Information Generation as a Teleological Explanation of Consciousness: Or, Of Quarks and Qualia
For the course Seminar in Cognitive Science, April 2020
Inspired by the paper Information generation as a functional basis of consciousness by Ryota Kanai, Acer Chang, Yen Yu, Ildefons Magrans de Abril, Martin Biehl, & Nicholas Guttenberg, this essay is a rough and vague attempt at coming up with a functional explanation of human consciousness. Also, I guess I didn’t write an abstract for this paper yet.
Astrocytes: The New Star of Learning and Long-Term Memory
For the course Cognitive Neuroscience taken at the University of Toronto, August 2019.
Abstract:
Classical neuroscience studies viewed glial cells as mere scaffolding that the brain was built on. Research over the last two decades has pointed to a far more active role of astrocytes in many aspects of cognition. This paper will argue that astrocytes form an integral part of the learning process in both the developing and adult brain. Astrocytes are integral to plasticity in the brain and are the drivers behind the formation of new synaptic pathways, both in the developing and adult brain, and it is this plasticity that allows for the formation of new memories and the learning of new abilities. Astrocytes are able to both receive information from synapses through metabotropic and ionotropic channels, and modulate both pre- and postsynaptic strength. By interacting with nearby neurons, astrocytes are able to form efficient small world networks for optimal information processing. Astrocytes are able to signal other astrocytes on both a local and global level through calcium wave propagation. These calcium waves contain information that conveys both fast, on the scale of milliseconds, and slow, on the scale of seconds, modulations across a variety of distances and scales that provide the perfect mechanism for integrating complex and cross-modal memories that allow us to learn complex and abstract new information. Through these varying signalling and information integration techniques, astrocytes are central to the formation of memories and learning in both developing and adult brains.
A Pitiful Immortality: Graffiti and Meaning through the Ages
For the course on Buddhism and Cognitive Science, November, 2017.
Abstract:
Graffiti, the act of creating anonymous, public messages, has followed humanity from it’s cradle to modern times. For much of history, it has simply been a way for people to record their thoughts without fear of retribution or suffering social stigma. Because of this, graffiti is often the only voice of the common people that survives from a period, as opposed to the myriad works of the academics, religious, and civic leaders of those days. How the two halves of this story contrast and interact can give us an intriguing, dynamic look at what was viewed as meaningful during these different time periods, but that are often not that dissimilar to each other. Recently, however, a new form of graffiti has emerged, a modern form of graffiti now highly visible in cities all over the world. Despite being illegal, dangerous, and not monetarily rewarding, the graffiti subculture continues to grow. Writers join this new subculture because it facilitates meaning making in their lives, by offering a clear set of rules to follow, a social hierarchy to climb, and a well-defined career path, all things that writers perceive as lacking in North American society.
Glial Cells & Predictions: Inspirations from the Future of Neurobiology
For the course Introduction to Cognitive Science, March 2017.
Abstract:
Predictive coding, the idea that our cognitive processes are designed to minimize energy use by only encoding the difference in top-down prediction generated through learned representation and bottom-up information gathered from our senses, is one of the most fruitful new integrated theories of cognition. Another recent discovery is that glial cells, previously relegated to a strictly structural role in the brain, play a far more significant role in cognitive processes with their abilities to control synaptic strength, alter the architecture of the brain, and control the speed of transmission of information. This leads to a key role for glial cells in memory, learning, and many other processes that are vital to predictive coding. By looking at how glial cells offer support for the machinery of predictive coding, and current models of artificial intelligence, such as neural networks, I offer a rough framework for future research into integrating predictive coding and neuronal-glial models of cognition.