I came across a recent article that sheds some light on what Peirce may have meant by "fusing minds" that share a common experience. See below for the abstract of the article, the URL, and some excerpts. >From Peirce's brief comments about that issue, we can only guess what he meant. But the issues mentioned below (and discussed in more detail in the full article) are intriguing. Peirce very likely participated in some such activities. He may have had a feeling (an experience in his phaneron) for which the word 'fusion' might have been a good description. And by way, this article is just one example of the kind of evidence that can help us interpret what Peirce meant. He couldn't have imagined his own brain waves synchronized with others, and neither could we -- until we read about actual measurements in an fMRI scanner. His writings, of course, are essential evidence. But the writings are just the tip of an immense iceberg. They represent a tiny fraction of what he knew, felt, thought, and did. To interpret those writings, we need to study as much as we can about his life, his reading, and the effects he had on his contemporaries and on his readers up to the present day. As we know very well, Peirce had deep insights that anticipated and often went far beyond the insights of scientists and philosophers up to and including the present. Just reading a recent article that has no mention of Peirce might give us a crucial bit of evidence that can enable us to interpert something he wrote over a century ago. John ----------------------------------- Authors: Ana Lucía Valencia & Tom Froese (2020) Title: What binds us? Inter-brain neural synchronization and its implications for theories of human consciousness Abstract: The association between neural oscillations and functional integration is widely recognized in the study of human cognition. Large-scale synchronization of neural activity has also been proposed as the neural basis of consciousness. Intriguingly, a growing number of studies in social cognitive neuroscience reveal that phase synchronization similarly appears across brains during meaningful social interaction. Moreover, this inter-brain synchronization has been associated with subjective reports of social connectedness, engagement, and cooperativeness, as well as experiences of social cohesion and self-other merging. These findings challenge the standard view of human consciousness as essentially first-person singular and private. We therefore revisit the recent controversy over the possibility of extended consciousness and argue that evidence of inter-brain synchronization in the fastest frequency bands overcomes the hitherto most convincing sceptical position. If this proposal is on the right track, our understanding of human consciousness would be profoundly transformed, and we propose a method to test this proposal experimentally. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7288734/ Behavioural studies in psychology have consistently shown that synchrony during joint action (such as rocking, marching, walking, or dancing) promotes cooperative ability and increases empathy, liking, rapport, and prosocial behaviour (Hari and Kujala 2009; Hove and Risen 2009; Wiltermuth and Heath 2009; Valdesolo et al. 2010; Valdesolo and DeSteno 2011; Mogan et al. 2017). From such studies, it has been suggested that dynamics of neuronal coupling could play an important role in the emergence of such interactive synchrony (Wilson and Wilson 2005; Dumas et al. 2011; Hasson et al. 2012). Importantly, the development of the hyperscanning technique by Montague et al. (2002) has allowed for the measurement and analysis of such inter-brain dynamics (Babiloni and Astolfi 2014; Czeszumski et al. 2020). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG), hyperscanning paradigms simultaneously record the brain activity of two or more individuals, thus permitting the assessment of neural activity during real-time social interaction (Babiloni and Astolfi 2014; Czeszumski et al. 2020)... Greater neural synchronization also appeared between subjects completing a puzzle together, compared to when the same subjects completed identical puzzles individually, or watched others complete the puzzle (in front of them or through video recording) (Fishburn et al. 2018). A similar study revealed inter-brain synchronization between two individuals when singing together, but not when singing individually yet close to each other (this effect was not observed in random pairs) (Osaka et al. 2015)....
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ► PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to peirce-L@list.iupui.edu . ► To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message NOT to PEIRCE-L but to l...@list.iupui.edu with no subject, and with the sole line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm . ► PEIRCE-L is owned by The PEIRCE GROUP; moderated by Gary Richmond; and co-managed by him and Ben Udell.
