29 Oct
1994
29 Oct
'94
2:49 p.m.
Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article by:
Jeffrey Gray
on:
CONSCIOUSNESS AND NEUROPSYCOLOGY
This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain
Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing
Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in
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____________________________________________________________________
THE CONTENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS:
A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL CONJECTURE
Jeffrey A. Gray
Department of Psychology
Institute of Psychiatry
De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill
London SE5 8AF, England
jgray(a)ux.psych.lon.ac.uk
ABSTRACT: Drawing on previous models of anxiety, intermediate
memory, the positive symptoms of schizophrenia and goal-directed
behaviour, a neuropsychological hypothesis is proposed for the
generation of the contents of consciousness. It is suggested that
these correspond to the outputs of a comparator that, on a
moment-by-moment basis, compares the current state of the
organism's perceptual world with a predicted state. An outline is
given of the information-processing functions of the comparator
system and of the neural systems which mediate them. The
hypothesis appears to be able to account for a number of key
features of the contents of consciousness. However, it is argued
that neither this nor any existing comparable hypothesis is yet
able to explain why the brain should generate conscious experience
of any kind at all.
KEYWORDS: Conciousness, contents of consciousness, comparator,
septohippocampal system, anxiety, schizophrenia.
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