Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-09T10:32:22.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Not by Data Alone: The Promises and Pitfalls of Data Analysis in Understanding Consciousness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2019

Paula Droege
Paula Droege*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, Pennsylvania State University, 244 Sparks Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA. Email: pdroege@psu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since the introduction of new technologies, the deluge of neuroscientific data has been overwhelming. On one hand this new information has produced remarkable breakthroughs in our understanding of brain function and development as well as lifesaving treatments for trauma and disease. On the other hand, the lure and reward for explanations of mental phenomena in terms of simple, manipulable brain processes has led to questionable research methodologies and unsubstantiated claims. A more fundamental issue is raised by the attempt to explain consciousness by means of information, as proposed by the Information Integration Theory (IIT). While the models produced by this massive computation of data will no doubt improve our understanding of brain function and capacity, a strict information processing approach cannot address the problem of meaning. A solution to this problem demands an evolutionary, developmental, and dynamic account of an organism in its environment. Data analysis will play a role in this inclusive explanatory program, but explanation is insufficient by data alone.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 341 - 356
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Koch, C. (2012) Studying the murine mind using large scale observatories. 16th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. Brighton, UK.Google Scholar
Aguirre, G.K. (2014) Functional neuroimaging: technical, logical, and social perspectives. Hastings Center Report, 44, pp. S8–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farah, M.J. (2014) Brain images, babies, and bathwater: critiquing critiques of functional neuroimaging. Hastings Center Report, 44, pp. S19–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnet, L., Comte, A., Tatu, L., Millot, J., Moulin, T. and Medeiros de Bustos, E. (2015) The role of the amygdala in the perception of positive emotions: an ‘intensity detector’. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, C.M., Baird, A.A., Miller, M.B. and Wolford, G.L. (2010) Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic salmon: an argument for proper multiple comparisons correction. Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results, 1, pp. 1–5.Google Scholar
Pashler, H. and Wagenmakers, E. (2012) Editors’ introduction to the special section on replicability in psychological science: a crisis of confidence? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, pp. 528–530.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giner-Sorolla, R. (2012) Science or art? How aesthetic standards grease the way through the publication bottleneck but undermine science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, pp. 562–571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Logothetis, N.K. (2008) What we can do and what we cannot do with fMRI. Nature, 453, pp. 869–878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mumford, J.A. and Ramsey, J.D. (2014) Bayesian networks for fMRI: a primer. NeuroImage, 86, pp. 573–582.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gayles, J.G. and Molenaar, P.C.M. (2013) The utility of person-specific analyses for investigating developmental processes: an analytic primer on studying the individual. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 37, pp. 549–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tononi, G. (2008) Consciousness as integrated information: a provisional manifesto. Biological Bulletin, 215, pp. 216–242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tononi, G. (2012) Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul (New York: Pantheon).Google Scholar
Tononi, G. and Koch, C. (2014) Consciousness: here, there but not everywhere. arXiv, 1405.7089.Google Scholar
Nagel, T. (1974) What is it like to be a bat? Philosophical Review, 83, pp. 435–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kripke, S.A. (1971) Identity and necessity. In: Munitz, M.K. (Ed.), Identity and Individuation (New York: New York University Press), pp. 135–164.Google Scholar
Tononi, G. (2004) An information integration theory of consciousness. BMC Neuroscience, 5, p. 42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehaene, S. (2014) Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts (New York: Penguin Books).Google Scholar
Wikipedia contributors (2019) Bit. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bit&oldid=901191550 Google Scholar
Wikipedia contributors (2019) Entropy. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Entropy&oldid=899895609 Google Scholar
Tononi, G., Boly, M., Massimini, M. and Koch, C. (2016) Integrated information theory: from consciousness to its physical substrate. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17, pp. 450–461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kostic, D. (2012) The vagueness constraint and the quality space for pain. Philosophical Psychology, 25, pp. 929–939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oizumi, M., Albantakis, L. and Tononi, G. (2014) From the phenomenology to the mechanisms of consciousness: integrated information theory 3.0. PLoS Computational Biology, 10, e1003588.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corum, J. (2015) Is that dress white and gold or blue and black? The New York Times, 27 February. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/28/science/white-or-blue-dress.html Google Scholar
Block, N. (2010) Attention and mental paint. Philosophical Issues, 20, pp. 23–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, F. (1981) Knowledge and the Flow of Information (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Gibson, W.T., Gonzalez, C.R., Fernandez, C., Ramasamy, L., Tabachnik, T., Du, R.R., Felsen, P.D., Maire, M.R., Perona, P. and Anderson, D.J. (2015) Behavioral responses to a repetitive visual threat stimulus express a persistent state of defensive arousal in drosophila. Current Biology, 25, pp. 1401–1415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schuster, S., Wöhl, S., Griebsch, M. and Klostermeier, I. (2006) Animal cognition: how archer fish learn to down rapidly moving targets. Current Biology, 16, pp. 378–383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Healy, S.D. and Hurly, T.A. (2013) What hummingbirds can tell us about cognition in the world. Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, 8, pp. 13–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, F. (1983) Precis of knowledge and the flow of information. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 6, pp. 55–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, F. (1986) Misrepresentation. In: Bogdan, R. (Ed.), Belief: Form, Content, and Function (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 17–36.Google Scholar
Millikan, R.G. (1993) White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Davidson, D. (1984) On the very idea of a conceptual scheme. Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 183–198.Google Scholar
Fodor, J.A. (1990) A Theory of Content and Other Essays (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Fodor, J.A. (1994) The Elm and the Expert: Mentalese and its Semantics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Droege, P. (2003) Caging the Beast: A Theory of Sensory Consciousness (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Droege, P. (2009) Now or never: how consciousness represents time. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, pp. 78–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matthew 4:4, Holy Bible: New Living Translation. (2006) (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House).Google Scholar

