VERTICAL INFORMATION-FLOW IN THE BRAIN - ON NEURONAL MICRO EVENTS ANDCONSCIOUSNESS

The consciousness problem and its relation to theories of spontaneous brain activity are discussed. It is argued that an evolutionary perspe ctive suggests an interactionist solution of the consciousness problem , i.e., mental events interact with physical brain events. A specifica tion of the physical events assumed to be associated with mental event s is proposed to make the discussion of mind-brain theories more fruit ful. An interactionist solution of the consciousness problem requires random spontaneous brain activity. A mechanism for such activity is pr oposed on the basis of experimental findings, Some new results from pa tch-clamp experiments on intact neuronal tissue (the hippocampal slice preparation) are presented. The results indicate that single channel events may cause random spontaneous neuronal activity, illustrating th e phenomenon of micro events inducing macro or global brain events, an d also the central theme of vertical information flow. The findings hi ghlight the importance of understanding the stochastic nature of chann el gating.