How what we call consciousness arises in the brain is undoubtedly one of the world's great unsolved mysteries. Emil du Bois-Reymond posed this question in his famous lecture, "The Seven Mysteries of the World," given at the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1880: "Where does conscious sensation come from in the unconscious nerves?"
A note in advance: This article is not yet fully developed, and it already contains cross-references to other articles that we are working on but have not yet published. This applies, for example, to the reference to our new approach to general systems theory in the following paragraph. At the same time, the article also contains gaps where we do not yet have a final opinion. Theoretical conceptual considerations and practical application are mutually stimulating, and sometimes one part is ahead of the other. Please keep this in mind as you read, and use the comments feature to ask questions or make suggestions. New knowledge and new concepts need interaction to mature.
We have claimed and promised, that insights from a new version of General Systems Theory and the heuristic Method of ontogenetic Thinking help cracking the unsolved mysteries of the world. So let's see how far we can get! The method of ontogenetic thinking advises us to analyze the phenomenon thoroughly first. In the case of consciousness, however, we are faced with the special situation that consciousness cannot be observed from the outside. Each person knows his or her own consciousness only through introspection - we cannot observe our own consciousness or the consciousness of another living being from the outside. Therefore, we can only assume by analogy, based on external signs, that other people (and presumably more advanced animals) also have consciousness - but we do not know how their consciousness "feels" to them.
Nevertheless, let's see what we can find out in spite of these difficulties: For me, consciousness is the stage on which all my sensory perceptions and thoughts appear. What I think is the outside world is actually not the outside world at all, but a representation in my mind. However, when I am asleep I have no conscious perceptions. I can also become unconscious when I am stunned by a blow or a drug. So phenomenological obersvation tells us, that consciousness must be something that can be turned on and off. Even more, if I do not sleep for a longer period, my perceptions of the world around me get disturbed. However, our basic life functions, such as breathing and heartbeat, also work without consciousness.
The second step in the method of ontogenetic thinking is to consider how the observed phenomena can come about. Since the answer to this question is still unclear, we will skip this step for the time being and move on to the third step - namely the question of how consciousness may have emerged in the course of evolution.
onsciousness is obviously a product of biological evolution. Inanimate matter has no consciousness. But even of the five great kingdoms of biological life - animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and viruses - only animals have a consciousness. Not all animals, however, but only those with a central nervous system. Consciousness is linked to the presence of a brain.
These evolutionary biological findings provide a clue as to why consciousness originally arose: animals are the only living creatures that can move purposefully. An essential function of the sensory organs and the nervous system is to control the movement of the animal's body in space. To do this, the various impressions that the sensory organs convey from the environment must be linked together. Consciousness is like a screen onto which all the sensory impressions are projected. However, the screen is not two-dimensional, but three-dimensional - more like a stage than a screen.
To an observer trained in systems theory, consciousness is a prime example of an emergent effect. Consciousness is based on nervous activity, but exhibits phenomena that cannot be observed at the level of the nerves. This is exactly what Emil du Bois-Reymond expressed with his question: "Where does the conscious sensation come from in the unconscious nerves?" Our observations on systems theory have now shown that in addition to the effect of emergence, there is also the effect of submergence. Submergence means that the higher system level influences the behavior of the elements at the lower system level. Logically, there must be an "information feedback channel" from the higher system level to the lower system level. Applied to the brain, this insight means that there must be an informational feedback channel from consciousness to the nerves - i.e., the content of consciousness must have an effect on nerve activity. In other words, nerve cells must be able to observe the content of consciousness. However, the current state of science knows nothing about such a feedback channel. On the basis of our system-theoretical considerations, however, it seems compelling that there must be such a feedback channel that has not yet been discovered.
Where might one begin to search for such a feedback channel from consciousness to neural activity?
Nerve impulses are known to be electrical in nature. We know from physics that electric currents can only flow between different electric potentials and that any electric current inevitably results in the creation of a magnetic field. The electrical potentials associated with nerve activity in the brain can be measured using electrodes placed on the scalp, a process known as electroencephalography (EEG). The magnetic fields generated by brain waves can also be measured using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Until now, the electrical potentials and magnetic fields associated with brain waves have been considered side effects with no direct physiological impact. But could it be that neurons are affected by these electrical potentials and magnetic fields that originate from other neurons in the brain?
If this were the case, then neurons could observe the activity of other neurons to which they are not directly connected by synapses. The activity of brain regions specialized in pattern recognition in sensory stimuli would then generate specific electrical and magnetic wave patterns that overlap and are registered by other brain regions. In this way, what we perceive in introspection as consciousness could emerge - as the stage on which all our sensory perceptions are presented. During sleep or anesthesia, the feedback channel is switched off - the brain no longer observes its own activity.
If this hypothetical feedback channel does exist in the brain, it should be possible to demonstrate it experimentally. Mini-brains can already be grown in the laboratory. By applying electrical or magnetic oscillations that mimic the oscillations of the brain, it should be possible to observe changes in the stimulus patterns of the nerve cells. In addition, mini-brains that are separate but in close proximity to each other should also influence each other's activities. However, as in real beings, such an effect would only take place if certain threshold in number and structure of neurons is surpassed. Still, if this were indeed the case, then the evolutionary development of consciousness would no longer be a great mystery - but an inevitable development once a certain number of nerve cells come together in close proximity, as in a central nervous system.
Unfortunately, we are not neurobiologists, so we cannot perform the proposed experiments and test the hypothesis ourselves. But maybe we can inspire interested researchers...
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