In this article, the mechanisms of central pain syndrome (CPS) are examined for the purpose of gaining insight into how a unified conscious experience arises from brain and body interaction. We provide a novel etiolog...In this article, the mechanisms of central pain syndrome (CPS) are examined for the purpose of gaining insight into how a unified conscious experience arises from brain and body interaction. We provide a novel etiology for CPS via implementation of the previously proposed 3D Default Space (3DDS) consciousness model in which consciousness and body schema arise when afferent information is processed by corticothalamic feedback loops and integrated via the thalamus. Further, we propose the mechanisms by which CPS represents deficits in dynamic interactions between afferent and efferent signaling. Modern hypotheses of CPS suggest roles for maladaptive neuroplasticity, a deafferentated somatosensory cortex and/or thalamus, and reorganization along the sensory pathways of the spinothalamic tract in the pathogenesis of the painful sensations. We propose that CPS arises when painful sensory signals originating along the maladapted and/or dysfunctional spinothalamic tract become accentuated by the dominant top down mechanisms of the brain.展开更多
The human organism is a complex biological system with emergent properties that arise from the unified functional interactions among its diverse components. When studying the brain and body in light of modern biologic...The human organism is a complex biological system with emergent properties that arise from the unified functional interactions among its diverse components. When studying the brain and body in light of modern biological systems approaches, one must analyze them in a holistic manner, putting aside reductionist models in order to understand how certain properties manifest from complex system interactions. The respiratory system is capable of continuously adapting to changes in the internal and external environment, making it one of the most integrated of physiological processes. We propose an additional respiratory process: respiration-derived electrical currents during inspiration that spread throughout the entire body maintaining homeostasis through entraining oscillatory activity, modulating cognitive processes, and modulating the autonomic nervous system. If these currents are indeed created in part from redox reactions occurring on a massive scale, then we assert they are a major aspect of an embodied cognitive framework. We propose that this potentially major source of organism integrity has been overlooked, and its application to medicine could drastically change how we understand human physiology, the autonomic nervous system, and the therapeutic treatment of various clinical disorders.展开更多
We are all aware that our experience is structured into left and right, up and down, and we can understand from our own experience that consciousness is unified into a singular whole. Although we can understand such b...We are all aware that our experience is structured into left and right, up and down, and we can understand from our own experience that consciousness is unified into a singular whole. Although we can understand such basic phenomenological axioms of experience, there are many more principles that we cannot elucidate from our natural perspective alone. In this article, we review potential principles of consciousness revealed by prominent consciousness models, theories, and experimental observations such as the Default Space?Theory, Operational Architectonics Theory, and Integrated Information Theory,?which reveal biological and phenomenological foundations upon which consciousness is formed and maintained. The fundamental concepts we explore and consider worthy have largely emerged from commonalties shared by the various models which have gained attention. The concepts we review include the unity of consciousness, bioelectric operations as the substrate of consciousness, the emergence of a virtual 3D matrix, and the top-down dominance of perception.展开更多
Consciousness is the unified, structured, subjective experience that we all share. The Default Space Theory has been proposed as a unified theory of consciousness that includes the brain and body in describing the inf...Consciousness is the unified, structured, subjective experience that we all share. The Default Space Theory has been proposed as a unified theory of consciousness that includes the brain and body in describing the infrastructure of consciousness. We have presented the theory in journals with a variety of academic specialties;however, the model is continually being developed. Due to the current state of science on the nature of conscious experience lacking hard data, the theory’s concepts must thoroughly explain and shoulder phenomenological observations including the phenomenology of deficits of consciousness. According to the theory, the thalamus serves as a central hub which networks the globally distributed, and continuous fast oscillations not only among the brain, but also the eyes, ears, skin, and other sensory organs. These oscillations form the virtual template of external space within the mind in which external sensory information is integrated into this pre-existing, dynamic space. In this article, we explore phenomenological support for our theory of conscious experience in which such experience resides entirely in such a virtual space, termed the default space. In order to provide such support, we discuss simple personal experiments and observations which anyone can partake along with phenomenal symptoms of clinical deficits. We encourage readers to perform the personal experiments we describe in order to gain an understanding of the various concepts of the theory. The neurological deficits we elucidate not only support the theory but clarify obscurities surrounding these conditions. We assert the support we give in our theory here will advance the uphill struggle many paramount theories face in gaining initial acceptance. Further research is needed in order to acquire empirical evidence for the veracity of our theory.展开更多
