Science Of Consciousness Research Articles

The Science of Life and Wellbeing: Integrating the New Science of Consciousness with the Ancient Science of Consciousness

Humanity is in the midst of a major shift. To tackle the many challenges that face us, we will need a collective shift in consciousness — a shift from a worldview of separateness to a worldview of interconnectedness. This essay explores the interweaving of quantum science and ancient Chinese culture and examines how these two paradigms provide us a sense of how we are collectively evolving to higher levels of consciousness. A vision of this new era is described in detail, including how culture, models, values, economic structures, the systems of environmental restoration, education, healthcare, and food production will all change, creating a new way of living. The leaders who can help manifest this vision are called Quantum Leaders, and they must first experience their own shift in consciousness in order to lead this societal transformation.

Культурологические аспекты феномена неопределенности

The article examines the prerequisites for increasing uncertainty in the context of the globalization of society, and pays special attention to the definition, characteristics and features of the cultural aspects of the phenomenon of uncertainty. The reasons for the dominance of this phenomenon in the scientific, artistic, and everyday consciousness are clarified. The article substantiates the need to study the consequences of the implementation of the uncertainty principle in the fields of culture, education, and production.

DNA banking, its current awareness and national status in biomedical research in India, a survey

A Biobank/Biorepository is an organized collection of resources that can be accessed to retrieve biological material and data for research purpose. Human specimen repositories (adult and paediatric) take lead amongst the various types of biorepositories. Patient's bio samples are a rich source of genetic information and therefore can form the basis of diagnostics, forensics and multidimensional disciplines of biomedical research. The advent of molecular techniques and the technological upsurge in the management of genetic resources has facilitated the human DNA sampling and data collection leading to the emergence of DNA banking. DNA banking has paved a new path in precision oncology and personalized medicine. This article highlights the current scenario concerning the general awareness, scientific consciousness and current national and international practices being initiated and in practice for the establishment of bio banking facilities particularly DNA bio banking.

Exploration of the Scientific Research Ability Cultivation of Major Basic Course Teachers in Military Science and Technology Universities

Scientific research is an important function of modern colleges and universities, for teachers who undertake major basic courses, they has undertaken basic teaching for a long time, their scientific research development has been constrained, which are mainly expressed in the following aspects: weak scientific research consciousness, weak scientific research ability, weak scientific research atmosphere, and insufficient scientific research impetus, so it is very necessary to improve their scientific research ability. On the basis of this current situation, this paper proposes to build "strengthen awareness-rational position-training platform-evaluation mechanism" four-in-one ability cultivation system.

Model Unity and the Unity of Consciousness: Developments in Expected Float Entropy Minimisation.

The unity of consciousness, or, more precisely, phenomenal unity, is an important property of consciousness and an important area of research in mathematical consciousness science and the scientific study of consciousness. Due to the numerous aspects and complexity of consciousness, the property tends to engender loose or inadequate characterizations. In this article, we introduce the concept and mathematical formulation of model unity. A system has model unity if a single relational model, stretched across the whole system, is optimal. Alternatively, model unity may only be present for subsystems, although there may still be unity at some higher level. As a development in the theory of expected float entropy minimisation, such relational models provide an interpretation of system states and the theory may help to provide insights into questions such as why experience of the visual field is unified and why different people do not have a unified consciousness, for example. This article constitutes a relatively small initial study of model unity. Four investigations were undertaken and are given as examples. A postulate is also given, distilling the foundations of EFE minimisation into a clear statement allowing others to consider whether or not the postulate identifies a self-evident fundamental property of consciousness.

Healing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder & Traumatic Brain Injury

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a silent psychological wound and is a major problem for veterans and active servicemen and women alike. The sufferer battles with a sense of identity loss that can leave them angry, depressed, emotionally imbalanced and often empty inside. With an average of 20 veterans committing suicide daily, there is room for improvement in the way treatment is offered to them [1]. In a digital world, we need to move with the times and offer digital therapy, so easy to access that victims need only pick up their cell phone to help themselves. Conventional treatment methods focus on the mind-body connection, which is only a part of the solution; a critical factor in healing PTSD is the damage caused to the human spirit or psyche, which is described in this paper as ‘soul fragmentation’. This is where the saying ‘beside myself ’ comes from, as victims often feel a sense of disassociation or feeling like they are disorientated in some way even though they are still functioning; therefore a new approach needs to be taken if we are to recover the victim’s missing identity. This paper explains a new treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury, incorporating the new science on the block, ‘The Science of Consciousness’. The system includes a four-step Post-Traumatic Growth program that combines a combination of techniques, referred to as ‘Crystal Ki Healing’, the brainchild of Janine Regan-Sinclair – The Consciousness Architect. This article illustrates how a set of digital audio programs are a simple cost-effective solution and a 21st Century approach to treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF CONVERGENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT OF ECO-LOGISTICS SYSTEMS

