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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Inter-Organ Connection Models/Corpus Collosum and other Commissures

The Corpus Collosum and other Commissures
There are four separate bundles of connections between the two hemispheres of the brain, The one at the front of the brain is called the Corpus Collosum, and it has been the target of intervention in an attempt to treat schizophrenia. Because of its frontal location it is possible to reach it through the nose, Which is why it was severed in an attempt to limit the cross talk between the two sides of the brain that was thought to cause schizophrenia. Since then we have learned that schizophrenia is a breakdown in the function of Agency, not caused by cross talk between the two sides of the brain. People who had Lobotomies were not cured of schizophrenia, they just lost the ability to co-ordinate the two sides of their brain. The other three commissures are the Anterior Commissure, the Posterior Commisure and the Hippocampal Commissure.

Anterior Commissure
The Anterior Commissure connects the Temporal Lobes, the Amygdalas, and the Straite Cortexes of the two halves of the brain. It was at one time implicated in Homosexuality, but that interpretation did not hold up to scrutiny.

Posterior Commissure
The Posterior Commissure connects the Posterior Nucleus Commissure, possibly the Posterior part of the thalamus, and maybe even the superior collicus, it has been noted to have an effect on the normal pupillary response to light, that is often used to detect signs of concussion. Since damage to it, destroys the natural link between the pupils, noted in concussion.

Hippocampal Commissure
The Hippocampal Commissure or Commissure of the Fornix connects the two hippocampus organs across the midline of the brain, just behind the Corpus Collosum. It is part of a fornix connection called the lyra, because it resembles a triangular harp.

The Corpus Collosum
Connects the frontal lobes of the brain, right behind the prefrontal cortex. It is by far the largest of the commissures.

One impact that these links accross between the sides of the brain indicate is that the idea of a single central network, as suggested in the Global Workspace Model, is unlikely, and a probable oversimplification of the actual connectiveness of the brain.


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User:Casund

BUANA KIBONGUI, Raymond. (19x-19yy) Pasteur de l'Eglise Evangélique (E.E.C.) du Congo (République du Congo). Président de l'EEC ente 19xx et 19yy. Buana Kibongui était un des premiers théologiens protestants du Congo de voir la nécéssité d'une christologie contextuelle typique pour l'Afrique Tropicale. Parmi ses ouvrages les plus connues doivent être mentionnés: l'article "La Prêtrise" en Biblical Revelation and African Beliefs (WCC 196?) et sa thèse de Licence en théologie "Les Dieux des Ancêtres" (Montpellier, 1961). Une des thèses de Buana Kibongui était que Jésus accomplit le rôle du Nganga dasn sa relation avec Dieu et dans sa position d'intermédiaire entre Dieu et l'homme.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Casund


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Inter-Organ Connection Models/LateroVentral Prefrontal Cortex

LateroVentral Prefrontal Cortex Connections
Although this is still speculative, it is thought that different parts of the LateroVentral Prefrontal Cortex, respond to different frequencies. Although scientists are sure that the mechanism does not work like a radio tuner, because the signals do not resonate in frequency bands like radio waves do, there is still some argument about the ability of the prefrontal cortex to select signals resonating with a specific GSO. However this might still be a useful model, in that the idea of frequency rejection would allow the LateroVentral Prefrontal cortex to select clusters of neural outputs based on bottom-up activation patterns, simply by rejecting anything that didn't share the target frequency.

It would do so by suppression of anything that isn't the particular GSO frequency of that cluster.

An alternate model, which might be even more controverial but would explain the GSO synchronization was if the LateroVentral PreFrontal Cortex selected on a baais of Synchronization with a reference frequency rather than on the frequency itself.

It is interesting to note that the LateroVentral Prefrontal cortex, is linked to the Supplementary Motor Area This area is involved in sequencing and recovery of learned sequences of activity. Since this area of the prefrontal cortex is not involved in the actual performance of the motor activities, it seems likely that it is a prepratory stage, or access stage that allows us to access sequences of activity, without actually performing them. One way of looking at this, is that it allows us to select from among multiple action sequences, one to perform.


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Inter-Organ Connection Models/OrbitoFrontal cortex Connections

OrbitoFrontal Prefrontal Cortex Connections
If the LateroVentral PFC is linked with the SMA, the OrbitoFrontal PFC is linked with the limbic system and the Self-Image. It is thought that part of the role of the OrbitoFrontal PFC, is to suppress activities that do not link well with our self-image, or do not meet our emotional needs.

If the Right Hemisphere function is to model the self, and the results of the activities, the Left Hemisphere function would be to choose only those tasks that fit the self-image, and were likely to achieve the best results. This is likely tied up in the goal management role of the PFC.

Anything passed by the OrbitoFrontal PFC, would be tagged with the sense of self, involved in making the decision to do it, which is an important part of Agency. It is the breakdown of this sense of self, or the ability to model ourselves as having done something that breaks part of the Agency feedback and makes acknowlegement of responsibility difficult.

The other side of Agency, however is the log of having done the task, which when tested against the feeling that we couldn't possibly be responsible often reasserts agency we didn't remember.


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User:Possummourning

Hello. I am Possum. I am a bit of a loner and like to spend my free time trying to make my brain bigger. I have not done anything great with my life. I guess I spend to much time online and in the clouds.

title: User:Possummourning


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Inter-Organ Connection Models/DorsoLateral Prefrontal Cortex Connections

DorsoLateral PreFrontal Cortex Connections
Depending on interpretation the DorsoLateral PFC is either limited to 2 or 3 brodman areas or may encompass 6 or 7 brodman areas. It is connected to the OrbitoFrontal PFC, the Basal Ganglia, the Thalamus, the Hippocampus, and primary and secondary associative cortexes of the different sensory modalities.

It is thought that the DorsoLateral PFC is the primary motor planning area and the seat of the Working Memory. This is the area of the brain that when damaged during stroke, and accident causes loss of executive function. One aspect of this type of disfunction is that while people who have it can discuss the relative merits of their choices, they tend to make the choices for immediate gain against their own understanding of the situation. The high reliance on Dopamine suggests that the role of this area is again to suppress competing responses, and select the best response from the options.

The high incidence of impulsivity in people with depressed dopamine balances, such as are suspected in ADD and ADHD, and people with executive dysfunction, suggests that suppression of competition among alternatives is the operative mode, and that at least a portion of the input is impulsive options.

In all probability the ability to delay gratification is dependent on this function.

While we are not sure exactly how this area of the brain works, we think it has something to do with Top-down attention. However the linkage to the thalamus suggests a role for bottom-up attention as well.


text:
Poetry/Add a poem

This resource learn you how to create a poem. Read some of the ideas in here and go ahead to create your own:

Cheater
Corner office, fiftieth floor, light glints on dark mahogany.The open window draft pulls a blank page to lush nap. The ledge, empty save for a pen at the brink of truth.

title: Poetry/Add a poem


text: Help:Special page

title: Help:Special page


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Inter-Organ Connection Models/Cerebral Hippocampus Connections

Cerebral Hipposcampus Connections
While the area around the hippocampus is complex, and we are not sure of all the functions it performs, we are relatively sure that the hippocampus has something to do with long-term memory and that it also has to do with episodal memory. We aren't yet sure exactly what the functions are, but experiments with rats have determined that the hippocampus has place cells, which light up when the rat is entering or leaving a specific place in the maze, etc.

This ability to place the rat in a specific part of the maze, combines with the ability of the parietal lobe to locate the rat, in the pathway it is traveling to get to the end of the maze, and with the prefrontal lobes ability to link goals to rewards, and suppress the natural tendency to wander.

This suggests a close link between the hipposcampus and the prefrontal cortex, which we find in the DorsoLateral Prefrontal Cortex.


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Inter-Organ Connection Models/Entorhinal Cortex Hippocampus Connections

Entorhinal Cortex Hippocampus Connections
To understand how the mind can find its place even when the maze is turned and manipulated, we need to understand the idea of size invariant encoding, and the Mapping Grid Neurons found in the Entorhinal Cortex, that connects to CA3. As in the layers of the cerebral cortex, we find a source of signals in a separate layer, in this case the Dentate Gyrus that connects to CA4, a non-pyramidal section of the hippocampus. In this areas we find the familiar mossy Dendrite Neurons that made the first layer of the cerebral cortex. We also find feeding them a layer of granular cells. The Dentate Gyrus connectes to a number of areas within the hippocampal area, suggesting that this system is well informed, but without any understanding yet on how it works. Most of its data seems to come from the Fornix which is thought might connect the hippocampus to the prefrontal cortex.

The Dentate Gyrus, mostly connects with CA3 which is built up of pyramidal Neurons that are highly susceptible to Epileptic Activity. A special connection from the Entorhinal Cortex, is thought to provide grid cell activity creating an underlying mapping grid, that allows CA3 to be used to link signals to locations. Because of the small size of CA3, there is not thought to be enough room for size related data, so most placement signals involve just one or two neurons firing when placement is detected.

