Allan Hobson; Consciousness
Book	Page		Topic
Hobson; Consciousness	16		Primary components of consciousness    are those experienced by all mammals,    including human infants:    sensation,    perception,    attention,    emotion,    instinct,    movement.
Hobson; Consciousness	16		Building blocks of consciousness (table)		0
Hobson; Consciousness	17		Secondary components of consciousness    are those experienced only by adult humans --    memory,    thought,    language,    intention,    orientation,    volition.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	17		Consciousness    is graded across species    as they develop over evolutionary time    (phylogenesis).		0
Hobson; Consciousness	17		Consciousness    is graded within species    over each individual's lifetime    (ontogenesis).		0
Hobson; Consciousness	17		Consciousness    is modulated in everyone    over the course of each 24-hour day.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	19		Roger Penrose -- subcellular elements, microtubules, tiny capillaries within nerve cells that serve as an internal circulatory system for proteins. [contentious theory]		2
Hobson; Consciousness	19		The spontaneous tendency of complex systems    to change state from chaos    to self-organization    is relevant to our understanding of dream consciousness.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	42		Associative nature of human thought.   Ideas are interconnected and sequential.  [Gestalts]		23
Hobson; Consciousness	42		Even simple and completely nonconscious brains learn associatively.    Pair one stimulus with another    in space or time,    and the lowliest creature will learn the association.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	42		Dreaming    serves to loosen associations    lest they become obsessively tight.     Francis Crick theorized that we dream in order to forget.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	44		Essential chemical ingredient of associative learning in sea slugs is serotonin,    a neurotransmitter molecule humans need to stay awake,    attentive,    and teachable.		2
Hobson; Consciousness	45		Serotonin    may serve to restrain cerebral chaos    and may be a global organizer of the brain,    assuring consistency and stability of conscious state during waking.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	45		All complex systems with chaotic properties    can self-organize.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	45		Self-organization    is more likely to be achieved in undirected states,    such as meditation,    fantasy,    or reverie,    that border on waking.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	45		Dreaming    may be our most creative conscious state,    one in which the chaotic,    spontaneous recombination    of cognitive elements    produces novel configurations of information --    new ideas.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	47		Neuromodulatory neurons of the brainstem - (diagram)		2
Hobson; Consciousness	58		Cortex lobes - (diagram)		11
Hobson; Consciousness	59		Sleep-dream-wake cycle    is triggered and tuned by neuronal circuits in the pons.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	59		Key brain structure involved in attention is the thalamus,   a large collection of cells    located atop the brainstem    in the center of the upper brain.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	60		Hypothalamus    contains the biological clock    that times the body's cycles of rest and activity     and gates the sleep-wake cycle in the pons.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	61		Brain structures of emotion    lie below the thalamus and cortex    and above the spinal cord and brainstem.    Taken together, the amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus have been called the limbic lobe of the brain		1
Hobson; Consciousness	62		Intimate relationship between the hippocampus, which is essential to memory, and the structures mediating emotion.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	62		Mental faculty of orientation cannot properly be considered apart from memory.     Knowing who one is,    what day it is,    and where one is.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	62		Distinguish (1) the cognitive kind of orientation    (which provides an organizing set of parameters for the rest of cognition)    and (2) the instinctive or reflexive orienting behavior    that is our immediate response (startle reflex) to a novel or surprising stimulus  that suddenly seizes our attention.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	63		Distinction between    older brain structures like the upper pontine brainstem,    with its direct connections to the amygdala that mediates startle responses,    and the newer midbrain-limbic circuits    linking the mammillary bodies to the hippocampus,    which underlie accurate orienting in space.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	63		Association cortex -- (diagram)		0
Hobson; Consciousness	64		Although we are largely unaware of it, our brains are full of implicit information about space.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	67		Level of any conscious state in the brain    rises and falls    in response to the electrochemical activation    supplied by the reticular formation in the brainstem.		3
