Zadziwił mnie facet, który buduje witynę zatytułowaną „Scientific Understanding of Consciousness – Consciousness as an Emergent Property of Thalamocortical Activity”

dostępną pod

willcov.com/bio-consciousness/

willcov.com/bio-consciousness/front/Thalamocortical%20system.htm

Autor aktualnie rozbudowuje swoja Witrynę. Już teraz jest ona ogromna. Trudno jest streścić zawarte tam przesłanie. Może warto zacząć od rysunku dostępnego pod.:

willcov.com/bio-consciousness/diagrams/Thalamocortical%20diagram.htm

Na stronie .:

willcov.com/bio-consciousness/front/Thalamocortical%20system/Thalamocortical%20System%20-%20Informative%20Paraphrases.htm (fragment w P.S.)

autor witryny zawarł wiele ciekawych, oderwanych stwierdzeń. Jednym z nich jest zdanie .:

• The thalamocortical system is continuously active from a time early in prenatal embryonic life until death.

Z komentarzy do tego zdania wynika, że należy uznać, iż świadomość „zaczyna działać” w życiu płodowym od momentu rozpoczęcia oscylacji wzgórzowo – korowych. Ciekawe w którym tygodniu ciąży odnotowuje się już owe embrionalne oscylacje ?

P.S.

Thalamocortical system – The thalamocortical system and the dynamic core provide the biological basis of consciousness. Working memory, the dynamic core, and the thalamocortical system are intimately related.

• The thalamocortical system consists of continuously ongoing neural signals between nuclei in the thalamus and neurons in all modular areas of the cortex. In general, neurons are never idle. Neurons fire at about 5 Hz in the quiescent state and at rates as high as 500 Hz in the active state.

• Fast oscillations are coherent between thalamus and cortex. (Traub; Cortical Oscillations, 58)

• The thalamocortical system is continuously active from a time early in prenatal embryonic life until death.

• The only conclusion that can be drawn for sure about the neural substrate of consciousness is that it includes parts of the corticothalamic system. (Tononi & Laureys; Neurology of Consciousness, 390)

• At any moment during an animal’s life, only a small fraction of neurons will be strongly activated by natural stimuli. (Foldiak; Sparse Coding, 897)

• Processing in any given cortical area is intimately related to activity in the particular thalamic nucleus with which it has reciprocal and close connections. (LaBerge; Attentional Processing, 166)

• For most cortical areas, the main target of thalamocortical projections is layer 3. (LaBerge; Attentional Processing, 174)