Although in some theories CA2 is thought to be directly connected to the Amygdala, and therefore linked to the limbic system, which is tightly linked to the hippocampus, no direct connections to the limbic system approach CA2, which suggest this is a misconstruction. However CA2 is resistant to epileptic activity, and so might act as a buffer between CA3 and CA1.

Via connections called Shaffer Collaterals, signals from CA3 pass throught CA2 To CA1. tightly linking the two areas of the hippocampus. A second set of signals from the Entorhinal cortex, links to CA1, which may or may not mean that it too has some sort of mapping overlay. CA1 in turn connects to both the other half of the Entorhinal Cortex, and to the Subiculum, a body that lies directly between the two hippocampal areas. No one knows yet what the Subiculum does, but it's location and connections to the Nucleus Accumbens make it interesting to the Attention System. Primarily it seems to feed it's output directly to layer 5 of the Entorhinal Cortex. Which might be interesting if the Entorhinal Cortex operates in a manner similar to the Cerebral Cortex. Since this might indicate that it's role is to act as an attention agent, in the Entorhinal Cortex. In much the same way that the thalamus does in the Cerebral Cortex.

The linking of the Hippocampus to signals produced during sleep and memory consolidation, suggest that it has a role in long-term memory. But why such a small part of the brain would have such a large effect, is ellusive. Marr thought that the Hippocampus was a stage in long-term memory, and many researchers have considered that there might be significant compression involved to allow such a small area to control the larger cerebral cortex.


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Functional Models/Attention

The Attention System
I Hypothesize the existence of at least 6 separate different types of attention. There may be more, and scientists could classify them and lump a number of different types together into a single more integrated model In fact, I would do that myself, if the system were not more complex than a smaller number would properly deal with. Simply put, there are the following distinct Attention types:

 * 1) Instinctive Attention With Dorso-Lateral Suppression
 * 2) Implicit Attention with Latero-Ventral PFC Involvement and DorsoLateral Suppression
 * 3) Explicit Attention with Latero-Ventral PFC Involvement and DorsoLateral Suppression
 * 4) Intentive Attention with Latero-Ventral, Orbitofrontal and DorsoLateral Involvement
 * 5) Volitional Attention with Latero-Ventral, Orbitofrontal and Dorso-Lateral Involvement
 * 6) Subicular Attention at the Entorhinal Cortex (Probably for Episodal Memory)

Crick has suggested that Attention is like a Spotlight in a dark room hi-lighting only the memory elements it is pointed at. However for some of these attention systems this characterization is not germane. However it is a powerful metaphor and should not be put aside lightly especially since it fits so closely with the folk-psychology concept of attention as being directed at a specific memory.

The problem with the Spotlight analogy, is simply it implies direction before attention, which brings back with it the problem of a homunculus. If we want to get around the homunculus problem we have to move away from the spot-light metaphor. I believe that properly formulated this hypothesis does just that.

Instinctive Attention with Dorso-Lateral Suppression
Part of the problem with Folk Psychology, is that it wants to impose direction too soon. It can be shown that intentive actions take a certain amount of time, and that Volitional Actions take longer. In fact this is why Libett's work is so controversial, he has suggested that a Volitional act averages 500 milliseconds. The body does a lot in 500 milliseconds, which supports the contention that much of what it does, does not require volition. However, Folk Psychology demands direction which can only be volitional, in order to work the attention system.

Whether you agree with Libett's timing constraints on volition or not, is really immaterial, some Attentional states, pre-exist volition, and some even pre-exist intention. In some cases we can say that the body is reacting before the signal has fully been analyzed by the brain. Now if you think about it, such a reaction is, in fact evolutionarily sound, in that Quick Responses to danger allow more time for processing once the body is already moving.

Specifically what we are talking about are instinctive reactions like jumping or turning in the direction of a critical stimulus such as glass breaking. These reactions are tribbered instinctively before the brain is capable of picking out where specifically the stimulus is coming from, as a result they are dull responses, no matter how sharply we move to meet them. There is no intelligence in always turning towards the sound of glass breaking, so the mechanism of the brain is set to suppress these reactions where they are clearly un-called for. Suppressing them requires a recognition that they do not offer as much danger as something else, or for that matter, that they should be suppressed which comes later in the Attention System after some processing has occurred.

As such, the actual instinctive reactions are mostly unconditioned reflexes, and learned reflexes, not anything that would require thought.

It is my theory that these reactions are triggered in the Basal Ganglia, and suppressed by the Dorso-Lateral Prefrontal Cortex, as part of either intention or Volition.

Implicit Attention with Latero-Ventral Involvement and Dorso-Lateral suppression
In his book The Mind doesn't Work that Way! Jerry Fodor makes the point that phenomenal systems have phenomenal outputs, and that it is impossible for a phenomenal (Neural Network) to be addressed by individual memory elements, if only because the locations of the elements are a function of the network as a whole, although they may be localized within the network depending on its design. There is nothing in our understanding of Dr. Edelman's work that suggests that we should be able to just reach out and address a specific memory even at the Neural Group Level. In fact he makes the point, in The Remembered Present that neural groups are interchangeable. That any coding system to address them must be in fact Degenerate and unique to the individual. But even if we had such a coding system, the actual locations that are related to a specific object are spread across the sensory modalities by which we know that object. And because there are few interconnections between lobes, those sensory modalities are several from each other.

The spotlight metaphore needs a lot of help in this environment, since there is no target for it to point to. If you can't use a place-code address to find something in a phenomenal memory system, then, Theoretically the only way you can address specific memories is to address them by content. This is what Marr's model of the Cerebral Cortex claims the cortex is doing. The problem with that, is that you get volunteer memory instead of directed or demand memory. What happens is you put a stimulus onto the input bus, and any content sensitive elements in the network respond by dumping their contents onto the network, if they recognize it as similar to what they contain. this is a distributed memory application, and doesn't look at all like a spotlight. Redundancy is required.

This is why implicit memory is so rich, in associations. Essentially it defines a field of self-reinforcing data. We call this field a Quale. The main problem with Qualia, is simply that because of their phenomenal nature they can't be subdivided. This puts a distinct limitation on the nature of memory in the implicit memory system, We can filter the data, but we can't break it down into distinct elements. Now don't get me wrong, it is not that we are not analyzing it down into distinct elements, but that the analysis results can't be separated from the recognition results, because they are all balled together in this Quale.

We can, however use the inputs from the quale, to define linked data fields, that are subfields of the original datafields. But this must be done with filter techniques not with selection at the memory element level. We have already suggested that the early results of the sensory system are somehow getting analyzed by the Basal Ganglia, so it is my hypothesis, that they are also being roughly grouped by the basal ganglia into clusters that related to specific fields of view, to assist in the selection of which direction to turn, to orient on a sound, or a flash of light.

Dr. Edelman has called these Functional Clusters, and suggested that they solve the Binding problem which is how does an essentially stove-pipe sensory system bind different sensory modalities into a single entity? They are bound because the Basal Ganglia Binds them. But the way we can detect they are bound is by the GSO signals that make them synchronize at about 40 hertz. Unfortunately for this hypothesis there is no reciprical GSO signal that has been detected comming from the Basal Ganglia, which doesn't have the required mechanisms to impart such a frequency as far as I know.

This means that some other mechanism is probably involved, and the likely culprit is the Thalamus which is part of the Reticular Activation System, which is thought to induce brain waves, and is also involved in the Bottom-up Attention system which is implicated in pre-activation of neurons as part of the attention system. What I think is happening is that the Thalamus which has been linked to the GSO signals because it resonates at their frequencies, is involved in distribution of the signals. The main problem I haven't yet solved is how the Basal Ganglia tells the thalamus which cerebral cortex areas to pre-activate with each GSO frequency.

Once the cortex is pre-activated and the frequency is imposed on the otherwise unchanged signals coming from the 2nd. and 3rd. Layers of the cerebral cortex, We can filter for specific Qualia, simply by only allowing one frequency to pass a filter, and basing our selection on the GSO frequencies generated by the thalamus. What we are talking about is not Cricks spotlight but more of a flood-light that illuminates broad areas of memory. The Latero-Ventral Prefrontal Cortex is probably involved in this filtration. Thus setting the prefrontal cortex into a role as Selector, of Activated signals pre-activated by the bottom-up attention system. This is much less than the role suggested for the top-down attention system, but we are only working with a portion of it, at this stage.

Explicit Attention with Latero-Ventral Involvement and Dorso-Lateral suppression
Now the problem with this filtered attention, is that we quite literally can hardly do anything with it. We need that spotlight, but we can't get it, because the output is a Quale, which is still an indigestible field of data. All we can do with it, is project it onto a processing center like the Basal Ganglia, and instinctively react to it. Evolution wasn't going to allow that pass to happen for long, although it might have been enough for whole species at some point in evolution, so the problem was how to convert from this undigestable content addressable form, into a more useful and digestable form, probably with some sort of demand memory so we could pick out the actual memory elements from the Quale. Jerry Fodor, pointed towards the Column interface. If there was some locality to information within the network, something he wasn't convinced was possible, then there would also be an architecture that allowed memory to be addressed by that locality.