Excessive distress and insomnia are much too common in the modern world and often lead to a myriad of detrimental effects including loss of cognitive ability and even physical ailments such as cancer. Current pharmace...Excessive distress and insomnia are much too common in the modern world and often lead to a myriad of detrimental effects including loss of cognitive ability and even physical ailments such as cancer. Current pharmaceutical treatments can be addictive, detrimental to health, and in the case of insomnia don’t produce naturalistic sleep. We present a viewpoint on a potential adjunctive treatment of distress and insomnia that harnesses specific mental imagery as a component of mind/body relaxation technique. Via our perspective on the modern nature of stress and insomnia, our theoretical perspective on how specific guided mental imagery can be used to treat these ailments, and our review on the current literature on treatment with mental imagery, we hope to stimulate further research into mental health treatment with mental imagery which has traditionally been neglected. This perspective on the pathology of insomnia and distress is founded in prevailing “dysevolution” and hyper-arousal theories. Hyper-arousal is characterized in part by a vicious cycle of chronic physiological and emotional stimulation/distress. We argue for spatially based mental imagery in the form of nighttime-sky imagery to attenuate such pathology by breaking one away from a vicious cycle of stimulation and distress and discuss neuropsychological bases for its potential treatment mechanisms which include the autonomic nervous system and a phenomenal foundation of conscious cognition.展开更多
In order to produce insight to the current state of consciousness research, we provide a review of some of the more preeminent models of consciousness via a comparison of these theories with a novel holistic model. Th...In order to produce insight to the current state of consciousness research, we provide a review of some of the more preeminent models of consciousness via a comparison of these theories with a novel holistic model. The main goal of this review is to present the advantages in theoretical power of an embodied cognition, metastable model of consciousness manifest in the Default Space Theory by comparing it to other popular brain-based metastable models that though provide important insight into the cognitive nature of consciousness, are incomplete in their model of an architecture of consciousness. The Default Space Theory is a world simulation model in which the thalamus fills in processed sensory information from corticothalamic feedback loops into an internal 3D matrix termed the default space. This article examines some of the most regarded brain-based, metastable consciousness models, the Operational Architectonics Theory of Brain-Mind, Global Workspace Theory, Information Integration Theory, and the Dynamic Core Hypothesis. Through an overview and critique of these models, we illustrate their insights and deficits, and discuss why the Default Space Theory is the most comprehensive theory of consciousness.展开更多
Our conscious day-to-day self is often described as the “tip of the iceberg” of a much greater cognitive system. The edge of the water divides the phenomenal self from the sub/unconscious underlying it. Similar to a...Our conscious day-to-day self is often described as the “tip of the iceberg” of a much greater cognitive system. The edge of the water divides the phenomenal self from the sub/unconscious underlying it. Similar to an iceberg, the unconscious activity below the water vastly outweighs the conscious activity above it. What exactly lies beneath the surface of this murky water is a tantalizing topic of research and theory. The current research predominantly focuses on the physiology of the brain and the default mode network has been identified as an intrinsic mode of functioning. It is well known that autonomic nervous system sympathovagal balance orchestrated by the central autonomic network is strongly associated with modulation of cardiac, respiratory rate and other visceral physiological activity. In this article, we use existing research and a novel theory to tie together the default mode network, the autonomic nervous system, and non-neural physiology to describe a hypothesis on a greater biological system from which intrinsic brain activity may be founded. This hypothesis is that intrinsic brain activity and connectivities are significantly founded on activity of the body. We review how cardiorespiratory and other rhythms and electrical activity of the body may modulate and even underlie fundamental activity of the human brain and ultimately the mind. A more holistic biological system that could interface the brain and body via mechanisms such as neurovascular coupling would more accurately describe the nature of neural systems. Greater knowledge on the association and interface of brain and body via isomorphic physiologic counterparts to mind may carry profound implications in understanding intrinsic activity of the brain, consciousness, mind, and mental illness.展开更多
The default space model is a unified theory of consciousness that posits the brain and body together form the foundation of conscious experience that exists as a three dimensional internally generated simulation of re...The default space model is a unified theory of consciousness that posits the brain and body together form the foundation of conscious experience that exists as a three dimensional internally generated simulation of reality termed the 3D dynamic default space. We have explored and developed the model in many publications and journals with a variety of academic specialties and its scope and concepts continue to broaden. In these publications, we have supported the concepts of the model through its ability to explain neuropsychological disorders, illusions, and everyday observations on consciousness. The model’s foundations in which the thalamus serves as a central hub networked with the brain and body by continuous, fast, membrane potential oscillations have been greatly expanded since its initial publication which we review within this article. Profound leaps forward in our theory include the nature of lateral inhibition in sensory perception, the nature of sensory organs acting as “smart screens”, and the correlation of respiration with mental atmosphere. Through reviewing the developing concepts expanding the theory since our major 2015 publication that laid the foundation of our theory, we hope to give readers a summarized update of where the theory currently stands in terms of its structure. We encourage readers to investigate these previous publications to gain further insight into our propositions. Through accurate models of consciousness, we may develop etiologies for countless neurological disorders, as well as improve treatments.展开更多
