Rodolfo R. Llinas

Utilizar la mente para entenderla - La predicción es la función primordial del cerebro - La interiorización de los universales mediante la interiorización de la motricidad - Las células nerviosas y sus personalidades - Lo que nos enseña la evolución del ojo - El mito del yo - Patrones de acción fijos : módulos automáticos cerebrales que generan movimientos complejos - Las emociones como PAF - Del aprendizaje y la memoria - Las cualias desde el punto de vista neuronal - El lenguaje como hijo del pensamiento abstracto - ¿La mente colectiva?

el papel de las neuronas en el pensamiento y el comportamiento humanos

El Cerebro y el mito del yo

Patricia Smith Churchland

Bringing together contributors working on a common problem but addressing different levels of brain organization by way of different techniques, The Mind-Brain Continuum seeks to determine which scientific questions are most pressing as we move toward discovering the neurobiology of psychological processes. As the title implies, contributions are organized around the notion that mental activity is brain activity, providing a broad, integrated view of a particular subset of brain function. The focus is on sensory perception, processes that include somatosensory, auditory, and olfactory processes, as well research on vision. ContributorsAlbert S. Bregman, Patricia S. Churchland, Martha Constantine-Paton, Antonio R. Damasio, Hannah Damasio, Howard Eichenbaum, Rodolfo R. Llinás, Nikos K. Logothetis, Christoph von der Malsburg, Stephen E. McAdams, Michael M. Merzenich, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, John A. Simmons, Wolf Singer

The Mind-Brain Continuum - Sensory Processes

A highly original theory of how the mind-brain works, based on the author's study of single neuronal cells. In I of the Vortex, Rodolfo Llinas, a founding father of modern brain science, presents an original view of the evolution and nature of mind. According to Llinas, the "mindness state" evolved to allow predictive interactions between mobile creatures and their environment. He illustrates the early evolution of mind through a primitive animal called the "sea squirt." The mobile larval form has a brainlike ganglion that receives sensory information about the surrounding environment. As an adult, the sea squirt attaches itself to a stationary object and then digests most of its own brain. This suggests that the nervous system evolved to allow active movement in animals. To move through the environment safely, a creature must anticipate the outcome of each movement on the basis of incoming sensory data. Thus the capacity to predict is most likely the ultimate brain function. One could even say that Self is the centralization of prediction. At the heart of Llinas's theory is the concept of oscillation. Many neurons possess electrical activity, manifested as oscillating variations in the minute voltages across the cell membrane. On the crests of these oscillations occur larger electrical events that are the basis for neuron-to-neuron communication. Like cicadas chirping in unison, a group of neurons oscillating in phase can resonate with a distant group of neurons. This simultaneity of neuronal activity is the neurobiological root of cognition. Although the internal state that we call the mind is guided by the senses, it is also generated by the oscillations within the brain. Thus, in a certain sense, one could say that reality is not all "out there," but is a kind of virtual reality.

Rodolfo R. Llinas

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