Mirror Neurons, Consciousness, and an Irreducible Self
ID The Future listeners now get to enjoy two episodes each month from our sister podcast Mind Matters News, a production of the Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. The Mind Matters News podcast brings you insight from computer scientists, engineers, inventors, neurosurgeons, and other experts who bring sanity to the conversation about natural and artificial intelligence, going beyond the hype to explore the undercurrents of these important ideas. And although the Mind Matters News podcast will not often explicitly discuss intelligent design, it regularly explores the nature of intelligence, the origin of information, and the things that make us uniquely human, all concepts that are central to the theory of intelligent design. Enjoy today’s offering of Mind Matters News!
On this episode, host Dr. Robert J. Marks welcomes Dr. Mihretu Guta to discuss one of his chapters in the volume Minding the Brain titled “Mirror Neurons, Consciousness, and the Bearer Question.” Dr. Guta discusses the concept of “mirror neurons” – a type of brain cell that fires when a person observes an action being performed, as well as when the person performs the same action themselves. The properties of these neurons suggest they may play a role in empathy and understanding others’ actions. Dr. Guta explores the implications of mirror neurons to the mind-brain debate and how further study could illuminate these fascinating neural components.
Dr. Guta also explores the philosophical challenges surrounding the neuroscientific research on mirror neurons. First, they discuss the “easy problem” of correlating neural activity with cognitive functions, and the difficulties of ensuring the research is not “under-determined” by ignoring background neural activity. Then they broach the “hard problem” of inferring causation from mere correlation, and the philosophical arguments against directly equating neural activity with mental properties. And how does all this relate to consciousness and the mind/brain debate? Tune in to find out!
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