文摘In this article, the mechanisms of central pain syndrome (CPS) are examined for the purpose of gaining insight into how a unified conscious experience arises from brain and body interaction. We provide a novel etiology for CPS via implementation of the previously proposed 3D Default Space (3DDS) consciousness model in which consciousness and body schema arise when afferent information is processed by corticothalamic feedback loops and integrated via the thalamus. Further, we propose the mechanisms by which CPS represents deficits in dynamic interactions between afferent and efferent signaling. Modern hypotheses of CPS suggest roles for maladaptive neuroplasticity, a deafferentated somatosensory cortex and/or thalamus, and reorganization along the sensory pathways of the spinothalamic tract in the pathogenesis of the painful sensations. We propose that CPS arises when painful sensory signals originating along the maladapted and/or dysfunctional spinothalamic tract become accentuated by the dominant top down mechanisms of the brain.
文摘The human organism is a complex biological system with emergent properties that arise from the unified functional interactions among its diverse components. When studying the brain and body in light of modern biological systems approaches, one must analyze them in a holistic manner, putting aside reductionist models in order to understand how certain properties manifest from complex system interactions. The respiratory system is capable of continuously adapting to changes in the internal and external environment, making it one of the most integrated of physiological processes. We propose an additional respiratory process: respiration-derived electrical currents during inspiration that spread throughout the entire body maintaining homeostasis through entraining oscillatory activity, modulating cognitive processes, and modulating the autonomic nervous system. If these currents are indeed created in part from redox reactions occurring on a massive scale, then we assert they are a major aspect of an embodied cognitive framework. We propose that this potentially major source of organism integrity has been overlooked, and its application to medicine could drastically change how we understand human physiology, the autonomic nervous system, and the therapeutic treatment of various clinical disorders.
文摘We are all aware that our experience is structured into left and right, up and down, and we can understand from our own experience that consciousness is unified into a singular whole. Although we can understand such basic phenomenological axioms of experience, there are many more principles that we cannot elucidate from our natural perspective alone. In this article, we review potential principles of consciousness revealed by prominent consciousness models, theories, and experimental observations such as the Default Space?Theory, Operational Architectonics Theory, and Integrated Information Theory,?which reveal biological and phenomenological foundations upon which consciousness is formed and maintained. The fundamental concepts we explore and consider worthy have largely emerged from commonalties shared by the various models which have gained attention. The concepts we review include the unity of consciousness, bioelectric operations as the substrate of consciousness, the emergence of a virtual 3D matrix, and the top-down dominance of perception.
文摘Consciousness is the unified, structured, subjective experience that we all share. The Default Space Theory has been proposed as a unified theory of consciousness that includes the brain and body in describing the infrastructure of consciousness. We have presented the theory in journals with a variety of academic specialties;however, the model is continually being developed. Due to the current state of science on the nature of conscious experience lacking hard data, the theory’s concepts must thoroughly explain and shoulder phenomenological observations including the phenomenology of deficits of consciousness. According to the theory, the thalamus serves as a central hub which networks the globally distributed, and continuous fast oscillations not only among the brain, but also the eyes, ears, skin, and other sensory organs. These oscillations form the virtual template of external space within the mind in which external sensory information is integrated into this pre-existing, dynamic space. In this article, we explore phenomenological support for our theory of conscious experience in which such experience resides entirely in such a virtual space, termed the default space. In order to provide such support, we discuss simple personal experiments and observations which anyone can partake along with phenomenal symptoms of clinical deficits. We encourage readers to perform the personal experiments we describe in order to gain an understanding of the various concepts of the theory. The neurological deficits we elucidate not only support the theory but clarify obscurities surrounding these conditions. We assert the support we give in our theory here will advance the uphill struggle many paramount theories face in gaining initial acceptance. Further research is needed in order to acquire empirical evidence for the veracity of our theory.
