Negli ultimi decenni le neuroscienze hanno fatto passi da gigante. Ci siamo fatti un’idea abbastanza chiara di come complicati circuiti neuronali siano in grado di discriminare colori diversi, di coordinare movimenti complessi come la prensione di un oggetto, di codificare le memorie, di produrre le elaborate sequenze motorie che sono alla base della comunicazione verbale, e molto altro. Oggi, conosciamo talmente bene alcuni di questi meccanismi che possiamo riprodurli fedelmente nei circuiti artificiali di un calcolatore. Ogni anno, la stampa generalista, decine di libri e migliaia di articoli scientifici ci raccontano gli incredibili successi delle neuroscienze inducendoci a credere che, oramai, conosciamo la relazione tra mente e cervello in ogni suo minimo dettaglio: scoperte le aree cerebrali dell’empatia, quelle che fanno la differenza tra un cittadino americano che voterà per i repubblicani e uno che voterà per i democratici, quelle che spiegano perché alla fine compriamo una bevanda gassata piuttosto che un’altra. Ma, poi, non sappiamo rispondere alla domanda più importante: come fa la materia a ospitare un soggetto che semplicemente vede luce, o buio? Qual è, se c’è, il segreto della coscienza? Dov’è l’ingrediente speciale che fa sì che le funzioni di un complicato circuito si accompagnino all’esperienza di qualche cosa, o meno? È il mistero su cui indaga questo libro, che racconta la storia di una spedizione ai confini della coscienza. Per provare a riconoscere, misurare e apprezzare la cosa più preziosa che c’è, nel nostro cervello e nel mondo che ci circonda.
(Google translate)
In recent decades neuroscience has made great strides. We made a pretty good idea of how complicated neural circuits are capable of discriminating different colors to coordinate complex movements such as grasping an object, to encode memories, to produce the elaborate motor sequences that are the basis of verbal communication , and much more. Today, we know so well that some of these mechanisms we can faithfully reproduce them in artificial circuits of a computer. Each year, the general press, dozens of books and thousands of scientific articles tell us about the incredible achievements of neuroscience leading us to believe that, by now, we know the relationship between mind and brain in every detail: discovered the brain areas of empathy, those that make the difference between an American citizen will vote for Republicans and one that will vote for Democrats, those which explain why in the end we buy a fizzy drink rather than another. But, then, we do not know to answer the most important question: how does the material to accommodate a person who simply sees light or dark? What, if any, the secret of the conscience? Where is the special ingredient that makes the functions of a complicated circuit will accompany the experience of something, or not? It is the mystery being investigated by this book, which tells the story of an expedition to the borders of consciousness. To try to recognize, measure and appreciate the most precious thing there is, in our brains and in the world around us.
di Giulio Tononi, Marcello Massimini
Se riuscissimo a stabilire un “principio di coscienza” e a misurarlo sarebbe una rivoluzione scientifica, morale e filosofica di enorme portata. Questo libro racconta la storia di un’appassionante spedizione alla ricerca dei segni della coscienza nel coma, nel sonno e nel sogno; e di tutto ciò che ne consegue.
(Google Translate)
Nothing greater
by Giulio Tononi and Marcello Massimini
If we could establish a “principle of consciousness” and measure it would be a scientific revolution, moral and philosophical enormous. This book tells the story of an exciting expedition in search of signs of consciousness in coma, in sleep and dream; and everything that goes with it.
NULLA DI PIÙ GRANDE : Dalla veglia al sonno, dal coma al sogno. Il segreto della coscienza e la sua misura
[Nothing bigger than that: from wakefulness to sleep, from coma to dream. Unravelling consciousness through a quantitative measure]
by Marcello Massimini e Giulio Tononi.
by Simone Macrì
http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?pid=S0021-25712014000300014&script=sci_arttext
Defining whether we are conscious or not seems a rather trivial task: of course we are! We would not be able to read or answer this question if we were not. But then, if a definition of consciousness were required, would we be equally assertive? Not quite, we deem.
