Some Short Thoughts on Consciousness and the Future of Neuropsychology

Consciousness is one of the big key questions in modern neuropsychology. Why are we conscious? What exactly is consciousness? How are we conscious? These are the big questions, the end game of neuroscience. I am a materialist, and I do not believe that there is anything more than just the atoms that make up physical space. Physics may reveal the nature of matter to be quite complex and mysterious, but I do not think that understanding quantum mechanics is of any value to understanding consciousness, contrary to Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose, as well as new age mystics like Deepak Chopra. However, while I love cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience (which I will refer to collectively as cognitive neuropsychology), I think that cognitive neuropsychology is dominating consciousness research and that it's going to take a lot more than just understanding cognition to understand how the mind works. Here are some key things that I think are necessary to full understand consciousness, and thusly, what it is to be human:

• Emotions. The neuropsychological study of emotions, or Affective Neuroscience is becoming increasingly important to cognitive neuropsychology. The research of Antonio Damasio for instance has shown that emotions are very important to how we make decisions. His current research is on the importance of self-awareness to consciousness and how the brain creates selves. In the future I think that cognitive and affective neuropsychology will become increasingly intertwined.

• Personality. I define a personality trait as a predictor of  behavior. For example, when someone describes someone as neurotic, there is not literally the essence of being neurotic in their brain, but that this means "this person has a tendency to behave in  such a manner that displays a tendency to worry and over react". While a personality trait is easy enough to define, and is measurable with personality tests such as the Big Five Personality Inventory, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, what gives a person a unique personality trait is still somewhat of a mystery. We know that much of it is due to inheritance as well as non-genetic biological factors as well as social environment and life events, the specifics are still not well researched. 
  
  
  
•  We Are Social Animals. I do not think that consciousness would have evolved if we were not social animals. Consciousness allows us to deliberate in depth, to be aware of what we are perceiving, and to better predict the behavior and intentions of others. This is vital to a social animal such as ourselves. The ability to think about other people this way allows us to have empathy, which I believe is the foundation of morality. This is sometimes called "theory of mind" or "the intentional stance" by philosophers and psychologists, and an impaired theory of mind is characteristic of autism, and a lack of empathy --- which is dependent on a properly functioning theory of mind I think --- is characteristic of antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy). 

What does this mean for Artificial Intelligence? I do believe that it is possible that there could be a conscious machine some day with human like intelligence. Note that I said human like. Without emotions, personality traits, and the ability to socially interact in a meaningful way I do not think a machine could ever have a mind truly the same as a human mind, regardless of how intelligent it may be. Emotions and feelings I think are  particularly biological phenomenon (as shown by the research of Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer), and it would require some way to emulate the biological processes that give rise to emotions to make a truly human like mind. Even if a model of emotional decision making could be implemented in a machine, without actual reproduction of the emotions artificial intelligence will remain just that -- artificial.  However, I think the field of AI is extremely valuable to our understanding of cognition and the nature of the mind, and is something that should be pursued. There is much to be learned from seeing what it takes to make a machine intelligent, as it sheds light on how we are intelligent. It also allows us to implement theoretical models of memory, cognition, and perception. At the same time, the limitations of AI help demonstrate how unique biological life is, and the wonderful power of natural selection over millions of years compared to our "intelligently designed" machines. Nature is truly majestic.