Title: Platonic theory of mind

• Objective: for many people gap between neuroscience and psychology is the greatest mystery than science is facing. How can my internal states, my feelings and thoughts, be at the same time neural activations?
  Define a series of approximations leading from neurophysiological events related to perception and described using neural models and dynamical systems, to mind events, described in psychological spaces. This should avoid reducing description of behavior to deterministic or probabilistic automata, showing that an intermediate level of description exist, level that can be related to the inner experience on one side, and to the neurodynamics on the other.

  In metaphoric language: mind is a shadow of neurodynamics.
  This invokes the allegory of shadows on the wall of a cave, proposed by Plato.

  Idea: work on mapping between brain states and mental states described in psychological spaces. Apply it to construct new models of information processing systems, brain-computer interfaces, search for brain fingerprints of mental processes.
  Challenge: Show that such models of mind are philosophically sound and that consciousness may be included as a bonus. Use fuzzy symbolic dynamics to visualize mental trajectories.

• Participants: W. Duch ++
• Time: from 1994

Results:

Most papers are in PDF linked to on-line publication list or linked to my personal publication list.
Papers are in reverse chronological order.

Many PPT presentations illustrate some of my ideas, see the list of talks here, for example "Mind from brain: physics & neuroscience", "Conscious mind as a limit of brain-like computing", "Attractor neural networks and concept formation in psychological spaces", or 1995 talk "Towards a plausible theory of mind".

See also related projects on computational creativity and on semantic spaces and word games, focusing on neurocognitive approach to language. We and many other groups are now making progress using EEG and fMRI signal analysis that show certain aspects of signals related to mental events.
This is rather different approach than Leonid Perlovsky "Physics of Mind".

The best initial introduction to my model is in:

• Duch W (1997) Platonic model of mind as an approximation to neurodynamics.
  In: Brain-like computing and intelligent information systems, ed. S-i. Amari, N. Kasabov (Springer, Singapore 1997), chap. 20, pp. 491-512

• Duch W, Mind-Brain Relations, Geometric Perspective and Neurophenomenology,
  American Philosophical Association Newsletter 12(1), 1-7, 2012.

  Other closely related papers:

• Duch W. (2021) Memetics and Neural Models of Conspiracy Theories.
  arXiv.org > q-bio > arXiv:1508.04561, 14 pages (updated version of 2015 paper).
• Duch W. (2021) Neurocognitive Informatics Manifesto.
  ArXiv CS/Bio, 27 pages (updated version of 2009 paper)
• Duch. W. (2020) Experiential Learning Styles and Neurocognitive Phenomics.
  PsyArXiv. August 30, 2020.
  q-bio.NC ArXiv. January 12, 2021.

• Duch. W. (2020) IDyOT architecture - is this how minds operate?
  Physics of Life Reviews, Vol. 34–35, pp. 54-56 (IF. 13.8, online, in print 5/2020).

• Duch, W. (2019) Mind as a shadow of neurodynamics. Physics of Life Reviews, 31: 28-31. Special Issue "Physics of mind", Ed. F. Schoeller.

• Duch W. (2019), Autism Spectrum Disorder and deep attractors in neurodynamics
  Chapter 13, pp.135-148 in the Springer Handbook of Multi-Scale Models of Brain Disorders: From Microscopic to Macroscopic Assessment of Brain Dynamics (Nov. 2019).
  DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-18830-6, ISBN 978-3-030-18829-0.

• Duch W. (2018), Multi-level Explanations in Neuroscience I: From genes to subjective experiences.
  Acta Physica Polonica B 49(12), 1981-2010.

• Finc K, Bonna K, Lewandowska M, Wolak T, Nikadon J, Dreszer J, Duch W, Kühn S. (2017) Transition of the functional brain network related to increasing cognitive demands.
  Human Brain Mapping 38(7), 3659–3674, DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23621

• Duch W. (2018), Kurt Lewin, psychological constructs and sources of brain cognitive activity | Citing articles
  Polish Psychological Forum 23(1), 5-19.
  arXiv:1711.01767, Neurons and Cognition

• Duch W. (2018)
  Hylomorphism extended: dynamical forms and minds.
  Philosophies 2018, 3, 36. Special Issue "Contemporary Natural Philosophy and Philosophies". Eds. G. Dodig-Crnkovic and M. J. Schroeder. Also a chapter in the book " Contemporary Natural Philosophy and Philosophies - Part 1".