David LaBerge, however has linked Bottom-up Attention to the 5th layer Pyramidal Neurons in the Cerebral Cortex, and has told us they are organized into Mini-Columns within the Column architecture of Jerry Fodor. If you have been following all my arguments up until this point you will know that this means that the Bottom-up Attention system might be used to address the Cerebral Cortex at somewhere around the Neural Group resolution. Now Dr. Edelman has assured us that neural groups are interchangeable, so we can't select a specific memory using this mechanism until we develop some kind of index, and we know that phenomenal systems are self-adjusting, and thus may sometimes change the Neural Group a specific memory belongs to, but we would have the ability to address those memories if we could find them. Our memory system would have to respond to loss of an index to a specific memory and that might be the role that the Tip of the Tongue Feeling is about.

So the main problem is to convert the memory from an implicit to an explicit form and to index it somehow. Once we have done that, we have a demand memory. We can sample the memory by individual memories, and Process that, and base our actions on the results. That sounds like the spotlight Crick was talking about!. Of course it isn't quite that simple, We have an addressing technique but no way to tell us what memory is in what location within the now demand addressable memory system, and worse than that, philsophers tell us that our output is still a Quale! That means we have to designate the memory we want, blindly until we get our index up and running.

Well lets look at what Annette Karmiloff-Smith has to tell us about memory in her book Beyond Modularity She describes a process called representational redescription that she claims involves the conversion of implicit memory to explicit memory, and is necessary for learning. Essentially what she tells us is that memories have to go through a multi-phase process before they are fully learned. Worse this process can take Years, which is why it takes 6 years for most kids to get fluent enough in the spoken language that they can go to school. Apparently you can't rush it, because memory has to go through each phase to be ready for the next.

Well with techniques that I have started to develop and describe in my book Dataminnig Intuition you may be able to take a few shortcuts, but the process is more or less set in stone. The memory moves on in it's inimicable fashion no matter what we do.

While it might be nice to do it a more sophisticated way, one way we can build our index is using brute force methods, of sampling memories and trying to figure out which are more important to index. A slightly more sophisticated game plan might be to work back from existing functional clusters, and use a heuristic to reduce the cost of finding each memory. Whatever the technique it is obvious that quite a bit of processing is going to be involved in discovery of the locations of specific memory elements. But the heuristic search from existing Functional clusters at least has the added grace of being related to our survival, since it deals with the nature of memory as it becomes important. To do it however we need a data element that has in the past been called a Clump, to hold list of the individual addresss of each mini-column in the functional cluster. This means our Representational Redescription between Implicit and Explicit forms of memory is the finding of the (in Mini-column addresses) contents of the clump somehow.

I will leave out the theoretical method of doing that gathering of mini-column addresses that I describe in How the Memory Might Work because it is not really germane to the problem of attention, and might be too speculative for this venue.

Intentive Attention with Latero-Ventral, OrbitoFrontal, and DorsoLateral Involvement
Following the strategy I laid out where the brain uses an existing Functional Cluster converted to a clump, as it's base, and then uses a heuristic to reduce the search time for discovery of memory elements within the clump, we need the ability to project the clump back onto the cerebral cortex, and recover a new Quale. This approach called Rehearsal, has been proven to be important to the size of the short-term memory. Supporting the contention that the body actually does rehearse clumps it has already converted into explicit memory.

To understand how this works we need to understand that the clump while it selects all the mini-columns involved in the original memory is really only an approximation similar to the approximations made to digitize music. To recover the original quale, we need to present it to the cerebral cortex as a stimulus pattern and collect the content addressable memories interaction with the stimulus. So our output is still a Quale. Ok, no problem. Or is it? How do we select from among the mini-column addresses a subset, that we can evaluate for saliency?

The answer as near as we can tell, is that we need to have intention, the ability to decide which mini-column addresses to try for which functional cluster. The problem is, at least at first, there is no mechanism by which we can know which mini-columns might be best, at least until we have some sort of cursory index up and running. Now we get into a bit of speculation but I think baby activities near birth support this contention, the answer is to use a random impulse as the selection mechanism, and then as we get more information and can make better choices, replace the random impulse with guided selection.

The trick is to project the Quale onto a processing field similar to the basal ganglia that triggered our early instinctual reactions, and clustered our original quale so it could be filtered, and determine which combinations of unit fields have saliency. This feeds back into the prefrontal cortex an emotional signal called the feeling of correctness. The better the saliency of a particular combination of mini-column addresses the stronger the feeling of correctness. So at first the baby randomly samples their functional clusters, and builds up experience finding the most salient combinations of mini-column addresses, and then it uses that to overtake the random impulse and direct the search to use the best strategies it has found. The result should be a rapid increase in the quality of the search for memory elements. This rapid increase is created by selection from among strategies including random impulse.

As it makes decisions as to which strategy to use, the brain also builds a model of the strategies it likes to use. Called a Self-Image, this model is monitored by the orbitofrontal PFC and the decisions become linked to a feeling of self, associated with an agreement between the model and the choices made. This is the first hint of Agency. The process by which it selects a specific mini-column address to include or exclude out of the clump, for a specific memory is problematic, if only because all we have is a random signal for the basis of our selection at least to start, and the full clump of mini-column addresses. For this part of the hypothesis I have to go to David LaBerges Triangular Theory of Attention. What he described was a linkage between the PFC and the Thalamus that since his work has been traced to a connection to the Nucleus Accumbens and from there to the Nucleus Reticularis Thalami, a sort of Layer wrapping around the thalamus, made up of inhibiting neurons. What this seems to suggest is that at a certain point in the rehearsal of a specific clump, the prefrontal cortex can select which mini-column addresses to inhibit, thus reducing the size of the clump to some subset of the original clump. It may be possible to do this type of thing multiple times in the rehearsal process, thus searching multiple random selections for the most salient one in the same rehearsal step. The Nucleus Accumbens might act as a sort of Latching buffer stabilizing the address before it latches it through to the output that influences the nucleus reticularis thalami. The area of the Prefrontal Cortex that makes the decisions between the strategies is probably the Dorso-Lateral PFC, using the same mechanism that it uses to suppress earlier forms of attention.

Volitional Attention with Latero-Venteral, Orbitofrontal, and Dorsolateral involvement
Although we are not sure, at this point what the main difference between volitional and intention are at the attention system, we are fairly sure that the main difference is the requirement for greater processing during the decision making. What we think is happening, is that a sort of model of the environment, is being compared with our proposed actions to predict what their outcome might be, and then this model of the outcome is used by the dorsolateral PFC to select from among different strategies, the ones most likely to result in favorable outcomes. In order to make the success or failure of a particular strategy feed back into the model, there needs to be feedback from the activity, to be evaluated in near real-time for success or failure of the strategy.

One interpretation of the feedback is that it is the experiencing of this reflexive feedback that we call awareness. Because we are aware of our actions, although not of the processing going on below them, we call decisions made during this type of processing Volitional. An interesting thing to note is that the signal that is measured by Libett and his contemporaries, is a sort of suppression of output signal that is negated when we decide to do a volitional act. It has been jokingly said that obviously at this stage Won't Power is more important than Willpower.

Subicular Attention at the Entorhinal Cortex
While this interpretation might be less than valid, documentation that the subiculum feeds into the 5th layer of the Entorhinal Cortex, reminded me of the bottom-up attention system that influences the 5th layer of the Cerebral Cortex. If there is any functional overlap, the subiculum might be responsible for pre-activation of the Entorhinal Cortex Mini-column Addressing in much the same way that the Thalamus is responsible for similar pre-activation in the cerebral cortex. If so, the link between the subiculum and the DorsoLateral PFC, and the Entorhinal Cortex and the DorsoLateral PFC, might create an opportunity for data from the hippocampal area to feed back into the working memory.

We expect some such mechanism, if only because we can see our minds using episodal data. Having control over both the subiculum and the entorhinal cortex at the DorsoLateral PFC would allow the DorsoLateral PFC to select from among memories in the Hippocampal area in much the same way that the Thalamus allows us to select from among memories in the Cerebral Cortex.


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User talk:Mashedmeat

Welcome
Hello Mashedmeat, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may
 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit;
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 * Chat with other Wikiversians on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold, and see you around Wikiversity! --Hillgentleman | //\\ |Talk 08:49, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Naming
Mashedmeat, I have moved some of your pages, since wikiversity: namespace is for wikiversity organisation, and most of the contents or learning resources should reside in the main namespace. You may check naming conventions for more information. Hillgentleman | //\\ |Talk 08:51, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

And the following is just my opinion: while wikiversists are free to choose their own pagenames, I (and probably some other wikiversists) have often found that simple and natural sounding page names are good for a wiki, because it is easier to locate. It is not easy for others to navigate in a structure of subpages which is deeper than necessary. Hillgentleman | //\\ |Talk 08:57, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Deleting page
Hi, if you find out the page useless you can add in deleted template for custodians to delete it: --Juan de Vojníkov 08:26, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mashedmeat


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User:MedRevise

My name is Chris. I have many interests, but my most Wiki-related is:

Medical Revision
I am passionate about creating a medical revision resource for med students to revise from. Wikipedia is too in depth to do this, althought the Wikiversity page may do the trick. I would appreciate your feedback, and some contributions if you have the time. Thanks a lot!

