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Integrative Synchronization Mechanisms and Models in the Cognitive Neurosciences
Published in Harald Maurer, Cognitive Science, 2021
The (general) binding problem is to identify mechanisms that integrate neuronal signals and information processes such that sensory information can be "bound", i.e. integrated, into coherent perceptual impressions. According to the German neurophysiologist, Andreas K. Engel (2012), there are at least three subproblems that arise from neurophysiology, cognitive neurobiology, perceptual psychology and cognitive neuropsychology: The problem of intramodal perceptive integration: How can the integration of neuron impulses within a single sensory system or modality (e.g. visual perception) produce unified perceptual impressions?The problem of intermodal integration: How is the integration of neuronal impulses, which have been pre-processed in different sensory systems, achieved such as to be summarized into unified perceptual impressions?The problem of sensorimotor integration: How are neuronal impulses of sensory information processing integrated with motor information processing such that the sensory system can coordinate with the motor system?
The Holistic Nature of Consciousness
Published in Max R. Bennett, The Idea of Consciousness, 2020
When looking at an attractive scene, such as a garden, the viewer has an awareness of particular trees, shrubs and perhaps even flowers. It is extraordinary that just these named objects can be attended to amongst the enormous number of visual impressions that the retinas receive from the scene. For there is nothing to distinguish the photons which reach the retinas from, say, the bark on a tree and those from the shrubs surrounding it. What is it men that gives the experience of the tree as an holistic structure? What neural processes bind together its trunk, boughs and leaves into a single entity which is readily identifiable from the surrounding and sometimes partially enveloping shrubs? This is referred to as the binding problem and can clearly be considered at other levels of holistic experiences. For example, a breeze produces a rustle as it passes over the leaves of the tree. In this case mere is consciousness of both the visual identity of me tree, involving the visual cortex, as well as the sound of the rustle of its leaves, involving me auditory cortex. How is the holistic experience generated when two quite different areas of the brain are involved? This chapter examines the solutions to the binding problem now offered by neuroscience, together with the problem of how it is that mere can also be awareness of, or attention to, just particular solutions of the binding problem.
ENTRIES A–Z
Published in Philip Winn, Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
elements (see FEATURE DETECTOR), complex element such as faces (see FACE PERCEPTION) are not coded by individual neurons (see GRANDMOTHER CELL). Explanations for the binding problem are generally sought in various neural coding mechanisms, the synchronization or patterning of neuronal firing for example. See also: labelled-line theory; neural coding; pattern perception
An update on dimensions of consciousness
Published in Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 2020
In “Dimensions of Consciousness,”4 two difficult problems topped the list of items that required explanation. First was the “phenomenal problem”: the redness of a rose is a subjective experience or quale, which exists in our perceptual space and which is derived from a physical observation. Like observing a rainbow, the percept of the rose is a veridical illusion, real but intangible. There is no way that one person can describe to another what it is like to see red. The second difficulty is to explain “the binding problem.” Though our sensory centers are scattered around the brain, we manage to enjoy conscious moments when senses are combined without interfering with one another. Consciousness investigators call this combined sensory experience a gestalt, and here some progress has been made.