文摘Excessive distress and insomnia are much too common in the modern world and often lead to a myriad of detrimental effects including loss of cognitive ability and even physical ailments such as cancer. Current pharmaceutical treatments can be addictive, detrimental to health, and in the case of insomnia don’t produce naturalistic sleep. We present a viewpoint on a potential adjunctive treatment of distress and insomnia that harnesses specific mental imagery as a component of mind/body relaxation technique. Via our perspective on the modern nature of stress and insomnia, our theoretical perspective on how specific guided mental imagery can be used to treat these ailments, and our review on the current literature on treatment with mental imagery, we hope to stimulate further research into mental health treatment with mental imagery which has traditionally been neglected. This perspective on the pathology of insomnia and distress is founded in prevailing “dysevolution” and hyper-arousal theories. Hyper-arousal is characterized in part by a vicious cycle of chronic physiological and emotional stimulation/distress. We argue for spatially based mental imagery in the form of nighttime-sky imagery to attenuate such pathology by breaking one away from a vicious cycle of stimulation and distress and discuss neuropsychological bases for its potential treatment mechanisms which include the autonomic nervous system and a phenomenal foundation of conscious cognition.
文摘In order to produce insight to the current state of consciousness research, we provide a review of some of the more preeminent models of consciousness via a comparison of these theories with a novel holistic model. The main goal of this review is to present the advantages in theoretical power of an embodied cognition, metastable model of consciousness manifest in the Default Space Theory by comparing it to other popular brain-based metastable models that though provide important insight into the cognitive nature of consciousness, are incomplete in their model of an architecture of consciousness. The Default Space Theory is a world simulation model in which the thalamus fills in processed sensory information from corticothalamic feedback loops into an internal 3D matrix termed the default space. This article examines some of the most regarded brain-based, metastable consciousness models, the Operational Architectonics Theory of Brain-Mind, Global Workspace Theory, Information Integration Theory, and the Dynamic Core Hypothesis. Through an overview and critique of these models, we illustrate their insights and deficits, and discuss why the Default Space Theory is the most comprehensive theory of consciousness.
文摘Our conscious day-to-day self is often described as the “tip of the iceberg” of a much greater cognitive system. The edge of the water divides the phenomenal self from the sub/unconscious underlying it. Similar to an iceberg, the unconscious activity below the water vastly outweighs the conscious activity above it. What exactly lies beneath the surface of this murky water is a tantalizing topic of research and theory. The current research predominantly focuses on the physiology of the brain and the default mode network has been identified as an intrinsic mode of functioning. It is well known that autonomic nervous system sympathovagal balance orchestrated by the central autonomic network is strongly associated with modulation of cardiac, respiratory rate and other visceral physiological activity. In this article, we use existing research and a novel theory to tie together the default mode network, the autonomic nervous system, and non-neural physiology to describe a hypothesis on a greater biological system from which intrinsic brain activity may be founded. This hypothesis is that intrinsic brain activity and connectivities are significantly founded on activity of the body. We review how cardiorespiratory and other rhythms and electrical activity of the body may modulate and even underlie fundamental activity of the human brain and ultimately the mind. A more holistic biological system that could interface the brain and body via mechanisms such as neurovascular coupling would more accurately describe the nature of neural systems. Greater knowledge on the association and interface of brain and body via isomorphic physiologic counterparts to mind may carry profound implications in understanding intrinsic activity of the brain, consciousness, mind, and mental illness.
文摘The default space model is a unified theory of consciousness that posits the brain and body together form the foundation of conscious experience that exists as a three dimensional internally generated simulation of reality termed the 3D dynamic default space. We have explored and developed the model in many publications and journals with a variety of academic specialties and its scope and concepts continue to broaden. In these publications, we have supported the concepts of the model through its ability to explain neuropsychological disorders, illusions, and everyday observations on consciousness. The model’s foundations in which the thalamus serves as a central hub networked with the brain and body by continuous, fast, membrane potential oscillations have been greatly expanded since its initial publication which we review within this article. Profound leaps forward in our theory include the nature of lateral inhibition in sensory perception, the nature of sensory organs acting as “smart screens”, and the correlation of respiration with mental atmosphere. Through reviewing the developing concepts expanding the theory since our major 2015 publication that laid the foundation of our theory, we hope to give readers a summarized update of where the theory currently stands in terms of its structure. We encourage readers to investigate these previous publications to gain further insight into our propositions. Through accurate models of consciousness, we may develop etiologies for countless neurological disorders, as well as improve treatments.
