On 28 February 2014 01:05, Craig Weinberg <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Thursday, February 27, 2014 4:13:22 AM UTC-5, stathisp wrote: >> >> On 26 February 2014 23:58, Craig Weinberg <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> >> "The alien hand syndrome, as originally defined, was used to describe >> >> cases involving anterior corpus callosal lesions producing involuntary >> >> movement and a concomitant inability to distinguish the affected hand >> >> from >> >> an examiner's hand when these were placed in the patient's unaffected >> >> hand. >> >> In recent years, acceptable usage of the term has broadened >> >> considerably, >> >> and has been defined as involuntary movement occurring in the context >> >> of >> >> feelings of estrangement from or personification of the affected limb >> >> or its >> >> movements. Three varieties of alien hand syndrome have been reported, >> >> involving lesions of the corpus callosum alone, the corpus callosum >> >> plus >> >> dominant medial frontal cortex, and posterior cortical/subcortical >> >> areas. A >> >> patient with posterior alien hand syndrome of vascular aetiology is >> >> reported >> >> and the findings are discussed in the light of a conceptualisation of >> >> posterior alien hand syndrome as a disorder which may be less >> >> associated >> >> with specific focal neuropathology than are its callosal and >> >> callosal-frontal counterparts." - >> >> http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/68/1/83.full >> > >> > >> > This kind of alienation from the function of a limb would seem to >> > contradict >> > functionalism. If functionalism identifies consciousness with function, >> > then >> > it would seem problematic that a functioning limb could be seen as >> > estranged >> > from the personal awareness, is it is really no different from a zombie >> > in >> > which the substitution level is set at the body level. There is no >> > damage to >> > the arm, no difference between one arm and another, and yet, its is felt >> > to >> > be outside of one's control and its sensations are felt not to be your >> > sensations. >> > >> > This would be precisely the kind of estrangement that I would expect to >> > encounter during a gradual replacement of the brain with any inorganic >> > substitute. At the level at which food becomes non-food, so too would >> > the >> > brain become non-brain, and any animation of the nervous system would >> > fail >> > to be incorporated into personal awareness. The living brain could still >> > learn to use the prosthetic, and ultimately imbue it with its own >> > articulation and familiarity to a surprising extent, but it is a one way >> > street and the prosthetic has no capacity to find the personal awareness >> > and >> > merge with it. >> >> This example shows that if there is a lesion in the neural circuitry >> it affects consciousness. If you fix the lesion such that the >> circuitry works properly but the consciousness is affected (keeping >> the environmental input constant) then that implies that consciousness >> is generated by something other than the brain. > > > Paying attention to the circuitry is a red herring. What I'm bringing up is > how dissociation of functions identified with the self does not make sense > for the functionalist view of consciousness. How do you give a program > 'alien subroutine syndrome'? Why does the program make a distinction between > the pure function of the subroutine and some feeling of belonging that is > generated by something other than the program?
I don't know why you distinguish between a function such as moving the hand and identifying the hand as your own. Both of these depend on correctly working brain circuitry, which is why a brain lesion can cause paralysis but can also cause alien hand syndrome. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