My question is: How can people, passionate about shared learning and resources work together on a wiki project under wikimedia, if they do not feel their vision is currently supported under the Wikimedia vision?

Your comments would be greatly appreciated...

title: User:MedRevise


text:
Introduction to formalisation in propositional logic

Propositional logic is a formal language (we shall not enter into a definition of a "formal language.") It has three kinds of symbols which may vary in each presentation. We'll define them as:

 * 1) Sentence letters: a, b, c.... z.
 * 2) Operators (aka. connectives): ~, ^, v, ->, <->.
 * 3) Parentheses: . Used for organization purposes, similar to parentheses in algebra and arithmetic.

In the common use of propositional logic, sentence letters stand for complete sentences. Our interest here is to learn to symbolize natural language into propositional logic, so we will take for granted that every letter we use represents a sentence.

Reading statements in propositional logic
We will review the way that operators are usually read without entering into their semantic properties.

 * $$p$$, read as "p".
 * $$\neg p$$, read as "not p" or "it is not the case that p".
 * $$p\wedge q$$, read as "p and q".
 * $$p\vee q$$, read as "p or q"; that is, "p or q, or both".
 * $$p\rightarrow q$$, read as "if p, then q" or "p implies q".
 * $$p\leftrightarrow q$$, read as "p if and only if q"; sometimes written as "p iff q".

Symbolization
Symbolization is a process that turns a meaning into something expressed in a symbol (something that stands for something) or in our context, in a symbolic language. For example, outside the domain of logic, if we have a fifty dollars we may symbolize this in our balance book as "$50". In turn, when we find the symbol "$50" we have to interpret it (the usual interpretation is "fifty dollars"). In natural languages (English, French, etc) the process of "interpretation" is often subjective and unclear, in formal languages (propositional logic, C++, etc) the interpretation is precise and clear. A puzzling thing is that interpretation is not necessary in formal languages. A computer may learn the rules of arithmetic (a formal language) and make operations correctly without knowing the meaning of the symbols. However, when we use a formal language for something we usually want to give it an interpretation. We're going to learn to symbolize a sentence in natural language using symbolic logic. In the process, something is going to be lost. If I have $100 and I buy a $10 hotdog I can symbolize this as= "$100 - $10 = $90" Nowhere in the subtraction does it say that I ate a hotdog. We're losing information but we're gaining in precision and we may apply operations that obtain conclusions that maybe (imagine an extremely long hotdog shopping spree expressed as a subtraction) weren't obvious at first sight. This will be the objective of symbolizing natural language in propositional logic.

Symbolizing sentences
The standard procedure is to define letters with the sentences they stand for. Example:

 * p = Pork is expensive.
 * q = Honey is cheaper than pork.
 * etc.

When symbolizing, one should try to break each natural language sentence into an atomical sentence. An atomical sentence is one that cannot be separated into further sentences. This way, we can make use of the best level of precision propositional logic can give us. For instance, the natural language sentence: "My sister and I like coffee" could be defined:

 * m = My sister and I like coffee.

But also:
 * n = My sister likes coffee.
 * o = I like coffee.

For the time being, we don't mind the logical relation between sentences. We will use operators later to convey that. At this stage, both "my sister and i like coffee" and "if my sister likes coffee i like coffee" will be broken down into:

 * n = My sister likes coffee.
 * o = I like coffee.

As we will later see, we have an operation to express "negation". So a negative sentence will be better expressed as a positive sentence, and later we can add the correct symbol. That is, the atomic constituents of "I don't like the bomb." are:

 * b = I like the bomb.

The sentence "I don't like the bomb but you will be a bad person if you don't understand me" can be broken into:

 * a = I like the bomb.
 * b = You will be a bad a person.
 * c = You understand me.

This article is in progress


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User:Nwalters

User:Nwalters/Calculus1

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title: User:Nwalters/Calculus1


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User:BrettDurnell

bio
I'm Brett, I finally figured out Wikiversity! It took about 3 or 4 shots but i think im actually posting something. I'm a 6th quarter audio student, i basically just deliver pizza's 4 days a week, go to school 3 days a week, and intern at London Bridge Studio's on the weekends. My favorite things to do are listen to music, cruise on my moped, play Mario Kart Wii, and chill at my place with my roommates.

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Alternate Forms of Education. Work to Learn Draft

Society has made a post-secondary education a requirement for most any job worth having. What if you could fulfill your dreams without the cost of a diploma? It hasn’t always been that a college education and a diploma is the only way to get a descent paying job. I believe this has caused many social problems. With thousands of families in debt, and a country facing an economic depression, a job shouldn’t cost $40,000+. Society needs to learn to accept alternate forms of education as equivalent to the diploma. Certain jobs, like being a doctor or surgeon, require specific education and training. But for trade jobs; like being an electrician, plumber, mechanic, audio engineer, graphic designer, or photographer, you shouldn’t have to acquire a diploma just to work. Vocational schools, career colleges, or trade schools are schools that focus learning towards one career goal. Essentially what the Art Institute offers. Both private, and state vocational schools exist, and the state grants financial aid for both. You come out of a vocational school with an education, and a diploma to showcase your education. Other organizations offer education by means of work. Essentially, the main difference in these two forms of education is the diploma.

The Work to Learn Center is a privately operated trade school that “provides a 4-semester sequence of academic courses and related work experiences that emphasize a core academic curriculum for each semester.” Students at the Work to Learn Center work half time, and go to class half time. Students work as a team on projects, like building a house with the skills they have acquired. This prepares them for what working in the real world is really like. Sitting in class and talking about how an industry operates, is nothing like working in the industry to learn first hand how it operates. Going to a school like this doesn’t give you a diploma to showcase your knowledge and education, and doesn’t stand next to a diploma from a vocational school or university in an interview situation.

Another form of education that I feel deserves to be equivalent to a diploma is an internship or apprenticeship. By working in the shadow of an employer or professional, you develop a clear vision of the future. You are given a chance to understand how the industry operates before spending thousands of dollars going to school, to find out that a different job would suit yourself better. It allows you to work hands-on in a professional environment, and see first hand how what you’re learning applies in the real world. During an internship you are applying what you are learning, while you are learning.

Imagine if we could gain our education for free, if we could learn everything we need to work in a specific industry without the outrageous cost of acquiring a diploma. Too many people start school without knowing what they want to do in their future, and suffer financially in debt for years because of it. The most logical solution to this problem is accepting alternate forms of education equivalent to the diploma. --BrettDurnell 18:07, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

reflective assessment
Although this class wasn't exactly a huge learning experience, I did manage to walk away with new ideas, and certainly learned ways to analyze everyday life and culture. I could have taken the class a little more serious and probably would have walked away with more. I’m at a point in my education and life where I’m only focusing towards one goal, but have many obstructions between myself and the end result. I’m going to school to be an audio engineer and spend a better part of 28 hours per week working towards my dream. I attend school, intern at a studio, and work two part time jobs. After juggling all of this 7 days per week for the past 3 months and attempting to have a social life in my free time, I have suffer in my general studies. Perhaps if I had taken this class at the beginning of my studies at the Art Institute, I would have been able to take this class a little more serious, and could have walked away with more to show than $1,500 added to my ever growing debt. With more time I could have used Wikiversity properly and could have made our final project easier on myself and my group. The teaching was great; you couldn’t have approached it better. It’s a mixture of my attitude towards the Art Institutes general courses, and my own personal problems that hindered my ability in this class.

title: User:BrettDurnell


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Functional Models/Memory

Memory
I have already more or less Introduced the concept of memory in my article on Attention. Memory comes in at least six types as follows:

 * 1) Conditioned or Learned Reflex
 * 2) Implicit Memory
 * 3) Explicit Memory and Working Memory
 * 4) Declaratvie Memory
 * 5) Episodic Memory
 * 6) Skill Memory

It is interesting to note that most of these types of memories are related to a Homogeneous Neural Group of Pyramidal Neurons. This is probably because of the nature of long-term memory and the demands it places on the cells that perform it. It's not that the whole brain isn't made up of cells who have memory, it is just that Pyramidal Cells are better placed for a specialized role as memory elements. No memory cell performs pure memory functions, they all do three things, store, process, and transport data. It is just that some cells are more specialized to store and retrieve data than others. The Pyramidal Cells don't work alone, they often have a relatively large number of support cells working with them. A Heterogeneous Group based on the Homogeneous group.

Memory starts at the Neuron Level at the Synapse, where connections with other neurons are formalized.

