This document provides an overview of the learning objectives and topics to be covered in Week 1 of a course on the neural basis of consciousness. The key questions to be answered are: a) Why are we interested in consciousness? b) What do we mean by consciousness? c) How can we study consciousness? d) What are the challenges of understanding consciousness in animals, plants and robots? The document discusses phenomenology, experimental approaches, theories of consciousness and challenges in the field. It also provides an introduction to relevant neuroanatomy and encourages students to learn basic terminology to prepare for future assessments.

1. Week 1
Neural basis of consciousness:
Introduction
Prof Nao Tsuchiya
Twitter: @conscious_tlab
Email: naotsugu.tsuchiya@monash.edu
Facebook: Naotsugu Tsuchiya

2. D. Learning objectives for Week 1
After Week 1 lecture, you will be able to answer the following
questions.
a. Why are we interested in consciousness?
b. What do you mean by consciousness?
c. How can we study consciousness?
d. What are the potential problems when one wants to
understand and test a possibility of consciousness in
animals, plants and robots?

3. Why are we interested in consciousness?
Why do we feel the way we do?
Why do we lose it when we go to sleep?
Am I experiencing the world the same way as the others do?
Is my yellow the same yellow as the others’ yellow?
What was it like when I was a baby?
What will it be like when I am going to die?
What is it like to be an animal, insect, plant or robot?
Why

4. Why are we interested in consciousness?
Consciousness is the only way you can know what the world
is like!
However, consciousness is subjective.
Thus, since the time of Galileo (Philip Goff 2019 Galileo’s
Error), science has avoided approaching the question of
consciousness.
-> led to a big success in science, technology, medicine, etc
Why

5. Why are we interested in consciousness?
This led to the negligence of consciousness on one side
Physics (except for quantum mechanics)
Can we explain consciousness
by the known set of laws in physics?
Does the law of conservation of energy
apply consciousness?
How can consciousness interact with the world?
Is free will an illusion?
Why

6. Why are we interested in consciousness?
Medicine / Technology
Should we focus only on the overt behaviors?
Can we understand other people’s experience directly?
Is the language / behavior only the target of medicine /
technology?
Why

7. Why consciousness?
A brief history of consciousness research
B.C.~ Philosophical discussions
Descartes “Principles of Philosophy”.
Influential idea “cogito ergo sum (I think,
therefore I am)”
Wundt, Fechner, James:
Birth of experimental psychology
Neuroimaging: Explosion of empirical
studies of consciousness
Chalmers: Hard problem of consciousness
Tononi: Integrated Information Theory of
consciousness

8. What do we mean by “consciousness”?
Level of consciousness
Fully conscious : wakefulness, alertness
Loss of consciousness :
coma, vegetative states, deep general anesthesia,
deep dreamless sleep
Contents of consciousness (=~ awareness)
Qualia, feelings, what it is like, conscious perception
Includes: Self-consciousness, various modalities etc.
What is consciousness?

9. What do we mean by “consciousness”?
Laureys 2005 Trends Cogn Sci
What is consciousness?

10. Emphasis throughout Psy3280
Phenomenology
Experimental data Theory
What is consciousness?

11. Phenomenology
We don’t know our conscious phenomenology very well!
Experience “motion induced blindness”
(Bonneh 2001 Nature)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfrb94mKCJw
Watch it with friends, family, or others. Make sure the video is
not cheating.
What is consciousness?

12. Phenomenology
Think why yellow dots becomes invisible.
Try to pay attention to one of the dots.
Does the attended dot disappear more often? Why?
Do you not see the illusion? Why?
What is consciousness?

13. Various approaches to phenomenology
1. Various illusions (unusual inputs to understand better
phenomenology) Link 1, 2, 3, 4
2. Individual differences: Developmental, genetical
3. Lesions
4. Different states (Inattention)
How to study consciousness?

14. Experimental data
To understand consciousness, we need multi-level approach:
1. Brains - humans & animals
a. Neurons, population of neurons, areas
b. Connectivity of neurons
i. Problem of nonconscious neural activities
What is consciousness?

15. Experimental data
2. Behaviors and cognition - humans & animals
a. Verbal reports
b. Simpler responses - button presses
i. Problem of nonconscious processing
c. Complex behaviors
1990s~ Neuroimaging in humans
What is consciousness?

