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Thursday Apr 30, 2020
Thursday Apr 30, 2020
"I want to try to understand consciousness from a neuroanatomy and neuro-function standpoint. What would consciousness look like in a brain scanner and other types of imaging? What are we looking for, in a sense, and could I predict from basically the architecture and the anatomy, that this could be conscious, and this would not be able to be conscious?"
- Dr. Jay Giedd, Developmental Neuropsychiatrist, UCSD School of Medicine, Rady Children's Hospital, and Johns Hopkins
EPISODE 8: Roundtable Part One – The Developing Brain & Consciousness – A thoughtful discussion exploring some fundamental issues that confront the science of consciousness. Namely, how do we define consciousness? What does that term mean? Where do we even start?
Neuroscientist David Edelman and Developmental Neuropsychiatrist Jay Giedd, Professor of Psychiatry at UCSD School of Medicine and Director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Rady Children's Hospital talk candidly about our understanding of the complex - and often tantalizing - nature of consciousness.
In the context of the developing human brain, how can we understand consciousness? To many of us, consciousness seems like a simple, commonsense notion. When we’re awake, we all know that we are, more often than not, aware—of the world, of our thoughts and emotions, of our feeling states (i.e., hunger, thirst, pain, etc.), among others. When we fall into a deep, dreamless sleep, that awareness slips away.
But, this notion is actually quite confounding—particularly when one considers that there must be a specific moment during development when the brain transitions from a small, non-conscious organ comprising a few dozen cells to a complex, 86 billion-cell nexus of conscious feelings, emotions, and thoughts.
When, precisely, does that moment occur? In the womb? When we are just a few weeks old? These are the key questions that David Edelman and developmental neuropsychiatrist Jay Giedd ponder in this podcast.
A lively back-and-forth ensues as the two neuroscientists bring their respective backgrounds to bear on the emergence and nature of consciousness during development:
one, a neuroscientist focused on consciousness in non-human animals and the other,
a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who has spent more than thirty years exploring the growth and development of the human brain from embryogenesis through childhood and adolescence well into adulthood.
Along the way, David and Jay reinforce the notion that memory is a sine qua non of conscious states. As they learn to negotiate the world, very young infants experience the world with their developing senses, remember certain experiences, and then modify their behaviors accordingly.
But, when do the first substantive memories actually form? There is certainly a Rubicon that is crossed; we just haven’t figured out when it happens or what that passage looks like. Memory is a ubiquitous faculty across the animal kingdom; even relatively simple animals like the humble marine snail Aplysia can learn and remember at a fundamental level.
Are the different developmental stages of memory in growing infants comparable to the increasingly sophisticated memory faculties found in the nervous systems of ever more complex organisms?
Roundtable Part One Talking Points
0:03 – Opening lines by David Edelman.
0:58 – Jay Giedd introduces himself, his background in psychiatry, robotics, and reproductive medicine, and how all of it ties together as he studies brain development.
1:52 – David Edelman opens the conversation by asking about Jay Giedd’s idea ofconsciousness.
2:15 – Jay Giedd looks at consciousness from the perspective of the developing brain in a fetus, particularly at what point does consciousness arise and how would that be detectable through a brain scanner.
3:14 – Edelman makes a connection between Giedd’s outlook on consciousness with that of the brain’s behavior during a sleeping state.
6:02 – Jay Giedd points out that a memory appears to be essential for the rise of consciousness, and how sleep, a process which no animal escaped from evolutionarily, is essential for proper memory formation.
8:57 – David Edelman describes what happens in the brain while a person is asleep and proposes the idea that consciousness may have a variety of forms and that a brain’s sleeping state may be one of several.
10:11 – Giedd brings up the role of dreams and our vague understanding of them.
Get your 40% Discount for your copy of Bernie Baars' acclaimed new book On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory
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David and Jay highlight important questions that may provide important waypoints along the way. Towards the end of their conversation, David and Jay consider the transition from wakefulness to deep non-REM sleep and its signal importance as a transition between conscious and non-conscious states during which changes in brain activity occur that we can actually study—and that provides clues as to the nature of consciousness.
