Brain and Conscious Experience

Abstract

There is a deep belief that we can attain not only a neuroscience of consciousness but a neuroscience of human consciousness. It is as if something terribly new and complex happens as the brain enlarges to its human form. Whatever this is, it triggers our capacity for self-reflection, for ennui, and for lingering moments, I would like to propose a simple, three-step suggestion. First, we should focus on what we mean when we talk about conscious experience. It is merely the awareness we have of our capacities as a species, but not the capacities themselves--only the awareness or feelings we have about them. The brain is clearly not a general purpose computing device but is a collection of circuits devoted to quite specific capacities. This is true for all brains, but what is wonderful about the human brain is that we have untold numbers of these capacities. We have more than the chimp, which has more than the monkey, which has more than the cat, which runs circles around the rat. Because we have so many specialized systems and because they can frequently do things they were not designed to do, it appears our brains have a single, general computing device. But we do not. Thus, step 1 requires that we recognize we are a collection of adaptations and, furthermore, we recognize the distinction between a species' capacities and its feelings about those capacities. Now consider step 2. Can there be any doubt that a rat at the moment of copulation is as sensorially fulfilled as a human? Of course it is. Do you think a cat does not enjoy a good piece of cod? Of course it does. Or, a monkey does not enjoy a spectacular swing? Again, it has to be true. Each species is aware of its special capacities. So, what is human consciousness? It is the very same awareness, save for the fact that we can be aware of so much more, so many wonderful things. A circuit--perhaps a single system or one duplicated over and over again--is associated with each brain capacity. The more systems a brain possesses, the greater the awareness of capacities. Think of the variations in capacity within our own species; they are not unlike the vast differences between species. Years of split-brain research have informed us that the left hemisphere has many more mental capacities than the right one. The left is capable of logical feats that the right hemisphere cannot manage. Although the right has capacities such as facial recognition systems, it is a distant second with problem-solving skills. In short, the right hemisphere's level of awareness is limited. It knows precious little about a lot of things, but the limits to human capacity are everywhere in the population. No one need be offended to realize that just as someone with normal intelligence can understand Ohm's law, others, like yours truly, are clueless about Kepler's laws. I am ignorant about them and will remain so. I am unable to be aware about what they mean for the universe. The circuits that enable me to understand these things are not present in my brain. By emphasizing specialized circuits that arise from natural selection, we see that the brain is not a unified neural net that supports a general problem-solving device. With this being understood, we can concentrate on the possibility that smaller, more manageable circuits produce awareness of a species' capacities. Holding fast to the notion of a unified neural net means we can understand human conscious experience only by figuring out the interactions of billions of neurons. That task is hopeless. My scheme is not. Hence step 3. The very same split-brain research that exposed shocking differences between the two hemispheres also showed that the human left hemisphere has the interpreter. The left brain interpreter's job is to interpret our behavior and our responses, whether cognitive or emotional, to environmental challenges. It constantly establishes a running narrative of our actions, emotions, thoughts, and dreams. It is the glue that keeps our