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Showing posts with label Integrated Information Theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Integrated Information Theory. Show all posts

Friday, October 27, 2023

Theory of consciousness branded 'pseudoscience' by neuroscientists

Clare Wilson
New Scientist
Originally posted 19 Sept 23

Consciousness is one of science’s deepest mysteries; it is considered so difficult to explain how physical entities like brain cells produce subjective sensory experiences, such as the sensation of seeing the colour red, that this is sometimes called “the hard problem” of science.

While the question has long been investigated by studying the brain, IIT came from considering the mathematical structure of information-processing networks and could also apply to animals or artificial intelligence.

It says that a network or system has a higher level of consciousness if it is more densely interconnected, such that the interactions between its connection points or nodes yield more information than if it is reduced to its component parts.

IIT predicts that it is theoretically possible to calculate a value for the level of consciousness, termed phi, of any network with known structure and functioning. But as the number of nodes within a network grows, the sums involved get exponentially bigger, meaning that it is practically impossible to calculate phi for the human brain – or indeed any information-processing network with more than about 10 nodes.

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Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who first developed IIT and took part in the recent testing, did not respond to New Scientist’s requests for comment. But Johannes Fahrenfort at VU Amsterdam in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the recent study, says the letter went too far. “There isn’t a lot of empirical support for IIT. But that doesn’t warrant calling it pseudoscience.”

Complicating matters, there is no single definition of pseudoscience. But ITT is not in the same league as astrology or homeopathy, says James Ladyman at the University of Bristol in the UK. “It looks like a serious attempt to understand consciousness. It doesn’t make it a theory pseudoscience just because some people are making exaggerated claims.”


Summary:

A group of 124 neuroscientists, including prominent figures in the field, have criticized the integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness in an open letter. They argue that recent experimental evidence said to support IIT didn't actually test its core ideas and is practically impossible to perform. IIT suggests that the level of consciousness, called "phi," can be calculated for any network with known structure and functioning, but this becomes impractical for networks with many nodes, like the human brain. Some critics believe that IIT has been overhyped and may have unintended consequences for policies related to consciousness in fetuses and animals. However, not all experts consider IIT pseudoscience, with some seeing it as a serious attempt to understand consciousness.

The debate surrounding the integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness is a complex one. While it's clear that the recent experimental evidence has faced criticism for not directly testing the core ideas of IIT, it's important to recognize that the study of consciousness is a challenging and ongoing endeavor.

Consciousness is indeed one of science's profound mysteries, often referred to as "the hard problem." IIT, in its attempt to address this problem, has sparked valuable discussions and research. It may not be pseudoscience, but the concerns raised about overhyping its findings are valid. It's crucial for scientific theories to be communicated accurately to avoid misinterpretation and potential policy implications.

Ultimately, the study of consciousness requires a multidisciplinary approach and the consideration of various theories, and it's important to maintain a healthy skepticism while promoting rigorous scientific inquiry in this complex field.

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

The ConTraSt database for analysing and comparing empirical studies of consciousness theories

Yaron, I., Melloni, L., Pitts, M. et al.
Nat Hum Behav (2022).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01284-5

Abstract

Understanding how consciousness arises from neural activity remains one of the biggest challenges for neuroscience. Numerous theories have been proposed in recent years, each gaining independent empirical support. Currently, there is no comprehensive, quantitative and theory-neutral overview of the field that enables an evaluation of how theoretical frameworks interact with empirical research. We provide a bird’s eye view of studies that interpreted their findings in light of at least one of four leading neuroscientific theories of consciousness (N = 412 experiments), asking how methodological choices of the researchers might affect the final conclusions. We found that supporting a specific theory can be predicted solely from methodological choices, irrespective of findings. Furthermore, most studies interpret their findings post hoc, rather than a priori testing critical predictions of the theories. Our results highlight challenges for the field and provide researchers with an open-access website (https://ContrastDB.tau.ac.il) to further analyse trends in the neuroscience of consciousness.

Discussion

Several key conclusions can be drawn from our analyses of these 412 experiments: First, the field seems highly skewed towards confirmatory, as opposed to disconfirmatory, evidence which might explain the failure to exclude theories and converge on an accepted, or at least widely favored, account. This effect is relatively stable over time. Second, theory-driven studies, aimed at testing the predictions of the theories, are rather scarce, and even rarer are studies testing more than one theory, or pitting theories against each other – only 7% of the experiments directly compared two or more theories’ predictions. Though there seems to be an increasing number of experiments that test predictions a-priori in recent years, a large number of studies continue to interpret their findings post-hoc in light of the theories. Third, a close
relation was found between methodological choices made by researchers and the theoretical interpretations of their findings. That is, based only on some methodological choices of the researchers (e.g., using report vs. no-report paradigms, or studying content vs. state consciousness), we could predict if the experiment will end up supporting each of the theories.


Editor's note: Consistent with other forms of confirmation bias: the design of the experiment largely determines its result.  Consciousness remains a mystery, and in the eye of the scientific beholder.