Further Reading

UCSD Center for Functional MRI (http://fmri.ucsd.edu/Research/whatisfmri.html)Google Scholar
Preuschoff, K.. Website (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/course/slides10-zurich/Kerstin_BOLD.pdf)Google Scholar
Balduzzi, D. and Tononi, G. (2009) Qualia: the geometry of integrated information. PLOS Computational Biology, 5, e1000462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, A. (2000) A Theory of Sentience (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gouras, P. (2017) Color vision. Retrieved 2 January 2017, from Webvision: The Organization of the Retina and Visual System, http://webvision.med.utah.edu/book/part-vii-color-vision/color-vision/ Google Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (2010) How to think about mental qualities. Philosophical Issues, 20, pp. 368–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, M. (2000) Consciousness, Color, and Content (Cambridge, MA: A Bradford Book).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, B.D., Keller, A. and Rosenthal, D. (2014) Quality-space theory in olfaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, pp. 1–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oizumi, M., Albantakis, L., Tononi, G. (2014) From the phenomenology to the mechanisms of consciousness: integrated information theory 3.0.. PLoS Computational Biology, 10, pp. e1003588.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tononi, G., Boly, M., Massimini, M. and Koch, C. (2016) Integrated information theory: from consciousness to its physical substrate. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17, pp. 450–461. http://integratedinformationtheory.org/ CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Millikan, R.G. (2004) Varieties of Meaning (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UCSD Center for Functional MRI (http://fmri.ucsd.edu/Research/whatisfmri.html)Google Scholar
Preuschoff, K.. Website (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/course/slides10-zurich/Kerstin_BOLD.pdf)Google Scholar
Balduzzi, D. and Tononi, G. (2009) Qualia: the geometry of integrated information. PLOS Computational Biology, 5, e1000462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, A. (2000) A Theory of Sentience (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gouras, P. (2017) Color vision. Retrieved 2 January 2017, from Webvision: The Organization of the Retina and Visual System, http://webvision.med.utah.edu/book/part-vii-color-vision/color-vision/ Google Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (2010) How to think about mental qualities. Philosophical Issues, 20, pp. 368–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, M. (2000) Consciousness, Color, and Content (Cambridge, MA: A Bradford Book).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, B.D., Keller, A. and Rosenthal, D. (2014) Quality-space theory in olfaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, pp. 1–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oizumi, M., Albantakis, L., Tononi, G. (2014) From the phenomenology to the mechanisms of consciousness: integrated information theory 3.0.. PLoS Computational Biology, 10, pp. e1003588.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tononi, G., Boly, M., Massimini, M. and Koch, C. (2016) Integrated information theory: from consciousness to its physical substrate. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17, pp. 450–461. http://integratedinformationtheory.org/ CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Millikan, R.G. (2004) Varieties of Meaning (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar