0.20 An outline of consciousness  (Page 2/5)

The 'inner loop' or their first-order network, is basically the brain thinking about the stimulus, and part of the meta-cognition (the 'thinking about the thinking') is two other loops, a perception-action loop and a self-other loop (social cognition). This means that the brain thinks more deeply about everything a second time, basically. Two of the things that it thinks more deeply about are perceptions of actions, and general social cognitions about the self and other people.

It makes sense that the mind has different levels of thinking. There is a more simple way of thinking about the world and there is a more complicated way of thinking. When anything is thought about, there is a more simplistic way of thinking about it and a more complicated way of thinking about it. It might be that a human cannot understand the idea or whatever you are thinking about if it is too complicated, in which case the simple level of your mind would be the only level that understands it.

I would say that the lower level of mind which isn't as intelligent or sophisticated as the its higher level is the initial, more animalistic response. What does that mean for sensation versus thought, however? Is there are lower level of feeling pain and a higher level? When someones mind is in the lower mode, how would it think different from its higher mode? It would probably have its higher-level social cognitions shut off. - So it wouldn't be capable of responding intelligently to other people, etc.

Two types of consciousness

So it makes sense that pain medication would also make someone think less clearly - that is because they are in a lower physical and mental state (both physical sensations and mental thinking are dulled).

Types of thinking

The two different levels of mind (a dulled, more simplistic level and a sophisticated, higher order thought level) mean that in each level, a person is thinking differently. How does a person think differently when they are drunk, on pain medication, or otherwise not thinking clearly vs when they are thinking clearly? Is their thinking more top-down or bottom-up?

Or I could just simply ask the question - is an animals thinking (such as a dogs) more top-down or bottom-up compared to a humans?

Does that statement make sense? A dog doesn't necessarily look at any details, so you couldn't say that dogs look at broad conclusions first and then analyze down to the detail or vice versa (top-down vs. bottom-up thinking).

I am proposing that some peoples thinking is more top-down or bottom-up in general than another persons. It isn't clear what that means exactly though. Top-down or bottom-up thinking usually refers to a specific way of analyzing something, not to how someone thinks in general. Though if you consider how someone might think if they aren't being as intelligent, it makes me wonder if they might be more abstract and reach broad, not supported by any evidence conclusions first ('top-down') and ignore details. I could say that some people do that without thinking less than they usually do as well, however.