Sigmund Freud once said, “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.” Though Freud was clearly referring to understanding a behavioral manifestations of a dreaming brain that may now be understood to be conscious in some sense (albeit mostly a matter of the cerebral cortex, cut off from the world, “talking to itself”), we can certainly invoke his spirit as a scientific observer in pursuit of the verifiable truth when we say that investigating the passage from wakefulness to deep sleep and back again may well help pave the royal road to understanding consciousness in the brain, whether still in the throes of development or fully formed.
Quotes from Episode 8
"There's a kind of a commonplace notion of what consciousness is. Nearly everyone sort of knows what we mean when we invoke the term. But when it comes to the actual hard-nosed scientific aspect, we really haven't arrived at any sort of consensus; at least as far as I know, there's no real consensus as to what we mean when we bring up the term, ‘consciousness.'" -- David Edelman
"When do we cross that Rubicon from non-conscious processing to conscious processing? And one of the aspects that Bernie Baars and in fact my late father, Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman delved into was certain brain states -- certain behavioral states, actually -- that have underlying brain states that are indicative perhaps of "a difference that makes a difference." And one example might be the contrast between waking states and say a dreamless deep sleep. And the fact that we can observe through brain imaging -- through a variety of techniques -- we can observe a real difference in function there." -- David Edelman
"We all have different paths that we've taken to come to the study of consciousness and my path has been looking at it from the development of the brain. I'm a child, adolescent, and geriatric psychiatrist by training. I'm the Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry here at UC San Diego and a professor at Fukui University in Japan in Robotics, and at Johns Hopkins in Reproductive Medicine. But what ties together my interest has been the brain and how it changes throughout life. What sort of things influenced it, in good ways and in bad ways. And looking at the brain and health and illness and what permeates all of these interests is consciousness, which is in some ways the most basic and simple notion, and also one of the most difficult to grasp." -- Jay Giedd
"I want to try to understand consciousness from a neuroanatomy and neuro-function standpoint. What would consciousness look like in a brain scanner and other types of imaging? What are we looking for, in a sense, and could I predict from basically the architecture and the anatomy, that this could be conscious, and this would not be able to be conscious?" -- Jay Giedd
"For me, consciousness is more about questions than answers, even after 30 years of trying. But the memory aspect is actually a really good place to start. To what extent do babies in the womb have a memory, or even after they're born?" -- Jay Giedd
BIOS
Dr. Jay Giedd
Chair of child psychiatry at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and director of child and adolescent psychiatry, Dr. Giedd is also a professor of psychiatry at UCSD School of Medicine, and professor in the Dept of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Giedd was chief of the Section on Brain Imaging, Child Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). His widely published research and expertise evaluates how the child's brain develops in health and illness, the factors that influence development and how to optimize treatments to take advantage of the child's changing brain. Jay and his award winning work were featured in the PBS 2 part series "Brains on Trial" hosted by Alan Alda.
David Edelman, PhD: A neuroscientist and currently Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, David has taught neuroscience at the University of San Diego and UCSD. He was Professor of Neuroscience at Bennington College until 2014 and visiting professor in the Dept of Psychology, CUNY Brooklyn College from 2015-2017. He has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including mechanisms of gene regulation, the relationship between mitochondrial transport and brain activity, and visual perception in the octopus. A longstanding interest in the neural basis of consciousness led him to consider the importance—and challenge—of disseminating a more global view of brain function to a broad audience.
*Watch Episode 8 on Our YouTube Channel
**Roundtable Episodes of the podcast “On Consciousness with Bernard Baars” were recorded and filmed in the dining room of the La Jolla house that was my father’s home for more than 20 years. These explorations of consciousness are a special tribute to David's Dad, Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman, and his verdant imagination, immense creativity, prodigious output, and the many discussions about the scientific study of consciousness and biological science generally that we had within these four walls.
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
In this uplifting episode recorded at La Jolla landmark D.G. Wills Books, neuroscientists Bernie Baars & David Edelman unpack the nature of consciousness — the ineffable sense of ‘aboutness’ each one of us experiences that encompasses features of the outside world, your own thoughts, recollections, and emotions, all of which mysteriously — yet inevitably — arise from the coordinated firing of neurons in the cerebral cortex and other regions of the brain.
David reads from Bernie's new book, “On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory."
