Consciousness without a cerebral cortex: a challenge for neuroscience and medicine

A broad range of evidence regarding the functional organization of the vertebrate brain - spanning from comparative neurology to experimental psychology and neurophysiology to clinical data - is reviewed for its bearing on conceptions of the neural organization of consciousness. A novel principle relating target selection, action selection, and motivation to one another, as a means to optimize integration for action in real time, is introduced. With its help, the principal macrosystems of the vertebrate brain can be seen to form a centralized functional design in which an upper brain stem system organized for conscious function performs a penultimate step in action control. This upper brain stem system retained a key role throughout the evolutionary process by which an expanding forebrain - culminating in the cerebral cortex of mammals - came to serve as a medium for the elaboration of conscious contents. This highly conserved upper brainstem system, which extends from the roof of the midbrain to the basal diencephalon, integrates the massively parallel and distributed information capacity of the cerebral hemispheres into the limited-capacity, sequential mode of operation required for coherent behavior. It maintains special connective relations with cortical territories implicated in attentional and conscious functions, but is not rendered nonfunctional in the absence of cortical input. This helps explain the purposive, goal-directed behavior exhibited by mammals after experimental decortication, as well as the evidence that children born without a cortex are conscious. Taken together these circumstances suggest that brainstem mechanisms are integral to the constitution of the conscious state, and that an adequate account of neural mechanisms of conscious function cannot be confined to the thalamocortical complex alone.     

Childhood peer relationships: social acceptance, friendships, and peer networks

This review addresses several areas of contemporary research in children's peer relationships during the elementary and middle school years, with primary foci on children's peer acceptance, the ability to make and maintain friendships, and their participation in larger peer networks. Particular attention is given to research examining the major developments and individual differences in each of these components of children's peer relations, how these different aspects of peer functioning relate to one another, and how they contribute to development more generally, including school adjustment and achievement. Finally, it is argued that children's psychosocial development may be best informed by an integration of these somewhat independent research traditions.     

Reviews: Books

ZEN MASTERS: A MAVERICK, A MASTER OF MASTERS, AND A WANDERING POET. By John Stevens, 161 pp. Kodansha International: Tokyo/NY/London, 1999. $13.00. THE DEVELOPING MIND: TOWARD A NEUROBIOLOGY OF INTERPERSONAL EXPERIENCE. By Daniel J. Siegel. 394 pp. New York: The Guilford Press, 1999. $37.95. JESUS: A PSYCHOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY. By Donald Capps. 288 pp. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2000. $29.99.     

Reviews: Books

ATTACKED BY POISON IVY: A PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING. By Ann Belford Ullanov, 203 pp. York Beach, ME: Nicholas-Hays, Inc., 2001. $18.95. WHERE WAS GOD ON SEPTEMBER 11? SEEDS OF FAITH AND HOPE. By Donald B. Kraybill and Linda Gehman Peachy (Eds.). Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2002. $10.95. GENETIC TURNING POINTS: THE ETHICS OF HUMAN GENETIC INTERVENTION. By James C. Peterson. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans Year, 2001. $22.00. RELIGIOUS THERAPEUTICS: BODY AND HEALTH IN YOGA, AYURVEDA, AND TANTRA. By Gregory P. Fields. 222 pp. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001. $17.95. TRANSCENDING: REFLECTIONS OF CRIME VICTIMS. By Howard Zehr. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2001. $18.95. SANDPLAY THERAPY, A STEP-BY-STEP MANUAL FOR PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OF DIVERSE ORIENTATIONS. By Barbara Labovitz Boik and E. Anna Goodwin, 278 pp. New York: W. W. Norton &; Company, 2000. $35.00. CELTIC PARABLES. By Robert Van De Weyer, 64 pp. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999. $10.00. SECOND OPINION: REFLECTING ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN BIOETHICS. By Bruce Hilton. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001. $12.00. PROTECTING THE EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ILL CHILD: THE ESSENCE OF THE CHILD LIFE PROFESSION. By Evelyn K. Oremland, Ph.D., edited by Jerome D. Oremland, M.D., 266 pp. Madison, CT: Psychosocial Press, 2000. $45.00.     

Reviews: Books

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND BUDDHISM: AN UNFOLDING DIALOGUE. Edited by Jeremy D. Safran. 443 pp. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003. 19.95 (paperback). THE HOUSE OF JOSHUA. By Mindy Thompson Fullilove. 160 pp. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. $. MAGIC OF THE ORDINARY: RECOVERING THE SHAMANIC IN JUDAISM. By Gershon Winkler. Pp Place: North Atlantic Books, 2003. $. RAISING AMERICA: EXPERTS, PARENTS AND A CENTURY OF ADVICE ABOUT CHILDREN, by Ann Hulbert. 450 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. $27.50.. HONKY. By Dalton Conley. 207 pp. New York: Vintage Books, 2001. $12.00.     

Reviews: Books

SCHOPENHAUER'S PORCUPINES: INTIMACY AND ITS DILEMMAS. By Deborah Anna Luepnitz. 275 pp. New York: Basic Books, 2002. $25.00. CITY OF ONE A MEMOIR. By Francine Cournos. 253 pp. New York: Plume, 2000. $12.95. YIDDISHE KOP: CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING IN JEWISH LEARNING, LORE, AND HUMOR. By Rabbi Nilton Bonder. Boston: Shambhala, 1999.     

Consciousness: A neurobiological approach

Consciousness and the disorders of consciousness can be more fully understood once they are integrated with the neurobiology of mental events. After a review of animal and human research, we found several anatomical structures in the central nervous system are required for consciousness. Identification of the critical structures, however, depends on what is meant by consciousness. In the general sense of mental responsivity, the reticular activating system must be intact. Consciousness has also been defined as the awareness of the sights, sounds, and feelings of everyday experience. In this sense, the system of sensory inputs and outputs of the anterior temporal cortex, amygdala, and the hippocampus must be functional. There is no neural evidence for “higher” consciousness.     

