Chap 2 Dehaene UNCONSC

Feb 17, 2014 08:11 PM

loc 800 to 840   unconsc appreciated well before Freud.... beautiful apprec of philosophy and culture and literature.

make this book a treat to read.

855  simplest idea:  cortex was consc whereas everything else was not.

(and amygdala, colliulus etc. was not)  NAIVE idea.

Another NAIVE idea:   2 hemispheres:  L with language could report what it was doing  R could not.

3rd hypoth:  some cortical circuits were consc... others not.

eg  ventral  route in vision was consc  dorsal was not  (use s object shape/ location was forever on the dark side).

None of these hold up.

All brain regions can particip in both consc and unconsc thot.

Amygdala.. almond shaped... fear of snake

was blindsight just gue to super colliculus?  NO.  it also activated high level cortex and thalamus.

loc 956  Binding Without Consc:  myth abt consc... needed for binding... NO.

RANGE vs ANGER.

what we experience is a consc visual scene is highly processed...

we NEVER see the world as our retina sees it.

it would be a horrible sight:  masked by blood vessels,  with a blind spot,  constant changing as gaxe moves.

we see instead 3 d scene, corrected for retinal defects , stabilized for head mvmts and eye mvmts,

chess master... takes in position.. is king in check in 20 msecs!  loc 998...

1011  Seeing Voices  McGURK effect:  we gain access to an expert reconstruction of the

outside world.

We do NOT need consciousness to fuse together visual and auditory signals (eg as in a movie).

UNCONSC meaning:   can a word's meaning be processeed without awareness.

Where in the brain is this consc multisensory brew concocted (McGurk effect)?

FRONTAL CORTEX (rather than auditory or visual areas).

He says... first distilled in our higher areas then sent back to early sensory regions.

many complex snesory ops unfold SUB ROSA to assemble the scene that plays out in our mind's eye.

Wolf Singer:  routine binding  may occur wit  overlearned stim  (in vision, speech etc)  vs

de novo combos...  perhaps med. by brain synchrony.

from birth on, brain receives internsive training in wat the world looks like..

Years ...  allow it to compile detailed statistics of co-occurence.

loc 1038   visual neurons become dedicatged to specific combos... even under anesthesia.

Groucho Marx  time  flies like an arrow;  fruit flies like a banana.

UNCONSC MEANING?

1950s  Cocktail Party Effect:

listening to dozens of conversations... someone mentions your name behind you and you perk up.

=>  unconsc comprehension process.

Tony Greenwald:  SCIENCE pub.

happy as a hidden prime  (S could not see it)  But... they were really assoc individual letter like H AP.

tumor prived  tulip and humor  =>  shallow assoc invovled.

UNCONSC arithmetic  loc 1137  small digits  1 4 6 9 eg.

1181  Piano  primes chair  and not car.  semantic priming without consc.

loc 1194  electrodes deep in amygdala....  activation to a frightening word  (even if unconsc)

rape, danger, poison  YES  amydala SAW the workds that remained invisible to the pts.

it took  1/2 second  but it worked   .

I like my coffee with cream and socks..   big  N400  (and it occurs with masked words)

networks of neurons in temporal lobe  automat process invisible words.

also works for  NOT HAPPY  and  VERY HAPPY.   brain registers it.

CONSC is irrelevant to semantics.

1224  Invisible word is capable of elicting a large activation in brain's meaning netowrks.

BUT.  semantic brain waves remain localized  (and NOT widespread)...

reamins in  L temproal lobe  (primary site of meaning).

BUT  consc words invade the FRONTAL LOBES and then become more influential.

ATTENTIVE but UNCONSC...  1224:  an eye-opener.

must use  masking and attentional blink to test influence.

1237  ATTN can also be deployed unconsc.

It would be strange indeed if attedning requried supervision

as noted by Wm James...  to selct  one out of seval poss. objects of thot.

would be oddly ineffic if it requried consc to do it.  it does nto.

ATTN spotlight is oerpated by armies of unconsc workers that silently

sift thru the piles of rubble before one hits gold and alerts us.

many expts:  SELECTIVE ATTN operates wihtout CONSC.

flash  (even if invisible) primes a location....  hidden primes are even more effective than

consc distractors  (cuz those can be tuned out).

Loud noises, blinking lights  irrepressibly attract attn.  part of an alerting mechanism.

unexpected stim  a scream, call of our name... must be able to break thru... must operate outside awareness.

Unconsc ATTN acts as a constant watchdog  !!!!  (this is SO GOOD).

SPREADING ACTIVATION:  a hidden prime climbs up the hierarchy of vision to proc of recog,

meaning attribution,a nd motor programs  without ever influencing S consc will, intention or attn.

1265 ... NOT so!   ATTN can amplify unconsc stim.

1280  VALUE of an INVISIBLE COIN.

animals must have a quick way of assiving  + or - value... stay or go;  approach or retreat.

depdns of basal ganglia.

Penny or Pound sterling.  squeeze a handle.  unconsc activation...ventral straitum..

Our brain hosts a set of clever unconsc devices constantly monitoring the world...

UNCONSC brain ceaselessly evaluates dormant opportunties.

ATTN largely opeates subliminally

UNCONSC math:

Julian Jaynes:  We cannot be consc of what we are not consc of.

Hofstadter:   project always takes longer than expected even accounting for Hofstadters Law.

Jaques Hadamard book  on creativity...  anecdotes about Poincare.

1365  IKEA shoppers:  less satsified with consc purchasing. than those who chose on impulse.

UNCONSC math... YES...

Stastics During sleep  1392...  scientists calim of sudden insight upon waking up from sleep.

Neurons in HC/ cortex active during sleep  they replay patterns in fast forward.

sleep is a period of boiling unconsc activity...

1419  long thot that  mind's central exec  the cog system that controls mental ops, task switching and

error detection was the sole rpvoince of consc mind... but  NOT   sophisticated exec functions

can oper unconsc on invisible stim.

black disc inhibition...   invisible is not synon with out of control.

1433  subliminal percep exists...  and a whole array of proc occurs without consc.

Fig 13:  UNCONSC  areas of brain processing...  (everywhere!)

1451  is CONSC then a mere bystander????  NO.

an evolved function...that is useful.

eg Poincare:  all the initial consc effort is essential.

Henry Moore:  consc mind resolves conflicts, oragnizes mems...