{"title":"The Nested States Model: An Empirical Framework for Integrating Brain and Mind","authors":"George H. Denfield, Evan J. Kyzar","doi":"10.53765/20512201.31.3.028","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Philosophy of mind has made substantial progress on biologically-rooted approaches to understanding the mind and subjectivity through the enactivist perspective, but research on subjectivity within neuroscience has not kept apace. Indeed, we possess no principled means of relating experiential\n phenomena to neurophysiological processes. Here, we present the Nested States Model as a framework to guide empirical investigation into the relationship between subjectivity and neurobiology. Building on recent work in phenomenology and philosophy of mind, we develop an account of experiential\n states as layered, or nested. We argue that this nested structure is also apparent in brain activity. The recognition of this structural homology — that both experiential and brain states can be characterized as systems of nested states — brings our views of subjective mental states\n into broad alignment with our understanding of general principles and properties of brain activity. This alignment enables a more systematic approach to formulating specific hypotheses and predictions about how the two domains relate to one another.","PeriodicalId":47796,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consciousness Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Consciousness Studies","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.53765/20512201.31.3.028","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"PHILOSOPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Philosophy of mind has made substantial progress on biologically-rooted approaches to understanding the mind and subjectivity through the enactivist perspective, but research on subjectivity within neuroscience has not kept apace. Indeed, we possess no principled means of relating experiential
phenomena to neurophysiological processes. Here, we present the Nested States Model as a framework to guide empirical investigation into the relationship between subjectivity and neurobiology. Building on recent work in phenomenology and philosophy of mind, we develop an account of experiential
states as layered, or nested. We argue that this nested structure is also apparent in brain activity. The recognition of this structural homology — that both experiential and brain states can be characterized as systems of nested states — brings our views of subjective mental states
into broad alignment with our understanding of general principles and properties of brain activity. This alignment enables a more systematic approach to formulating specific hypotheses and predictions about how the two domains relate to one another.
心智哲学在以生物学为基础的方法上取得了长足的进步,通过行为主义的视角来理解心智和主观性,但神经科学领域对主观性的研究却没有跟上步伐。事实上,我们还没有将经验现象与神经生理过程联系起来的原则性方法。在此,我们提出了 "嵌套状态模型"(Nested States Model),作为指导主观性与神经生物学之间关系的实证研究的框架。以现象学和心灵哲学的最新研究成果为基础,我们将体验状态描述为分层或嵌套的。我们认为,这种嵌套结构在大脑活动中也很明显。对这种结构同源性的认识--即体验状态和大脑状态都可以被描述为嵌套状态系统--使我们对主观心理状态的看法与我们对大脑活动一般原理和特性的理解大体一致。这种一致性使我们能够以更系统的方法,就这两个领域之间的关系提出具体的假设和预测。