Abstract

Could the abstract ideas of our minds originate from neuronal interactions within our brains? In this talk I will combine the conclusions from my long-standing neurophysiological pursuit of perceptual mechanisms with the more recent dualistic insights developed together with my colleagues Merav and Daniel. In addressing the mind-body question, we analyze interactions within the ‘brain-world’ (BW) and ‘brain-brain’ (BB) domains, representing the brain’s physical interactions with its environment and the mental interactions between brains, respectively. BW interactions are characterized as analog—continuous in time and value—while BB interactions are digital—discrete in time and value. Digital signaling allows BB interactions to facilitate effective, albeit information-limited, communication through categorization. We review existing data showing that cascades of neural loops can convert between analog and digital signals, thereby linking physical and mental processes. Importantly, we show that these circuits cannot reduce one domain to the other, suggesting that the mind-brain duality can be mapped onto the BB-BW duality. This mapping, supported by both behavioral and neuronal data, indicates that the mind’s foundation is inherently social. Thus, the BWBB scheme offers a novel account of the physical-mental gap, acknowledging the coexistence of the physical body and the non-physical mind while eliminating the need for a recursive homunculus in the brain or an independent mental foundation in the universe.