16. A brief history of consciousness research
B.C.~ Philosophical discussions
Descartes “Principles of Philosophy”.
Influential idea “cogito ergo sum (I think,
therefore I am)”
Wundt, Fechner, James:
Birth of experimental psychology
Neuroimaging: Explosion of empirical
studies of consciousness
Chalmers: Hard problem of consciousness
Tononi: Integrated Information Theory of
consciousness
What is consciousness?

17. Owen et al
2006 Science
What is consciousness?

18. Physical world
Electro-chemical
reaction
Subjectivity
Consciousness
Trying to find the neural correlates of consciousness (the NCC)
What is consciousness?

19. Trying to find the neural correlates of consciousness (the NCC)
Easy problem: Explain
(observable) behaviors from
neural activities.
Trying to find the
correlational evidence
between consciousness and
neural activities.
What is consciousness?

20. A brief history of consciousness research
B.C.~ Philosophical discussions
Descartes “Principles of Philosophy”.
Influential idea “cogito ergo sum (I think,
therefore I am)”
Wundt, Fechner, James:
Birth of experimental psychology
Neuroimaging: Explosion of empirical
studies of consciousness
Chalmers: Hard problem of consciousness
Tononi: Integrated Information Theory of
consciousness
What is consciousness?

21. Physical world
Electro-chemical
reaction
Subjectivity
Consciousness
The problem of consciousness is Hard!
Problems of studying consciousness?

22. Problems of studying consciousness?
Hard problem Explain why/how
certain neural activities
must give rise to
consciousness.
Mere conceivability of
philosophical zombies
makes it Hard to
answer this.

23. Physical world
Electro-chemical
reaction
Subjectivity
Consciousness
Do we need to solve the Hard problem?
Integrated
information
theory
Problems of studying consciousness?

24. Hard vs Easy problems
Problems of studying
consciousness?
IIT tries to come up
with the explanation
on how our conscious
phenomenology can
be supported by
physical mechanisms.
More on later

25. A brief history of consciousness research
B.C.~ Philosophical discussions
Descartes “Principles of Philosophy”.
Influential idea “cogito ergo sum (I think,
therefore I am)”
Wundt, Fechner, James:
Birth of experimental psychology
Neuroimaging: Explosion of empirical
studies of consciousness
Chalmers: Hard problem of consciousness
Tononi: Integrated Information Theory of
consciousness
Problems of studying consciousness?

26. Theory
Since 1990s, lots of progress has been made in neuroscience
of consciousness
To understand the experimental data, we need a theory.
There are many theories available now.
Problems of studying consciousness?

27. Theory
Theories
To explain and understand the data
To make counterintuitive predictions
---> Finally to infer things that are impossible to do
otherwise
In Psy3280, we will make a deep dive into several theories of
consciousness.
Problems of studying consciousness?

28. In practice
Start from your own phenomenology.
Discover what you don’t know.
Confirm the boundary of the knowledge (Matt Might’s slide,
Assessment 2, 3).
How to study consciousness?

29. In practice
Propose a new experiments (Assessment 4, 5)
Based on theoretical prediction or introduction of new
techniques from different fields
Combine ideas, change conditions, doubt the
assumptions, refine the experiments (Assessment 5, 6)
Conduct the experiments!
How to study consciousness?

30. Learning the boundary of the knowledge (Assessment 2 & 3)
1. Brain injured patients
2. Characterizing conscious phenomenologies
3. Attention and consciousness
4. Implicit and unconscious perception
5. Consciousness research in animals
6. Intracranial recordings in humans
7. Reorganization of brains and altered consciousness
How to study consciousness?

31. Suggested entries in Glossary (in Koch’s book)
Ready to have them near you when
you do Quiz in Week 1!
Basic / Philosophical
Consciousness,
Content of consciousness
Qualia
Nonconscious
Awareness
Coma / Vegetative state
Easy / Hard Problem,
Mind-body problem
Anatomy
Cerebral cortex/neocortex
Contralateral
Ipsilateral
Neurons
Action potential / Spike
Synapse
Dorsal / Ventral pathway
How to study consciousness?

32. Let’s learn a bit of basics on the neural
basis of consciousness:
Necessary knowledge for Week 2
assessments
How to study consciousness?

33. A little bit of anatomy
How to study consciousness?

34. Important anatomical terminology
http://homepage.smc.edu/russell_richard/Psych2/Graphics/human_brain_directions.htm
Lateral/medial
Anterior/posterior
Dorsal/ventral
Superior/Inferior
Sagittal
Coronal
Horizontal
How to study consciousness?

35. Neurons in the brain
How to study consciousness?

36. A little bit of basic neuroscience
How to study consciousness?