• Duch W. (2018) Eliminatywizm i konstrukty psychologiczne.
  Rozdział w monografii "Filozof w Krainie Umysłów", dedykowany Andrzejowi Klawiterowi z okazji 45-lecia pracy naukowej. Wyd. Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Społecznych UAM, Poznań, pp. 201-216, 2018.

• Gravier A, Quek H.C, Duch W, Abdul Wahab, Gravier-Rymaszewska J.
  Neural network modelling of the influence of channelopathies on reflex visual attention.
  Cognitive Neurodynamics 10(1), 49-72, 2016 | Citing articles.

• Duch W. (2015) Memetics and Neural Models of Conspiracy Theories.
  arXiv.org > q-bio > arXiv:1508.04561 (updated in 2021)

• Duch W, Dobosz K, Mikołajewski D. (2013) Autism and ADHD – two ends of the same spectrum?
  Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 8226, pp. 623-630, 2013.

• Duch W. (2012) What can we know about ourselves and how do we know it?
  In: Ed. B. Buszewski, M. Jaskuła, The World Without Borders - Science Without Borders. Societas Humboldtiana Polonorum, 2012, pp. 181-208.
• Duch W, Neurodynamics and the mind.
  Proc. of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, San Jose, CA, IEEE Press, pp. 3227-3234, 2011.
  IJCNN special session, initially called "What Neural Modeling Tells Us about Ourselves''. Some rearks why it may be difficult to identify subjective dimensions through introspection and in models.
• Dobosz K, Duch W, Visualization for Understanding of Neurodynamical Systems.
  Cognitive Neurodynamics 5(2), 145-160, 2011.

This and other papers on our visualization of trajectories show spontaneous thought associations, and hopefully may be extended to illustrate dynamics of mental events.

• Dobosz K, Duch W. (2010) Understanding Neurodynamical Systems via Fuzzy Symbolic Dynamics.
  Neural Networks Vol. 23 (2010) 487-496, 2010
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2009.12.005
• Duch W, Brain-inspired conscious computing architecture.
  Journal of Mind and Behavior, Vol. 26(1-2), 1-22, 2005
• Duch W (1999) Conscious mind as a limit of brain-like computing.
  KMK UMK Technical Report 2/1999; also submitted to Mind and Machines (was in revision, but we never got finished).
• Duch W (1998) Neural implementation of psychological spaces.
  Int. Conf. on Neural Network and Brain, Beijing, China, October 1998, pp. 32-35
• Duch W (1996) Computational physics of the mind.
  Computer Physics Communication 97: 136-153

• Duch W (1996) From cognitive models to neurofuzzy systems - the mind space approach.
  Systems Analysis-Modelling-Simulation 24 (1996) 53-65

• Duch W (1996) From brain to mind to consciousness without hard problems, Sympozjum Kognitywne '96: Świadomość a Percepcja., Instytut Filozofii UAM, 6-7 Dec. 1996

• Duch W (1996) Categorization, Prototype Theory and Neural Dynamics, 113 KB.
  Proc. of the 4th International Conference on SoftComputing'96, Iizuka, Japan, ed. T. Yamakawa and G. Matsumoto, pp. 482-485 (invited paper, cognitive science session)

• Duch W (1996) On simplifying brain functions (PDF here).
  Proceedings of the Second Conference on Neural Networks and their applications, Orle Gniazdo, 30.IV-4.V.1996, pp. 118-124

• Duch W (1995) Physics of consciousness.
  IV Krajowa konferencja ,,Modelowanie Systemów biologicznych", Kraków 2-3.06.1995, pp. 101-114
• Duch W (1995) Psychophysics | PDF file
  European Summer School on Computing Techniques in Physics, Skalský Dvur, 5-14.09.1995 (Lecture Notes)
• Duch W (1995) Transparent theory of consciousness: is there a problem?
  Behavioral and Brain Sciences (submitted, KMK TR 1/95)
• Duch W (1995) Physics of consciousness. IV national conference on "Modeling biological systems'', Kraków 2-3.06.1995, pp. 101-114

