Where is the ‘posterior hot zone’? Open Review of Cogitate et al (2023): “An Adversarial Collaboration to Critically Evaluate Theories of Consciousness”

Lau, Hakwan

doi:10.31234/osf.io/93ufe

2023

DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/93ufe

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Where is the ‘posterior hot zone’? Open Review of Cogitate et al (2023): “An Adversarial Collaboration to Critically Evaluate Theories of Consciousness”

Hakwan Lau

¹

Abstract: The target of this review is the June 26, 2023 version of a recent preprint (1), in which the authors reported the first set of results of a highly publicized project (Cogitate) generously supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The aim of the ongoing project is to empirically arbitrate between two theories of consciousness in the form of an adversarial collaboration. Overall, the project is strong in large part because of the scale, ample funding, and some aspects of the quality and quantity of t… Show more

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Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, a common problem of theories of consciousness, which pervades this topic as well, is the significant intangibility of most proposals and the resulting distance of theoretical concepts from existing psychological and neuroscientific methods or data. This distance allows very disparate predictions to be drawn from the same hypotheses, undermining the requirement of falsifiability that is necessary for any theory to be considered scientific ( Fleming et al, 2023 ; Lau, 2023 ). Claims concerning dimensions of consciousness therefore need to be more specific and testable using currently available methods to make a difference in the broader discussion about the nature of consciousness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does it mean for consciousness to be multidimensional? A narrative review

Páleník

¹

2024

Front. Psychol.

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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“…Furthermore, a common problem of theories of consciousness, which pervades this topic as well, is the significant intangibility of most proposals and the resulting distance of theoretical concepts from existing psychological and neuroscientific methods or data. This distance allows very disparate predictions to be drawn from the same hypotheses, undermining the requirement of falsifiability that is necessary for any theory to be considered scientific ( Fleming et al, 2023 ; Lau, 2023 ). Claims concerning dimensions of consciousness therefore need to be more specific and testable using currently available methods to make a difference in the broader discussion about the nature of consciousness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does it mean for consciousness to be multidimensional? A narrative review

Páleník

¹

2024

Front. Psychol.

1

0

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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“…But in a way, perhaps it makes sense for some philosophers to explore wild ideas now and then; arguably this is also part of what the discipline is about. However, as we see in recent events, this remarkable trend of growing Bonkerism in philosophy has already begun to directly influence how science is conducted in practice 5 . And this is a real problem 6 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, instead of focusing on the theory, I highlight a deeper philosophical divide within the science of consciousness. *** For an outsider following the recent debates [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] , one amusing fact may be that those who defend IIT against the charge of pseudoscience are actually often willing to describe the theory in terms that may sound just as harsh, if not more so. Anil Seth, for example, openly calls IIT "bonkers".…”

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confidence: 99%

Bonkerism: a NEW Science of Consciousness?

Lau

¹

2024

Preprint

0

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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“…The experiments seem very skillfully executed by a large group of trainees across different labs. However, by design the studies only tested some idiosyncratic predictions made by certain theorists, which are not really logically related to the core ideas of IIT 3,6,7 , as one of the authors himself also acknowledges 8 . The findings therefore do not support the claims that the theory itself was actually meaningfully tested, or that it holds a 'dominant', 'well-established', or 'leading' status [1][2][3][4][5]8 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness as Pseudoscience

IIT-Concerned¹,

Fleming

²

,

Frith

³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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