-
Behavioural Processes Jan 2022The capacity to be self-aware is regarded as a fundamental difference between humans and other species. However, growing evidence challenges this notion, indicating that... (Review)
Review
The capacity to be self-aware is regarded as a fundamental difference between humans and other species. However, growing evidence challenges this notion, indicating that many animals show complex signs and behaviors that are consonant with self-awareness. In this review, we suggest that many animals are indeed self-aware, but that the complexity of this process differs among species. We discuss this topic by addressing several different questions regarding self-awareness: what is self-awareness, how has self-awareness been studied experimentally, which species may be self-aware, what are its potential adaptive advantages. We conclude by proposing alternative models for the emergence of self-awareness in relation to species evolutionary paths, indicating future research questions to advance this field further.
Topics: Animals; Awareness; Biological Evolution; Humans; Perception
PubMed: 34800608
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104543 -
Current Opinion in Psychology Aug 2019Meta-awareness appears to be essential to nearly all forms of mindfulness practice, and it plays a key role in processes that are central to therapeutic effects of... (Review)
Review
Meta-awareness appears to be essential to nearly all forms of mindfulness practice, and it plays a key role in processes that are central to therapeutic effects of mindfulness training, including decentering - shifting one's experiential perspective onto an experience itself - and dereification or metacognitive insight - experiencing thoughts as mental events, and not as the things that they seem to represent. Important advances in the conceptualization of meta-awareness in mindfulness have recently been made, yet more clarity is required in order to characterize the type of meta-awareness implicated in the ongoing monitoring of attention and affect, even while attention itself is focused on an explicit object of awareness such as the breath. To enhance research on this form of meta-awareness cultivated in at least some styles of mindfulness, a construct of sustained, non-propositional meta-awareness is proposed.
Topics: Attention; Awareness; Humans; Metacognition; Mindfulness
PubMed: 31374535
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.003 -
Trends in Neurosciences Jan 2020Ordinary human experience is embedded in a web of causal relations that link the brain to the body and the wider environment. However, there might be conditions in which... (Review)
Review
Ordinary human experience is embedded in a web of causal relations that link the brain to the body and the wider environment. However, there might be conditions in which brain activity supports consciousness even when that activity is fully causally isolated from the body and its environment. Such cases would involve what we call islands of awareness: conscious states that are neither shaped by sensory input nor able to be expressed by motor output. This Opinion paper considers conditions in which such islands might occur, including ex cranio brains, hemispherotomy, and in cerebral organoids. We examine possible methods for detecting islands of awareness, and consider their implications for ethics and for the nature of consciousness.
Topics: Awareness; Brain; Consciousness; Humans
PubMed: 31836316
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2019.11.003 -
PsyCh Journal Mar 2019What do humans mean when they say that time passes quickly or slowly? In this article, we try to respond to this question on the basis of our studies on the judgment of... (Review)
Review
What do humans mean when they say that time passes quickly or slowly? In this article, we try to respond to this question on the basis of our studies on the judgment of the passage of time and its links with the judgment of physical durations. The awareness of the passage of time when consciousness is altered by meditation is also discussed. A dissociation is then made among the "self-time perspective," the "self-duration" (internal duration), and the "world-duration" (external duration). A link is also established between the self-time perspective and the "narrative self," on one hand, and the self-duration and the "minimal self," on the other hand, that is confirmed in our qualitative analysis of testimonials of four meditators. The awareness of self-duration is thus related to the awareness of the embodied self. When the sense of self is altered and the consciousness of the body is lower, then the subjective experience of internal time changes. However, the mechanisms allowing the disappearance of the self with the feeling of being outside time during meditation remains to be elucidated.
Topics: Awareness; Consciousness; Humans; Meditation; Self Concept; Time Perception
PubMed: 30740922
DOI: 10.1002/pchj.270 -
Progress in Brain Research 2019Accumulating research in education shows that contemplative practices contribute to and foster well-being of individuals in sustainable ways. This bears special... (Review)
Review
Accumulating research in education shows that contemplative practices contribute to and foster well-being of individuals in sustainable ways. This bears special importance for teachers, as it affects not only them but also their students. Based on accumulating behavioral and neuroscientific findings, it has been suggested that a key process by which mindfulness meditation enhances self-regulation is the altering of self-awareness. Indeed, accumulated work shows that the underlying networks supporting various types of self-awareness are malleable following meditative practice. However, the field of education has developed independently from the study of the self and its relation to contemplative neuroscience thus far, and to date there is no systematic account linking this accumulating body of knowledge to the field of education or discussing how it might be relevant to teachers. Here we show how incorporating insights from contemplative neuroscience-which are built on the conceptualization and neuroscience of the self-into contemplative pedagogy can inform the field and might even serve as a core underlying mechanism tying together different empirical evidence. This review points to potential neural mechanisms by which mindfulness meditation helps teachers manage stress and promote supportive learning environments, resulting in improved educational outcomes, and thus it has significant implications for educational policy regarding teachers.