We will stay away from over-used labels such as short and long-term memory and just mention that Synaptic memory changes naturally over a relatively short period of time, As signal flow ebbs and flows throughout the brain. One limiting factor is the fact that the synapse is dependent on the sensitive patch on the cell membrane, and natural digestion processes within the cell would denature all its proteins. In order to keep this from happening periodically the proteins are taken out and replaced by the membrane replacement mechanism. As part of this process, some of the proteins that have not yet been digested, are taken out of the old membrane and reused later. As a result of this storage, they take longer to digest, but digestion still occurs over time. When digestion gets far enough along, the proteins quit doing their job, and get dropped from the sensitive patch during replacement. Since the active element in storage at this level is the Ion channel that sets the weight of the synapse, Synapses that are stronger connections collect more Ion channels, and signals that are weaker connections gradually lose ion channels as the aren't replaced. We think that the main difference at the membrane replacement mechanism is that active neurons sequester a protein tag, that tells the membrane replacement mechanism to add another ion channel. The ion channel is added and the tag is removed so the synapse needs to earn it again to keep increasing its weight. Because the tag is removed by the membrane replacement Mechanism, it is called an ephemeral tag. Now we don't know how many ephemeral tags each synapse can sequester, so we don't know the leverage that the synapse can have in a single membrane replacement pass, but, while the synapse has the tag, it is identified as an active synapse by the tag. The cell uses this flag on the synapse to do chemical functions that favor active synapses.

Despite all this, Synaptic Memory that is un-enhanced has a relatively short shelf-life. Synaptic weights are dependent to some extent on the pre-synaptic rules that determine which synapses get the tags for which memories. These in turn are dependent on when the pre-synaptic bud depolarizes, and so, anything like habituation reduces the life of the synaptic weight by limiting the number of times the cell can fire in a row. If we understand this, then we can understand that other mechanisms like facilitation that increase the number of times a cell can fire in a row, also increasing the length of the memory it can store. However the longest we can expect to preserve a specific synaptic memory is about 2 months. Ideally from the point of view of an organism, the ability to store a memory should last a life-time if the memory is important enough. so synapses by themselves are not enough.

Now it makes sense that if a synapse probably only lasts for a maximum of 2 months, that you might want to grow new synapses and train them up so that there is always a good synapse waiting to grab the signal if it ever comes. This is called Synaptogenesis. And since synapses are on fibrils called either dendrites or Axons, you might want to increase the local number of fibrils that link one neuron to another. We naturally assume that the half-life of a fibril is much longer than the half life of a synapse, and so the result should be a more permanent bond between the two cells.

Eric R. Kandel, and his contemporaries at Columbia University have suggested that there is a cellular mechanism triggered by activation of certain synapses, that triggers chemical cascade reactions, that both extend the life of active signals in a cell, and start mechanisms that grow new synapses and fibrils. He describes this as a discussion between synapses and Genes, because genetic expression is required for anything as complex as synaptogenesis or fibril growth.

Let us postulate that any neuron with sufficiently advanced synapses can perform long-term memory. Let us further postulate that all Pyramidal Neurons have sufficiently advanced synapses. If this is true, then all Pyramidal Neurons are sophisticated enough to have long-term memory. This is probably why most memory systems we are discussing involve pyramidal neurons.

If we look at the pyramidal neuron we see that the reason for its shape is a dendrite at the bottom of the soma of the cell that seems to service the Axon of the cell. It should be no surprise that the synapses on that dendrite are calcium ion channels and that part of their role is to Facilitate the neuron overcoming the natural tendency for the axon to habituate. An interesting aside is that some of the most sophisticated synapses are calcium ion channel synapses. Another interesting thing is that the synapses in the basal dendrite of a pyramidal cell, produce a secondary messenger chemical called cAMP. Between the Calcium and the cAMP secondary messenger the chemical cascade reaction begins.

So while we don't know much more than this, either the S synapse or the NMDA synapse can trigger long term memory by stimulating synaptic and fibril growth. they are of course limited somewhat in that the growth requires a secondary signal called a growth factor and that over the life of the individual the amount of growth factor gradually dwindles, and so over the life of the organism the number of new fibrils formed also dwindles.

Conditioned or Learned Reflex
Instinctively we turn towards the sound of glass breaking. But that response is not pure instinct, because glass breaking is not a natural factor in the history of pre-hominid species that didn't have glass. It however falls within the rubrick of distressing sounds. So did we learn to turn at the sound of glass breaking, or did our natural penchant to turn at the sound of anything breaking, roll over into turning at the sound of glass breaking? Alternately did we learn to turn at the sound of glass breaking by association of the sound with an already existing reflex to turn at the sound of anything breaking, by association of the sound of breaking of glass with the general case of anything breaking? We don't know, but it is a general case that anybody will turn at the sound of glass breaking unless they expected it, and were prepared for it.

Much of the work of the Behaviorist Psychologists was an attempt to figure out how we learned reflexes, or how they were conditioned from other reflexes that were instinctive. Conditioning comes in a couple of different flavors, and I really could care less, but wanted to include them for purposes of completeness. They are after all a form of memory

Implicit Memory
The first 3 to 4 layers of the Cerebral Cortex and the 6th layer of the cerebral cortex, form a special type of memory called Implicit Memory. This is a Content Addressable Memory based on a Neural Network that results in output in a manner called a Quale, or Qualia in plural. Essentially it is a Voluntary Memory where the stimulus, triggers a wealth of related output, all in parallel. this is modified by the relationship between the first three layers and the sixth layer into clusters of output called neural groups, that act together to form a single output per group.

This has the effect of narrowing down the output field about 100 fold, but also means that the Cerebral cortex has more selectivity at the neuron level than it allows at the neural group layer. the main requirement is that because this memory is content addressable and phenomenal in output, it cannot be separated into distinct memories, but must be dealt with as a whole. The data field is presented I believe to the Basal Ganglia where it is analyzed to trigger instinctual actions like turning towards the breaking of glass, and separated into clusters called functional clusters that are probably based on the need to orient towards a specific stimulus that has been detected by the Basal Ganglia, not the content of any specific object in the field.

The implicit attention system allows these functional clusters to be presented one at a time to the bottleneck where they are converted into clumps. Essentially lists of Mini-Column addresses based on an interface introduced in the 5th layer of the Cerebral Cortex.

Explicit Memory
The Clumps represent the functional clusters in a retrievable manner, and so by storing the clump any functional cluster can be reproduced. However the Functional cluster is not all that interesting to the brain, because it can't be manipulated in its Qualar Form. what is interesting is that if some of the mini-column addresses in the list are suppressed, the remainder might be more salient than the original functional cluster. So if you project the quale output onto a salience meter, and try different combinations of the mini-column addresses you might find sub-elements of the data field that are more salient than the functional cluster by itself.

When you find such a salient sub-element, you pass the resulting quale through the bottleneck to produce another explicit memory clump. thereafter you can deal with the more salient data, and so deal with the data elements within the functional cluster according to their salience, despite the fact that the actual quale is indigestible. As the system gets more sophisticated you begin to develop strategies to winkle out the most salient information faster and faster by recognizing patterns in salience.

Declarative Memory
The next step once you have discovered salient sub-elements in your functional clusters, is to start to build an index of where these sub-elements were found in the cerebral cortex (according to the list of mini-column addresses in their clump.) as a result of this, whenever you recognize the salience pattern of a particular element, you can trigger the memory of that element without having to search for the clump. Now part of this trick is to know that the cerebral cortex already has the information about that salience pattern, and to substitute a known clump for the one you were attempting to find. To do that, you have to tell yourself that you know the element. Which means that you have to recognize the salience pattern, and get a response that says, yes I recognize that pattern and know what it is. We have learned recently to call this the "Feeling of Knowing" or FOK, the signal probably indicates that a quick search of the index, turned up a similar answer.

Now we have a demand memory. Simply look a memory up in the index, know that you know it, and present the memory to the cerebral cortex as a set of pre-activations at the mini-column level, and that results in the recreation of the same Quale. Or at least that is the theory, but as Dr. Edelman has pointed out to us, in The remembered present what we are actually doing is triggering explicit activity of a constantly learning network so that the output when it is recieved is not the original memory, but how that same area of memory is stored now that it has been influenced by new knowledge.

but because the memory is always changing, there is a good chance that some of those memories are going to move from one mini-column to another and may even migrate out of the neural group they were originally found in. If this happens the index is wrong, and we get the effect affectionately called TOT or Tip of the Tongue where you know you know it, but can't find it while you attempt to search for it, using related storage strategies.

Episodal Memory
Another type of memory is episodal memory which it is thought is the role of the hippocampus. Essentially this is how we find things in time and space. What we know at least with rats, is that certain locations within the hippocampus light up whenever we are located somewhere we recognize. these place cells, are mapped onto the hippocampus by a set of mapping signals produced by the Entorhinal Cortex. Another side of the Entorhinal cortex takes the results of the hippocampus processing and makes it available to the DorsoLateral PFC.

Skill Memory
The last type of memory I will be discussing here is the memory in the Cerebellum, where it is thought skill type memory is kept. There is evidence of a connection between the Cerebellum and the bottom-up attention system, suggesting that the thalamus is the mechanism whereby certain patterns of pre-activation are replaced with other pre-activations for actions that are more effective, thus performing skills rather than raw movements.

