Brain Science — Consciousness Theories Cannot Explain Mental Health Hence Are Falsified | Working Memory and Predictive Coding Too
The theories of consciousness that cannot be used to functionally explain mental health problems are simply inaccurate, regardless of how fanciful they appear. There are some who say the hard problem of consciousness isn’t testable, but would not have said so if their theory could set up a test for it.
The scientific and philosophical approaches to consciousness are cool for abstractions, debates, questions and guided tests, if there is no bigger problem of mental health that continues to confound solutions in this digital era.
There are often views that mental health is political, social, economic, and so on, when it is obvious that solving all economic or political problems would not eradicate anxiety, depression, and so on. There are those who say mental health has nothing to do with the brain to a wide audience, using an opportunity that could have been useful towards progress to mislead others.
The resources in the field of consciousness would have set mental health on a better course, if healthy or ill-healthy consciousness is themed in theories, rather than consciousness as unsolvable, so there is no failure in pursuing anything disconnected under the narrative of seeking c.
Consciousness is simply a quantity that having it means being alive. The quantity is graded as prioritized and pre-prioritized, determining reaches. These grades exceed attention, awareness, conscious or unconscious, automatic or control.
The quantity goes to locations to acquire properties. It is the property acquired that determines what is experienced. Experience is memory and feelings. Then reaction follows.
That is what consciousness is, the quantity, what it becomes, where it goes, and its outcome. It fits in to being and knowing, or what it feels like to be something, or say a bat.
The reason to have consciousness is to have a quantity of existence that can go through those. It is the properties it uses to define whatever is coming in to the brain from within [the body] or from the environment that enables the being to interact. The quantity is present in coma, under general anesthesia, sleep and so on, though what it becomes and where it goes is different from when awake and about.
It is not important to have a theory of consciousness that is accepted or that this is it because being unsolved is the prestige. But what is important is how does the brain work to define mental health or ill-health at any moment?
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There is a recent paper, Consciousness as a Memory System, with a new theory of consciousness and an amazing literature review on existing theories and the history of the subject.
They noted that, “We argue that consciousness originally developed as part of the episodic memory system — quite likely the part needed to accomplish that flexible recombining of information. We posit further that consciousness was subsequently co-opted to produce other functions that are not directly relevant to memory per se, such as problem-solving, abstract thinking, and language.”
All the existing and accepted labels of memory are not the functional basis of memory, regardless of how many studies seem to validate them. They are labels for specific experiences, never constant or account for how mental health invalidates them.
Working memory or short-term memory is only accurate if the information is neutral. If a two-word or three-word bad news is delivered to someone in the same dimension of working memory, it will no longer be working, it will be lingering memory.
Episodic memory of past events, episodes or experiences are weak when it is the episode remembered of an event that is causing trouble, but the other thing that should indicate otherwise was not recalled.
This means that property of one was acquired and the other was not, for peace or ease. The memory does not function by such episodes.
Semantic memory has to be neutral to actually be semantic. If any so-called semantic memory is recalled, but acquires the property of trauma, then it is something else.
Associative memory which is like remembering one and linking with another, or like concepts, frames, or categories in linguistics describes what looks like everything tied to that is stored in one place, without the possibility there is a bounce off, or that there are sides to stores, or that associations can be different for the same things — at different times.
Also, if one word brings what is similar, then the memory [for every word] would be cluttered with repetition resulting in low efficiency. Also, it does not explain how it works for interoception. It is not the way the memory functions, even if some experiences seem like association is default.
Memory
The memory is simply locations where properties for the relaying quantity are acquired. Property initially comes in by the relaying quantity. If it does more than once, it becomes a large store of commonality or similarity, while a small store contains unique information on things.
It is where, how [sequence] and what large store the relaying quantity goes that determines what property is acquired, hence experience. Whenever anything is remembered, the property was acquired, when forgotten, that property was not. Depression, anxiety, love, hate, sleep, appetite, satiation, thirst, fatigue, stress, energy, cravings, strength, promptings, blurry, understanding, indifference, language, interest and so on are properties in memory that when the relaying quantity goes there or to a side, it determines the experience and its degree.