• Duch W (1994) Towards Artificial Minds | PDF file
  In: Materiały Konferencyjne I Krajowej Konferencji "Sieci Neuronowe i ich Zastosowania", Kule, 12-15.IV.1994, pp. 17-28
• Duch W (1994) Mind space approach to neurofuzzy systems, in: Proc. of the Japanese Neural Networks Society 1994, Tsukuba, 9-11.11.1994,Japan, pp. 173-174

• Duch W (1994) Towards Artificial Minds, in: "First national conference on neural networks and their applications", Kule, 12-15.IV.1994, pp. 17-28

• Duch W (1994) A solution to the fundamental problems of cognitive sciences. | PDF file
  UMK-KMK-TR 1/94 report, also in the International Philosophical Preprint Exchange, WWW Archive (1994), now dysfunctional

Closely related, but in Polish:

• Duch W. Eliminatywizm i konstrukty psychologiczne. Rozdział w książce, UAM, maj 2018 (submitted)
• Duch W, Fizyka umysłu (Physics of mind). Postępy Fizyki 53D (2002), 92-103 [in Polish]

• Duch W, Geometria umysłu (Geometry of mind) . Kognitywistyka i Media w Edukacji, Vol. 6 (2002) 199-230 (appeared in 2003) [in Polish]

• Duch W, Neurokognitywna teoria świadomości (Neurocognitive theory of consciousness). Kognitywistyka i Media w Edukacji, T.5 (2) 2001, pp. 47-67 [in Polish]

Computational models inspired by the Platonic theory:

• Duch W and Diercksen GHF (1995) Feature Space Mapping as a universal adaptive system. | PDF file
  Computer Physics Communications 87: 341-371
• Duch W, Adamczak R, Diercksen GHF (2000) Feature space mapping neural network applied to structure-activity relationship problems.
  ICONIP-2000, 7th International Conference on Neural Information Processing, Nov. 2000, Dae-jong, Korea, ed. by Soo-Young Lee, pp. 270 - 274
• Adamczak R, Duch W, Jankowski N (1997) New developments in the Feature Space Mapping model.
  Third Conference on Neural Networks and Their Applications, Kule, October 1997, pp. 65-70
• Duch W, Jankowski N, Naud A, Adamczak R (1995) Feature Space Mapping: a neurofuzzy network for system identification.
  Proc. of Engineering Applications of Neural Networks (EANN'95), Helsinki 21-23.08.1995, pp. 221-224
• Duch W (1994) Floating Gaussian Mapping: a new model of adaptive systems
  Neural Network World 4:645-654

Other related papers:

• Duch W, Computational Models of Dementia and Neurological Problems.
  Book chapter, In: Neuroinformatics, C. Crasto (Ed), "Methods in Molecular Biology" series (J. Walker, series ed.), Humana Press (submitted 12/05)
• Szymanski J, Sarnatowicz T, Duch W, Towards Avatars with Artificial Minds: Role of Semantic Memory.
  Journal of Ubiquitous Computing and Intelligence, American Scientific Publishers (accepted, but journal has never started?)
• Duch W, Oentaryo R.J, Pasquier M, Cognitive architectures: where do we go from here? | Abstract.
  In: Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, Vol. 171 (Ed. by Pei Wang, Ben Goertzel, and Stan Franklin), IOS Press, pp. 122-136.
  Presented at Artificial General Intelligence (AGI 2008), Memphis, March 1-3, 2008
• Duch W, Rules, Similarity, and Threshold Logic.
  Commentary on Emmanuel M. Pothos, The Rules versus Similarity distinction.
  Behavioral and Brain Sciences Vol. 28 (1): 23-23, 2005
• Matykiewicz P, Duch W, Pestian J, Nonambiguous Concept Mapping in Medical Domain,
  Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 4029 (2006) 941--950
• Duch W, Mandziuk J, Quo Vadis Computational Intelligence?
  In: Machine Intelligence. Quo Vadis? Eds: P. Sinčák, J. Vaščák, K. Hirota. Advances in Fuzzy Systems - Applications and Theory - Vol. 21, World Scientific, 2004, pp. 3-28
• Duch W, Just bubbles? Commentary on Steven Lehar, Gestalt Isomorphism and the Primacy of Subjective Conscious Experience: A Gestalt Bubble Model.
  Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26(4) (2003) 410-411

