Consciousness and the Social BrainWhat is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. The human brain has evolved a complex circuitry that allows it to be socially intelligent. This social machinery has only just begun to be studied in detail. One function of this circuitry is to attribute awareness to others: to compute that person Y is aware of thing X. In Graziano's theory, the machinery that attributes awareness to others also attributes it to oneself. Damage that machinery and you disrupt your own awareness. Graziano discusses the science, the evidence, the philosophy, and the surprising implications of this new theory. |
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active apple attention schema theory attribute awareness behavior Bill’s binocular rivalry body schema brain areas brain constructs brain regions brain system chapter chunk of information circuitry clinical neglect Cogn color common complex conscious experience consciousness type construct a model cues damage described emotions example expert system explain eye tracker feeling function human brain hypothesis illusion information set informational model inside integrated information introspect intuition Item John’s look mental mirror neurons model of attention monkey motion ness neural Neuroimage Neurosci object out-of-body experience parietal lobe patient people’s minds person physical predict present theory property of awareness proposed Psychol puppet representation scientific sciousness sensory signals social cognition social machinery social neuroscience social perception someone else’s spatial specific squirrel suggested superior temporal sulcus temporo-parietal junction theories of consciousness theory of mind thing thought tion TPJ and STS understand ventriloquism visual system