title: Do cortical midline variability and low frequency fluctuations mediate William James' "Stream of Consciousness"? "Neurophenomenal Balance Hypothesis" of "Inner Time Consciousness".
abstract: William James famously characterized consciousness by 'stream of consciousness' which describes the temporal continuity and flow of the contents of consciousness in our 'inner time consciousness'. More specifically he distinguished between "substantive parts", the contents of consciousness, and "transitive parts", the linkages between different contents. While much research has recently focused on the substantive parts, the neural mechanisms underlying the transitive parts and their characterization by the balance between 'sensible continuity' and 'continuous change' remain unclear. The aim of this paper is to develop so-called neuro-phenomenal hypothesis about specifically the transitive parts and their two phenomenal hallmark features, sensible continuity and continuous change in 'inner time consciousness'. Based on recent findings, I hypothesize that the cortical midline structures and their high degree of variability and strong low frequency fluctuations play an essential role in mediating the phenomenal balance between sensible continuity and continuous change.
authors.affiliation: Royal Ottawa Healthcare Group, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, Canada; Taipei Medical University, Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, Brain and Consciousness Research Center, New Taipei City, Taiwan; National Chengchi University, Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning, Taipei, Taiwan; Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders (CCBD), Normal University Hangzhou, Hangzhou, China. Electronic address: georg.northoff@theroyal.ca.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Northoff
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D011582:Psychological Theory
keywords: Cortical midline structures; Frequency fluctuations; Functional connectivity; Variability; William James; “Inner time Consciousness”