There is nothing long term in the memory. It is experienced as long term so long the property keeps getting acquired, but not so when it does not.
The quantity is constant and properties are constant. At any moment or in any experience, the constants could structure something different for everyone, such that whatever the case, not everyone feels empathy all the time, or love, hate, fear, sadness, delight, laughter and so on.
Opinions too are properties in memory locations, whatever is experienced that different people have different takes means they express along the properties it acquires which can include bias, sincerity and so forth.
Memory is also not just for external senses. It is also for internal senses. Regulations and control follow the same rule of properties as well. Regulation or control gives limits and extents it knows [or memory]. These can often break when the property acquisition process is disrupted by something else.
One may not eat for long hours, if the property of hunger isn’t acquired for whatever reason, similar to several other functions of the body. In anxiety, with fast heart rate, breathing [fast or slow] and so on, it is that the properties to be acquired for normality [by pre-prioritized stores] were displaced by that anxious shift, making them irregular.
Sleep as a property can be acquired by being in a restful position during the day, and may not at night, when thoughts are running wild or there is an engaging activity.
This property acquisition problem could be a reason for autoimmune diseases, some blood sugar, high blood pressure problems, idiopathic conditions, and so on since something wasn’t acquired at some point, for control and it crossed into problematic. Property acquisition is also responsible for pre-symptomatic, symptomatic, asymptomatic and post-symptomatic quad in conditions.
There is property acquisition problem with delusion, hallucination, voices in serious mental illnesses. Though thought disorder and intrusive thought are problems too, thought order and non-intrusive thoughts are not defined. It is the property acquired or not that determines states of illnesses, mentally.
There is no mental illness without thought. Properties not acquired could lead to automatic misplay or lack of balance, tremors, talking irregularly, manic episode and so on, but the quantity is always present. Properties are also lost under the influence of substances, including for overdose. In addictions and substance abuse, high-degree promptings are properties acquired to keep at it. Promptings, as properties, are also present in some self-harm or self-injury situations, and so on.
Properties in memory can be acquired in sequences and in splits. The relaying quantity could have an early-split or go-before in a direction as prior, for anticipation or expectation. Sometimes, if it matches could lead to delight, or if it doesn’t could be disappointing. It could also match and be disappointing, or may not and be delightful. There are often splits for what to expect, what to type, or say, and held, so that when the rest follows, it goes through the sequence. This exceeds predictive coding and processing that don’t explain the disappointment factor for mental health, but says the brain makes predictions or corrects them when there is an error.
The brain never makes predictions. If it did, everyone or close to would have an autoimmune disease by a wrong prediction. Also, the properties that determine risks and consequences would be wrongly predicted, so everyone would take something for another and society would collapse.
There are sequences such that in some cases, it is wanted that way, and it is fine, and some others something fresh or an adventure is preferable. It is same sequence that leads to saying something is cliché or bland, but different sequence causes problems where there are protocols, or in some fields with standards, such that it will never be considered if it does not come in a certain way or tailored to fit.
Sequence is also a form of property-acquired in memory, that an audio listened to or video watched before without remembering the details but finding it familiar when listening or watching again, because it goes through the same sequence [as a property], then to other property locations.
Predictive coding, Bayesian brain, controlled hallucination or the free energy principle explains no functional sequence.
The memory is not simply to know, but that what is [known], as a property, is acquired. There are several experiences where most things are forgotten. There are times when most of the things known are not accessed or used. It is good that it is there, but the acquisition is more important. This is a problem in degenerative diseases, where it is possible some properties might be there, but cannot be acquired.
It is in the memory where all internal and external senses have properties. It is where the property of one, active can affect an array that displaces the properties of another, such that the mind can affect the body and vice versa.
It is the constants of the brain that determine mental health. It is also these constants that determine consciousness.
