Subjective Experience is a brand new episodic memory

[Otis]

Dear fellow Bums,  I used to post here regularly, then shifted focus to a Consciousness documentary (still a work in progress) and a peer-reviewed published theory paper.  I have just finished a podcast and video called "Anatomy of Subjective Experience" about that theory, and I wanted to share them here.

 

Spoilers, sorry, but the gist of the argument is that neurotypical subjective experience is actually the brain's first experiencing of a brand new episodic memory.   

 

If our intuitions about subjective experience were correct, by contrast, we would expect to see the following in our brains: a place where all the data streams from all the senses + mind come together to form Experience, and then we should see a single pipe leading from this Experience Generator to the hippocampus, so that complete experiences can become episodic memories, and thereby be remembered later.  But, in truth, when we look at the brain, the hippocampal complex IS that place where all the senses + mind come together.  The brain builds a memory in the hippocampus, and then immediately plays it back to itself, for reality check, among other things.  That first playing of the new memory is what we call 'subjective experience'.

 

In fact, we also only exist within our own memories.  The perceived-self is a construct of memory, created by the brain as a mnemonic, to help give memories context.  What was I doing in the past event?  What decisions did I make?  When did I become aware of that threat?  And memories, of course, exist to help the future brain learn from its past mistakes and successes.

 

The true self is the body.  The brain is a subset of that, and the "me" is just a representation, invented by my brain.  The perceived mind is also a construct, within memory, created primarily by the Core Network (also called the Default Mode Network), using the hippocampus' experience generation powers to run mental simulations, like Theory of Mind or daydreaming.  The reason why we think in words is because the hippocampus evolved to be able to represent and remember complex audio, including speech.  So the Core Network uses the hippocampus' qualia-generation powers to create visual images and word thought.

 

If you happen to know about H.M., a famous patient who had both of his hippocampi fully removed, you may be thinking: but he is 'fully conscious'.  And that may be so, but in this case by 'conscious' we mean that he is awake, and responsive, can talk and behave.  Those are separate functions from subjective experience, and they happen elsewhere in the brain.  The tradition of the word 'consciousness' has combined all these functions into one concept, but they're not actually much related in the brain.  I deal with H.M. and similar patients in the podcast and video.

 

There's lots more to be said about the model, but that's what the podcast and video are for.  I'll leave a link here to the video, but the podcast can be found on all the major distribution apps.  It's called "Anatomy of Subjective Experience", and it's presented a lot like an NPR Radiolab episode.  I hope you enjoy it, and I look forward to hearing your responses.

 

https://youtu.be/psyvlO3Ssfc

 

Edited March 7 by Otis

[steve]

So great to see you here @Otis.

I remember you fondly and am glad to hear you’re continuing your studies of consciousness and neuroscience.

[Maddie]

On 3/7/2024 at 5:38 PM, Otis said:

Dear fellow Bums,  I used to post here regularly, then shifted focus to a Consciousness documentary (still a work in progress) and a peer-reviewed published theory paper.  I have just finished a podcast and video called "Anatomy of Subjective Experience" about that theory, and I wanted to share them here.

 

Spoilers, sorry, but the gist of the argument is that neurotypical subjective experience is actually the brain's first experiencing of a brand new episodic memory.   

 

If our intuitions about subjective experience were correct, by contrast, we would expect to see the following in our brains: a place where all the data streams from all the senses + mind come together to form Experience, and then we should see a single pipe leading from this Experience Generator to the hippocampus, so that complete experiences can become episodic memories, and thereby be remembered later.  But, in truth, when we look at the brain, the hippocampal complex IS that place where all the senses + mind come together.  The brain builds a memory in the hippocampus, and then immediately plays it back to itself, for reality check, among other things.  That first playing of the new memory is what we call 'subjective experience'.

 

In fact, we also only exist within our own memories.  The perceived-self is a construct of memory, created by the brain as a mnemonic, to help give memories context.  What was I doing in the past event?  What decisions did I make?  When did I become aware of that threat?  And memories, of course, exist to help the future brain learn from its past mistakes and successes.

 

The true self is the body.  The brain is a subset of that, and the "me" is just a representation, invented by my brain.  The perceived mind is also a construct, within memory, created primarily by the Core Network (also called the Default Mode Network), using the hippocampus' experience generation powers to run mental simulations, like Theory of Mind or daydreaming.  The reason why we think in words is because the hippocampus evolved to be able to represent and remember complex audio, including speech.  So the Core Network uses the hippocampus' qualia-generation powers to create visual images and word thought.

 

If you happen to know about H.M., a famous patient who had both of his hippocampi fully removed, you may be thinking: but he is 'fully conscious'.  And that may be so, but in this case by 'conscious' we mean that he is awake, and responsive, can talk and behave.  Those are separate functions from subjective experience, and they happen elsewhere in the brain.  The tradition of the word 'consciousness' has combined all these functions into one concept, but they're not actually much related in the brain.  I deal with H.M. and similar patients in the podcast and video.

 

There's lots more to be said about the model, but that's what the podcast and video are for.  I'll leave a link here to the video, but the podcast can be found on all the major distribution apps.  It's called "Anatomy of Subjective Experience", and it's presented a lot like an NPR Radiolab episode.  I hope you enjoy it, and I look forward to hearing your responses.

 

https://youtu.be/psyvlO3Ssfc

 

 

That sounds extremely interesting!

 

I was just having an interesting conversation with a patient about what we call "me" or "I" is in reality a bunch of chemicals and neural impulses in the brain. 

Edited March 9 by Maddie

[Otis]

On 3/8/2024 at 4:18 PM, steve said:

So great to see you here @Otis.

I remember you fondly and am glad to hear you’re continuing your studies of consciousness and neuroscience.

Thanks Steve!  Good to see you as well!

[Otis]

On 3/8/2024 at 4:44 PM, Maddie said:

 

That sounds extremely interesting!

 

I was just having an interesting conversation with a patient about what we call "me" or "I" is in reality a bunch of chemicals and neural impulses in the brain. 

Thanks for your reply, Maddie!

 

Yeah, I think there's a real analogy to some Buddhist concepts.  The concept of Maya is that the world (as we perceive it) is an illusion.  And that's also the truth in our theory.  Our brains creates models of the world, to help us remember what happened, but also to allow us to predict what might happen next.  Of course, our models are biased by our experience, and so we perceive the world according to our own mental habits.  The illusion of the world is clearly based upon a true story, but we put our stank on it.

 

As for the self, that's even more illusory, because we are even more motivated to believe certain things about ourselves.  It's very easy to mis-perceive our own behaviors, or even our motivations.

 

What's even stranger, is that our brain doesn't always know itself.  The brain is composed of semi-autonomous systems that push and pull upon each other to arrive at mutually acceptable conclusions.  And yet, a lot of that information from these systems don't make it to memory, and so don't get included in perception.

 

And here's the real kicker.  There is an interpreter in the brain, called the Core Network, which observes memories, and tries to story-tell, based upon them.  This is probably the origin of language thought; we started using thoughts as narrative mnemonic devices to attach to memories.  We think (for example) "I am the victim; he is doing this to me", so that when we remember the event, that thought also is retrieved, and gives the appropriate stank to the recalled memory.  So thoughts probably began as something like tags, that were attached to the memory, in order to give it more context.

 

So the state of the whole brain gives rise to the new memory, but the Core Network only sees the memory, not the whole state of the brain.  Therefore, the interpreter makes a lot of assumptions about the brain's function that actually ignore important internal features.  This disconnect leads to many of the wild pathologies of subjective experience, like delusions, schizophrenia, anosognosia, etc.