Sustainable development today is one of the most important, urgent and comprehensive issues on which the future of humanity and life on the planet as a whole depends. The high growth rates of material production and population, which have been determining factors in the development of civilization in recent years, have led to a sharp increase in anthropogenic pressure on the environment. To reduce it requires a change in the technogenic type of civilization development to another paradigm. The problem of the mankind future in general has come to the forefront of scientific research and public consciousness. One of the ways to implement the principles of the sustainable development concept is convergent management, in which there is a convergence of scientific and methodological foundations of different fields of knowledge to achieve the goals. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the scientific basis of convergent project management of eco-logistics systems. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set: to determine the role of values convergence in achieving the goals of sustainable development; substantiate the application of logistics, environmental and project management methodologies convergence in projects of eco-logistics systems; substantiate the application of scientific approaches convergence in project management of eco-logistics systems. The convergence of economic and environmental values is due to changes in the worldview of mankind from consumer attitudes to nature to environmentally-oriented development, which meets the goals of the sustainable development concept. Systems convergence is the creation of environmentally-oriented economic systems, which include eco-logistics systems. Management of eco-logistics systems is based on the convergence of project, logistics and environmental management methodologies, as well as the convergence of general management approaches (system, process, scenario) and scientific-natural (biological, environmental, physical) ones.

Silicon: From the Invention of the Microprocessor to the New Science of Consciousness by Federico Faggin

I was a little apprehensive about reviewing this book because I know little about engineering or the inner workings of the computer, but in the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to know more about Federico Faggin. Twenty years ago, returning from an afternoon trip during the SSE conference in San Diego, I sat next to him on the bus and mentioned that since we last met I had lost the vision in my right eye, which I was still adjusting to physically and emotionally. He volunteered that he had lost the vision in his left eye when he was a youth in Italy and lightly commented that depth perception, which concerned me, was only an issue for six or seven feet. His admission and attitude were not only a revelation, but an inspiration for me: If this eminent gentleman had made world-changing inventions, was a successful businessman and had a happy social and family life despite monocular vision; I certainly could get on successfully with my life as well. 
 Silicon is the fascinating story of Federico Faggin’s remarkable life, but it is also his personal journey from scientific materialism to an awakening to a deeper level of consciousness. He divides his narrative into his four “lives.” 
 His first life took place in his native northern Italy where he was a brilliant student with a wide range of interests. He became interested in computers and transistors, which had been recently invented and read all he could independently, since it was not taught in his school. His fascination deepened and he got a job with Olivetti where he learned much more than he could have at school and which become pivotal to his subsequent career.

Gurwitsch’s Field of Consciousness and Radical Embodied Cognitive Science: A Case of Mutual Enlightenment

ABSTRACT This article tests the waters concerning a possible integration of Gurwitsch’s theory of consciousness into 4E research. More specifically, it is suggested that radical embodied approaches can benefit from Gurwitsch’s distinction between theme, thematic field and margin in order to methodically grasp how contextual and attentional factors can modulate affordance perception. On the other hand, Gurwitsch’s choice to locate the awareness of embodiment (most of the time) in the domain of the margin can generate important theoretical problems in light of empirical evidence often brought up by situated cognition researchers. Following Gallagher’s suggestion that phenomenology and cognitive science can enlighten each other, I argue that Gurwitsch’s notion of a field of consciousness can be an invaluable tool for research on affordances. Nonetheless, at the same time, the results of embodied cognitive science should lead us to revisit some of his intuitions regarding the role of bodily awareness.

Consciousness in active inference: Deep self-models, other minds, and the challenge of psychedelic-induced ego-dissolution.

Predictive processing approaches to brain function are increasingly delivering promise for illuminating the computational underpinnings of a wide range of phenomenological states. It remains unclear, however, whether predictive processing is equipped to accommodate a theory of consciousness itself. Furthermore, objectors have argued that without specification of the core computational mechanisms of consciousness, predictive processing is unable to inform the attribution of consciousness to other non-human (biological and artificial) systems. In this paper, I argue that an account of consciousness in the predictive brain is within reach via recent accounts of phenomenal self-modelling in the active inference framework. The central claim here is that phenomenal consciousness is underpinned by ‘subjective valuation’—a deep inference about the precision or ‘predictability’ of the self-evidencing (‘fitness-promoting’) outcomes of action. Based on this account, I argue that this approach can critically inform the distribution of experience in other systems, paying particular attention to the complex sensory attenuation mechanisms associated with deep self-models. I then consider an objection to the account: several recent papers argue that theories of consciousness that invoke self-consciousness as constitutive or necessary for consciousness are undermined by states (or traits) of ‘selflessness’; in particular the ‘totally selfless’ states of ego-dissolution occasioned by psychedelic drugs. Drawing on existing work that accounts for psychedelic-induced ego-dissolution in the active inference framework, I argue that these states do not threaten to undermine an active inference theory of consciousness. Instead, these accounts corroborate the view that subjective valuation is the constitutive facet of experience, and they highlight the potential of psychedelic research to inform consciousness science, computational psychiatry and computational phenomenology.