Hobson; Consciousness	67		For the brain to be conscious,    its nerve cells must maintain a certain level of electrochemical activity.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	67		Overall brain activation level    changes as little as 10 percent  (or at most 20 percent),    between waking and sleep.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	68		Consciousness operates within a very narrow range of activation.    Consciousness is exquisitely sensitive    to even slight changes in activation level.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	68		A significant amount of information processing    occurs even when we are completely unaware of it    as we sleep.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	68		Spontaneously high level of activation during sleeping and dreaming;    such processing is not only automatic but potentially self-organizing and autocreative.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	68		Reticular formation works on the conscious mind    not only by changing the level of activation    but also by modulating the neural inputs and outputs.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	69		Reticular formation,    like a pair of sausages,    occupies the central core on each side of the brainstem    as it ascends from the medulla    upward through the pons and midbrain    to the hypothalamus.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	69		Reticular formation    begins in the medulla,    just above the level of the spinal cord.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	69		A particularly cogent example of the function of the reticular formation    is the coordination of eye position,    which involves visual processing centers of the upper brain and spinal circuits mediating head and body position.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	69		Medulla programs many autonomic functions    essential to consciousness    as well as organizing posture    and controlling head and neck position.  [Stereotyped motor programs]  [FAPs]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	70		Pons and midbrain are the very center of the reticular system    because they so clearly coordinate activation of the higher brain structures.  [Stereotyped motor programs]  [FAPs]		1
Hobson; Consciousness	70		Neural rhythms -- Synchrony		0
Hobson; Consciousness	70		When the activation level of the brainstem falls, even a little,    the thalamocortical circuits begin to oscillate.    This kind of synchrony contributes to the global loss of consciousness    that occurs in NREM sleep.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	71		Oscillations of the thalamocortical circuits that occur at sleep onset    are robust and so highly synchronous    that they cause the characteristic EEG pattern of slow wave sleep.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	71		Visual thalamus    may be triggered automatically in REM sleep,    accounting in part for the detail of dream consciousness.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	72		Neural oscillations unify    the brain's disparate components.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	72		Reticular formation emerges as the coordinator, internal communicator, and unifier of activity in the modular brain.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	73		Consciousness is determined by the neurochemical modulatory systems of the brainstem core.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	73		Neurochemical modulatory systems confer a second kind of unity on the brain, a metabolic one, which complements electrical synchrony and activation.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	73		Two main classes of modulatory neurons: (1) aminergic and (2) cholinergic systems.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	74		Cholinergic neurons are active in REM sleep.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	74		Two forms of consciousness: (1) waking and (2) dreaming.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	74		Memories are ultimately encoded as proteins in the synapses.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	74		In waking, the whole brain is primed to capture data. In sleep, the data might be differentially processed.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	74		Multiplicity of neuromodulatory subsystems: aminergic (waking) side, at least four different systems. (1) locus coeruleus-based noradrenergic system; (2) raphe nuclei-based serotonergic system; (3) midbrain-based dopaminergic system; (4) hypothalamus-based histaminergic system.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	74		During waking, all the neurons of the noradrenergic, serotonergic, and histaminergic systems fire slowly and regularly. All of them fire more slowly in NREM sleep. All of them stop firing in REM sleep.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	75		Modulatory systems in the brain: (1) Noradrenergic, (2) Serotonergic, (3) Dopaminergic, (4) Cholinergic  -  (diagram)		1
Hobson; Consciousness	81		Process by which complex functions arise when simple elements interact is called emergentism.		6
Hobson; Consciousness	82		Rapid reaction times in critical situations, like automobile operation, may be life-saving.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	82		We may learn in an entirely unconscious way, but because we can think abstractly, we can analyze our personal histories together with the social context and thereby make deliberate choices.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	82		The resulting outcomes of our choices can depend on entirely automatic behavior.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	84		Primary consciousness comprises sensation, perception, emotion, learning, geographic orientation, instinct, primary intention; all of these can be operationally defined in lower animals.		2
Hobson; Consciousness	85		In a developmental and evolutionary sense, memory emerges out of learning.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	85		Learning may be completely unconscious.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	87		Priming is not just semantic, but also sensory, and often emotional.		2
Hobson; Consciousness	87		Neuronal networks are associatively connected and sequentially activated by one another.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	88		Even the simplest animals evince associative learning.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	88		Associative learning -- building block of memory, of priming, and of word search must be a mechanism shared by neuronal networks at all levels of phylogeny (evolution of species) and ontogeny (individual development).		0
Hobson; Consciousness	89		Comparing conscious components in animals - (table)		1