Topics: Awareness; Brain; Education; Humans; Mindfulness; Neurosciences
PubMed: 30732845
DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2018.10.015 -
Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology Feb 2010Cardiac surgery represents a sub-group of patients at significantly increased risk of intraoperative awareness. Relatively few recent publications have targeted the... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Cardiac surgery represents a sub-group of patients at significantly increased risk of intraoperative awareness. Relatively few recent publications have targeted the topic of awareness in this group. The aim of this review is to identify areas of awareness research that may equally be extrapolated to cardiac anesthesia in the attempt to increase understanding of the nature and significance of this scenario and how to reduce it.
RECENT FINDINGS
The formation of both implicit and explicit memory during anesthesia may be the result of fluctuations in hypnotic state. Owing to the low incidence of awareness, prospective studies produce inadequate patient numbers to clearly identify risks, causes and sequelae of intraoperative awareness. A recent analysis of case reports has identified two main risk factors for intraoperative awareness. Awareness research increasingly focuses on refining processed electroencephalography (EEG) monitors and establishing their effectiveness in reducing awareness, but with conflicting results.
SUMMARY
Identification of high-risk patients, the use of balanced anesthesia techniques and increased vigilance on the part of the anesthetist will go a long way in preventing intraoperative awareness. There is evidence that using processed EEG monitors reduces the incidence of awareness. However, understanding their limitations and interpatient variability in dose-response curves, and interpreting the data in relation to the specific drugs and techniques used is paramount.
Topics: Anesthesia, General; Anesthetics, General; Awareness; Cardiac Surgical Procedures; Electroencephalography; Humans; Memory; Risk Factors; Unconsciousness
PubMed: 19949325
DOI: 10.1097/ACO.0b013e328334cb75 -
Anasthesiologie, Intensivmedizin,... Feb 2003The first cases of general anesthesia were already cases with awareness. Until today, case reports of patients with awareness are published. These published cases are... (Review)
Review
The first cases of general anesthesia were already cases with awareness. Until today, case reports of patients with awareness are published. These published cases are likely to be the top of the iceberg, as most patients with postoperative recall do not inform their anesthesiologist. Incidence of awareness with recall is between 0.1 and 0.2 %. In a large multicenter-study, incidence of recall was 0.1 % without, and 0.18 % with the use of muscle relaxants. The risk is increased with decreased doses of anesthetics, e.g. in patients with hemodynamic instability (trauma cases), patients undergoing cesarean section or cardiac surgery. Intraoperative awareness does not necessarily cause explicit (conscious) memory. Even in the absence of explicit memory, implicit (unconscious) memory can still have consequences for the patient. In the worst case, it can cause post-traumatic stress disorder. There is doubt whether patients may profit from positive suggestions given during intraoperative awareness. Recommendations to administer benzodiazepines to prevent explicit memory must be reconsidered. Complete neuromuscular block should be avoided whenever possible. If a patient is thought to be aware, he should be contacted, his situation should be explained and affirming comments should be given until consciousness is lost again. Postoperative visit should include questions about awareness and recall. The anesthetist should not disbelieve reported recall. Explanation of what had happened and referral to an experienced psychologist must be offered. Thus, the incidence of severe sequelae should decrease.
Topics: Anesthesia, General; Anesthesiology; Awareness; Humans; Mental Recall; Monitoring, Intraoperative; Postoperative Complications; Postoperative Period
PubMed: 12557119
DOI: 10.1055/s-2003-36993 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews May 2019Lucid dreaming refers to the phenomenon of becoming aware of the fact that one is dreaming during ongoing sleep. Despite having been physiologically validated for... (Review)
Review
Lucid dreaming refers to the phenomenon of becoming aware of the fact that one is dreaming during ongoing sleep. Despite having been physiologically validated for decades, the neurobiology of lucid dreaming is still incompletely characterized. Here we review the neuroscientific literature on lucid dreaming, including electroencephalographic, neuroimaging, brain lesion, pharmacological and brain stimulation studies. Electroencephalographic studies of lucid dreaming are mostly underpowered and show mixed results. Neuroimaging data is scant but preliminary results suggest that prefrontal and parietal regions are involved in lucid dreaming. A focus of research is also to develop methods to induce lucid dreams. Combining training in mental set with cholinergic stimulation has shown promising results, while it remains unclear whether electrical brain stimulation could be used to induce lucid dreams. Finally, we discuss strategies to measure lucid dreaming, including best-practice procedures for the sleep laboratory. Lucid dreaming has clinical and scientific applications, and shows emerging potential as a methodology in the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness. Further research with larger sample sizes and refined methodology is needed.
