Sentience and the origins of consciousness: From cartesian duality to Markovian monism

This essay addresses Cartesian duality and how its implicit dialectic might be repaired using physics and information theory. Our agenda is to describe a key distinction in the physical sciences that may provide a foundation for the distinction between mind and matter, and between sentient and intentional systems. From this perspective, it becomes tenable to talk about the physics of sentience and 'forces' that underwrite our beliefs (in the sense of probability distributions represented by our internal states), which may ground our mental states and consciousness. We will refer to this view as Markovian monism, which entails two claims: (1) fundamentally, there is only one type of thing and only one type of irreducible property (hence monism). (2) All systems possessing a Markov blanket have properties that are relevant for understanding the mind and consciousness: if such systems have mental properties, then they have them partly by virtue of possessing a Markov blanket (hence Markovian). Markovian monism rests upon the information geometry of random dynamic systems. In brief, the information geometry induced in any system-whose internal states can be distinguished from external states-must acquire a dual aspect. This dual aspect concerns the (intrinsic) information geometry of the probabilistic evolution of internal states and a separate (extrinsic) information geometry of probabilistic beliefs about external states that are parameterised by internal states. We call these intrinsic (i.e., mechanical, or state-based) and extrinsic (i.e., Markovian, or belief-based) information geometries, respectively. Although these mathematical notions may sound complicated, they are fairly straightforward to handle, and may offer a means through which to frame the origins of consciousness

Novel loss-of-function mutation in HERC2 is associated with severe developmental delay and paediatric lethality

Background: The HERC2 gene encodes a 527 kDa E3 ubiquitin protein ligase that has key roles in cell cycle regulation, spindle formation during mitosis, mitochondrial functions and DNA damage responses. It has essential roles during embryonic development, particularly for neuronal and muscular functions. To date, missense mutations in HERC2 have been associated with an autosomal recessive neurodevelopmental disorder with some phenotypical similarities to Angelman syndrome, and a homozygous deletion spanning HERC2 and OCA2 causing a more severe neurodevelopmental phenotype. Methods and results: We ascertained a consanguineous family with a presumed autosomal recessive severe neurodevelopmental disorder that leads to paediatric lethality. In affected individuals, we identified a homozygous HERC2 frameshift variant that results in a premature stop codon and complete loss of HERC2 protein. Functional characterisation of this variant in fibroblasts, from one living affected individual, revealed impaired mitochondrial network and function as well as disrupted levels of known interacting proteins such as XPA. Conclusion: This study extends the genotype–phenotype correlation for HERC2 variants to include a distinct lethal neurodevelopmental disorder, highlighting the importance of further characterisation for HERC2-related disorders

Linking Hydrogen (δ2H) Isotopes in Feathers and Precipitation: Sources of Variance and Consequences for Assignment to Isoscapes

Background: Tracking small migrant organisms worldwide has been hampered by technological and recovery limitations and sampling bias inherent in exogenous markers. Naturally occurring stable isotopes of H (d 2 H) in feathers provide an alternative intrinsic marker of animal origin due to the predictable spatial linkage to underlying hydrologically driven flow of H isotopes into foodwebs. This approach can assess the likelihood that a migrant animal originated from a given location(s) within a continent but requires a robust algorithm linking H isotopes in tissues of interest to an appropriate hydrological isotopic spatio-temporal pattern, such as weighted-annual rainfall. However, a number of factors contribute to or alter expected isotopic patterns in animals. We present results of an extensive investigation into taxonomic and environmental factors influencing feather d 2 H patterns across North America. Principal Findings: Stable isotope data were measured from 544 feathers from 40 species and 140 known locations. For d 2 H, the most parsimonious model explaining 83 % of the isotopic variance was found with amount-weighted growingseason precipitation d 2 H, foraging substrate and migratory strategy. Conclusions/Significance: This extensive H isotopic analysis of known-origin feathers of songbirds in North America and elsewhere reconfirmed the strong coupling between tissue d 2 H and global hydrologic d 2 H patterns, and accounting for variance associated with foraging substrate and migratory strategy, can be used in conservation and research for th

Constraining the dark energy equation of state using Bayes theorem and the Kullback–Leibler divergence

Data-driven model-independent reconstructions of the dark energy equation of state $w$($z$) are presented using $\textit{Planck}$ 2015 era cosmic microwave background, baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO), Type Ia supernova (SNIa) and Lyman $\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) data. These reconstructions identify the $w$($z$) behaviour supported by the data and show a bifurcation of the equation of state posterior in the range 1.5 < $z$ < 3. Although the concordance $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) model is consistent with the data at all redshifts in one of the bifurcated spaces, in the other, a supernegative equation of state (also known as ‘phantom dark energy’) is identified within the 1.5$\sigma$ confidence intervals of the posterior distribution. To identify the power of different data sets in constraining the dark energy equation of state, we use a novel formulation of the Kullback–Leibler divergence. This formalism quantifies the information the data add when moving from priors to posteriors for each possible data set combination. The SNIa and BAO data sets are shown to provide much more constraining power in comparison to the Ly$\alpha$ data sets. Further, SNIa and BAO constrain most strongly around redshift range 0.1–0.5, whilst the Ly$\alpha$ data constrain weakly over a broader range. We do not attribute the supernegative favouring to any particular data set, and note that the $\Lambda$CDM model was favoured at more than 2 log-units in Bayes factors over all the models tested despite the weakly preferred $w$($z$) structure in the data.This work was performed using the Darwin Supercomputer of the University of Cambridge High Performance Computing Service (http://www.hpc.cam.ac.uk), provided by Dell Inc. using Strategic Research Infrastructure Funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Parts of this work were undertaken on the COSMOS Shared Memory system at DAMTP, University of Cambridge operated on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility; this equipment is funded by BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/J005673/1 and STFC grants ST/H008586/1, ST/K00333X/1. SH and WJH thank STFC for fi- nancial support