Hobson; Consciousness	89		Animal "mind" is that set of brain functions that guides behavior so that innate, fully automatic, genetically determined states (like hunger, fear and sexual arousal) can be contextualized (integrated with ecological niches) by the individual.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	89		Learning is the primary-level basis of memory; Purposefulness is the primary-level basis of volition.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	90		Snails and worms have neuronal nets consisting of excitatory and inhibitory pathways that allow activation levels to be controlled so as to enhance one or another output function.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	90		Ganglia of invertebrates contain neuromodulatory elements whose chemicals subserve learning in the nets so that electrochemical activation levels and input-output biases accurately reflect experience.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	90		Invertebrate ganglia contain hormone-producing cells that, by secreting chemicals that induce sexual and other consummatory behaviors, provide instinctual guidance to the organism.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	91		If an invertebrate ganglionic neuron is to keep a record of its experience, the neurotransmitter serotonin must be released during its training-induced activation. No serotonin, no learning.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	91		Conscious state of waking, serotonin is released, we perceive and can remember. In the conscious state of sleep (REM), serotonin is not released, we can perceive but not remember. No serotonin, no memory.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	91		Spinal cord, much of the input-output processing and its modification by experience can occur at local segmental levels.  [Stereotyped motor programs]  [FAPs]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	91		Reflexive machinery of the arm, hand, and finger is at the upper, cervical level of the spinal cord.  [Stereotyped motor programs]  [FAPs]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	92		Reflex -- input becomes an output after passing through only one synapse.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	92		Consciousness is our instantaneous awareness of the act of copying information about the world, our bodies, and our selves into our brains, and the integration of those copies with all previous copies.  [Edelman's 'remembered present']		0
Hobson; Consciousness	92		Self -- the resulting integration of perceptions, emotions, and memories.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	95		Young children are particularly vulnerable to dramatic shifts in temperature. Because their brain circuits are still developing, they are liable to develop seizures.		3
Hobson; Consciousness	95		Cognitive functions of orientation, memory, coherent speech, and stimulus-appropriate perception are replaced in delirium by disorientation, amnesia, confabulation, and hallucination.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	96		Vision is a symbolic process; no real pictures in the head, only neuronal patterns.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	97		Human infants are born with sensation, movement, instinct, emotion, and the ability to learn.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	98		Mother doesn't have to be conscious for her milk to flow in response to her baby's cry.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	99		Active sleep of the newborn infant is the primordial analog of adult REM sleep.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	99		Neonatal REM sleep periods, stereotyped activation of the brain, facilitating the development of the thalamocortical circuits necessary for consciousness.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	99		Baby associating the pleasure of eating with mommy or daddy's smile, could gradually build up into a confident sense of self as their consciousness gradually emerges.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	99		Developmental psychologists postulate that consciousness emerges gradually during the second year of human life and culminates at about age 2 with the gaining of awareness of the self as an entity.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	99		Infant at age 7-8 mo learns to control movement voluntarily. Called "will" by developmental psychologists.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	99		Self arises when sensations associated with movement come to be taken as causes of the movement.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	100		Mature human thought and consciousness have both motoric and causal aspects.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	100		Recognition memory is evident at 8 months of age.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	100		Retrieval memory and inference allow a 14 month old to detect logical connection between past and present.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	100		Prefrontal cortex is the seat of working memory and strategically willed action. Five functions of self-aware, deliberate consciousness are integrated.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	100		REM sleep dreaming -- relative deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is associated with: (1) loss of volition, (2) weakening of working memory, (3) faulty inferential logic, (4) deterioration of self-reflective awareness.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	101		Neural origin of primary consciousness, thalamocortical system of the forebrain.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	104		Tucson I and II, conference held in Tucson, AZ, 1994, 1996, "Toward a Science of Consciousness", wild heterogeneity of ideas from diverse sources.		3
Hobson; Consciousness	115		PET scanning (positron emission recorded by computerized tomography).		11
Hobson; Consciousness	115		Working memory neurons of the premotor cortex, receive dopamine and serotonin; Every cortical neuron involved in the representation of working memory is influenced by a variety of chemical modulators.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	117		Optimists are people who proceed to action despite risk.		2
Hobson; Consciousness	118		Stroke damage to left frontal lobe are much more likely to become depressed than damage to right forebrain.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	118		Our minds, like our bodies, are right- or left-handed.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	118		Highly hypnotizable subjects.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	124		Roger Penrose -- relevance of quantum theory to the understanding of consciousness.		6
