Do cortical midline variability and low frequency fluctuations mediate William James’ “Stream of Consciousness”? “Neurophenomenal Balance Hypothesis” of “Inner Time Consciousness”

Northoff, Georg

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2014.09.004

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(58 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…That is, the patient is offered a way to autonomous behavior and thus to her dignity of “being human.” In this sense, the notion of an empirically inaccessible background realm dissolves. This view corresponds to the work of Georg Northoff who, from evidence of spontaneous (or baseline, inactive, background, non-task induced) spatiotemporal dynamics of brain activity without any brain function, as seen, for example, in anesthesia, suggested that baseline, spontaneous, spatiotemporally orchestrated brain activity is the neural predisposition of all stimulus- or task-induced activity ( Northoff, 2012 , 2014 ; Han et al, 2013 ; Northoff et al, 2020 ) ( “slowing down of time and expansion of space” ). This view is summarized as follows:…”

Section: Inferring a Theory From The Case Based On Physics Philosophy...supporting

confidence: 78%

“…Attempts to shed light on it have been put forward by Karl Friston (2010) , who conceived “the brain as a generative model of the world it inhabits,” due to the brain’s capacity to minimize its energy consumption by minimizing errors in predicting sensory information. According to Friston, by tracing internal mental and external neural spheres back to the same underlying constitutional process, dualism is not even a possibility, let alone a reality (as described in Northoff, 2014 ). That is, the patient is offered a way to autonomous behavior and thus to her dignity of “being human.” In this sense, the notion of an empirically inaccessible background realm dissolves.…”

Section: Inferring a Theory From The Case Based On Physics Philosophy...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A transitive perspective on the relief of psychosomatic symptoms

Tschugguel

2022

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A key element of successful psychotherapy for the treatment of psychosomatic disorders is that patients recognize and change the meaning of their experiences. Such changes are brought about by appropriate verbal referencing of symptoms currently experienced within a given narrative. The present theoretical paper argues that changes are not based on better, more adaptive narratives per se, but on the transition (or linkage) process itself that is experienced between different narratives. This view is theoretically justified in various ways: first, it is accounted for through contemporary spatiotemporal neuroscience, which aims to connect mental and structural aspects via a common dynamic property or, according to Northoff, the “common currency” of a brain’s orientation along its embeddedness in its contextual world, i.e., body and environment. Second, it is justified through the physics concept of “spontaneous symmetry breaking,” which is used analogously to “suffering from symptoms.” If the sufferer is willing to experience a process of “going back,” that is, moving away from the previous narrative (or aspect) by verbally relating to the felt aspects of the symptom in question (i.e., approaching its meaning), they are moving toward symmetry or an underlying dynamic alignment with their world context. Clinical predictions are derived from the theoretical arguments.

show abstract

Section: Inferring a Theory From The Case Based On Physics Philosophy...supporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Inferring a Theory From The Case Based On Physics Philosophy...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A transitive perspective on the relief of psychosomatic symptoms

Tschugguel

2022

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, IIT currently predicts that the maximum intrinsic cause-effect power of the PSC must be reached at that timescale rather than on the order of microseconds or multiple seconds [ 1 , 6 , 7 ]. However, beyond that rather discrete timescale of 100–300 ms (theta and alpha frequency range), our experience, in addition to including discrete elements [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], also appears to be composed of longer-term features that work more continuously [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]: this is, for instance, reflected in the embedding or nesting of short-term phenomenal contents within longer timescales (with delta and slower frequencies) of the ongoing stream of consciousness [ 13 , 15 , 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, and third, there is the integration of phenomenal contents with the ongoing consciousness itself in a time range greater than 3 s, i.e., the stream of consciousness. Following James’ account of consciousness, who distinguishes the very contents of the experience (the ‘substantive parts’) from the transitional periods that provide the temporal link between the contents (the ‘transitive parts’) [ 15 , 33 , 35 ], the stream of consciousness is conceived here neither as additional content of consciousness nor simply as the frame-by-frame sequence of short-duration contents [ 26 , 27 , 36 ] but rather as activity that gives duration, continuity, coherence, and unity of the experience [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. In this regard, it can be assumed that various timescales of integration in turn integrate and select extended chunks of experience into even longer units of experiences, in which functions such as working memory, attention, and autobiographical self support a balance between continuity of experience and change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Shorter to Longer Timescales: Converging Integrated Information Theory (IIT) with the Temporo-Spatial Theory of Consciousness (TTC)

Northoff

Zilio

2022

Entropy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Time is a key element of consciousness as it includes multiple timescales from shorter to longer ones. This is reflected in our experience of various short-term phenomenal contents at discrete points in time as part of an ongoing, more continuous, and long-term ‘stream of consciousness.’ Can Integrated Information Theory (IIT) account for this multitude of timescales of consciousness? According to the theory, the relevant spatiotemporal scale for consciousness is the one in which the system reaches the maximum cause-effect power; IIT currently predicts that experience occurs on the order of short timescales, namely, between 100 and 300 ms (theta and alpha frequency range). This can well account for the integration of single inputs into a particular phenomenal content. However, such short timescales leave open the temporal relation of specific phenomenal contents to others during the course of the ongoing time, that is, the stream of consciousness. For that purpose, we converge the IIT with the Temporo-spatial Theory of Consciousness (TTC), which, assuming a multitude of different timescales, can take into view the temporal integration of specific phenomenal contents with other phenomenal contents over time. On the neuronal side, this is detailed by considering those neuronal mechanisms driving the non-additive interaction of pre-stimulus activity with the input resulting in stimulus-related activity. Due to their non-additive interaction, the single input is not only integrated with others in the short-term timescales of 100–300 ms (alpha and theta frequencies) (as predicted by IIT) but, at the same time, also virtually expanded in its temporal (and spatial) features; this is related to the longer timescales (delta and slower frequencies) that are carried over from pre-stimulus to stimulus-related activity. Such a non-additive pre-stimulus-input interaction amounts to temporo-spatial expansion as a key mechanism of TTC for the constitution of phenomenal contents including their embedding or nesting within the ongoing temporal dynamic, i.e., the stream of consciousness. In conclusion, we propose converging the short-term integration of inputs postulated in IIT (100–300 ms as in the alpha and theta frequency range) with the longer timescales (in delta and slower frequencies) of temporo-spatial expansion in TTC.

show abstract

“…Until the 1990’s, research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience was dominated by a task-centric view of mental functioning and emphasized the view of the “brainmind” as an organ reacting to enteroceptive and/or exteroceptive stimuli. However, the massive presence of endogenous activity implies a tendency to form self-organized dynamic patterns (Northoff, 2013, 2014a,b, 2015a,b, 2016, 2018; Northoff and Stanghellini, 2016; but see also Brown, 2002; Llinás, 2002). This also implies that the “brainmind” does not merely react to stimuli, but that it integrates them within its endogenous “intrinsic” functioning (Northoff et al, 2010a; Northoff and Stanghellini, 2016; Northoff, 2018).…”

Section: The Dmn Resting-state Activity and Self-referential Processingmentioning

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.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Do cortical midline variability and low frequency fluctuations mediate William James’ “Stream of Consciousness”? “Neurophenomenal Balance Hypothesis” of “Inner Time Consciousness”

Cited by 14 publications

References 37 publications

A transitive perspective on the relief of psychosomatic symptoms

A transitive perspective on the relief of psychosomatic symptoms

From Shorter to Longer Timescales: Converging Integrated Information Theory (IIT) with the Temporo-Spatial Theory of Consciousness (TTC)

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

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About