Karl Popper and Nobel winning neuroscientist John Eccles, authors of ‘The
Self and Its Brain,’ describe the right brain as the ‘minor brain.’ Some have
even questioned whether the right brain is conscious at all. The left side has
long been considered the dominant hemisphere, responsible for the unique-
ly human gift of language and because of this — many have argued — our
self-awareness and intelligence. Eccles thinks that the right hemisphere is
not conscious at all because split-brain patients cannot express the contents
of their right hemispheres in words. This is obviously a premature conclu-
sion. How does consciousness arise?
Consciousness is how we feel the affirmation-negation contrast.
Alfred North Whitehead
The Hindu saint, Paramahansa Yogananda says, ‘There are no pic-
tures without light and shadow.’15 In other words, there is no consciousness
of this or that without discrimination or differentiation. Consciousness or
conscious awareness arises when complementary attributes are differentiat-
ed in the environment — hot from cold, acidic from alkaline, light from dark
and so on. Even single-celled organisms move away from certain stimuli
and move towards other stimuli by differentiating favorable and unfavora-
ble sensations. The nature of conscious awareness is therefore necessarily
dualistic. We will describe this type of consciousness or awareness (associ-
ated frequently with the left brain) as ‘divergent awareness’ in this book (or
conscious awareness.)
A perceptual system, which is neither attracted to an attribute nor re-
pelled by its complementary attribute, does not differentiate hot from cold,
acidic from alkaline, light from dark and so on. This would be the opposite
of being conscious — but we should not conclude that it is ‘unconscious.’
We will describe this type of consciousness as ‘convergent awareness’ (or
jay alfred | brains and realities
unconscious awareness) in this book. The choices for these terms arise
from the different ways in which the two brains relate the self with the
environment.
According to Kaiser, the right brain believes the organism includes the
environment and subsequently models this extended self. The self is inter-
preted from the vantage point of the world and converges into the self from
the environment. The left brain (and lower structures on the left side of the
brain), on the other hand, believes events in the world follow the organism’s
rules of organisation. In other words, the world is interpreted from the van-
tage point of the self and diverges out from the self to the environment. In
other words, the right brain uses exterior rules (from the environment) in its
neuronal organisation and processing; whereas the left brain uses interior
rules (from its self) to perceive and analyse the environment.16
Anatomical evidence supports these inferences. The left brain has a
greater density of cells than the right, and more importantly, there is more
gray matter relative to white, with the opposite pattern in the right brain.17
This suggests that the organisation of the left brain, relative to the right,
emphasises processing within regions while the right brain emphasises
processing across regions. Evidence from both normal and brain-damaged
populations supports this dichotomy, according to Kaiser.18
Divergent awareness is asymmetric. It oscillates from an attribute to
its complementary contrary attribute over time; and is analytical and dis-
criminatory — this is normally associated with the left brain. Convergent
awareness is symmetric and appositional, carrying out parallel process-
ing of dissimilar attributes or synthesizing inputs from two or more serial
processing streams — this is normally associated with the right brain. In
other words, the right and left brains combine convergent awareness with
divergent awareness. This configuration is similar to Bernard Baars’ idea
of a ‘theater (of consciousness)’19 which combines convergent input with
divergent output.
Self and Its Brain,’ describe the right brain as the ‘minor brain.’ Some have
even questioned whether the right brain is conscious at all. The left side has
long been considered the dominant hemisphere, responsible for the unique-
ly human gift of language and because of this — many have argued — our
self-awareness and intelligence. Eccles thinks that the right hemisphere is
not conscious at all because split-brain patients cannot express the contents
of their right hemispheres in words. This is obviously a premature conclu-
sion. How does consciousness arise?
Consciousness is how we feel the affirmation-negation contrast.
Alfred North Whitehead
The Hindu saint, Paramahansa Yogananda says, ‘There are no pic-
tures without light and shadow.’15 In other words, there is no consciousness
of this or that without discrimination or differentiation. Consciousness or
conscious awareness arises when complementary attributes are differentiat-
ed in the environment — hot from cold, acidic from alkaline, light from dark
and so on. Even single-celled organisms move away from certain stimuli
and move towards other stimuli by differentiating favorable and unfavora-
ble sensations. The nature of conscious awareness is therefore necessarily
dualistic. We will describe this type of consciousness or awareness (associ-
ated frequently with the left brain) as ‘divergent awareness’ in this book (or
conscious awareness.)
A perceptual system, which is neither attracted to an attribute nor re-
pelled by its complementary attribute, does not differentiate hot from cold,
acidic from alkaline, light from dark and so on. This would be the opposite
of being conscious — but we should not conclude that it is ‘unconscious.’
We will describe this type of consciousness as ‘convergent awareness’ (or
jay alfred | brains and realities
unconscious awareness) in this book. The choices for these terms arise
from the different ways in which the two brains relate the self with the
environment.
According to Kaiser, the right brain believes the organism includes the
environment and subsequently models this extended self. The self is inter-
preted from the vantage point of the world and converges into the self from
the environment. The left brain (and lower structures on the left side of the
brain), on the other hand, believes events in the world follow the organism’s
rules of organisation. In other words, the world is interpreted from the van-
tage point of the self and diverges out from the self to the environment. In
other words, the right brain uses exterior rules (from the environment) in its
neuronal organisation and processing; whereas the left brain uses interior
rules (from its self) to perceive and analyse the environment.16
Anatomical evidence supports these inferences. The left brain has a
greater density of cells than the right, and more importantly, there is more
gray matter relative to white, with the opposite pattern in the right brain.17
This suggests that the organisation of the left brain, relative to the right,
emphasises processing within regions while the right brain emphasises
processing across regions. Evidence from both normal and brain-damaged
populations supports this dichotomy, according to Kaiser.18
Divergent awareness is asymmetric. It oscillates from an attribute to
its complementary contrary attribute over time; and is analytical and dis-
criminatory — this is normally associated with the left brain. Convergent
awareness is symmetric and appositional, carrying out parallel process-
ing of dissimilar attributes or synthesizing inputs from two or more serial
processing streams — this is normally associated with the right brain. In
other words, the right and left brains combine convergent awareness with
divergent awareness. This configuration is similar to Bernard Baars’ idea
of a ‘theater (of consciousness)’19 which combines convergent input with
divergent output.
No comments:
Post a Comment