The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning (52 page)

BOOK: The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning
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N. Pratt, A. Willoughby, and D. Swick, Effects of working memory load on visual selective attention: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.
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177
Subsume working memory within an attentional framework
E. I. Knudsen, Fundamental components of attention.
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178
Volunteers would view an array of 16 red squares
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179
Same experiment . . . this time with digits
D. Bor et al., Prefrontal cortical involvement in verbal encoding strategies.
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179
Moving on to sequences of double digits
D. Bor and A. M. Owen, A common prefrontal-parietal network for mnemonic and mathematical recoding strategies within working memory.
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181
Cary Savage and colleagues showed that
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Vivek Prabhakaran . . . presented letters to participants
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Christopher Moore . . . demonstrated that extensive training
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181
Stanislas Dehaene . . . showed the transition
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182
Tammet . . . extreme form of synesthesia
S. Baron-Cohen et al., Savant memory in a man with colour form-number synaesthesia and Asperger syndrome.
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182
Tammet . . . far more numbers . . . short-term memory
Ibid.
 
182
Investigate his brain activity . . . one of our chunking tests
D. Bor, J. Billington, and S. Baron-Cohen, Savant memory for digits in a case of synaesthesia and Asperger syndrome is related to hyperactivity in the lateral prefrontal cortex.
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184
Convert awkward obstacles into innovative solutions and . . . habits
D. Bor and A. K. Seth, Consciousness and the prefrontal parietal network: insights from attention, working memory and chunking.
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184
Crick popularized the idea . . . neurons act in harmony
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184
Gamma band . . . a frequency previously linked with attention
H. Tiitinen et al., Selective attention enhances the auditory 40-Hz transient response in humans.
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184
Rats . . . swift . . . synchrony when in a deep sleep
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185
Two . . . labs, Stanislas Dehaene’s . . . and Bob Knight’s . . . have shown
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186
Time . . . attention to filter sensory input according . . . goals
Bundesen et al. (2005), see above.
Gaillard et al. (2009), see above.
 
187
Dozens of simultaneous electrodes
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187
Victor Lamme’s
recurrent processing model
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188
Global neuronal workspace model
Dehaene and Changeux (2011), see above.
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Studies of how the brain is wired
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Giulio Tononi’s
information integration theory
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This theory is similar to two other modern theories
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190
Prefrontal parietal network . . . kind of network . . . high . . . consciousness
Bor and Seth (2012), see above.
 
CHAPTER 6: BEING BIRD-BRAINED IS NOT AN INSULT
 
197
Story about a mature female bonobo named Matata
S. Savage-Rumbaugh and R. Lewin,
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198
Not . . . conscious . . . between the pressure and the squealing
D. McFarland,
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198
Animals appear to get bored
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Corvid . . . same brain-to-body ratio as a chimpanzee
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199
These birds plan for the future
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199
Scrub jay . . . re-hide the food to fool the observer
J. M. Dally, N. J. Emery, and N. S. Clayton, Food-caching western scrub-jays keep track of who was watching when.
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200
Crows can use a sequence of tools
J. H. Wimpenny et al., Cognitive processes associated with sequential tool use in New Caledonian crows. PLoS One, 2009. 4(8): e6471.
 
200
The rooks easily learned . . . drop stones into . . . water
C. D. Bird and N. J. Emery, Rooks use stones to raise the water level to reach a floating worm.
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201
Observed in the great apes by Daniel Hanus
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Gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus
) and human children (
Homo sapiens
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201
Five orangutans tested could pass this challenge
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202
Other animals that have passed it include
D. B. Edelman and A. K. Seth, Animal consciousness: a synthetic approach.
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203
Monkeys can be trained to tell . . . experience flips
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Nate Kornell . . . showed monkeys a set of dots
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Psychol Sci
, 2007. 18(1): 64–71.
 
204
Posterior parietal cortex . . . activity . . . matches level of confidence
R. Kiani and M. N. Shadlen, Representation of confidence associated with a decision by neurons in the parietal cortex.
Science
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204
Other species that have shown similar skills
C. Suda-King, Do orangutans (
Pongo pygmaeus
) know when they do not remember?
Anim Cogn
, 2008. 11(1): 21–42.
A. L. Foote and J. D. Crystal, Metacognition in the rat.
Curr Biol
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205
Rats . . . shown to apply simple forms of chunking
T. Macuda and W. A. Roberts, Further evidence for hierarchical chunking in rat spatial memory.
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205
Herbert Terrance trained pigeons to peck
H. S. Terrace, Chunking by a pigeon in a serial learning task.
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