Psychophysical identity and free energy

An approach to implementing variational Bayesian inference in biological systems is considered, under which the thermodynamic free energy of a system directly encodes its variational free energy. In the case of the brain, this assumption places constraints on the neuronal encoding of generative and recognition densities, in particular requiring a stochastic population code. The resulting relationship between thermodynamic and variational free energies is prefigured in mind-brain identity theses in philosophy and in the Gestalt hypothesis of psychophysical isomorphism.Comment: 22 pages; published as a research article on 8/5/2020 in Journal of the Royal Society Interfac

Quantum features of consciousness, computers and brain

Many people believe that mysterious phenomenon of consciousness may be connected with quantum features of our world. The present author proposed so-called Extended Everett's Concept (EEC) that allowed to explain consciousness and super-consciousness (intuitive knowledge). Brain, according to EEC, is an interface between consciousness and super-consciousness on the one part and body on the other part. Relations between all these components of the human cognitive system are analyzed in the framework of EEC. It is concluded that technical devices improving usage of super-consciousness (intuition) may exist.Comment: LATEX, 6 pages; the paper is reported at The 9th WSEAS International Conference on Applied Computer Science (ACS'09), Genova, Italy, October 17-19, 200

Weak Quantum Theory: Complementarity and Entanglement in Physics and Beyond

The concepts of complementarity and entanglement are considered with respect to their significance in and beyond physics. A formally generalized, weak version of quantum theory, more general than ordinary quantum theory of material systems, is outlined and tentatively applied to some examples.Comment: Revised version. Chapter 5.2 (old counting) omitted for separate publication, chapter 5.2 (new counting) reformulate

On the Origin of Risk Sensitivity: the Energy Budget Rule Revisited

The risk-sensitive foraging theory formulated in terms of the (daily) energy budget rule has been influential in behavioural ecology as well as other disciplines. Predicting risk-aversion on positive budgets and risk-proneness on negative budgets, however, the budget rule has recently been challenged both empirically and theoretically. In this paper, we critically review these challenges as well as the original derivation of the budget rule and propose a `gradual' budget rule, which is normatively derived from a gradual nature of risk sensitivity and encompasses the conventional budget rule as a special case. The gradual budget rule shows that the conventional budget rule holds when the expected reserve is close enough to a threshold for overnight survival, selection pressure being significant. The gradual view also reveals that the conventional budget rule does not need to hold when the expected reserve is not close enough to the threshold, selection pressure being insignificant. The proposed gradual budget rule better fits the empirical findings including those that used to challenge the conventional budget rule.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

HOW EXPERIENCED PHENOMENA RELATE TO THINGS THEMSELVES: KANT, HUSSERL, HOCHE, AND REFLEXIVE MONISM

What we normally think of as the “physical world” is also the world as experienced, that is, a world of appearances. Given this, what is the reality behind the appearances, and what might its relation be to consciousness and to constructive processes in the mind? According to Kant, the thing itself that brings about and supports these appearances is unknowable and we can never gain any understanding of how it brings such appearances about. Reflexive monism argues the opposite: the thing itself is knowable as are the processes that construct conscious appearances. Conscious appearances (empirical evidence) and the theories derived from them can represent what the world is really like, even though such empirical knowledge is partial, approximate and uncertain, and conscious appearances are species-specific constructions of the human mind. Drawing on the writings of Husserl, Hoche suggests that problems of knowledge, mind and consciousness are better understood in terms of a “pure noematic” phenomenology that avoids any reference to a “thing itself”. I argue that avoiding reference to a knowable reality (behind appearances) leads to more complex explanations with less explanatory value and counterintuitive conclusions—for example Hoche’s conclusion that consciousness is not part of nature. The critical realism adopted by reflexive monism appears to be more useful, as well as being consistent with science and common sense