• Duch, W, Complex Agents for Socio-Cognitive Engineering. First International Workshop on Socio-Cognitive Engineering Foundations (SCEF-2003), Rome, Italy, Sept 30 - Oct 1, 2003

• Duch W (2001) Facing the hard question. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24 (2001) 187-188
• Duch W (2001) Psyche and consciousness, Encyklopedia Multimedialna PWN, 2001 (7 p). [in Polish]

• Duch W, Therapeutic applications of computer models of brain activity for Alzheimer disease .
  J. Medical Informatics and Technologies 5 (2000) 27-34
• Duch W, Consciousness and dynamical model of brain functions.,
  Neurologia i Neurochirurgia Polska T. 34 (50), Supl. 2, 2000, pp. 69-84 [in Polish]
• Duch W, Which theory of mind will be completely satisfactory?
  Kognitywistyka i Media w Edukacji 3(1) (2000) 29 - 53 [in Polish]
• Adamczak R, Duch W, Feature Space Mapping model in classification.
  Biocybernetyka 2000, Tom 6: Sieci neuronowe (red. W. Duch, J. Korbicz, L. Rutkowski i R. Tadeusiewicz), rozdz. III.26, pp. 801-824 (some remarks about cognitive inspirations for FSM model are included). [in Polish]
• Duch W, Neural networks in modeling of neuropsychological syndromes and psychiatric diseases.
  Biocybernetyka 2000, Tom 6: Sieci neuronowe (red. W. Duch, J. Korbicz, L. Rutkowski i R. Tadeusiewicz), rozdz. II.18, pp. 589-616 [in Polish]
• Duch W, Jaka teoria umysłu w pełni nas zadowoli?
  Kognitywistyka i Media w Edukacji 3(1) (2000) 29 - 53 [in Polish]
• Duch W (1999) Spirit and soul, or pre-history of cognitive sciences.
  Kognitywistyka i Media w Edukacji 1 (1999)  pp. 7-38 [in Polish]

• Talk: Mind-body problem, Max Planck Institut for Astrophysics, Munich, 5.08.1994 (I), 8.08.1994 (II)
• Talk: From mind models to neurofuzzy systems, Department of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, Chukyo University, Nagoya, Japan, 26.11.1994
• Talk: From mind models to neurofuzzy systems, Kyushu University of Technology, Iizuka, Japan, 20.12.1994
• Talk: Towards a plausible theory of mind, Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, 22.3.1995
• Talk: Dynamical system approach to models of mind, Birmingham University, UK, 30.3.1995
• Talk: Neural models of consciousness, Inst. of Biology, Neurophysiology and Biophysics Dept, NCU, 19.05.1995
• Talk: Physics and metaphysics of consciousness, Konwersatorium kognitywne UMK, Toruń 23.05.1995
• Talk: Physics and metaphysics of consciousness, Lubelskie Towarzystwo Naukowe, Lublin 5.6.1995
• Talk: Perspectives of research on mind and brain, Uniwersytet 3 wieku, Toruń, 6.03.1996
• Talk: Neurophysiology and a Platonic model of mind, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Japan, 11.10.1996
• Talk: Models of memory and learning, Department of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, Chukyo University, Nagoya, Japan 5.12.1996
• Talk: Extraction of logical rules and selection of features using neural networks, Biological and Physiological Engineering Laboratory, Toyohashi University, Toyohashi, Japan, 7.12.1996
• Talk: Neurophysiology and a Platonic model of mind, The University of Electrocommunications, Chofu, 13.12.1996.
• Talk: Neurobiologia i Platoński model umysłu, Wydział Psychologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 23.01.1997
• Talk: Neurobiologia i Platoński model umysłu, Konwersatorium Kognitywne UMK, 22.04.1997
• Related projects: Categorization, semantic spaces, consciousness, emotions, sensorimotor integration, transpersonal and philosophical issues
  

Links to other Duch-Lab projects, many talks and to other papers on various subjects.

Working log (local accsess only), maintained by Wlodzislaw Duch.