КЛАССИФИКАЦИЯ, СТРУКТУРА И ФУНКЦИИ ПРАВОВОГО СОЗНАНИЯ

The article discusses in detail the classification, structure and functions of legal consciousness. The article also discusses ideas, concepts, views expressing the theoretical understanding of law, typical for researchers, scientific workers involved in the legal regulation of public relations. The article also provides a detailed analysis of the classification, structure and functions of legal consciousness.In modern society, the scientific legal consciousness has a priority role in determining the ways of development of law, legislation, political and constitutional relations

Depression as a Disorder of Consciousness

First-person reports of major depressive disorder reveal that when an individual becomes depressed a profound change or ‘shift’ to one’s conscious experience occurs. The depressed person reports that something fundamental to their experience has been disturbed or shifted, a change associated with the common but elusive claim that when depressed one finds oneself in a ‘different world’ detached from reality and other people. Existing attempts to utilize these phenomenological observations in a psychiatric context are challenged by the fact that this experiential ‘shift’ characteristic of depression appears mysterious and resists analysis in scientific terms. This article offers a way out of this predicament. The hypothesis proposed is that when an individual becomes depressed, the individual departs from a state of ordinary wakeful consciousness and enters a distinctive global state of consciousness akin to dreaming and the psychedelic state. After unpacking and motivating this hypothesis in the context of research in consciousness science, I outline two of its important implications for the neurobiology of depression and psychedelic psychiatry. The upshot is a promising and conceptually well-motivated hypothesis about depression that is apt for empirical uptake and development.

George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., Recipient of the 2021 Excellence in Research Award

George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., Recipient of the 2021 Excellence in Research Award

What Might Interoceptive Inference Reveal about Consciousness?

The mainstream science of consciousness offers a few predominate views of how the brain gives rise to awareness. Chief among these are the Higher-Order Thought Theory, Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, Integrated Information Theory, and hybrids thereof. In parallel, rapid development in predictive processing approaches have begun to outline concrete mechanisms by which interoceptive inference shapes selfhood, affect, and exteroceptive perception. Here, we consider these new approaches in terms of what they might offer our empirical, phenomenological, and philosophical understanding of consciousness and its neurobiological roots.

Back to square one: the bodily roots of conscious experiences in early life.

Most theoretical and empirical discussions about the nature of consciousness are typically couched in a way that endorses a tacit adult-centric and vision-based perspective. This paper defends the idea that consciousness science may be put on a fruitful track for its next phase by examining the nature of subjective experiences through a bottom-up developmental lens. We draw attention to the intrinsic link between consciousness, experiences and experiencing subjects, which are first and foremost embodied and situated organisms essentially concerned with self-preservation within a precarious environment. Our paper suggests that in order to understand what consciousness 'is', one should first tackle the fundamental question: how do embodied experiences 'arise' from square one? We then highlight one key yet overlooked aspect of human consciousness studies, namely that the earliest and closest environment of an embodied experiencing subject is the body of another human experiencing subject. We present evidence speaking in favour of fairly sophisticated forms of early sensorimotor integration of bodily signals and self-generated actions already being established in utero. We conclude that these primitive and fundamentally relational and co-embodied roots of our early experiences may have a crucial impact on the way human beings consciously experience the self, body and the world across their lifespan.

Progress and paradigms in the search for the neural correlates of consciousness

An introduction to the second part of the special issue celebrating the neural correlates of consciousness. Here, we focus on progress and paradigms in the science of consciousness from the perspective of philosophy of science.