Topics: Awareness; Brain; Brain Mapping; Brain Waves; Cognitive Neuroscience; Dreams; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Metacognition; Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
PubMed: 30880167
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.008 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Nov 2021Although bottom-up attention can improve visual performance with and without awareness to the exogenous cue, whether they are governed by a common neural computation...
Although bottom-up attention can improve visual performance with and without awareness to the exogenous cue, whether they are governed by a common neural computation remains unclear. Using a modified Posner paradigm with backward masking, we found that the cueing effect displayed a monotonic gradient profile (Gaussian-like), both with and without awareness, whose scope, however, was significantly wider with than without awareness. This awareness-dependent scope offered us a unique opportunity to change the relative size of the attention field to the stimulus, differentially modulating the gain of attentional selection, as proposed by the normalization model of attention. Therefore, for each human subject (male and female), the stimulus size was manipulated as their respective mean attention fields with and without awareness while stimulus contrast was varied in a spatial cueing task. By measuring the gain pattern of contrast-response functions on the spatial cueing effect derived by visible or invisible cues, we observed changes in the cueing effect consonant with changes in contrast gain for visible cues and response gain for invisible cues. Importantly, a complementary analysis confirmed that subjects' awareness-dependent attention fields can be simulated by using the normalization model of attention. Together, our findings indicate an awareness-dependent normalization framework of visual bottom-up attention, placing a necessary constraint, namely, awareness, on our understanding of the neural computations underlying visual attention. Bottom-up attention is known to improve visual performance with and without awareness. We discovered that manipulating subjects' awareness can modulate their attention fields of visual bottom-up attention, which offers a unique opportunity to regulate its normalization processes. On the one hand, by measuring the gain pattern of contrast-response functions on the spatial cueing effect derived by visible or invisible cues, we observed changes in the cueing effect consonant with changes in contrast gain for visible cues and response gain for invisible cues. On the other hand, by using the normalization model of attention, subjects' awareness-dependent attention fields can be simulated successfully. Our study supports important predictions of the normalization model of visual bottom-up attention and further reveals its dependence on awareness.
Topics: Adult; Attention; Awareness; Cues; Female; Humans; Male; Models, Neurological; Visual Perception
PubMed: 34611027
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1110-21.2021 -
Consciousness and Cognition May 2015Are individuals responsible for behaviour that is implicitly biased? Implicitly biased actions are those which manifest the distorting influence of implicit... (Review)
Review
Are individuals responsible for behaviour that is implicitly biased? Implicitly biased actions are those which manifest the distorting influence of implicit associations. That they express these 'implicit' features of our cognitive and motivational make up has been appealed to in support of the claim that, because individuals lack the relevant awareness of their morally problematic discriminatory behaviour, they are not responsible for behaving in ways that manifest implicit bias. However, the claim that such influences are implicit is, in fact, not straightforwardly related to the claim that individuals lack awareness of the morally problematic dimensions of their behaviour. Nor is it clear that lack of awareness does absolve from responsibility. This may depend on whether individuals culpably fail to know something that they should know. I propose that an answer to this question, in turn, depends on whether other imperfect cognitions are implicated in any lack of the relevant kind of awareness. In this paper I clarify our understanding of 'implicitly biased actions' and then argue that there are three different dimensions of awareness that might be at issue in the claim that individuals lack awareness of implicit bias. Having identified the relevant sense of awareness I argue that only one of these senses is defensibly incorporated into a condition for responsibility, rejecting recent arguments from Washington & Kelly for an 'externalist' epistemic condition. Having identified what individuals should - and can - know about their implicitly biased actions, I turn to the question of whether failures to know this are culpable. This brings us to consider the role of implicit biases in relation to other imperfect cognitions. I conclude that responsibility for implicitly biased actions may depend on answers to further questions about their relationship to other imperfect cognitions.
Topics: Awareness; Cognition; Humans; Knowledge; Morals
PubMed: 25467778
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.08.024