Bernie and David begin by considering the problem of subjectivity — in particular, the tortuous twenty-five centuries-long struggle to place it within a scientific framework and at the same time reconcile such an endeavor with everyday first-hand descriptions of human experience. They conclude that a major roadblock has been the tendency to set aside or even actively dismiss subjective descriptions in the quest to tease out some kind of objective truth about the nature of conscious experience.
To underscore the idea that we can, in some sense, square the objective, physical attributes of the world with their subjective representation in the brain, Bernie and David mull over the perception of color as one example of a subjective transform of an objective phenomenon—namely, the differences in wavelengths of light. Given that the human visual system filters certain physical properties of light (as humans, we can’t perceive light wavelengths less than 380nm or greater than 740nm, nor can we perceive polarized light), our conscious perception of the visual world must necessarily be subjective in nature and, considering our individual differences (e.g., how we’re each uniquely embodied), entirely unique to, and privileged for, each of us.
Bernie and David then move on to ethical and evolutionary considerations inspired by attempts to come to grips with the existence and nature of consciousness in non-human animals. Given the ancient moral and ethical underpinnings of human culture, they suggest that the evolutionary story of consciousness must necessarily be linked to considerations of how we treat non-human animals.
Based on neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and behavioral similarities between mammals and birds, it seems likely that a large number of animals are capable of conscious experience. In fact, the complex nervous systems and sophisticated behavioral repertoires of some animals quite distant from the vertebrate line (i.e., the octopus) suggest that a faculty for consciousness may well be quite ancient and extend to at least a few branches of complex life. Accordingly, Bernie and David reinforce the ethical dilemma that non-human consciousness poses.
How do we reconcile our treatment of non-human animals with the idea that, like us, many of these beings are capable of feeling pain and experiencing a broad palette of emotions?
To conclude the discussion, Bernie and David ponder the critical role of memory in consciousness and consider the problem of limited capacity – the idea that your nervous system can only handle so much information and processing tasks at once. In regard to memory, Bernie points to the importance of the cerebral cortex—the ‘central store’ for conscious contents—for engendering states of awareness in humans and non-human mammals.
He further notes that conscious contents are always internally consistent, despite the fact that very different—and quite often inconsistent—streams of information may be impinging on your senses all at once. In other words, the brain builds an internally consistent story about the world—even if certain strands of that story don’t make sense from an external perspective. Why is this the case?
Regarding limited capacity, Bernie suggests that it is biologically paradoxical. For example, the selective awareness that comes with limited capacity can sometimes result in people walking into traffic while talking on their cell phones. Why doesn’t the spotlight of awareness extend beyond the telephone conversation to include an oncoming truck?
The discussion ends with a wonderful Q & A session, thanks to an engaged and brilliant audience.
*Special Thanks to Dennis Wills, owner of D.G. Wills Books in La Jolla, CA.
Bios
Bernard J. Baars: A former Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA, Bernie is best known as the originator of the global workspace theory and global workspace dynamics, a theory of human cognitive architecture, the cortex and consciousness. Bernie's many acclaimed books include A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness; The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology; In the Theater of Consciousness: The Workspace of the Mind; Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience. Winner of the 2019 Hermann von Helmholtz Life Contribution Award by the International Neural Network Society, which recognizes work in perception proven to be paradigm changing and long-lasting. His new acclaimed book: On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory. BernardBaars.com
David Edelman, PhD: A neuroscientist and currently Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, David has taught neuroscience at the University of San Diego and UCSD. He was Professor of Neuroscience at Bennington College until 2014 and visiting professor in the Dept of Psychology, CUNY Brooklyn College from 2015-2017. He has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including mechanisms of gene regulation, the relationship between mitochondrial transport and brain activity, and visual perception in the octopus. A longstanding interest in the neural basis of consciousness led him to consider the importance—and challenge—of disseminating a more global view of brain function to a broad audience.
Episode 7 Talking Points | 1 hour 30 minutes
By Ilian Daskalov
0:05 – Neuroscientist David Edelman introduces Bernard J. Baars, himself, their work, how they met in 2005 at The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA. David unpacks a brief history of the modern science of consciousness studies, and how they began collaborating and developing their research and body of work in their diverse fields.
1:29 - Edelman reads excerpts from Baars’ new book “On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity – Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory.”
7:12 – Edelman and Baars initiate the conversation between the two by discussing observational objectivity and the uniqueness of being a conscious individual self.
