Reddit reviews Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind, 4th Edition
We found 5 Reddit comments about Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind, 4th Edition. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Cognitive Neuroscience
Hello, cognitive neuroscientist here. As you may guess, I find it rather preposterous that you suggest that "consciousness exists externally and independently from the brain." In my field, we study the relationship between brain states/events and behavior, many of these states which require the conscious phenomenological experience (perception) of stimuli.
It may be the case that you have a fundamentally different definition of conscious ness than the ones that are often used in experimental settings in my field. In my case, I'm referring to consciousness as the ability to attend to, perceive, and ultimately recognize that you have perceived. For example, you can present people with stimuli for periods of time that are so brief, that there responses to those stimuli are effectively random (they're guessing), which we could then infer that the stimuli weren't consciously perceived at all. In fact, we can even "shut off" parts of the brain in real-time and see the effects on behavior using a method called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Here's a concise paper on the topic. Pay particular attention to the section "creating virtual patients", as well as figure 3.
Here is another more recent paper that seems to discuss consciousness from a broader perspective.
Here is another even more recent paper that seems to directly assess your question. This one seems more technical, but try to stick through it. With this paper, be sure to look at the references! It seems like it could be a good source for you. In fact, if you see any other papers in the reference list that you find interesting, let me know and I'll get them for you :) It appears that this researcher is generally interested in consciousness, and has a trade book available that seems right up your alley here.
That all being said, I think it's very important to note that you seem to be making a claim (consciousness exists outside of and independently of the brain) that has no real empirical evidence to support it. What evidence can you bring to me that would change my view? I have given you one of many sources that demonstrate the casual manipulation of conscious perception via manipulation of the synchronous activity of the brain. How would your perspective respond to the vast literature that has reported similar findings (both in TMS studies and with lesion patients)? According to your perspective, would we have to manipulate some unknown source literally detached from the body of the person being studied do observe these disruptions in conscious perception? Overall, I'm not certain how your perspective can hold up empirically. In order for your idea to be taken seriously from a scientific perspective, it first needs to be falsifiable (able to be demonstrated false). I'm not sure how this can be accomplished here, unless I'm missing something.
Finally, I would highly suggest that you do more basic reading in cognitive neuroscience. I would suggest this textbook.
Please take the time to read the information that I have provided for you. Afterwards, if you have any questions, let me know :)
Michael Gazzaniga for coining the term cognitive neuroscience and really pushing the field forward in its early years.
He still edits the big Cognitive Neuroscience text that tries to summarise all of the work in the field.
I second this comment; Hobson is one of the biggest names in the field of dream research and has released a lot of plausible hypotheses and working models. I don't have much time atm (gotta go to the library and study some more Cognitive Neurosciences coincidentally...), but here's a comment of mine regarding dream sleep on an older question.
Take what I wrote not too precisely, I was and am still young in this field (for example I misinterpreted the article slightly. REM activity is essential and characteristic for dreaming but the article doesn't exclude the importance of other possible activity regarding dreaming). Just take the general gist and check out the articles and the ones they cite in it.
To answer your question more specifically, I highly recommend getting familiar with Cognitive Neurosciences in general.
A first step would be a good textbook. The following is very up to date, easy to read, and well illustrated:
For online self study including lectures and exercises I highly recommend a good MOOC like this Edx course from Harvard.
If dreaming is your interest, some things to focus on is consciousness, memory, relation between function/anatomy, neuroimaging techniques, and general sleep physiology.
In general, neuroscience requires (or at least highly benefits) understanding the brain as a (biological) computational system. It's not to be understood as simply as a single organ. It is a highly complex system capable of an extremely broad range of functions. Dreaming is just one of the many (but very important) functions it can do.
If I find some time I'll try to add some more information. I'm no expert on Cognitive Neurosciences but if you have any questions feel free to ask! Also don't hesitate to ask around on /r/askscience, or check out threads regarding neurosciences. There are some really smart people roaming around those threads.
I don't know anything specific about the functioning of neurons. Our university does not offer neuroscience courses and therefore does not possess above mentioned books. Yet, they have the book, which I already borrowed, "Cognitive Neuroscience - The biology of the mind" by Gazzaniga/Ivry/Mangun (https://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Neuroscience-Biology-Mind-4th/dp/0393913481).
I hope this will do as an introduction. I will report on my progress. Thank you again for initially helping me out and sparking my interest :)!
When i was an undergrad, i really enjoyed learning the fundamentals from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Neuroscience-Biology-Mind-4th/dp/0393913481
It reads really well, has beautiful images and gives a Sound basis for further reading for people with no or not much knowledge in the field.
Good luck!