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Psychology: Where does consciousness arise? The lost bet of the scientist after 25 years

2023-07-10 19:05:00Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Psychology: Where does consciousness arise? The lost bet of the scientist after
Psychology: Where does consciousness arise?

In 1998 German-American neuroscientist Christof Koch and Australian philosopher David Chalmers made a bet. Koch said he was confident that, thanks to the scientific advances of the time, within 25 years from then, that is, by 2023, the mechanism by which neurons in the brain produce consciousness would finally be clear.

A few days ago, on June 23, during the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) in New York, Koch admitted defeat. Apparently he had been too optimistic.

WHO WAS RIGHT? A study that tested the two main hypotheses on the neural origins of consciousness contributed to determining who the winner was, the results of which were revealed during the conference. Although one of the hypotheses seems more convincing than the other, the results are not yet conclusive and important issues remain to be resolved. In short, the question remains, 25 years after that famous bet, far from settled, and so Chalmers was right.

ONE OF THE LAST MYSTERIES. Consciousness is often defined as "the awareness that the subject has of himself and of the external world with which he is in relationship, of his identity and of the complex of his internal activities." How the brain produces it remains a philosophical mystery that, after decades of research, we are only able to partially understand.

25 years ago, Koch was confident in the progress of science due to the first spread of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in laboratories around the world, as well as the emergence of optogenetics, the technique that allows you to stimulate specific groups of neurons in the brain of animals studied as a model in neuroscience.

A DRIVE FOR PROGRESS. Meanwhile, Koch, a computational neuroscientist who directs the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, and Chalmers, co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness at New York University, have created a scientific collaboration supported by Templeton World. Charitable Foundation whose mission is to inspire researchers from around the world to collaborate and test prevailing theories about the origin of consciousness, accelerating research in this field.

The idea is to create "competing" experiments to test different hypotheses and to encourage rival researchers to collaborate on the design of their respective studies, thus working towards a common goal.

TWO DIFFERENT MODELS. At the last meeting, the results, still unpublished, of such an experiment, in which six independent laboratories, including those of Koch and Chalmers, participated.

There are two hypotheses on the table: Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Workspace Theory (GNWT).

As explained in Nature, according to IIT consciousness would be a stable "structure" of the brain, formed by a specific type of neural connection active as long as a particular experience, such as viewing an image, is ongoing. This structure would be located in the posterior area of ​​the cerebral cortex.

Despite this, GNWT suggests that consciousness emerges when information is transmitted to several areas of the brain through a circuit of interconnected neurons. The transmission of information would occur at the beginning and end of the experience and would involve the prefrontal cortex, at the front of the brain.

THERE ARE NO REAL WINNERS. The results of the experiments do not allow to confirm with certainty either of the two hypotheses, although the IIT came out a little better. The tests appear to support the existence of the theorized "structure," as areas of the posterior cortex do indeed show that they contain information consistently, but no evidence of synchronization between brain areas hypothesized in the model was found.

As for the GNWT, it has been shown that some, but not all, aspects of consciousness may be related to the prefrontal cortex. And there is indeed a stream of information at the beginning of an experience, but not at the end as predicted. Both models therefore need to be rethought in light of what has emerged, and neither emerges entirely triumphant: much remains to be investigated.

SEE YOU AFTER 25 YEARS... Very sportingly, Koch paid off his friend's bet with a case of fine Portuguese wine. But as an incurable optimist he relaunched: "Double", he said. "Twenty-five years from now is realistic because techniques are improving and I can't wait much longer than that, given my age."


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

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