The brain produces mind by modeling

Abstract

The connection of brain and mind has been a source of intense speculation at least since humanity became aware that the brain was the source of our behavior. Brain refers to the neurons, cells, and chemicals that govern activities of the organism. Mind is often considered consciously aware perceptions and thoughts. However, there is a gradient from unconscious to conscious, demonstrated by enormous amounts of research, such as the effects upon behavior of subliminal primes, so that mind is best considered to be the conscious and unconscious processes that act as an intermediate stage between the organism’s biology and its behavior, or a translation from one to the other. The National Academy of Sciences Colloquium “Brain Produces Mind by Modeling” was held May 1–3, 2019 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academy of Sciences in Irvine, CA. It was organized by Richard M. Shiffrin, Danielle S. Bassett, Nikolaus Kriegeskorte, and Joshua B. Tenenbaum. The theme of the colloquium and the foundation for the set of articles in this issue of PNAS is that the “mind” consists of a model formed by the “brain”: This would be a model of the entire environment, including the self, the body, the physical environment, other agents, and the social environment. Furthermore, the model would be a best guess about the most likely state of this environment. It uses this model to learn, decide, attend, remember, perceive, predict, and produce action. This model develops as the brain matures, rapidly during infancy and more slowly later. It has structural components that remain stable over long times. It has labile elements that change at multiple time scales, adapting to the current environment and goals. The mind’s formation through modeling of the world might be likened to the way scientists build models: through a … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: shiffrin{at}indiana.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1