Experiential aspects of tourism gift consumption

This article addresses how consumers make use of fantasy, feelings, and fun when deciding, giving, and consuming gifts of tourism and leisure. Despite little industry awareness, consumers are engaging with such behaviour because tourism gifts offer considerable scope for the creative expression of donor–recipient relationships. This UK-based interpretive qualitative study captured data from donors, recipients, and tourism and leisure providers. The feelings (emotions), fantasies (imagination and dreaming), and fun (playfulness) were interrogated through the behavioural phases of gift decision making, gift exchange, post-exchange, and gift consumption. A range of emotions were displayed by donors and recipients at different stages in the gift-giving process; donor decision making in groups for created gifts was particularly charged. Fantasies were evident both for donors planning gifts and for recipients. As an intangible gift, means of exchange allowed for creative mechanisms beyond the classic wrapping strategies associated with physical gifts. The ‘decoy’ strategy stimulated the recipient’s imagination to conjure fantastical scenarios. Fun or playfulness was built into many of the gifts and often related to an element of ‘surprise’, an attribute of the perfect gift (e.g. Belk, 1996) in Western societies

Two-Center Integrals for r_{ij}^{n} Polynomial Correlated Wave Functions

All integrals needed to evaluate the correlated wave functions with polynomial terms of inter-electronic distance are included. For this form of the wave function, the integrals needed can be expressed as a product of integrals involving at most four electrons

Fitness Ranking of Individual Mutants Drives Patterns of Epistatic Interactions in HIV-1

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Isotope Analysis Reveals Foraging Area Dichotomy for Atlantic Leatherback Turtles

Background: The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) has undergone a dramatic decline over the last 25 years, and this is believed to be primarily the result of mortality associated with fisheries bycatch followed by egg and nesting female harvest. Atlantic leatherback turtles undertake long migrations across ocean basins from subtropical and tropical nesting beaches to productive frontal areas. Migration between two nesting seasons can last 2 or 3 years, a time period termed the remigration interval (RI). Recent satellite transmitter data revealed that Atlantic leatherbacks follow two major dispersion patterns after nesting season, through the North Gulf Stream area or more eastward across the North Equatorial Current. However, information on the whole RI is lacking, precluding the accurate identification of feeding areas where conservation measures may need to be applied. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using stable isotopes as dietary tracers we determined the characteristics of feeding grounds of leatherback females nesting in French Guiana. During migration, 3-year RI females differed from 2-year RI females in their isotope values, implying differences in their choice of feeding habitats (offshore vs. more coastal) and foraging latitude (North Atlantic vs. West African coasts, respectively). Egg-yolk and blood isotope values are correlated in nesting females, indicating that egg analysis is a useful tool for assessing isotope values in these turtles, including adults when not available. Conclusions/Significance: Our results complement previous data on turtle movements during the first year following the nesting season, integrating the diet consumed during the year before nesting. We suggest that the French Guiana leatherback population segregates into two distinct isotopic groupings, and highlight the urgent need to determine the feeding habitats of the turtle in the Atlantic in order to protect this species from incidental take by commercial fisheries. Our results also emphasize the use of eggs, a less-invasive sampling material than blood, to assess isotopic data and feeding habits for adult female leatherbacks

Does facial expressivity count? How typically developing children respond initially to children with autism

Research investigating expressivity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has reported flat affect or bizarre facial expressivity within this population. The impact expressivity may have on first impression formation has received little research input. We examined how videos of children with ASD were rated for expressivity by adults blind to the condition. We further investigated the friendship ratings given by 44 typically developing (TD) children to the same videos. These ratings were compared to friendship ratings given to video clips of typically developing children. Results demonstrated that adult raters, blind to the diagnosis of the children in the videos, rated ASD children as being less facially expressive than TD children. These ASD children in the videos were also rated lower on all aspects of our friendship measures when compared with the TD children. Results suggest that impression formation is less positive towards children with autism spectrum disorder than to typically developing children

Atypical audiovisual speech integration in infants at risk for autism

The language difficulties often seen in individuals with autism might stem from an inability to integrate audiovisual information, a skill important for language development. We investigated whether 9-month-old siblings of older children with autism, who are at an increased risk of developing autism, are able to integrate audiovisual speech cues. We used an eye-tracker to record where infants looked when shown a screen displaying two faces of the same model, where one face is articulating/ba/and the other/ga/, with one face congruent with the syllable sound being presented simultaneously, the other face incongruent. This method was successful in showing that infants at low risk can integrate audiovisual speech: they looked for the same amount of time at the mouths in both the fusible visual/ga/− audio/ba/and the congruent visual/ba/− audio/ba/displays, indicating that the auditory and visual streams fuse into a McGurk-type of syllabic percept in the incongruent condition. It also showed that low-risk infants could perceive a mismatch between auditory and visual cues: they looked longer at the mouth in the mismatched, non-fusible visual/ba/− audio/ga/display compared with the congruent visual/ga/− audio/ga/display, demonstrating that they perceive an uncommon, and therefore interesting, speech-like percept when looking at the incongruent mouth (repeated ANOVA: displays x fusion/mismatch conditions interaction: F(1,16) = 17.153, p = 0.001). The looking behaviour of high-risk infants did not differ according to the type of display, suggesting difficulties in matching auditory and visual information (repeated ANOVA, displays x conditions interaction: F(1,25) = 0.09, p = 0.767), in contrast to low-risk infants (repeated ANOVA: displays x conditions x low/high-risk groups interaction: F(1,41) = 4.466, p = 0.041). In some cases this reduced ability might lead to the poor communication skills characteristic of autism