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Appendix 3: The author answers some common questions

Q. When you are talking about mental synthesis, aren’t you are talking about “abstract thinking”?

A. There is no clear definition of abstract thinking. When abstract thinking is defined narrowly as “the process of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon”, it is clearly very different from mental synthesis. One does not need abstract concepts to perform mental synthesis. For example when you imagine your favorite cup standing on top of your favorite keyboard, you use mental synthesis to integrate the mental image of the cup with the mental image of the keyboard. You did not imagine an abstract cup but a very specific cup. On the neurological level, you synchronized the neuronal ensemble representing the cup with the neuronal ensemble representing the keyboard. For this to happen you did not need the neuronal representation of an abstract cup or an abstract keyboard. Defined narrowly, abstract thinking has nothing to do with mental synthesis.

However, abstract thinking can be also understood more broadly as mental processes detached from physical reality. In that case abstract thinking is in fact, close in its meaning to imagination and mental imagery which include both mental synthesis and memory recollection (see the discussion of imagination and mental imagery in Chapter II).

Q. When I clearly imagine a cake, do I use mental synthesis?

A. If you imagine the cake that you have seen before, then the answer is No. In this case, you simply remember the cake from your memory. Neurologically, you activate a neuronal ensemble representing the cake and synchronize it with the attention rhythm. To engage the process of mental synthesis you need to create an image of something that you have never seen before from two or more images that you have seen before (or that you have imagined). For example, imagining the cake with a special frosting that you have never seen before, or the cake on top of the keyboard, or the cake falling down on a shoe involves mental synthesis. 

Q. Aren't humans smarter because they have the biggest brain?

A. Humans do not have the biggest brain. The brain of a sperm whale weighs 9 kg or seven times the weight of the human brain (which weighs 1.35 kg); an elephant brain weighs 4.2 kg or three times the weight of the human brain. Even within the Homo genus, modern humans do not have the largest brain: Neanderthals had bigger brains than modern humans (1.5 kg versus 1.35kg). We do not know why humans are smarter. The theory put forth in this book claims that humans are smarter because they acquired an ability to synthesize new, never-before-seen images in their mind in the process of mental synthesis.

Q. Bimodal perception of the Necker cube may be caused by line drawing. Are there real-life examples of illusions or bimodal perceptions?

A. Yes, indeed. One common example involves mistaking a stick for a snake. While walking in the forest, we sometimes mistake a stick on the ground for a live snake. Let us analyze what happens in one’s mind when this occurs: (1) visual information is transmitted from the retina to the primary visual cortex (V1). (2) Cortical neurons self-organize into a synchronously firing unit: a neuronal ensemble. This neuronal ensemble represents a snake, and therefore one consciously experiences the snake. (3) As V1 registers more visual information about the stick (its shape, color, texture), this information is no longer consistent with the snake neuronal ensemble. (4) The snake ensemble disintegrates and a new ensemble representing the stick self-organizes and synchronizes with the attention rhythm. At this point one consciously experiences a stick.

In fact, misinterpretation is a common phenomena. How often have you mistaken a person in the street for somebody you know? Driven by a few visual cues, a complete neuronal ensemble representing a friend was activated in the cortex. At that time you consciously experienced (saw) your friend. However, when the visual evidence to the contrary overwhelmed your perception, the neuronal ensemble of your friend disintegrated and you realized that the person in front of you was an unknown individual.

In a similar manner, a sponge on a table can be mistaken for a cake (especially when you are hungry); a cloud can be misinterpreted for a face, a shadow on the wall can be mistaken for an attacker (especially if you are frightened). Recognition is subjective or, as Max Clowes put it, “vision is controlled hallucination”. Which neuronal ensemble gets activated is influenced by many factors such as visual cues, the level of alertness, mood, thirst, starvation, etc. However, once activated and synchronized with the attention rhythm the neuronal ensemble, rather than the physical object, defines our conscious experience.