Cells, molecules, tissues, blood, and so on are constant in the brain, but similar to other organs. However, brain cells uniquely have impulses. It is possible to induce or inhibit an impulse, which results in side effects, showing that one is part of a build or construct for higher-constants that determine experiences.
There are explorations of the neural mechanisms of conscious perception, but it is the build or constructs for that quantity and available properties that matter, not individual neurons.
Quantity of Consciousness
In brain science, all senses arrive at the thalamus, except for smell that arrives at the olfactory bulb. It is where they are processed or integrated before relay to the cerebral cortex for interpretation.
It is theorized that sensory processing or integration is into a uniform unit, quantity or identity which is thought or a form of thought. It is what becomes the quantity of consciousness, or the equivalent, representative, identity, uniformity of all senses to the brain. The liver is regulated by the brain in the form of thought, same for the car, house, chair, all in the brain in the form of thought.
This is how the brain makes the mind: by converting senses to forms of thought. Mind consists mostly of the quantity [thought] and the property [memory].
Thought is what is used for imagination, thinking, prediction, perception, relayed to the cerebral cortex for interpretation.
Thought is not subordinate to thinking. Thought is the quantity that thinking uses. The confusion makes some say conscious thought to mean thinking of something in the moment and knowing that, or close. But thought is what consciousness is, regardless of grade, so conscious or unconscious thoughts are mislabeled.
It is having thought or its form that means being alive. Thought can be prioritized or pre-prioritized, but must be present in all states with certain properties for life to go on.
The car, house, chair are not in another form then converted again to what can be used to think, no. They are in the same form as thought used in thinking, dreams, imagination, memories and so on. The car to the brain is in the form of thought. It is with thought it is related and interacted with. It is thought about it that relays in the brain [for properties] to determine how the car in the external determines what to feel, good or bad, or how to be careful with it.
Thought is also the basis for all interoception. Pain is not just a ‘feeling’. Pain does not disrupt thinking. Pain is processed as a form of thought which may take prioritization and acquires that property. So in the moment of pain and screams [outcome], it is not that thoughts are paused, but that pain is a form of thought, prioritized, so there can’t be thinking except there is an interchange with pre-prioritized. This is the same for several other internal processes, including during illnesses.
The brain isn’t processing different quantities but something uniform.
Hurt is a property in memory that can be acquired by thought, converted from any word [sense] in any situation. If it does, it hurts, if it doesn’t then nothing. Property acquisition variation also makes people say they don’t feel the same way about something anymore, for good or not.
Interpretation in the cerebral cortex is knowing, feeling and reaction. Knowing is memory, with locations to acquire properties. Feeling is a stretch of knowing, but different. It may be a slice or side in the property location, but it is mostly often determined by properties in memory first.
The memory has feel-like, or what it is to know what cold is without the experience, to have empathy for others. It is also possible to feel cold while it is cold, which is the actual feeling at its destination. This is the same for anger, delight and so on: memory and feeling go together before reaction — parallel or perpendicular.
The quantity constantly relays across these destinations — as prioritized to bring these to bear.
It is only the prioritized quantity at any moment that can go through the stages, though there are often fast and numerous interchanges with pre-prioritized, to make them do too. All quantities for senses must have prioritization at once, per cycle, mostly during sleep for some, so they can simulate the process and be ready should there be a problem. Situations that disrupt prioritization and pre-prioritization cycles are often detrimental to physical and mental health.
Mental Health
Mental health is a state of thought with balanced properties. Any property acquired that is just not balanced would result in problems. There are horrible situations and conditions some individuals have faced that the thought never acquired the properties to make them lose their composure.
There are some mild situations that some have faced that thought acquired certain properties that made them lose control. It is certain properties that some public figures or ideologies want their people to acquire, so they the quantity is targeted for those directions and there must be no countering.
How the quantity relays to acquire properties across situations and conditions, to show in a general way that this is how the brain works, could change what it means to have good mental health or not.
Mental health is already everywhere, but what it is unknown. It is not cells, or molecules, but thought and its properties.
