by exploiting the characteristic temporal "fingerprint" that is unique to each.

Everything seen by those who visit the mind's antipodes is brilliantly 'illuminated' and seems to shine from within. All colours are intensified to a pitch far beyond anything seen in the normal state....

Colours represent that which exists beyond the reach of language. They may remind our unconscious what it enjoys at the mind's antipodes.

Yves Klein - Chromophile story of "War between lines and colour." (1954)

....colour is enslaved by line that becomes writing.
....colour is a reminder (portal to) of a remote and original state of being.
....an unspoilt earthly paradise.

pure colour - the universal coloured soil in which the human soul bathed when in the state of "Earthly Paradise".

Man is exiled far from his coloured soul.

"An Echo^2"

sociofugal spaces - tend to discourage conversation.

sociopetal space - tend to bring people together.

Relevance: How can knowledge of sociopetal and sociofugal spaces influence the use of pervasive technologies within ecological living spaces such as homes, student residences, and hotels?

reflections --> the return of wavelength energy!

....an example of non-linear modality, exploring quantum spatio/temporal modalities.

'Relativistic Avalanche: Collapsing the Wave-function" 2005, acylic on mdf

Wow. I like it. How much do you want for it? I have lots of mental gold coins.

lol,

....this is what a year and a half of brainmeta.com does to the mind!

The title was inspired by Dan's lightning initiation doctoral thesis.

....and 3200 Canadian loonies will be suffice! I not sure what the exchange rate is of that when tranfering mental gold coins into Canadian currency?

It looks like the smallest circle is smaller compared to the medium circle than the medium circle is smaller than the largest circle. Is there a mathematical relationship there or did you just use intuition?

haha Trip, when I look at that I start to Trip like you do..

lol, that is the point/goal!

I'm not a linguist!



Yes....most definitely Rick, there is always some kind of underlying mathematical formula that helps create a certain harmony. The circles are 1ft, 2ft, and 3ft in diameter and are collapsed at the midpoint.

"Random Studio Shot, 2006"

Sneak-a-Peak

I like that big one with the electrical conduit.

Good eye rick!

Now I wonder what that could connote?

aporia/aporetic

Originates in philosophy and rhetorics, and describes what seems to be an almost inextricably necessary condition of the work of art: that it generates intrinsicaly unresolvable structures of paradoxical contradiction.

Subvert and implode fixities and certainties in the behavioural and perceptual structures of everyday life by confronting people with an incessant barrage of unresolvable contradictions.

Trip, am I correct in assuming those your works of art? They're beautiful.

That quote by Yves Klein is thought-provoking. He said, "Colours represent that which exists beyond the reach of language." Isn't that the truth. If I suddenly could see a brand new color, there'd be no way to describe it, even with all the words in the world. Of course, you can use words to describe the shape (lines) of an object or color boundaries (lines) in a picture. Given enough time, you could probably totally explain in words the shape, dimensions, etc. of even a brand new object. But introduce a brand new color, and there simply are no words.

yes, they are mine and thanks for the positive comments.

Can one, in the process of crystallization, remove the turbid residues left behind from earlier forms of thought?

Maybe we do...but how would we ever know?

Okay, I'm going to admit here that I subscribe to the scientific tabloid magazine, Discover. This probably doesn't exactly follow the premise of this thread, but an interesting article in this April's issue, "The Mind in Overdrive," talks about how the brain constantly unifies and resolves asynchronous information.

The article says that neurobiologists now are realizing that "real time" is just a convention foisted upon us by our brains. In any given millisecond, all kinds of information--sight, sound, touch--pours into our brains at different speeds and is reprocessed as hearing, speech, and action. When we see someone speak to us from a distance, the sound should register a few milliseconds after the image we see. Our brains, thankfully, synchronize the two to make them seem simultaneous. Our minds are "messing with the time, editing out the parts that distract (us)." The brain lives just a little bit in the past. It collects a lot of information, waits, then it stitches a story together. "Now" actually happened a little while ago. An interesting analogy is that our causal reality is like one of those live TV shows with a built-in time delay for the censors.

According to Dean Buonomano, a neuroscientist at UCLA, "Time is one of the many, many illusions the brain bestows upon us." Researchers long believed that the brain was ruled by a single clock that kept all its disparate activities in synch. Now they're learning that the brain contains all kinds of little clocks all running at independent rates yet linked by a network.

One fascinating idea is that if scientists could gain a better understanding of how neural timing works, we could employ that timing to better use. Traditional time-management theory holds that productivity is the amount of work done in a given amount of time: P=W/t. Usually, we think that the only way to increase productivity is by increasing the work (W) part of the equation--which, of course, assumes that time is a constant. The better way to increase productivity is to leave W alone and make t smaller. David Engleman, a University of Texas neurobiologist, says that this actually occurs when we find ourselves under acute distress. Think about how time seems to go in slow motion when you're in a situation where heightened awareness becomes extremely important--say during a car crash. The question is does the experience gain vividness only afterward when it's being recalled, or does a person's perception of time truly slow down enough to absorb extra information?

Engleman designed a clever test to answer that question. He fashioned a small LED screen that flashed a series of numbers too quickly to comprehend, and attached the screen to his subjects' wrists. He had them do a bungee jump from a 150-foot tower--a fairly terrifying experience. The jumpers watched their screens during the jump and were able to read the otherwise inperceptible numbers on their way down. Engleman theorizes that this means that the brain can warp time when it's under duress--a reserve capacity that it only uses when it has to. Otherwise, the brain "works as slowly as it can get away with."

The basic premise here is, "Speed the mind, slow the time." Researchers are exploring the idea of developing smart drugs to do just that. Of course, something akin to personalized time can already be had with cocaine and amphetamines, but they are addictive and produce euphoria. (My question--what's wrong with euphoria?) Another route to be considered is totally noninvasive. The Dalai Lama spoke before the Society for Neuroscience last November. He encouraged researchers to study the brains of meditating monks, saying that different states of meditation are thought to alter time perception.

The brain perceives and shapes the pace of time. It also makes decisions about how best to use that time. The question here is whether these functions are structurally distinct--does the brain keep time with one set of neurons and spend time with another? Warren Meck, a neuroscientist at Duke, says yes, but the two are likely not separable.

If the brain really is the "creator of time" then there might be some real basis to the reported experiences of "the eternal" in some transcendental states.

Thats how our computers works. Cpu at one rate, memory at another, etc etc. the programs themselves bring say audio and video together. Still why does it follow, that because they found all these different brain timings exist there is no master clock ?






This could get into the area of whether IQ is handling capacity. He should set the experiment to see if jump length correlates to the persons IQ. That would also mean having volunteers with similiar reactivity profiles.