The Perception of Globally Coherent Motion

How do human observers perceive a coherent pattern of motion from a disparate set of local motion measures? Our research has examined how ambiguous motion signals along straight contours are spatially integrated to obtain a globally coherent perception of motion. Observers viewed displays containing a large number of apertures, with each aperture containing one or more contours whose orientations and velocities could be independently specified. The total pattern of the contour trajectories across the individual apertures was manipulated to produce globally coherent motions, such as rotations, expansions, or translations. For displays containing only straight contours extending to the circumferences of the apertures, observers' reports of global motion direction were biased whenever the sampling of contour orientations was asymmetric relative to the direction of motion. Performance was improved by the presence of identifiable features, such as line ends or crossings, whose trajectories could be tracked over time. The reports of our observers were consistent with a pooling process involving a vector average of measures of the component of velocity normal to contour orientation, rather than with the predictions of the intersection-of-constraints analysis in velocity space.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0175, 89-0016); National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (BNS-8908426

Estimation and Identifiability of Model Parameters in Human Nociceptive Processing Using Yes-No Detection Responses to Electrocutaneous Stimulation

Healthy or pathological states of nociceptive subsystems determine different stimulus-response relations measured from quantitative sensory testing. In turn, stimulus-responses measurements may be used to assess these states. In a recently developed computational model, six model parameters characterize activation of nerve endings and spinal neurons. However, both model nonlinearity and limited information in yes-no detection responses to electrocutaneous stimuli challenge to estimate model parameters. Here, we address the question whether and how one can overcome these difficulties for reliable parameter estimation. First, we fit the computational model to experimental stimulus-response pairs by maximizing the likelihood. To evaluate the balance between model fit and complexity, we evaluate the Bayesian Information Criterion. We find that the computational model is better than a conventional logistic model regarding the balance. Second, our theoretical analysis suggests to vary the pulse width among applied stimuli as a necessary condition to prevent structural non-identifiability. In addition, the numerically implemented profile likelihood approach reveals structural and practical non-identifiability. Our model-based approach with integration of psychophysical measurements can be useful for a reliable assessment of states of the nociceptive system

Percepção social de profissionais de enfermagem avaliada por meio de diferentes escalas

La finalidad de este experimento fue la de escalonar la percepción social del enfermero a través de los métodos de estimación de magnitudes y emparejamiento cruzado (a lo largo de líneas). Participaron del estudio estudiantes de 2º grado y universitarios, profesionales actuantes y jubilados de medicina, psicología, enfermería y odontología. Los resultados mostraron: (1) los trazos aseado, responsable, limpio, cuidadoso y eficaz ocupan las primeras posiciones en términos de percepción social del enfermero, mientras los trazos inútil, deshonroso, deshonesto, irresponsable y odioso ocupan las últimas posiciones en todas las escalas obtenidas por los diferentes métodos psicofísicos directos; (2) la escala de percepción social del enfermero es válida, estable y consistente y (3) las ordenaciones resultantes de los métodos producen posiciones de percepción altamente concordantes para los diferentes adjetivos.O objetivo deste experimento foi escalonar a percepção social do enfermeiro pelos métodos de estimação de magnitudes e de categorias e de emparelhamento intermodal (comprimento de linhas). Participaram estudantes do 2º grau e universitários, profissionais atuantes e aposentados em medicina, psicologia, enfermagem e odontologia. Os resultados mostraram que (1) os traços asseado, responsável, limpo, cuidadoso e eficaz ocupam as primeiras posições em termos da percepção social do enfermeiro, enquanto os traços inútil, desonroso, desonesto, irresponsável e odioso ocupam as últimas posições em todas as escalas obtidas pelos diferentes métodos psicofísicos diretos; (2) a escala de percepção social do enfermeiro é válida, estável e consistente e (3) as ordenações resultantes dos métodos produzem posições de percepção altamente concordantes para os diferentes adjetivos.The purpose of this experiment was to scale the social perception of nurses through the methods of magnitude estimation, category estimation and cross-modality matching (line lengths). The study participants were high school and undergraduate students, active and retired medicine, psychology, nursing and dentistry professionals. Results revealed that: (1) the characteristics neat, responsible, clean, careful and efficacious occupied the first positions in terms of nurses' social perceptions, while useless, shameful, dishonest, irresponsible and hateful occupied the last positions on all scales obtained by the different direct psychophysics methods; (2) the scale of nurses' social perception is valid, stable and consistent and (3) the rankings resulting from the three methods produce highly concordant positions of perception for the different adjectives