Some of us may get some philosophical inspiration in Decartes’ “cogito ergo sum” quote; some others may resume high-school literature memories and resort to Leopold Bloom, the principal character of the James Joyce’s Ulysses, who becomes world famous for his “stream of consciousness”, a nearly unintelligible chain of thoughts that rapidly crosses his brain. The most reckless may seek for an answer in scientific books under the assumption that someone must have attempted to define consciousness and shall have found a conclusive answer. The latter will most likely approach with great excitement this book written by two medical doctors, a neurophysiologist (Marcello Massimini) and a psychiatrist (Giulio Tononi). The authors, two leading scientists in the neurophysiology of consciousness, who globetrotted between Italy, Belgium, Canada, and United States of America, attempted and managed to give a quantifiable and measurable form to something as vague as consciousness.
In this outstanding book, the authors provide a series of fundamental lessons to highly educated readers and scientists: on the one hand, they detail many years of research devoted to addressing the theoretical and biological mechanisms behind consciousness; on the other hand, they provide a book describing the quintessential nature of any scientific endeavor. The latter can be exemplified through an hourglass: it has a large upper part that tightens to reach its narrowest part in the center and then a widening end culminating in a section as large as where it started from. Any scientific piece should follow the same structure: a broad general phenomenon of interest (large upper part), which is operationalized through finite experiments and stringent methodologies (narrow center) that, in turn, can allow certain conclusions regarding the aforementioned general phenomenon.
This book masters this approach. Starting with general questions about consciousness, it delves into the variable ways in which this aspect has been approached by various disciplines (philosophy and biomedicine in particular). Then, it highlights fundamental paradoxes of consciousness that cannot apparently be solved without the adoption of a scientific approach capable of recapitulating available data. For example, why does the cerebellum contain four times as many neurons as the thalamocortical cortex and has little-to-nothing to do with consciousness? Why aren’t we generally aware of the fact that the retina has a blind spot? Is there a theoretical approach capable of explaining these and many other apparent paradoxes?
Particularly interesting, at this point, have we found the reference to Charles Darwin. All data for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection were there: what was needed was someone capable of summarizing them into a unifying theory. The authors attempt and, to our perspective, succeed in proposing a unifying theory of consciousness explaining these and many other fascinating phenomena.
We will not describe the theory here, as we would like readers (likely scholars or students of biomedical disciplines, and those with a specific interest in how our brain governs the still largely unknown machinery regulating our inner desires and survival motivations) to experience the same excitement we had while reading and grasping its meaning.
The proposed theory constitutes an extremely powerful tool to be adopted in many different contexts, not just the solution of apparent paradoxes. In particular, it will aid the communication between medical doctors and those patients in which consciousness is undefined. Patients that, by accident or natural aging, present in vegetative or minimally conscious states. Through the theoretical framework defined in this book, we have a tool to ask questions that we never were able to in the past. We can’t wait to see what the answers will be.
ジュリオ・トノーニ , マルチェッロ・マッスィミーニ
立花隆
「意識が脳科学最大のナゾだった。それは万人にいつでもあるのに、その正体がわからない。そのナゾをついに解いたトノーニの『φ』(ファイ)理論が今世界を席巻している!」
脳は意識を生み出すが、コンピューターは意識を生み出さない。では両者の違いはどこにあるのか。クリストフ・コッホが「意識に関して唯一、真に有望な基礎理論」と評した、意識の謎を解明するトノーニの「統合情報理論」を紹介。わくわくするようなエピソード満載でわかりやすく語られる脳科学の最先端!
・脳幹に傷を負い植物状態に見えるロックトイン症候群患者(映画「潜水服は蝶の夢を見るか」の主人公)。彼らの意識の有無はどう診断すればいいのか?
・麻酔薬を投与するとなぜ意識が失われるのか?
麻酔時に意識が醒めてしまうとどうなるのか(1000人に1人はそうなる)
・右脳と左脳をつなぐ脳梁を切断する(スプリットブレイン。てんかん治療で行われることがある)と、1つの脳のなかに意識が2つ生まれる!?