Marr saw the Cerebellum as being a storage location that returned sequences of signals instead of the single movements that the DorsoLateral PFC would have chosen. Thus the DorsoLateral PFC doesn't have to be involved, in skilled work, only the latero-Ventral PFC.


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User:Mikobaku

Novice computer aficionado looking to learn programming and web design and development, database usage, and ways to incorporate computer interfacing as a component of self-health education.

I was invited into my high school's first computer course ever in 1983 and am now (2009) just picking up the ball again.

title: User:Mikobaku


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Functional Models/Executive Function

Executive Function
One of the problems with Theater of the Mind type theories, is that it assumes that there has to be one place where all the information is projected onto the mind. One of the problems I have with Bernard J. Baars Global Workspace Theory, is that it is a theater of the mind theory, and demands that there be somewhere in the mind that all the information comes together to broadcast across his Global Workspace Network.

While there are areas like the DorsoLateral PFC that connect to a lot of different parts of the brain, the connections do not have the bandwidth for them all to be projecting onto a single stage. Furthermore the PFC is not sophisticated enough to be doing actual homonculus type activities, instead we are probably looking at something a lot more like a switching or gating array than a homunculus.

So when people start talking about the Executive Functions of the brain, I start looking over my shoulder. I don't see an executive sitting at the middle of a spider web of information systems, making decisions so much as a telephone exchange directing calls.

This is the problem with trying to use the folk psychology with our current understanding of the brain, Folk Psychology has so many wonderful metaphors, that no longer make sense once we begin to look deeper into the nature of the brain. When David LaBerge introduced the concept of the Triangular Attention system, he was criticized for the fact that his PFC theory was not specific enough, and that lobotomy experiments had shown no loss of intelligence despite the damage to the PFC caused during the operation.

The assumption was that the PFC was responsible for intelligence, if it was the seat of the Top- down attention system and thus the seat of the Executive Functions. But if the DorsoLateral PFC is just a switching center, Intelligence would remain intact even with damage to the switching center.

To understand how a simple switching system can double for an executive function, we need to understand Motivation as it works in the brain. In Bernard J. Baars Global Workspace Theory, Modules of processing capability compete with each other for the right to complete their processes. This is a multi-agent approach to processing, and has been simulated using Pandemonium, a Theater type arena where agents bid to do a job, and observers bet on who will be allowed to do it. This isn't how I see the DorsoLateral PFC working.

Instead I see strategies of action competing on an emotional stage. Where each emotion is an attempt to bias the system towards doing something or not doing something else. Hunger makes you want to eat, and feeling full makes you stop. Pleasure makes you want to repeat an act, and Pain makes you want to stop. you get the picture. At the bottom of this system lies the needs, which are the strongest biases, Abraham Maslow charted these in his Hierarchy of needs. Then come the emotions, and then lastly come the feelings.

What the DorsoLateral PFC probably does is a search across the combination space attempting to maximize the number of needs, emotions and feelings met by each strategy it adopts. This allows it to prioritize processing so that it maximizes the gain, for the use of each resource it controls. after that it is purely a switching matter to direct the system into following the strategy chosen.

I don't think that most senior executives would consider that they could be replaced with a simple search and switching system. Which might be why this particular interpretation is not more popular with senior scientists.


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Functional Models/Will and Volition

Will and Volition
Folk Psychology has it, that Will is the seat of Volition, the Cause of volitional acts. If will was easily translated into a signal this would be great. But we don't have signals for will, instead we have signals that block volitional action, until just before the action. This is confusing, but worse, the earlier stages of action don't involve anything like will either. They are pure intention, and have a basis in effect. We do things, it seems because the DorsoLateral PFC determines during the search stage that they will meet more needs than the other alternatives. So where does the idea of Will come from?

Will is actually the result of a reflexive process. In essence the brain likes causes to happen before its effects, so it postulates a cause for intentional effects, and inserts it into the story about what happened. It's pure confabulation, but our minds don't know that, they just assume that because there was a label for the cause, that the cause existed. this is why causal theories are considered poor philosophy. The mechanism that tells us that there is a cause is often lying.

This means that Will is an illusion created by our need to find causes for everything. The DorsoLateral PFC does not report to itself on its own decisions, that comes from the log of the processes it triggers, so in order to answer the question it asks itself about the cause of the actions, the brain answers with a feeling of self. If the self is reported as the cause, then there must be some causative factor called Will that triggers the action right? wrong!

The DorsoLateral PFC makes decisions by selecting strategies of operation, that in turn result in actions. The DorsoLateral PFC responds to processes set into motion by other parts of the brain, in order to make its selections. The first statement implies it is a cause the second statement implies it is an effect, and philosophers love to argue about the difference. However since we know that causes are not always accurate, we should probably look with less jaundice at the effect theories.

If Will is an illusion, then what is Volition? The illusion of choice? In my understanding Volition is a further processing step that involves a feedback loop that we see as the illusion of awareness. Notice I am not getting into consciousness yet. A volitional act is an act that we are aware of making. We are aware we made the act, because we told ourselves we were making the act, in much the same way that we told ourselves that we knew something, in Declarative Memory and there is a sort of feeling of doing, that goes with volition. We don't feel we are doing something when it is a pure intentive act, but the same act done with volition, requires that we feel we have done something. It is for this reason that skill memory is effortless, there is no feeling of doing anything and no feeling of how hard it was when we become aware again at the end of the skill.

If Volition is this easily explained then what about consciousness? Well one thing you can be sure of is scientists have been looking for the seat of consciousness for a long time, and if it were really complicated we would have found an area of the brain that was needed to achieve it. Instead, it has been a real anticlimax because as far as we can tell there is no extra part of the brain required, In fact my own theory is that Consciousness is just a reflexive log of Volitional acts, needed for higher order processing. Because it is a log of Volitional acts it includes the Awareness log, and thus is "Aware" of being aware, which is pretty close to William James definition of Consciousness.

And that, is the secret to consciousness that has kept philosophers working for centuries This is what they have been arguing about. A second order reflexive logging system. But oh the attributes that we imbue it with after the fact. Take it from me, they are mostly illusions.


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Artificial Consciousness/Neural Correlates/Functional Models/Self

Self
If you thought I was doing violence to the ideas of Executive Function, Will and Volition, I imagine you are going to think I have really gone off the rails with this one. Self-hood is merely a programming trick in a self-programming language.

Essentially what self-hood does is create an environment where an automatic programming language is less likely to stress the constraints of the organism it is based on. The strategy is simple, it is called Model then Act. the idea is that you want to predict how a program will operate before you execute it. So you block execution at a low level and run the model, predicting the operation of the program, and testing to make sure it doesn't violate any of the constraints of the organism. If the model works, then you retrigger it without the constraints, and monitor the real world to see how close the model came to the real thing. To help with this, you need a logging mechanism so that you can rewind any sections of the process that get out of control.

In the bicameral mind, Model then act, works really well because the Right side of the brain tends to allow more accurate models, while the Left side of the brain is more selective. It is partly through modeling that the Dorso-Lateral PFC is given enough information to select from among strategies. However this information is not generated in the DorsoLateral PFC, because it has no connection to the limbic system. Instead, the model then act mechanism is probably controlled by the OrbitoFrontal PFC area. One of the model then act models, is something called the Self-image. What it seems to be is the set of constraints that model what you are likely to do, and the source of the Self Feeling.

However this mechanism is not complete unless it also has a feedback loop from the real world, that feeds it the constraints of the body. Some of these constraints become presets, that are taken from the environment or state of the organism at certain set "sweet spots" during development. An example that is really good, is the "Attachment" stage that sets the social expectations presets for the self image. The self image acts as a governor limiting the extremes of behavior and setting them to fall within limits that are socially acceptable by using the mothers impact on the babies emotions to set the parameters. This is what attachment does. It teaches the self image how to control the emotions and other social expectations. However childhood disease at about age 1.5 to 2 years can unbalance the attachment period, and retrigger growth of the opposite lobe in an attempt to compensate, but there is no guarantee that the second opportunity for attachment will take. Experiments with monkeys that had their attachment periods blocked by lesions of the OrbitoFrontal Lobe, showed that in a great number of the cases, the secondary attachment periods were missed due to development in other brain areas getting out of sync with the re-attachment of the baby. For example, If the baby was going through a particularly active period the mother couldn't re-attach.

If this is as important to the operation of the brain as it seems to be, then the blocking signal that is removed during volitional acts, is there to allow the model then act process to evaluate the act before it executes. The extended time differential that Libet claims he has detected, might be the result of the model running first before the act. The primary difference between intention and volition, might only be that volition was programmed using an automatic programming language, and the result hadn't been tested yet to see how it fit with the constraints of the organism. While intentions are well automated, and thus can be trusted to have their parameters published and known.

