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.
5 terms. Page 1 of 1.
self-and-social-cognition · intermediate
A gradual buildup of electrical activity recorded over the motor cortex in the period leading up to a voluntary movement, first described well before the Libet experiment made it central to debates over free will. Its precise significance, whether it reflects an unconscious decision already made or simply a rising general readiness to act, remains an active subject of research and interpretation.
consciousness-theories · intermediate
A theory of consciousness, associated with neuroscientist Victor Lamme, proposing that conscious perception requires recurrent, or feedback, signalling between higher and lower areas of the visual cortex, as distinguished from purely feedforward processing, which the theory holds can support sophisticated unconscious processing but not conscious experience on its own.
sleep-and-altered-states · intro
Also called: rapid eye movement sleep
A stage of sleep characterised by rapid eye movement, low muscle tone, and heightened brain activity resembling wakefulness, during which most vivid dreaming occurs. It alternates with non-REM sleep in cycles of roughly ninety minutes throughout the night, with REM periods generally lengthening toward morning.
neuroscience · intermediate
Also called: RAS
A network of neurons in the brainstem that regulates wakefulness and the transition between sleep and arousal, projecting broadly to the thalamus and cortex. Damage to this system can produce coma even when the cerebral cortex itself is undamaged, which is part of why it is considered central to maintaining a conscious, wakeful state rather than the content of consciousness itself.
neuroscience · intermediate
A group of interconnected brain structures, centrally involving dopamine signalling between the midbrain and regions including the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex, that produces feelings of pleasure and reinforces behaviours associated with survival and reproduction, such as eating and social bonding. Its dysregulation is central to most current models of addiction.