The Study of Consciousness by Natural Science Methods: On a Possible Role of Wave-Like Integration Processes
Understanding the functioning of consciousness is a fundamental scientific challenge. This issue is central for sociohumanitarian sciences and, at the same time, one of the main unsolved problems of modern natural science. Through the use of new physical methods of neuroimaging it appeared to be possible to update significantly knowledge about brain processes which underlie particular cognitive functions. At the same time, the studies of individual neurons or their conglomerates of different levels of aggregation have not yet resulted in tangible improvements in the understanding of brain integrative functions, such as consciousness, attention and intelligence. Over the past 10 years, results of a number of international megaprojects on the brain modeling were quite modest. Perhaps, the reason for this situation is the lack of consideration of the wave processes role in the integration of spatially distributed “modules” of cognitive processing. The study and simulation of such processes is precisely the subject of our study in the some grants framework of Russian Foundation for Basic Research. One can presume that, along with the progress in understanding the underlying brain mechanisms of consciousness and intentionality, one of the results of this approach would be a radical improvement in the efficiency of the modern “braincomputer” and “eye-brain-computer” interfaces.