Glossary of Terms used with Special Meanings [page]
activity density function - a spatiotemporal pattern of numbers that models an evolving spatial pattern of Neuroactivity [43]
awareness - update of intentional structure, back-dated about a half second after a self makes a decision to act [155]
bifurcation - an abrupt change in the function of a brain part with a chemical or structural change in its connections [63]
causality - quale of the process of observation in cyclic action-reafference-perception; a basis of intentional action [142]
consciousness - the social attribution of awareness by humans to other humans, animals, objects, and imagined spirits [138]
conversion - dissolution of intentional structure by endogenous neurochemicals, followed by learning new patterns of actions and beliefs; also pejoratively called brainwashing [124]
Eureka reaction - the feeling of insight; based in neuromodulator action having no relation to truth; antidote: skepticism [149]
forcing function - cortical input preceding and inducing state transitions [63]
intentionality - the process of a brain in action having the properties of unity, wholeness, and "stretching forth"; a combination of action, perception, and learning; this definition is based on the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, not on the reduced form of Franz Brentano, now widely used by Anglo-American analytic philosophers. [15]
intentional structure - synaptic web of neuropil in a forebrain, modified by learning and unlearning; actualizing behavior [19]
intent - stretching forth; reduced by psychologists through metonymy to "purpose" [17]
itinerancy - a form of change in which a sequence of brain states returns sufficiently close to earlier states that they are classed together, though they differ in detail [100]
meaning - the location of a focus of intentional relations; a part of a trajectory traced by chaotic dynamics in a brain [134]
mind - the structure of behavior, unfolding as experience [40]
neural activity - chemical events comprising Neuroactivity [39]
Neuroactivity - what neurons do; in models, state variable Q [39]
neuromodulator - an endogenous brain chemical that changes the strength of synaptic action of neurons onto other neurons [47]
neurotransmitter - an endogenous brain chemical that carries the synaptic action of neurons onto other neurons [47]
neuropil - tissue formed by branched threads of neurons, densely intertwined, allowing each cell to contact many others [48]
reafference - process of relaying messages from limbic system via entorhinal cortex to sensory cortices, in parallel with limbic commands to motor systems, serving (1) to compensate in advance for changes in sensory input accompanying actions, and (2) to sustain states of expectancy and attention [86]
representations - intentional gestures, words, numbers, and constructed objects that elicit meaning in the process of communication, but which themselves have no meaning [106]
solipsism - theory that a self knows only its own constructs [2]
state transition - abrupt change in activity pattern in a brain that follows sensory stimuli or neuromodulator inputs [50]
state variable - a representation by a symbol, Q, in a dynamical equation for Neuroactivity in a brain part during behavior [29]
thought - a process by which Neuroactivity constructs meaning, modifies intentional structure, and makes representations for purposes of communication among humans and animals [107]
transmarginal inhibition - a state of behavioral collapse induced by physical and emotional stress prior to conversion [125]
unlearning - meltdown of intentional structure by stress [120]
unity - state of integration by which a self distinguishes itself from non-self; found in bacteria, immune systems, neurons, brains, bonded pairs, tribes, and nations [19]
wholeness - a process in which a self actualizes by stages its mature form, and dies; found in brains and healing bodies [19]
wisdom - the apogee of wholeness in intentionality [110]