Integrated Information Theory: This is close to what could be happening in the brain in general. Something like for something to be conscious, it has to have information and has to be integrated. Incoming senses are information, they are integrated into a uniform unit. Though it does not account for prioritization, pre-prioritization, sequences, splits, properties and so on, making it weak and irrelevant to mental health.
Global Workspace Theory: Something like a subset of the entire consciousness is conscious at any moment, which is more like prioritization. It discusses how in a theater, there are actors on stage with lighting, but there could be directors, and others in the audience, in the dark, powering those on stage, explaining unconscious processes and their influence on conscious processes. It also discusses how there is automatic, to want to do something and instead do another. It uses evidence like binocular rivalry and others saying one thing is only conscious.
This is easily falsified by the observation that walking and talking, eating and talking, driving, listening and talking are all active processes in an interval, not unconscious. Just one thing in that whole process is the most prioritized in the moment, while others are in pre-prioritization, but there are fast and numerous interchanges — seamlessly that it seems like it is possible to do certain activities at the same time.
While eating, swallowing is prioritized even if for a moment. When typing, just one thing, per moment, is prioritized, which could be looking at the screen, or the keypad, or the thing held in mind to type, or to read and so on, but there are so many interchanges, making it sync without interruption, but the mind is just one-thing prioritization only, beyond conscious or saying unconscious.
Whatever seems like automatic is started or stopped by prioritization, even though it seems it went on unconsciously or in pre-prioritization, or autonomously. The so-called unconscious or autonomic processes are pre-prioritized quantity going in sequences and able to acquire properties as well, just enough for the process, without the full domination of prioritization.
Global workspace theory and company don’t also have relevance to mental health, albeit there are EEG tests and others to validate. Yes, the brain works in those subsets, including evidence from a recent study, Natural switches in behaviour rapidly modulate hippocampal coding but the expanse of what it means for broad processing is not explained by global workspace. The theory explains a part of how the brain works, similar to how those memory labels say a part of how the brain works, but their broad applicability is voided.
Predictive coding that says the brain generates predictions using its internal model and updates the error with an external model has no basis in the function of the brain. It does not explain how disappointment may lead to bad mental health or if surprising lead to good. The brain would be a disaster if it made guesses like lottery, from past winning numbers.
Predictive coding, processing can be used for cute computational models and fill in the blank concept for the brain, but it is inaccurate, it does not say the quantity or uniformity of memory, does not say properties, does not account for prioritization, and does not apply for anything necessary in the progress psychopharmacology needs.
Why would the brain, specifically the memory, make predictions when it has rules? Why would the brain be a hallucination machine, when hallucination is a problem of not acquiring properties? Why would the brain generate best guess or controlled hallucination when its quantity and their properties have mechanisms?
Predictive coding that can be used to explain something as straightforward as tickling by others and why it is not common by self, falls apart when tickling by other does not often work, and by self sometimes works.
In general, it is possible to be heading for the kitchen and have a thought that what if something is seen there, but get there and see nothing. It does not always happen to have the thought of what might be or happen when going somewhere, so correcting or updating may only be valid if it does, and then not match.
Also, what is familiar is not necessarily expected. What is familiar may not be remembered until seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched, so there may not be prediction in some cases with what is familiar.
All so-called predictions are in the form of thought. It is the split of thought [relaying in transient stores] that decides what becomes of anticipation or expectation, whenever it does.
The scenarios that predictive processing and predictive coding cannot explain are not because there is a problem with prediction or some error, it is because predictive coding or processing does not broadly apply.
Others: There are higher-order theories, there is the Edelman theory of biological or corticothalamic basis of consciousness, there is quantum mechanics and so on.
Consciousness
Studies on consciousness will continue to go and may continue to be complex, including further abstractions. Scientists and philosophers have put in amazing work in developing many of these, and have contributed to knowledge in some ways.
However, what matters now is mental health, far exceeding AI [simply a memory system, with limitation of what it can know, it cannot know it is being struck, or falling, or getting incinerated]. If a theory of consciousness can move knowledge of mental health forward it would strike out from the pack into real world usefulness.