A Compilation step that involves a number of Model then Act implementations over time, might be necessary to explore the constraints of the volition well enough that model and then act can be dispensed with and it can be automated into an intention. The fact that the OrbitoFrontal PFC is already involved with this type of activity makes it the candidate of choice for the controller that monitors the more general case of Model then Act, in volition.


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User talk:Moorstone

Welcome to Wikiversity. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the Community, we would like to remind you not to attack other editors. Please comment on the contributions and not the contributors. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this community. -- dark lama  03:41, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

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User:Sunwell5

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User talk:Stevenarntson/group spaces/english composition/group 1

 * Hi Group 1,
 * This is coming along. The research paper could use some work to conform the the current requirements; also, please put your content into the official order--listed at the bottom of your page.
 * Best, Stevenarntson


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Southern Ontario

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(cultivated)

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(invasive or naturalized)

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User talk:Mctrustry

 Hello Mctrustry, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

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And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! --AFriedman 13:59, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

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title: User talk:Mctrustry


text: User:Anetra~enwikiversity

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text: User:Keensdesign

title: User:Keensdesign


text: User:Harrisonroulstone

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User:IsraelMedrano

Always Wanted To Schedule

 * Topic I want to learn how to juggle

 * Research Component

 * week 1-brainstorm ideas

 * week 2-bibliography on topic

 * week 3- research on topic

 * week 4- buy tennis balls to juggle with

 * week 5- Practice juggling

 * week 6- practice some more

 * week 7-work on research

 * week 8-work on presentation

Why Do I Like What I Like?
For this assignment I had to go to the Olympic Sculpture Park and find a sculpture I didn’t like. Well right away I found one that I really thought was terrible. The sculpture was called “BUNYO”S CHESS” by Mark di Survero. The sculpture were these three tree logs hanging by these metal chains surrounded by three metal bars creating a triangle around the logs. I decided to do some research on the guy, and looked at other work of his. I actually found a sculpture I liked from him. The sculpture is called the “SCHUBERT SONATA” looking at this sculpture got me to respect his some of his work. But I still don’t like  BUNYO’s CHESS though.

title: User:IsraelMedrano


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Template talk:Mentor filmmaking

Hi, I'm not an expert on templates by any manner of means, but wouldn't this work better using negative logic such as:

 * ifnoteq -->example=Yes

That way if example=Yes is not the first parameter, it would probably default to categorization?--Graeme E. Smith 16:15, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

title: Template talk:Mentor filmmaking


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User talk:Stevenarntson/self assessment archive

=2010=

Winter
The most notable event of this quarter is that it turned out to be my last--as a part timer, I'm now subject to the vicissitudes of the wax and wane of student population, and received no classes for next quarter. It's a strange feeling to suddenly be without work after working constantly for the past ten years. As I write this on a Saturday, I'm thinking what my state of mind would normally be, about now: frantically getting curriculum together, saying goodbye to my break, etc. But come Monday, I will not be riding down to school as I have in the past. I have mixed feelings about it, to be sure. But in some ways, I think I'm ready to move on. I've been at the same job now for perhaps too long. I'm interested to see what's next.

I did the major assignment with my English Composition class this quarter, posted here.

=2009=

04fall
I made a big decision this quarter, which is that I'm going to begin teaching only part time starting next quarter. The full-time schedule I've been in for the last nine years had begun to wear on me. I'm spending too much time teaching, not enough time doing art, and I have no "free time" to speak of. So next quarter I'll teach three classes instead of five, and after that I'll get table scraps. I'll be making considerably less money, and my health insurance will obviously change, too (which is one of the reasons I've hesitated this long). But I'm very happy with the decision for now. I'm looking forward to doing more writing and music, and I'm also looking forward to being able to focus on fewer classes, and perhaps do a better job as a teacher (knock wood).

I decided to post my Always Wanted To assignment this quarter according to the template of the class, here

Classes
Developmentally, my most significant class this quarter was Analytical Writing, in which I continued my experiment with a large form group assignment. I added a workshop element this quarter, as well as a mid-quarter assessment, in the hopes that added structure would improve the final projects. Largely the quarter went well, I felt, with many wonderful conversations transpiring in and between groups, but in the end some of the final papers didn't realize the potential those conversations suggested. On the last day of class, we discussed the assignment, and the view of the class, generally, was negative, for a host of reasons I'll not detail here.

Suffice to say, I've tried in the past couple days to strategize a workable large-format group assignment that would be more successful, especially considering some good suggestions made by the class on that last day. As of this writing, I'm not seeing the light at the end of the proverb, however, and am considering abandoning the large format project and returning to a more "typical" formula for the class, involving individual papers, modeled after a literature class. It has occurred to me to create a hybrid between individual and group work, and I'll spend more time during the break considering this option as well.

It's always painful to have a project not work out as well as one hopes, and it can be discouraging to have failures pointed out. But after those feelings, hopefully creative solutions can flourish--Freire's notion of approaching an untested feasibility by first identifying a limit situation strikes me as appropriate here.

Always Wanted To
My Always Wanted To goal for this quarter in GE100 was twofold.
 * 1. Read six contemporary young adult novels. I read the following ten:

half of this one: and am currently reading these three:
 * The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
 * Gods of Manhattan by Scott Mebus
 * Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
 * The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
 * The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
 * The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flammel by Michael Scott
 * The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
 * The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
 * The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Nicholas Selznick
 * Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
 * How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
 * The Ear, The Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
 * The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation volume I: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
 * What the Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth-Fairy by Gregory MacGuire

 * 2. Learn "The Bumble-Bee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov on the concertina. This goal I quickly realized was too large, and I downscaled it to learning the first of the two pages. I accomplished this goal by dint of considerable practice, and intend to learn the second half next quarter. Then, the quarter after that perhaps, I'll work on playing the piece well, which may require some much-needed repairs to my instrument.

02spring
This quarter was a narrowly averted disaster, as I began it having contracted a flu that matured into pneumonia. As such, I missed the first week of all of my classes and the second week of two classes.

I'd been especially looking forward to a well-organized deployment of the wiki system for all of my sections, but as I wasn't present, a substitute unfamiliar with the system introduced it, and some confusion resulted. None of this was avoidable, of course, and once classes took up normally with my partial recovery in the third week, things proceeded apace, and I find myself at the end of this quarter looking forward to finally doing a proper startup with the wiki in summer. The fact that it succeeded as well as it did under the circumstances was encouraging. The other item of note that occurred this quarter had tangential relevance to my classroom, which is that my children's book was accepted for publication. As writing is a large part of my creative and academic life, it's tremendously validating to have my work published. It gives me some confidence that my methods aren't totally cracked (which sometimes I worry about).

The group work component on which I'm continuing to base my writing classes (Analytical Writing this quarter) continues to be largely successful, but with some hitches. I'm still struggling to reintroduce an individual component, and to develop tools to transform these complex pieces into math-based assessments. Though I continue to have deep reservations about math-based assessment generally, it is the system under which I labor and I must do my best with it. My goal for next quarter is to iron out both of these issues in my writing classes that employ group work.

For my "Always Wanted To" assignment this quarter, I had a goal to record The Emerald Arms, my next album for solo concertina and voice. I completed the project, recording out on the Kitsap Peninsula with inphase.

01winter
Much of my effort this quarter went into establishing the use of this wiki system for my classes. Generally, I've been very encouraged by the result, although I also had a steep learning curve, which has resulted in my stockpiling many ideas for next quarter as this one progressed. I am still very excited about the possibilities inherent in the MediaWiki system--both for promoting public discourse and for creating a forum for collaborative learning.

My biggest lessons this quarter were learned with regards to my two writing classes: English Composition and Analytical Writing. I established a group learning environment in both classes, in which groups decided on topics that they would pursue until midterm. As midterm approached, it was apparent that I had not given enough time, and I extended the assignment to last the full quarter. As always in these General Education courses, there is an open question about whether it is "Instructor Fault" for not allowing enough time, or "Student Fault" for not putting in enough effort. It's more constructive for me to assume "Instructor Fault" and see what I might change next time. In both classes, we had a dialogue on the final week about what I could do differently next quarter, and the comments generally fell into two categories:
 * 1. More structure
 * Students wished I had included intermediary due dates, early conferences, and benchmarks throughout the quarter.
 * 2. Better wiki tutoring
 * Students weren't satisfied with the quality of my instruction on how to use the MediaWiki. I'm going to create a physical handout next quarter, in the hopes of getting everyone up and running more quickly. Additionally, I thought to give some lab time on the first day during which students can create their own pages and experiment with the wiki environment.