Hobson; Consciousness	124		Stuart Hameroff -- understanding the mechanism by which general anesthetic agents ablate consciousness.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	126		Microtubules in neurons - neurons contain circulatory system, proteins can be transported from nucleus to axon terminal and back again; protein transport mechanisms are quite slow, as long as 24 hours.		2
Hobson; Consciousness	126		Microtubules may alter neuron excitability significantly, deliver enzymes that can manufacture or degrade neurotransmitters.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	131		Comparison of the modules of consciousness during Waking, Sleeping, Dreaming - (table)		5
Hobson; Consciousness	132		Electron isolation in the hydrophobic pockets of proteins in microtubules - Stuart Hameroff hypothesizes to be the basis of anesthetic unconsciousness.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	134		Dream emotions - fear, anxiety, surprise, elation levels; much more consistently enhanced in dreams than in waking.		2
Hobson; Consciousness	134		Dream fear reaches such nightmarish intensity as to demand a terrified escape reaction strong enough to interrupt our slumber, breaking through the motor inhibition of REM sleep.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	134		Know so little how the brain constructs narrative.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	135		Normal waking conscious state; aware of where we are, the date and approximate time, who is present in our surroundings, goal or direction of our behavior.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	135		Orientational instability during dream consciousness is at the root of dream bizarreness.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	135		Dream disorientation, blockade of external sensory signals, deprives the brain of time, place and person cues that constantly update waking consciousness and maintain orientation.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	135		Waking consciousness; we know, but we also know that we know.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	135		Dream consciousness, almost always wrong about itself. In dreams, we mistakenly assume that we are awake.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	136		We always correctly assume it is we and not someone else who is having our dream consciousness.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	136		Directed thought of waking consciousness; manipulate ideas, solve problems, examine the logic of propositions, analyze the accuracy of observations and assumptions.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	136		In dreams we are cognitively adrift; no mooring to time, place, or person, no self-awareness, no critical thought.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	137		Chemicals responsible for the evanescent neurotransmission of stimulus signals is different from those responsible for the more permanent storage of mnemonic records - Neuromodulators		1
Hobson; Consciousness	137		Among the neuromodulators crucial to memory:  (1) norepinephrine (2) serotonin; both are conspicuously diminished during dream consciousness.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	140		Waking depends upon the active suppression of tendency of thalamocortical circuits to go into their oscillatory mode.		3
Hobson; Consciousness	140		Thalamus is the final internal gateway for external information entering the cortex.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	140		External information fails to enter consciousness when the thalamocortical system is deactivated. Strength of thalamocortical oscillatory circuits swamp those representing the outside world via the sensory pathways.		0
Hobson; Consciousness	141		Thalamocortical system - In its activated state, information is rapidly and efficiently processed. Information can be either online data from the real world or data about the real world that are stored in the brain.		1
Hobson; Consciousness	141		The world, the self, and the body are re-represented in the network activation of the thalamocortical system.  [Edelman's dynamic core]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	141		Consciousness is the images (and thoughts and feelings) that are represented in the activated neural networks. Where does it all come together? Nowhere and everywhere, simultaneously and always.  [Edelman's dynamic core]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	141		Consciousness at any instant is simply the integrated product of the information represented in the activated thalamocortical networks at that instant. That includes sense of self; awareness of body; and awareness of the world, be it real or fictive.  [Edelman's dynamic core]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	141		Can define consciousness at any instant as the information that is then represented in the working memory circuitry of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).  [Edelman's dynamic core]  [Fuster's  perception-action cycle]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	141		Information of consciousness implicitly reflects my past in its representation of me as the agent of my motoric actions (volition), includes my reflective sense of strategy for those actions (thought), and their motivational appropriateness (emotional context).   [Edelman's dynamic core]  [Fuster's  perception-action cycle]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	141		Are all three components of consciousness (volition, reflection, emotion) simultaneously present in working memory, or does working memory multiplex its inputs so rapidly as to create a semblance of wholeness? Don't know the answer yet.   [Edelman's dynamic core]  [Fuster's  perception-action cycle]		0
Hobson; Consciousness	142		Hypothesis: Consciousness is both continuous (in the overall direction of its flow) and discontinuous (in its sampling of the myriad eddy currents of the multifarious inputs).		1
Hobson; Consciousness	209		Manic depressive illness -- Vincent van Gogh.		67