The predictive brain : consciousness, decision and embodied action / Mauro Maldonato.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maldonato, Mauro, author.

Contributor:

ebrary, Inc.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cognitive neuroscience.

Brain.

Decision making--Psychological aspects.

Decision making.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (105 pages.)

Place of Publication:

Brighton ; Chicago : Sussex Academic Press, 2014.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

During the lengthy and complex process of human evolution our ancestors had to adapt to testing situations in which survival depended on making rapid choices that subjected muscles and body to extreme tension. In order to seize a prey travelling at 36 km per hour Homo sapiens had just thousandths of a second in which to prepare the appropriate gestured. While we are no longer faced with such an environment, our brain continues to use the adaptive mechanisms, enabling us to avoid danger and sense interlocutor intentions. This book sets out to show that our brain is not only a reactive mechanism, reacting to external stimuli, but is pro-active - allowing us to make hypotheses, anticipate consequences, and formulate expectations: in short, to wrong foot an adversary. The body and its movements are at the origin of all abstract modes of behaviour, starting from language. The evolution of motor modes of behaviour (e.g the ability to construct and manipulate instruments) has given rise to an 'embodied logic' underpinning not only action and prediction but also gestures and syllable sequences that are the basis of human communication. Some motor experiences have progressively moulded the nervous infrastructures and led to the development of symbols/metaphors used in language, coming to serve as classes of perceptions, behavioural patterns and universal linguistic conventions. Whether shaking someone's hand or writing a letter, each executive function - controlled by nervous structures and mental procedures that process the information - requires behaviours that are oriented to a specific end. The executive functions imply planning/selecting an action; the process is linked to an embodied cognition supported by consciousness. If consciousness is caused by specific neuronal processes and, therefore, conscious states are causally reducible to neurobiological processes, it is also true that conscious states exist at a higher level than neuron activity. For this reason it is necessary to go beyond a hierarchical idea of levels of consciousness, and to refute the idea according to which the 'mental' sphere is qualitative, subjective, and in the 'first person', while the 'physical' sphere is quantitative, objective and in the 'third person'. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 At the Origin of the Experience of the Self 4

2 The Roots of Conscious Awareness 17

3 Consciousness: A Multilevel Framework 31

4 Between Conscious Global Workspace and Unconscious Levels 41

5 Does a Hierarchy of Nervous Functions Exist? 50

6 Movement's Architectures 56

7 The Origin of Movements 65

8 Ecological Rationality: Intuition, Decision and Other Evolution Strategies 81.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. Available via World Wide Web.

ISBN:

1782841385

9781782841388

Publisher Number:

99960024056

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.