Nonlinear neurodynamics of intentionality

Journal/Book: J Mind Behav. 1997; 18: PO Box 522, Village Station, New York, NY 10014. Inst Mind Behavior Inc. 291-304.

Abstract: Study of electroencephalographic brain activity in behaving animals has guided development of a model for the self organization of goal-directed behavior. Synthesis of a dynamical representation of brain function is based in the concept of intentionality as the organizing principle of animal and human behavior The constructions of patterns of brain activity constitute meaning and not information or representations. The three accepted meanings of intention: ''aboutness,'' goal-seeking, and wound healing, can be incorporated into the dynamics of meaningful behavior, centered in the limbic system interacting with the sensory and motor systems. Evidence is noted for the maintenance in cortical neuropil of a felt work of synaptic connections, that have incorporated past experience by changes in learning, and that act as a unified whole in shaping each intentional action at each moment. This constitutes the intentional structure of the brain. Meaning is a focus having a place without edges in this structure. The focus continually moves through it along a chaotic trajectory; the meaning occupies the whole structure. In this view, consciousness is the active state of an intentional structure, and awareness is the subjective aspect of the shifting focus.

Note: Article Freeman WJ, Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Mol & Cell Biol Lsa 129, Berkeley,CA 94720 USA

Keyword(s): OLFACTORY EEG; TIME-SERIES; MODEL; BEHAVIOR; SYSTEM; RECOGNITION; PATTERNS; BULB

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