consciousness

Question 1

strong emergence

Answer 1

consciousness emerges at some point in a complex system
not really scientific

Question 2

integrated information theory

Answer 2

everything is conscious

Question 3

grounding

Answer 3

only consciousness can ground representations expressed in brain activity

Question 4

bottom up

Answer 4

looking at small mechanisms and details
see what functions are and build up
see how cells do these things

Question 5

top down

Answer 5

start at top then go down
need to understand what s happening first

Question 6

bottom up example - blue brain project

Answer 6

We know firing rate and things
If we know things about a cell - we can figure things out
Phase One: get information
Phase Two: stimulate the behaviours on computers
55 morphological cell types
11 firing types
55 x11 = 207 morpho-electrical types
31,320 neurons in a column
Close = synapse (see where bits overlap)
But more than biological (so they filtered with an algorithm)
Reconstruction gives information about anatomy and physiology of synaptic connections
Ca2+ mediated change between synchronous and asynchronous
Add things like: gap junctions, glia, plasticity

Question 7

cortical column

Answer 7

Somatosensory cortex with columnar organisation
Contains 100s of cells
Rodent: each whisker gets its own column

Question 8

mini column

Answer 8

Single progenitor gives rise to offspring radially
Small -> only 100 neurons (80-120)
20-40 micro m wide
Bundles together apical dendrites

Question 9

issues with blue brain

Answer 9

Randomly filtering synapses
Synapses and connectivity is most important
NS refines connections -> it probably isn’t random like this

Question 10

top down example - deep artificial neural networks

Answer 10

Refers to number of layers
Train the network, feed the errors to modify synaptic weights
Pick up simple features to form more complex
Let connections form by training with data

Question 11

language across the brain

Answer 11

A word can activate a particular region of the brain
TOP
Activate brain region about clothes
Activate brain region about buildings
Different words have different associations which are mapped across the brain differently
fMRI while someone listened to a story
Language is spread ACROSS the brain

Question 12

why dont we know much about language

Answer 12

it is too quick!
fmri -> low temporal resolution
eeg and meg -> low spatial resolution

Question 13

left hemisphere and language

Answer 13

syntax
semantic
phoneme
tone
meaning (high freq)

Question 14

right hemisphere language

Answer 14

changes in flexion
prosody processing (emotional and linguistic meaning)
add info to rhythms
vowels (low freq)

Question 15

bilateral language functions

Answer 15

a1
iniftial sound and speech processing

Question 16

phases of language processing

Answer 16

Auditory cortex process sound and phonological circuits -> identify as speech
Identify phrase and sentence structure
Calculate syntax and semantic relationships
Resolve ambiguities (using context and world knowledge)

Question 17

planum temporal (language)

Answer 17

speech or not speech

Question 18

dorsal vs ventral transcortical streams (language)

Answer 18

dorsal - where
ventral - what

Question 19

examples of teaching animals maths

Answer 19

Push bar a before bar b a # of times to receive treat from bar b
They get this pretty quick -> 4 is done quite well
Not counting but can sense it’s more
Rats understand when we need 4 of something (either 4 of one or two twos)
Pretty good accuracy
Chimpanzees understand fractions / proportions
Chimp will recognise that 4+3 is more than 5+1 chocolates
Better at distinguishing between LARGE differences = distance effect
Cardinal (know 3 >2) vs ordinal (3 is one more than 2)

Question 20

preferred numerosity

Answer 20

Topographic representation
Each area of brain prefers a different number and it’s in order
Probably only for low numbers

Question 21

laterality in math

Answer 21

Left Hemisphere better for maths
Subtraction and Addition: L 100% R 70%
Multiplication R = no
Point to the number “six” R = no
Cardinal sense = slower in right but exists

Question 22

induction

Answer 22

observe and start to notice patterns

Question 23

deduction

Answer 23

IF ____ then ____

Question 24

mathematics is a ___ science

Answer 24

deductive