SCIENCE TALK: The Role Of Mind-Body Medicine For The Mind-Body Problem

Biofeedback is commonly understood as a clinical procedure for treating psychological disorders. My research suggests it is something more: a novel empirical instrument for investigating the relationship between physical brain states and subjective experience. By studying the human ability to discriminate between different EEG states—such as high versus low alpha amplitude—I have identified the conditions under which physiological processes cross the threshold into conscious awareness, or "qualia." My findings reveal that this introspective ability functions like a sensory modality, governed by lawful psychophysical properties such as signal intensity and detection thresholds. Furthermore, the mind-brain interface exhibits measurable "inertia" or friction: the brain resists state-switching, requiring sustained effort to overcome the physical momentum of its current configuration. I have also observed a directional asymmetry in learning: the ability to control an EEG state strongly generalizes to the ability to discriminate it, but the reverse does not hold true. These results suggest that the mind-body relationship is not a fixed metaphysical or ontological concept, but a dynamic regulatory network I term the "mind-brain barrier." This barrier actively manages the physical-phenomenal boundary and is modifiable through learning, development, and evolution. While this does not solve the “hard problem” of consciousness by explaining how matter becomes mind, it provides a method for narrowing the problem by progressively constraining the space of viable solutions.

Doors open at 4:30 for event starting at 5:00.