14:08 – What are some ways for scientists to study the nature of subjectivity?
17:24– How the spectrum of visible colors is perceived and how hues are labeled based on variables such as gender and culture.
23:50 – The importance of considering embodiment, or how the body is put together as a whole, when studying the conscious experiences in humans and animals.
30:00 – The evolution of consciousness in non-human animals, and the ethics and morals of treating other sentient beings in humane ways.
41:42 – How memory is related to consciousness and the overall structural complexity of the human brain.
45:40 – The limited capacity of human attention and the perceptual unity that the brain weaves from input information.
54:08 – Q & A with the audience.
55:17 – The imperfections and amendable properties of human memory, as well as William James’ idea about “the feeling of knowing.”
1:03:48 – The mind-body connection... and does it exist?
1:06:53 – Is competency equal to comprehension – can cells and machines be considered conscious?
1:12:26 – David Edelman gives a summary of the three of the main theories of consciousness – Global Workspaces Theory, Integrated Information Theory, and Dynamic Core.
In terms of selectionism, where does the cortex come in? And particularly the conscious aspects of cortex at any given moment?
1:21:55 – Bernie explains what Global Workspace Theory is, its origin, and what makes it more biologically plausible in comparison to its rival theories.
Special Podcast VIP 40% Discount for Bernie Baars' acclaimed new book, "On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory" - GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars
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Watch our Video Podcast Episodes: https://youtu.be/tFRJCPL_Xm8
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
In this episode of "On Consciousness," neuroscientists Bernie Baars, Jeff Krichmar, and David Edelman engage in a freewheeling conversation that begins with mulling over the possible development of conscious machines -- or ‘conscious artifact,’ as Gerald Edelman put it -- sometime in the not-so-distant future.
We unpack the various ‘bumps in the road’ in the quest to build intelligent, sentient machines--the problems of efficiency (with regard to energy utilization, brains run circles around any present-day computers) and dissipation of heat in increasingly miniaturized microcircuitry, among others.
And though Bernie casts a critically important skeptic’s eye on the prospect of in silico conscious artifacts, we all eventually arrive at a sort of amicable consilience: a recognition that such a development is at least possible.After a tangential--but fun and diverting--foray into the thickets of human evolution and the serendipitous biocultural path that led to modern humans, we return to pondering the road leading to conscious artifacts.
We conclude on an optimistic note, with the promise of the biologically based approach so steadfastly championed by Jeff and a small community of like-minded computational neuroscientists.
Special Guest: Professor Jeff Krichmar, PhD, Department of Cognitive Sciences and the Department of Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine: http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma
Hosts
Cognitive psychobiologist and originator of GWT Bernard J. Baars, Author of "ON CONSCIOUSNESS: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory"
Neuroscientist and paleoanthropologist David Edelman, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Dept of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
Special Podcast VIP 40% Discount for Bernie Baars' new book, "On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory" - GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars
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Talking Points:
0:00 – David Edelman introduces himself and briefly describes his path to exploring consciousness (particularly in animals), starting as a human paleoanthropologist to studying the behavior of cephalopods.
3:11 – Jeff Krichmar introduces himself, summarizing how he went from being a computer scientist to one of the first neuroroboticists.
6:05 – Bernard Baars gives his thoughts on the trajectory of artificial consciousness and the hurdles in the scientific realm that one had to go through in the past, due to their interest in studying consciousness.
7:41 – David Edelman on the importance of defining consciousness and how the difference in brain activity during conscious (waking) and unconscious (sleeping) states makes consciousness an observable phenomenon that one can actively study.
11:30 – Bernard Baars on why attributing consciousness to a machine would be an ambitious task.
12:52 – Counterarguments by David and Jeff to Bernie’s proposal on how consciousness in machines can emerge.
17:33 – Jeff Krichmar on how energy efficiency is essential for the improvement of our computers in order to be able to simulate a human brain.
23:11 – Baars initiating a conversation revolving around the expensiveness and disadvantages of the human brain’s size.
28:30 – Edelman on how human sociality has impacted the survivability of the species.
32:08 – Edelman, Krichmar, and Baars discussing the possible existence, timeline, and road to “conscious artifacts” in the near future.
39:10 – Edelman and Krichmar close out the conversation with a brief discussion on the evolution of neural networks and the moral and ethical concerns in the field.