In addition to those writing courses, I taught Humanities I and General Education Seminar this quarter. Both classes are ones that I have curently established to a fairly structured degree, and I ended the quarter feeling good about how they'd gone. Particularly in my Humanities I class, there were some creative applications of the final project that resulted in enjoyable presentations.


text:
User talk:Stevenarntson/comments archive

 * winter


text:
User:Stevenarntson/self assessment archive

 * To view my self assessments, go to the discussion tab for this page.
 * -Stevenarntson


text:
User:Stevenarntson/self assessment archive/winter 2008and9

 * To view my self assessments, go to the discussion tab for this page.
 * -Stevenarntson


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User:KattGoberTriesThisAgain

=Analytical Writing=

Overview
I plan to research organic farming, to find out what the processes are behind growing crops organically. I will research food as well as cotton and other crops used for textiles. I would also like to learn about organic home gardening, as growing my own food is something I am interested in learning how to do

Rationale
I prefer to buy organic food, but have heard conflicting things about whether this is actually as amazing as it sounds, and wether it is worth the price. I would like to find out where this added expense comes from, and how the whole process works

Publication
The idea of publishing makes me nervous, so I think I might make a zine, which I think would be more fun and cute and personal, and also published on a smaller scale than a blog or whatever

Schedule
3 - Research...

4 - Research...

5 - Research, determine necessary adjustments, begin writing

6 - Have something to show for midterm

7 - Work...

8 - Work...

9 - Work...

10 - Work on publication

11 - Finish!

Anticipated Problems
This project could be more epic than I expect, and require a lot more work. In this case, I plan to take out the part about home gardening, as this is something I will surely do another time. I can also find other ways to narrow the scope if need be. It could also be a lot less interesting or intensive than I think. Around week four or five I hope to have an idea which way this will be, and make adjustments to expand, or find another topic...

I am going to procrastinate. I am not sure how to fix this, other than try not to. I don't think it will be too big of an issue, as this is a topic I am interested in

Week 6 Project Review
This being week six, I am rather concerned for my project. I know I need to research more and generally spend more time working on it, and I'm hoping that this will bring me closer to an actual idea of what I am doing. While I am still interested in the topic I've chosen, I am also still not sure how it will translate into a final writing project. We discussed how my research should also be of an experimental nature, which I like the idea of, but have little time to actually do

Again the publishing component of this project is freaking me out, because I don't know what I could find that hasn't already been published many times

So, I think that my project will go something like this: to construct a small booklet/zine/thing with information on organic and local foods, with such topics as: requirements for organic foods and whether this is worth the price and the hype about it, the environmental impact of shipping organic and non-organic foods long distances (your own health vs that of the environment?), and information on home gardening and local foods specific to the Seattle area such as P-Patches, the Seattle Tilth, and farmers markets

Before Or During Week 6

 * Book Learning: Omnivore's Dilemma
 * Local Interest: Pea Patch System in Seattle/Farmers' Markets
 * Experiential: Growing some tomatoes
 * Hundred Mile Diet

Project

title: User:KattGoberTriesThisAgain


text:
User talk:Stevenarntson/comments archive/winter 2008and9

Archive page
This page should be in your namespace users rather than in the main namespace. accordingly rename this page.Crochet.david 08:18, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

 * Moved to User:Stevenarntson/group spaces/Archive, following link.--SB_Johnny talk 11:54, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

 * Thanks for that--I'm not sure what happened there! My mistake. Stevenarntson 15:29, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Student Union
Hey Steve, this is Ehren from your analytical writing class...not sure, but I hope this is an acceptable forum to talk about class. I ended up making the decision to miss class today because of some portfolio related tasks I had to complete that I haven't been able to find time to take care of. Please forgive my absence, I'll definitely be there next week.

 * Hi, Ehren,
 * Understood. Keep in communication with your group this week, as you all are going to workshop next time.
 * Best, Stevenarntson

Hi Stevenarntson,

 * Due to new editors signing up to your personal student union page and not anywhere else on this site, would it be possible if yours could be renamed since it may conflict with our Student union.

Thanks, DarkObsidian @en.Meta-Wiki 13:34, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi Dark Obsidian,
 * That seems perfectly fine, but I'm not sure how to do it! I could rename it "Student Hub," or something similar, but I'm not sure how to migrate the data of the archive subpage. Is there an easy way to do that? Sorry; I'm still in my learning curve!
 * Best, Stevenarntson 17:14, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

 * You can use the "Move" tab to rename the page and also the Archive page, for further details please view the MediaWiki User's Guide - it contains further instructions in the Organizing section. DarkObsidian @en.Meta-Wiki 18:03, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Okay, I think I managed it, as well as reassigning the relevant links. I unfortunately also accidentally created a Student Hub in the main namespace, and I don't know how to delete it: Student Hub. Apologies.
 * Stevenarntson 00:43, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Group 1
Hi SteveArntson, I was just wondering about the formatting of the analytical writing group assignment page. When I typed in the group 1 text box, the type went lengthwise really really far across the page instead of just looking like a normal paragraph. Then I pressed enter after each line and now it looks like a bunch of different text boxes. I don't really know how to fix it. Help! CamilleFunk 00:41, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi, Camille,
 * I responded to this on the talk page for your group.
 * Best! Stevenarntson 17:49, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Pictures
Yo Arnston Can i upload picture to this website?
 * Kevinborja 01:49, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

 * Kevin,
 * Yes, assuming you own the rights to them. Go here to learn about it.
 * Best, Steve.

Overview
Steven, I have a question for the midterm project for English composition. What are you looking for when it comes to the overview section of the project? Thank you.
 * AmberClements 19:43, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi, Amber.
 * I'm expecting that your group will write that last, and it will contain a summary of what the reader can expect from the documents, as well as some of your thought processes: "We researched our topic in such-and-such way, and decided to focus on such-and-so, with an emphasis on this-and-that. While we did consider incorporating some information about ___, we decided it would be more distraction than anything, and opted not to. Etc, etc."
 * Best, Stevenarntson 22:32, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

"Always Wanted To"
Steven, I have more info on "I've always wanted to" assignment than what is posted. I,m still learning the computers and internet.I just purchased a laptop, and trying to figure out connections and transfer from paper to laptop. My travel to Canada has been delayed until 3-6 months from now, but I'm still am set to make it happen. Do you have suggestions or ideas for what I should do? ( Hint: It took me 4 weeks to figure out how to finally communicate to you)chris kerls 19:35, 16 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Chris,
 * Generally, just do as much prep work as you can, and research on all of the places you'd like to go and why--you've got a good start, but keep developing it.
 * Stevenarntson

Public Art
I have a question about the public art project. I had an idea it isnt your normal idea. but for public art I wanted to randomly toilet paper trees in cities it isnt your regular art but I got permission from local law inforcment. I just wanted to check with you if it is ok. and if so what should I write up. student #687252 for humanittes class Chadcrutchfield 06:29, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

 * Chad,
 * Whatever you do for the assignment, it should conform to our class's definition of "public," and you should carefully document it so it can be effectively presented. Regarding this particular idea, I wonder exactly what kind of "permission" you were granted, and by whom, as TPing trees will likely involve trespassing on private property, and that's something that local law enforcement wouldn't have the authority to give permission for.
 * best, Stevenarntson

Steven

I was told the if i were to do it i can take a picture of it and then I would have to clean it up. I just wanted to check with you to see if you thought it would be public art. I though it was a fresh new idea. Chadcrutchfield 14:32, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

 * Chad,
 * I don't think I've had anyone try it before, so, in terms of our class, it would be a new idea!
 * Stevenarntson


text: User talk:Stevenarntson/comments archive/spring 2009


text:
User:Stevenarntson/comments archive/spring 2009

click the discussion tab to view this archive.


text:
User:Stevenarntson/comments archive/winter 2008and9

Click the discussion tab to view the archive.


text:
User:Stevenarntson/comments archive

Click the discussion tab to view the archive.

title: User:Stevenarntson/comments archive


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User:LugoAndrea

reflective assessment
I enjoyed this class for various reason's. Not to mention I believe I've learned some very important research tools I didn't have before. It's been many years since I've had to do research for a paper. The visit from Sarah, the Librarian was truly informational and very helpful. During the class I was able to meet many different people and was surprised that we had stuff in common. Loved getting to hear about the places they're from. Even if they were local, I learned some pretty interesting things while talking to them. I feel that I've made friends that I can look forward to seeing around during the rest of my schooling here. My always wanted to project went really well. Even after I was completely panicked I couldn't find the material to finish the Pant's for the outfit. The shirt came out really good and I am very proud of it.

Moving onto my second quarter will be a lot easier, thanks to what I've learned during this class. What is most important is knowing that all I need to do is ask for help and it will be provided. Getting the chance to voice my opinion, and not have anyone jumping down my throat was a great experience. Also the many laughs and smiles we all shared, made making it to class a priority. So in closing I just want to say this was a great, starting class for me and I learned a lot. I am looking forward to seeing how well I apply the tools I've learned in class.LugoAndrea 06:44, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

title: User:LugoAndrea


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Talk:Chimpanzee

This is a very interesting topic since "pan paniscus" species is so closely related to humans. I would recommend a book called "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" by Carl Sagan in which he tries to find the roots of violent nature in humans by studying close primates such as chimpanzees. It is a reference on the topic of ethology and contains citations and bibliography of Jane Goodall and other scientists and studies. It also discusses the subject of chimpanzees being able to learn and use AMESLAN and our incapacity to understand the language of chimpanzees. This will be an interesting project I could collaborate someday. --Davichito 02:31, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

title: Talk:Chimpanzee