A systems approach to physiologic evolution: From micelles to consciousness

Torday, John S.; Miller, William B.

doi:10.1002/jcp.25820

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The increased resting metabolic rate allows for increase body heat and for regulating it in an autonomous mode, independent of the external physical environment (Hillenius and Ruben, 2004). Therefore, endothermic species can use the excess metabolic capacity to increase internal order, homeostasis and their living subjective autonomy (Torday and Miller, 2018).…”

Section: The Neuro-evolution Of the Imaginative Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “Instinct” of Imagination. A Neuro-Ethological Approach to the Evolution of the Reflective Mind and Its Application to Psychotherapy

Alcaro

Carta

2019

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Recent neuro-psychoanalytic literature has emphasized the view that our subjective identity rests on ancient subcortical neuro-psychic processes expressing unthinking forms of experience, which are “affectively intense without being known” (Solms and Panksepp, 2012). Devoid of internal representations, the emotional states of our “core-Self” (Panksepp, 1998b) are entirely “projected” towards the external world and tend to be discharged through instinctual action-patterns. However, due to the close connections between the subcortical and the cortical midline brain, the emotional drives may also find a way to be reflected within an intrinsic self-referential processing, evident when the organism is not actively engaged with the external world. Thanks to such endogenous functioning, the core-Self emotional dispositions are not overtly executed, but they are organized within coherent dynamic mental structures, called “feeling-toned complexes” by C. G. Jung and “unconscious phantasies” by Melanie Klein. The intrinsic self-referential dynamism of the “brainmind” originated from REM sleep arousal and then evolved in the resting-state activity of a complex of cortico-limbic midline brain structures (CMS), also called Default Mode Network (DMN). From our neuro-ethological perspective, it is sustained by an “introverted” SEEKING activity leading to the subjective exploration of internally constructed virtual scenarios. This “mind wandering” function, implicated in dreaming, fantasy processing, remembering and thinking, is the essence of the imaginative function and constitutes the first form of reflection, where intentions and drives gain a primordial form of conscious (but not self-conscious) representation. During postnatal development, this original (“archetypal”) imaginative function is slowly attuned in a relational “transitional” space and may be expressed first in non-verbal and eventually in abstract-verbal social communicative patterns. Our view has noticeable implications for psychotherapy. Instead of trying to directly modify interpersonal, extrinsic relationships (a top-down approach), dysfunctional emotional-relational patterns may be modified by a process in which the patient is helped to let-go of the perceived feeling-objects in favor of an immersion, via the actual feeling, from the superficial level of perception towards a void feeling-state, empty of images. Only starting from this “anoetic” feeling-state, the deep imaginal creative and re-structuring self-referential activity may be reactivated by a process of spontaneous imagination.

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Section: The Neuro-evolution Of the Imaginative Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “Instinct” of Imagination. A Neuro-Ethological Approach to the Evolution of the Reflective Mind and Its Application to Psychotherapy

Alcaro

Carta

2019

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…As this environment is often rather hostile and extremely variable, all organisms in order to survive need to extract, process, store and use faithful and effective information about their environment [49,50]. It has been previously argued that this process of information extraction and reception, and its further communication and deployment, is based on a consistent reiterative self-referential information cycle that undergirds all cellular life [31,34,49–51].…”

Section: The Cell In the 21st Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

Senomic view of the cell: SenomeversusGenome

Baluška

Miller

2018

Communicative & Integrative Biology

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In the legacy of Thomas Henry Huxley, and his ‘epigenetic’ philosophy of biology, cells are proposed to represent a trinity of three memory-storing media: Senome, Epigenome, and Genome that together comprise a cell-wide informational architecture. Our current preferential focus on the Genome needs to be complemented by a similar focus on the Epigenome and a here proposed Senome, representing the sum of all the sensory experiences of the cognitive cell and its sensing apparatus. Only then will biology be in a position to embrace the whole complexity of the eukaryotic cell, understanding its true nature which allows the communicative assembly of cells in the form of sentient multicellular organisms.

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“…In the end, we would discuss the conclusions of the theory and how this theory can used in further study and development in science. For the sake of knowing the advances and earlier researches on the topic, you are recommended to read the paper published by John S. Torday and William B. Miller (19).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Thermo-Dynamical Theory of Consciousness

Bajaj¹

2020

Preprint

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Humans have always thought of consciousness as property possessed by a living organism, without being able to properly define it in scientific terms. Many articles have been published to explain what consciousness is. In this article, consciousness has been defined as a quantity (‘variable’ would be a better word according to mathematics), which is linked with entropy of the system. The article explains consciousness, its role in the universe, not only in living systems, but also in non-living thermo-dynamical systems. Not only that, the article also explains its role with quantum biology, a newly emerging field of biology.

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A systems approach to physiologic evolution: From micelles to consciousness

Cited by 12 publications

References 38 publications

The “Instinct” of Imagination. A Neuro-Ethological Approach to the Evolution of the Reflective Mind and Its Application to Psychotherapy

The “Instinct” of Imagination. A Neuro-Ethological Approach to the Evolution of the Reflective Mind and Its Application to Psychotherapy

Senomic view of the cell: SenomeversusGenome

A Thermo-Dynamical Theory of Consciousness

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