**Watch the Bonus Video Episode: The History of Brain-Based Devices and Cognitive Robots with Neuroroboticist Jeff Krichmar
Jeff Krichmar discusses how an overarching theory of the brain, known as Neural Darwinism, was tested using a series of increasingly complex Brain-Based Devices. These robots show cognitive behavior, such as perception, goal-driven behavior, learning and memory.
This led to the development of the emerging fields of Neurorobots and Cognitive Robotics where Krichmar and other researchers are making smarter robots based on how brain activity lead to interesting behavior.
Visuals Credits:
Visualization of MRI brain scan data from a single person, showing nerve fiber bundles near or feeding into part of the hippocampus. Neuroscientist Tyler Ard, NIH-supported lab of Arthur Toga, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Jim Stanis, Arthur W. Toga, Ryan Cabeen, Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute;
NIH Brain initiative 2019 Network architecture of the long-distance pathways in the macaque brain. Dharmendra S. Modha, Raghavendra Singh. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2010, 107 (30) 13485-13490; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1008054107
Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood. Nitin Gogtay, Jay N. Giedd, Leslie Lusk, Kiralee M. Hayashi, Deanna Greenstein, A. Catherine Vaituzis, Tom F. Nugent, David H. Herman, Liv S. Clasen, Arthur W. Toga, Judith L. Rapoport, Paul M. Thompson. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2004, 101 (21) 8174-8179; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0402680101
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
Why are we conscious? Is cortex the organ of mind? Throughout human history, people have perceived the conscious brain as the great nexus of human life, of social relationships, of their personal identities and histories, in encounters with new challenges. In Episode #5 of the podcast On Consciousness, Bernard Baars, originator of GWT, talks with neuroscientists David Edelman and Jay Giedd, roboticist Jeff Krichmar, magician Mark Mitton, and editor Natalie Geld about our growing understanding of the many relationships between the structure and functions of the brain and our own private experiences.
Discover the conscious brain.
Consciousness under its many labels and manifestations is widely seen to be one of the core mysteries of life. A great many therapeutic approaches can be viewed in a global workspace framework, including traditional psychodynamics and depth psychology, but also cognitive behavioral techniques, and, indeed, many other kinds of carefully studied human functions. Making progress in understanding consciousness therefore has an endless number of implications - philosophical, metaphysical, scientific, medical, clinical, and practical.
"Baars' Global Workspace Theory is practical and elegant, addressing both conscious and unconscious activity. If anyone thinks there is a "hard problem" in this field, they need to read On Consciousness before they make that assumption." ~Stanley Krippner, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Saybrook University.
Cognitive Neurobiologist and originator of GWT Bernard J.Baars, Author of "ON CONSCIOUSNESS: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory"
Neuroscientist David Edelman, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Dept of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
Neuroscientist Dr. Jay Giedd, Director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Rady Children's Hospital; Professor of Psychiatry, UCSD School of Medicine
Neuroscientist & Roboticist Jeffrey Krichmar, PHD, UC Irvine
Professional Magician Mark Mitton
Editor of "ON CONSCIOUSNESS" Natalie Geld, CEO & Founder, MedNeuro, Inc.
Special Podcast VIP 40% Discount for Bernie Baars' new book, "On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory" - GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars
APPLY CODE AT CHECKOUT: PODCASTVIP
Video Podcast of Episode #5 - Part Four of NATURALIZING CONSCIOUSNESS: A Talk with Psychobiologist and Originator of Global Workspace Theory, Bernard Baars exploring conscious and unconscious brain events.
Sunday Feb 16, 2020
Sunday Feb 16, 2020
“If not in the womb, at what point in life do we first have the sensation of being us? In terms of knowing that we’re an individual person... And where that line is crossed, including octopus or other animals, at what point in terms of our brain development are the brains capable of this sensation of being self aware?”
Naturalizing Consciousness: Conversations on the Biology of Subjectivity - the Premiere Event for the New Podcast "On Consciousness with Bernard Baars" - and a Special Tribute to Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman.
Subscribe and Tune in!
Dr. Jay Giedd Director, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Rady Children's Hospital; Professor of Psychiatry, UCSD School of Medicine Professor, Dept of Population, Family & Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Former Chief, Section on Brain Imaging, Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Jay’s widely published research and expertise evaluates how the child's brain develops in health and illness, the factors that influence development and how to optimize treatments to take advantage of the child's changing brain.
