Vijay Shankar Sharma
Textbook neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and clinical terms. Not a reinterpretation of Vijay's Law or the Consciousness Index. 148 terms. Textbook meanings only.
15 terms. Page 1 of 1.
consciousness-theories · intermediate
A variant of panpsychism holding that the fundamental constituents of physical reality possess proto-experiential or precursor properties, which combine to give rise to full-blown consciousness in complex systems like brains, rather than each fundamental particle already possessing rich, fully-formed experience. It is offered as an attempt to soften some of the more counterintuitive commitments of standard panpsychism.
philosophy-of-mind · intermediate
The view that consciousness, or some very basic form of experience, is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of physical reality, present in some minimal form even in simple physical systems, rather than something that only emerges at a certain level of biological complexity. Its proponents argue it avoids the hard problem by not needing consciousness to emerge from non-conscious matter at all; critics raise the combination problem, the difficulty of explaining how simple instances of experience combine into a unified complex mind.
perception · intermediate
The process by which the brain combines separately processed sensory features, such as an object's colour, shape, location, and motion, into a single, unified perceptual experience of that object. It is closely related to the broader neural binding problem in theories of consciousness.
perception · intermediate
The tendency to perceive objects as having stable properties, such as size, shape, and colour, despite changes in the raw sensory input caused by viewing angle, distance, or lighting conditions. For example, a door is perceived as rectangular even when viewed at an angle that projects a trapezoidal shape onto the retina.
perception · intro
A perceptual experience that differs systematically from the actual physical properties of a stimulus, arising not from a fault in the senses but from the normal, often useful inferential processes the brain uses to interpret sensory data. Illusions are valuable to researchers precisely because they reveal the assumptions and shortcuts the perceptual system relies on when interpreting ambiguous or incomplete information.
clinical-and-disorders · intermediate
Also called: unresponsive wakefulness syndrome
A condition, now more often termed 'unresponsive wakefulness syndrome' in clinical settings, in which a patient shows cycles of eye-opening that resemble wakefulness and sleep, along with basic reflexes, but no evidence of awareness of self or environment. It is distinguished from coma by the presence of these wake-sleep cycles, and from a minimally conscious state by the complete absence of any behavioural sign of awareness.
philosophy-of-mind · intermediate
The subjective, experiential aspect of a mental state, capturing what it is like to be in that state, as distinguished from its functional role in guiding behaviour or reasoning. Philosopher Ned Block introduced the distinction between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness to separate the raw felt quality of an experience from its availability for reasoning, report, and action.
philosophy-of-mind · intermediate
Also called: p-zombie
A hypothetical being physically identical to a conscious person, behaving exactly the same way in every respect, but lacking any subjective experience whatsoever. The thought experiment is used to argue that physical and functional facts alone may not fully determine facts about consciousness, though critics argue such a being is not actually conceivable once physical facts are fully specified.
philosophy-of-mind · intro
Also called: materialism
The view that everything that exists, including the mind and conscious experience, is ultimately physical, or wholly determined by physical facts. It is the dominant position among contemporary philosophers of mind and scientists, though physicalists disagree among themselves about how exactly mental states relate to physical brain states.
consciousness-theories · intermediate
Also called: predictive coding
A framework in cognitive science and neuroscience proposing that the brain constantly generates predictions about incoming sensory input and updates its internal models based on the difference, or prediction error, between what was predicted and what actually arrives. On this view, perception itself is partly a controlled hallucination, constrained and corrected by sensory input rather than a passive readout of the world.
neuroscience · intro
The front-most region of the frontal lobe, associated with planning, decision-making, working memory, and the regulation of social and emotional behaviour. It matures later than most other brain regions, continuing development into a person's twenties. Damage to this area, as in the historical case of Phineas Gage, can dramatically alter personality while leaving basic perception and movement intact.
cognitive-science · intermediate
A phenomenon in which exposure to one stimulus influences the response to a later, related stimulus, typically without conscious awareness of the connection. For example, seeing the word 'nurse' can speed recognition of the related word 'doctor' shortly afterward. It is widely used as an experimental tool for probing unconscious mental associations.
philosophy-of-mind · intermediate
The view that there is only one kind of substance in the world, which is physical, but that this physical substance can give rise to two fundamentally distinct kinds of properties: physical properties and irreducible mental properties. It is offered as a middle position between substance dualism, which posits two separate kinds of stuff, and physicalism, which holds mental properties are nothing over and above physical ones.
perception · intro
The sense of the relative position and movement of one's own body parts, allowing a person to know, without looking, where their limbs are in space. It relies on specialised receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints, and is essential for coordinated movement; its loss, as in rare medical cases, makes even simple movements require constant visual monitoring.
sleep-and-altered-states · intermediate
An altered state of consciousness induced by psychedelic substances such as psilocybin or LSD, often characterised by altered perception, intensified emotion, and, at higher doses, a temporary dissolution of the ordinary sense of self. Clinical research into supervised psychedelic use for certain psychiatric conditions has expanded substantially in recent years, alongside continued regulatory restrictions on most such substances.