Activity during Learning and the Nonlinear Differentiation of Experience

Abstract

Walter Freeman's work emphasises the role of individual activity and intentionality as opposed to the traditional stimulus-reaction view and the machine metaphor. The results of our computer modeling studies suggest the nonlinear dynamics of experience emerging from perception-action cycles. We consider the perception-action cycle as a behavioral continuum of anticipated outcomes of actions. Neuroscientific research shows that each behavioral act is based on the activity of behaviorally specialized neurons distributed across the brain. Active learning during individual development leads to an increasing differentiation of the structure of individual experience through the formation of such groups of behaviorally specialized neurons. We consider the differentiation of individual experience as a nonlinear process which is implemented at different levels, and argue that consciousness and emotion can be described as dynamic characteristics prominent at the most and least differentiated systemic levels, correspondingly.