Jay and his award winning work were featured in the PBS 2 part series "Brains on Trial" hosted by Alan Alda.
Video Link to Podcast Trailer: When are brains capable of this sensation of being self aware? Jay Giedd On Consciousness with Bernard Baars
Saturday Feb 15, 2020
Saturday Feb 15, 2020
The engine of evolution is geared to overproduce and selectively eliminate. How do biological systems confront, adapt, and survive an ever-changing world?
This is the central question that defined Charles Darwin’s scientific journey. In Episode #4 of NATURALIZING CONSCIOUSNESS - the premiere event for the new podcast "On Consciousness with Bernard Baars" - neuroscientists Bernard Baars, David Edelman, Jay Giedd, Jeff Krichmar, professional magician Mark Mitton, and editor Natalie Geld unpack the Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS) and make the case that this theory lays out tractable biological ‘first principles’ for building a brain that learns, remembers, and experiences.
160 years after On the Origin of Species, Natural Selection provides a framework for understanding adaptation at many different scales of biological organization, from protein translation (e.g., ribosomes acting as mRNA message ‘filters’ which determine final protein products), to the immune response (i.e., ‘recognition’ of foreign agents or pathogens by antibodies), to organismal development (e.g., morphogenesis; embryogenesis, etc.), to the origin of species and dynamics of vast ecologies (e.g., rainforest canopies, grasslands, island biogeography, etc.).
Could the very same Darwinian principles help explain how complex nervous systems adapt? It seems like a strange thought.
BUT MORE THAN FORTY YEARS AGO, GERALD EDELMAN PROPOSED NEURAL DARWINISM, or the Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS), to account for the development and function of the human brain. Neural Darwinism proposes that the functional circuitry of the brain is determined by selective forces operating during development and throughout the life of an organism. It provides a robust biological framework for understanding brain function, including consciousness--the most complex and mysterious of all brain processes. In a nearly six decade long career, Gerald M. Edelman’s research spanned diverse areas of biological science, including immunology, developmental biology, and neuroscience. The common thread running through all of Dr. Edelman’s pursuits was an enduring interest in the relationship between biology and human experience. Neural Darwinism represents the culmination of his efforts to reconcile the two.
SIMILARLY, COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGIST BERNARD BAARS HAS SOUGHT TO LINK FUNDAMENTAL BRAIN PROCESSES and conscious human experience. His Global Workspace Theory and Edelman’s Neural Darwinism naturally complement one another. Both theories propose that the conscious brain supports numerous unconscious processes which together yield a single, coherent stream of experiences.
Through recent neuroscientific advances, we have begun to lift the veil of mystery surrounding consciousness. In this open-minded discussion, our roundtable experts explore Neural Darwinism and Global Workspace in the context of these advances and make the case that together, these complementary theories provide a rich biological roadmap of subjective experience.
COGNITIVE NEUROBIOLOGIST BERNARD J. BAARS, Author of "ON CONSCIOUSNESS: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory"
NEUROSCIENTIST DAVID EDELMAN, PHD, Visiting Scholar, Dept of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
NEUROSCIENTIST DR. JAY GIEDD, Director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Rady Children's Hospital; Professor of Psychiatry, UCSD School of Medicine
NEUROSCIENTIST & ROBOTICIST JEFFREY KRICHMAR, PHD, UC Irvine
PROFESSIONAL MAGICIAN MARK MITTON
EDITOR OF "ON CONSCIOUSNESS" NATALIE GELD, CEO & Founder, MedNeuro, Inc.
Special Podcast VIP 40% Discount for Bernie Baars' new book, "On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory" - GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars
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Video Podcast of Episode #4 - Part Three of NATURALIZING CONSCIOUSNESS: Roundtable on Neural Darwinism and Global Workspace Theory
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
What Is Subjectivity?
We have a growing understanding of many relationships between the structure and functions of the brain and our own private experiences. What is the best scientific evidence that can tell us about subjectivity and the brain?
In Episode #3 of NATURALIZING CONSCIOUSNESS - the premiere event for the new podcast "On Consciousness with Bernard Baars" - neuroscientists Bernard Baars, Gerald Edelman, Jay Giedd, Jeff Krichmar, professional magician Mark Mitton, and editor Natalie Geld discuss and demonstrate their ideas on the biology of subjectivity.
