CONSCIOUSNESS

2. Neuroscience 93
systems. In fact, any functional system could be realized in an infinite number of physical
systems each having different amounts of integrated information. Organizational invariance
requires each of these systems to share the same experience while IIC states each physical
system would have a unique experience. Tononi often uses the example of human vision versus
a camera. Clearly a camera is not functionally isomorphic to the human visual perceptual
system and contains much less information so there is little reason to believe it generates
visual qualia similar to human vision. On the other hand, computational theory suggests that
our visual perceptual ability can be duplicated by a cleverly programmed computer or alien
brain using a functional architecture that generates significantly different levels of integrated
information from the human brain. Organizational invariance assigns similar visual experiences
to these systems while IIC could potentially assign wildly opposing subjective experiences.
Hence IIC is inconsistent with Organizational invariance. P2
106 Meditation May Optimize Attention and Behavior in the Changing Environments
of the Present Moment by Activating the Cortical Salience-Detecting Frontoparietal
Control Network Nancy A Craigmyle (Carmel Valley, CA)
The fMRI data collected during meditation, particularly during open monitoring meditation,
indicates that included amongst the areas of the brain activated by the intentional,
impartial attentiveness of meditation are the cortical areas of the salience-detecting frontoparietal
control (FPC) network (anterior medial prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, anterior
cingulate, anterior inferior parietal, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). This FPC network
is thought to shift between the externally directed dorsal attention network which receives the
stimuli of the present moment from the external environment and the internally directed hippocampal-cortical
memory system, a part of the default network. The anterior insula and the
anterior cingulate of the FPC network also receive the interoceptive information from within
the organism, which underlies the sense of oneself and of one’s emotions. The interoceptive
information is carried to the cortical anterior insula and anterior cingulate from the peripheral
noradrenergic sympathetic nervous system via its ascending lamina 1 spinothalamocortical
tract. In turn, the anterior cingulate modulates activity in the sympathetic nervous system
via the rostral ventrolateral medulla, completing a feedback loop. The anterior cingulate also
directly modulates the norepinephrine levels throughout the brain by controlling the activity
of the locus coeruleus, the principal central noradrenergic nucleus. The locus coeruleus projects
throughout the brain and has been found to optimize attention and behavior in changing
environments. Norepinephrine is considered the principal neuromodulator adapting the state
of both the body and the brain for optimal behavior. As a part of the salience-detecting FPC
network, the anterior cingulate is in a position to integrate the information concerning the
state of the external, the internal and the interoceptive environments in the present moment.
By rapidly modulating the activity levels of the principal noradrenergic systems, the anterior
cingulate is in a position to adapt the state of the whole organism to optimize behavior as
changes are detected in any of these environments. Meditation, particularly open monitoring
meditation, may optimize attention and behavior in the changing environments of the present
moment by activating the salience-detecting FPC network. C12
107 The N400 and LPC Effects Reflect Controlled but not Automatic Mechanisms
of Sentence Processing: An ERP Study to Auditory Sentences with Varying Levels of
Acoustic Degradation Jerome Daltrozzo, Norma Wioland; Boris Kotchoubey
(CNRS - UMR5020, Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University,
Lyon Cedex 07, France)
This study focused on the automatic versus controlled nature of the generators of eventrelated
potentials effects to sentence processing. Event-related potentials to sentence final
words were recorded in 20 right-handed native French-speakers (10 males, aged 18 - 26) who
listened four times to a list of 100 sentences (50 with a congruent and 50 with an incongruent
ending word) with a decreasing degradation (noise) level each time. Under moderate degradation
(allowing controlled sentence-level processing) the N400 effect (i.e. N400 to incongruent
minus congruent words) and the late positive complex effect were delayed and the late