The Cognitive Neuraxis: Epidurals and Postoperative Delirium

Editorial| August 2021 The Cognitive Neuraxis: Epidurals and Postoperative Delirium Phillip E. Vlisides, M.D.; Phillip E. Vlisides, M.D. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D. George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Author and Article Information From the Department of Anesthesiology (P.E.V., G.A.M.), the Center for Consciousness Science (P.E.V., G.A.M.), and the Neuroscience Graduate Program (G.A.M.), University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan. This editorial accompanies the article on p. 218. This article has a related Infographic on p. A19. Accepted for publication April 16, 2021. Address correspondence to Dr. Mashour: gmashour@med.umich.edu Anesthesiology August 2021, Vol. 135, 197–199. https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000003824 Connected Content Commentary: Delirium in Older Patients after Combined Epidural–General Anesthesia or General Anesthesia for Major Surgery: A Randomized Trial Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Cite Icon Cite Get Permissions Search Site Citation Phillip E. Vlisides, George A. Mashour; The Cognitive Neuraxis: Epidurals and Postoperative Delirium. Anesthesiology 2021; 135:197–199 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000003824 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAll PublicationsAnesthesiology Search Advanced Search Topics: axon, postoperative delirium, delirium Delirium is a distressing syndrome that affects many surgical patients. Postoperative delirium is associated with falls, cognitive and functional decline, and prolonged hospitalization.1 Indeed, delirium is a major public health issue, and postoperative delirium serves as a target for surgical quality improvement.2 A promising strategy for reducing risk involves sustained interventions that simultaneously target multiple risk factors.3 Epidural analgesia is one such candidate intervention that has been demonstrated to reduce key delirium risk factors: pain, opioid consumption, and inflammation.4–6 Furthermore, epidural therapy can be continued over multiple days, particularly during time windows of peak delirium risk. Taken together, it seems plausible that such a sustained intervention, which simultaneously targets multiple risk factors, could reduce risk of postoperative delirium. As reported in this issue of Anesthesiology, Li et al. sought to determine whether combined general-epidural anesthesia, with continued postoperative epidural analgesia, would reduce the risk of... You do not currently have access to this content.

Nonlocal Consciousness and the Anthropology of Religion

"Most discussions of religion center on dogmas and beliefs, either of a particular religion or a comparison across denomina- tions. I would like to look at religion from the perspective of a consciousness experimentalist, setting aside the dogmas and beliefs. When I look at religion, any religion, as an experimentalist, what I see is a cohort of people consensually holding a world- view. The process of assembling the cohort seems to me very much like Thomas Kuhn’s description of the paradigm process. The paradigm in religion is defined by scripture and dogma. The paradigms differ in many ways but they all have one thing in common. All are centered on the aspect of consciousness that in science we call nonlocal, and that is now being explicitly researched in near death studies, therapeutic intention work, and remote viewing. For me what is perhaps most interesting of all in studying both religions and the science of consciousness is that this is one of history’s great confluences, the practices of the religion and the practices of science have found common ground, and reached the same conclusions."

ТЕОРЕТИЧНІ ОСНОВИ ПІДГОТОВКИ ФАХІВЦІВ АГРАРНОГО ПРОФІЛЮ

The article considers the theoretical foundations of training of agricultural specialists. Contradictions have been identified as factors that determine changes in the training of agricultural specialists in the process of professional training of students. The professional training of future agricultural specialists has its own specifics, which is due to the fact that most of them are representatives of rural youth. Promising areas of professional training are highlighted. An important component of the development of professional training of specialists in the agricultural sector is the internship of teachers directly in the workplace. The article considers the signs of modern theory and practice of professional training of agricultural specialists. The professional training of future agricultural specialists has its own specifics, which is due to the fact that most of them are representatives of rural youth. These students are very persistent observant, attentive to the peculiarities of the natural environment, close to the ecosystems of the local environment and slow and deeper response to external stimuli. In times of significant economic, social and geopolitical transformations of society around the world, the education system faces a global issue - to prepare young people for new living conditions and professional activities in a highly automated environment of information and communication and innovative technologies, teach them to act independently competently carry out professional activities. The future specialist-agrarian must have a broad worldview, be able to conduct a comparative analysis of models of development of countries in different eras; to see the long-term perspective, to focus on clarifying the essential, objectively necessary aspects of events and phenomena of economic development. In addition, the scientific consciousness must form in students a clear system of views and practical beliefs based on universal qualities: honor, conscience, truthfulness, humanity.

Measuring Intelligence in Natural and Artificial Systems

A systematic understanding of the relationship between intelligence and consciousness can only be achieved when we can accurately measure intelligence and consciousness. In other work, I have suggested how the measurement of consciousness can be improved by reframing the science of consciousness as a search for mathematical theories that map between physical and conscious states. This paper discusses the measurement of intelligence in natural and artificial systems. While reasonable methods exist for measuring intelligence in humans, these can only be partly generalized to non-human animals and they cannot be applied to artificial systems. Some universal measures of intelligence have been developed, but their dependence on goals and rewards creates serious problems. This paper sets out a new universal algorithm for measuring intelligence that is based on a system’s ability to make accurate predictions. This algorithm can measure intelligence in humans, non-human animals and artificial systems. Preliminary experiments have demonstrated that it can measure the changing intelligence of an agent in a maze environment. This new measure of intelligence could lead to a much better understanding of the relationship between intelligence and consciousness in natural and artificial systems, and it has many practical applications, particularly in AI safety.