Page 60 - Artificial Intelligence in the Age of Neural Networks and Brain Computing

11. Why Does Resonance Trigger Consciousness? 47

conscious recognition of visual objects and scenes. Both kinds of resonances may
synchronize during conscious seeing and recognition, so that we know what a
familiar object is when we consciously see it. Stream-shroud resonances are pre-
dicted to support conscious hearing of auditory qualia. Spectral-pitch-and-timbre
resonances are predicted to support conscious recognition of sources in auditory
streams. Stream-shroud and spectral-pitch-and-timbre resonances may synchro-
nize during conscious hearing and recognition of auditory streams, so that we
know what the familiar sounds are that are segregated in a stream. Item-list reso-
nances are predicted to support recognition of speech and language. They may syn-
chronize with stream-shroud and spectral-pitch-and-timbre resonances during
conscious hearing of speech and language, and build upon the selection of auditory
sources by spectral-pitch-and-timbre resonances in order to recognize the acous-
tical signals that are grouped together within these streams. Cognitive-emotional
resonances are predicted to support conscious percepts of feelings, as well as
recognition of the source of these feelings. Cognitive-emotional resonances can
also synchronize with resonances that support conscious qualia and knowledge
about them. All of these resonances have distinct anatomical substrates that are
explainedinRefs. [1]; which also explains various psychological and neurobiolog-
ical data from typical and clinical individuals.

11. WHY DOES RESONANCE TRIGGER CONSCIOUSNESS?
Detailed analyses of psychological and neurobiological data by ART clarify why
resonance is necessary for consciousness. As one example: In order to fully compute
visual boundaries and surfaces whereby to see the world, the brain computes three
pairs of complementary computational properties of boundaries and surfaces
(Fig. 2.8), along with three hierarchical resolutions of uncertainty that require
multiple processing stages to overcome. This example illustrates that there is a great
deal of uncertainty in the early stages of visual processing by the brain. Only after all
three hierarchical resolutions of uncertainty are complete, and after boundaries
are completed and surfaces filled-in, has the brain constructed a contextually
informative and temporally stable enough representation of scenic objects on which
to base adaptive behaviors.
If this is indeed the case, then why do not the earlier stages undermine behavior?
The proposed answer is that brain resonance, and with it conscious awareness,
is triggered at the processing stage that represents visual boundary and surface
representations, after they are complete and stable enough to control visually based
behaviors like attentive looking and reaching. ART also explains how, after such a
resonance is triggered between prestriate visual cortex and parietal cortex, it can
propagate bottom-up to higher cortical areas, such as prefrontal cortex, and
top-down to earlier cortical and LGN processing areas, using the ART matching
rule (Fig. 2.4) to select data that are consistent with the triggering resonance and
to suppress inconsistent information.