Reviews: Books

THE MYSTICAL MIND: PROBING THE BIOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. By Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew Newberg. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1999. $20.00. WHY GOD WON'T GO AWAY: BRAIN SCIENCE AND THE BIOLOGY OF BELIEF. By Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew Newberg. New York: Ballantine Books, 2001. $14.00. THE TREE AS IT IS: NEW AND SELECTED HAIKU POETRY. By Bernard l. Einbond. 73 pp. Red Moon Press, 2000. $12.00. FEMALE SEXUALITY: CONTEMPORARY ENGAGEMENTS. Edited by Donna Bassin. 507 pp. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1999. $60.00. DAMANGED BONDS. By Michael Eigen. 179 pp. London & New York: Karnac Books. $29.95. TRANSCENDING: REFLECTIONS OF CRIME VICTIMS. By Howard Zehr. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2001. $18.95. ATTACHMENT THEORY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS. By Peter Fonagy. 261 pp. New York: Other Press, 2001. $35.00.THE HANDY RELIGION ANSWER BOOK. By John Renard. 582 pp. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2002. $21.95.THE MANY FACES OF FAITH: A GUIDE TO WORLD RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS. By Richard R. Losch. 187 pp. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2001. $19.00. THE BRONTES AND RELIGION. By Marianne Thornmahlen. 287 pp. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. $60.00.     

Buffers of peer rejection among girls with and without ADHD: the role of popularity with adults and goal-directed solitary play

We investigated a risk-resilience model in 91 girls with ADHD and 58 age- and ethnicity-equated comparison girls, who participated in all-female naturalistic summer research camps. The hypothesized risk factor was peer rejection (assessed via sociometric nominations), with criterion measures including multiinformant composites of aggressive behavior and anxious/depressed symptoms. The two hypothesized protective factors were the girls' popularity with adult staff (assessed via staff ratings) and objective observations of goal-directed solitary play. Peer rejection was related to higher levels of aggressive behavior and depressed/anxious behavior, confirming its status as a risk factor. Next, for all girls, popularity with adults predicted lower levels of aggression and goal-directed solitary play predicted lower levels of anxiety/depression. Whereas popularity with adults was most protective among the peer-accepted subgroup, solitary play was most protective among the peer-rejected subgroup. Diagnostic status (ADHD versus comparison) moderated the findings such that engaging in meaningful solitary play was a stronger predictor of lower levels of anxious/depressed behavior in girls with ADHD than in comparison girls. We discuss the need for replication in prospective research and implications for research and intervention regarding the social functioning of peer-rejected children, particularly those with behavior disorders.     

Archetypal Hatred: Orlando Consciousness

The massacre at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 and wounded 53 people on June 12, 2016, has been termed a terrorist act, another example of the rampant issue of gun control in America, and, of course, a tragedy. It has also been called a hate crime, but most media and other commentary have shied away from a focus on the gay aspect. This article focuses on why the gay community seemed specifically targeted, and what that intentionality represents from a Jungian perspective. Jung's essay on Wotan (a god in Germanic mythology), with a focus on the archetypal underpinnings of Nazi Germany, as well as his thoughts on taboo, specifically relationship taboo in tribal cross-cousin marriages explored in Aion, are examined in an attempt to underscore the importance of an underlying hatred and hostility toward gay men that existed in the unconscious of the shooter, and which may exist in the culture at large. Backlashes from religious groups that occur as gay rights are extended, as well as specific hate crimes like the Orlando shooting, point toward this underlying hostility toward gay men. This hostility is part of a dangerous unconsciousness suffered by the so-called modern world, a reminder of the thin veil of civility we live under: vulnerable, in moments like Orlando, or in larger contexts such as Nazi Germany, to explosion in the form of massacre, despotism, and other tragic and hideous manifestations.     

Consciousness: The transcendentalist manifesto

Phenomenal consciousness, what it is like to have or undergo an experience, is typically understood as an empirical item – an actual or possible object of consciousness. Accordingly, the problem posed by phenomenal consciousness for materialist accounts of the mind is usually understood as an empirical problem: a problem of showing how one sort of empirical item – a conscious state – is produced or constituted by another – a neural process. The development of this problem, therefore, has usually consisted in the articulation of an intuition: no matter how much we know about the brain, this will not allow us to see how it produces or constitutes phenomenal consciousness. Developing a theme first explored by Kant, and then later by Sartre, this paper argues that the real problem posed by phenomenal consciousness is quite different. Consciousness, it will be argued, is not an empirical but a transcendental feature of the world. That is, what it is like to have an experience is not something of which we are aware in the having of that experience, but an item in virtue of which the genuine (non-phenomenal) objects of our consciousness are revealed as being the way they are. Phenomenal consciousness, that is, is not an empirical object of awareness but a transcendental condition of the possibility of there being empirical objects of awareness.     

Consciousness: a neurological perspective

Consciousness is a state so essentially entwined with human experience, yet so difficult to conceptually define and measure. In this article, we explore how a bidimensional model of consciousness involving both level of arousal and subjective awareness of the contents of consciousness can be used to differentiate a range of healthy and altered conscious states. These include the different sleep stages of healthy individuals and the altered states of consciousness associated with neurological conditions such as epilepsy, vegetative state and coma. In particular, we discuss how arousal and awareness are positively correlated in normal physiological states with the exception of REM sleep, while a disturbance in this relationship is characteristic of vegetative state, minimally conscious state, complex partial seizures and sleepwalking.