Consciousness is a core question of life. Making progress in understanding therefore has an endless number of benefits – philosophical, scientific, medical, and practical.
If there is a chasm between subjectivity and the brain, it has not been discovered so far.
Special Podcast VIP 40% Discount for Bernie Baars' new book, "On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory" - GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars
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Video Podcast of Part 3: NATURALIZING CONSCIOUSNESS: Conversations on the Biology of Subjectivity. A Special Tribute to Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman - Putting the Mind Back into Nature.
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
Tuesday Feb 11, 2020
In Part One of NATURALIZING CONSCIOUSNESS - the premiere event for the new podcast "On Consciousness with Bernard Baars" - neuroscientist David Edelman discusses his father, Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman's life, reminisces about little known stories and milestones, and the professional artistry of GME's distinguished career and groundbreaking theories.
1st segment (:20 - 8:05) -- A Tribute to Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman by Oliver Sacks and others, along with interviews with Gerald on Putting the Mind Back into Nature - in his own words.
2nd segment (8:06 - 18:03) -- Neuroscientist David Edelman discusses his father, Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman's life, reminisces about little known stories and milestones, and the professional artistry of GME's distinguished career and theories.
In a nearly six decade long career, Gerald M. Edelman’s research spanned diverse areas of biological science, including immunology, developmental biology, and neuroscience. The common thread running through all of Dr. Edelman’s pursuits was an enduring interest in the relationship between biology and human experience.
Neural Darwinism represents the culmination of his efforts to reconcile the two.
NATURALIZING CONSCIOUSNESS: A Special Tribute to Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman - Putting the Mind Back into Nature.
Conversations on the Biology of Subjectivity with Psychobiologist Bernard J. Baars, Neuroscientists David Edelman, Jay Giedd, and Jeffrey Krichmar; and Professional Magician Mark Mitton. Moderator, Natalie Geld.
COGNITIVE NEUROBIOLOGIST BERNARD J. BAARS, Author of "ON CONSCIOUSNESS: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory"
NEUROSCIENTIST DAVID EDELMAN, PHD, Visiting Scholar, Dept of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
NEUROSCIENTIST DR. JAY GIEDD, Director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Rady Children's Hospital; Professor of Psychiatry, UCSD School of Medicine
NEUROSCIENTIST & ROBOTICIST JEFFREY KRICHMAR, PHD, UC Irvine
PROFESSIONAL MAGICIAN MARK MITTON
EDITOR OF "ON CONSCIOUSNESS" NATALIE GELD, CEO & Founder, MedNeuro
Special Podcast VIP 40% Discount for Bernie Baars' new book, "On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory" - GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars
APPLY CODE AT CHECKOUT: PODCASTVIP
Video Podcast of Part 1 | Episode #2 - Naturalizing Consciousness: The professional artistry of Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman illustrated in a special tribute by Gerald's son, neuroscientist and paleoanthropologist, David Edelman, PhD.
Sunday Jan 19, 2020
Sunday Jan 19, 2020
NATURALIZING CONSCIOUSNESS: A Special Tribute to Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman. Our premiere event "Naturalizing Consciousness" is Episode #1 of The Podcast "On Consciousness with Bernard Baars."
This full length event features open-minded conversations on the biology of subjectivity, Neural Darwinism, Global Workspace Theory, plus new ideas about the scientific study of consciousness and the brain. With Psychobiologist Bernard J. Baars, Neuroscientists David Edelman, Jay Giedd, and Jeffrey Krichmar; and Professional Magician Mark Mitton. Moderator, Natalie Geld.
To listen to certain segments, fast forward to these times:
:20 - Special Tribute to Nobel Laureate Gerald M. Edelman
18:06- Conversations on the Biology of Subjectivity
30:18 - Roundtable on Neural Darwinism & Consciousness
1:15:39 - A Talk with Psychobiologist Bernie Baars
Special Podcast VIP 40% Discount for Bernie Baars' new book, "On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory" - GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars
APPLY CODE AT CHECKOUT: PODCASTVIP
Full Length Premiere Event Video of The Podcast On Consciousness with Bernard Baars | Episode #1