EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND QUALIA
Noboru Hokkyo
Senjikan Institute
Ikarasi 2-8473-116, Nisiku, Niigata 960-2102
Phone: 025-261-0553: E-mail: noboruhok@yahoo.co.jp(Received February 12, 2009; Accepted January 21, 2010)(Abstract)
On the basis of a triune brain model relating humanbehavior to three basic evolutionary formations ofthebrain:
reflexive(reptilian),emotive(mammalian) and rational (human), an evolutionary
origin of consciousness and qualia eliciting
consciousness is sought in two groups of neurons,sameness neurons and newness neurons, discoveredin frog’s visual system, classifying external objects
into what is known (familiar) and unknown(unfamiliar). For human, enhanced consciousness ofa patient was observed during aura when the threatof unknown was converted to an affective feeling offamiliarity. Considering similar experiences byscientists a proposal is here made to classify thequalia by the evolutionary significance of elicited
responses.

Figure 1. Frog’s visual system classifying retinal
images of external objects into what is known andunknown. The known object is further divided into
what is biologically favorable (prey) and unfavorable(predator).

groups, quickly moving small objects (preys) andslowly approaching large dim objects (predators). It
is conceivable that a ‘dream’ [4] of an amphibian
frog of going on land activated animal’s subsequent
struggle onto land. In order for such a Lamarckian
dream to be realized, it was first necessary foranimal’s fore limbs to fall within its field of visionand elicit self-consciousness. The visual image mustthen be stored as a long-term memory for aconsiderable time for a creative synthesis of theimage of the upper limbs with the image of theanimal on land propelling its own motor behavior.
Next, there must occur the partial release of motor
activity from genetically determined reflexive
movement to voluntary movement. In human, spinal
reflexes and other evolutionarily older neural nexus
still control the autonomic activity of internalorgans, but somatic musculature, hands and speechorgans in particular, fall under voluntary control
mechanism. By means of such voluntary movement
we can explore the external world by free will. The
human use of symbols (languages) in the rational
brain, which is not under genetic control, affords
unlimited boundaries to create conceptual spacetransforming physical reality into transphysical one(art and virtual reality).

(Keywords)
evolution, brain, consciousness, qualia
1. Triune brain model
When the world ceases to be the stage for
personal hopes and desires,where we, as free beings,
behold it in wonder to question and to contemplate
there we enter the realm of science and art.
A. Einstein (1879-1955)
In his book Triune Brain in Evolution MacLean[1] compared the brains of existing vertebrateanimals possessing central nervous system,
including human, with their fossil records. It was
shown that the human brain had evolved andexpanded to its present form and size while
retaining three basic evolutionary formations
reflecting their ancestral relationship to reptile,
early mammal, and recent mammals. From theirknown functions the three formations are calledreflexive brain, emotive brain, and rational brain,each having its own sense of time (instantaneous,short-term and long-term), its own memory(inherited, innate and acquired), its own inference(sensorial, perceptual and conceptual), its own
language (signal, sign and symbol) andconsciousness (preconscious, subconscious andconscious).

3. Quest for beauty in science and art
In his Truth and Beauty: aesthetics andmotivation in science Chandrasekhar [4] asks: How
does it happen that beauty in creative works in exact
sciences become recognizable even before they are
understood in detail and before they can berationally demonstrated? In what does this power ofillumination consist? Pauli attributes this power tothe preexistence in the human mind of certain
primeval images―the archeotypes of Kepler.
Jung regards that primary images are emergent fromwhat he calls the collective unconsciousness built
up from all memories and patterns of behavior that

2.
Evolutionary
originofmemory,self-consciousness and free will
In 1957 Lettvin et al. [2] discovered two major
populations of neurons called sameness neurons andnewness neurons [3] in frog’s visual systemclassifying retinal images of external objects into
what is known and unknown. The newness neurons
are excited to bring the animal into attentive state insearch for unknown stimuli. The known objects arefurther divided by higher-level neurons into two
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have grown up over the entire history of evolutionof mankind. Chandrasekhar quotes Plato fromHeisenberg’s writing: The soul is awestricken at thesight of the beautiful, for it feels that something isevoked in it that was not imparted from outside by
the senses, but always be laid down there in the
deeply unconscious region. According to Kepler,
beauty is harmony. For Heisenberg, beauty is theconformity of parts to one another and to the whole.
For Poincaré beauty is simplicity and vastness. For
Bacon strangeness, surprise and wonder areessential elements of beauty. In a word, beauty
resolves conceptual conflict (in the rational brain)of the dual existence of reality: essential andphenomenal [6].

transiently after which it is forgotten unless, during
the period of short-term memory, information isgiven some biological significance or associatedwith information with higher biological value.
Eureka pleasure associated with a sudden leap ofinnovative scientific/artistic ideas is likely to arise
when the threat of unknown is removed andconverted to an affective feeling of familiarity or
déjà-vu (already seen) feeling with awe.
5. Quantum and qualia
The human brain has evolved, expanded andbifurcated into left (dominant) and right(non-dominant) hemispheres to resolve evolutionary
conflicts between expanding cortex (rational brain)
and limited capacity of the brain skull [9]. It has
been found experimentally [1,10] that the unilateral
stimulation of right hemisphere of emotive brain
during aura elicits patient’s enhanced feeling offamiliarity (sameness) similar to eureka feeling.
Depending on the situation the feeling of familiarity
was replaced by the feeling of strangeness(newness), and vice versa. It is likely that the left
hemisphere is devoted to the detection of differencein similarity (newness) and the right hemisphere to
the detection of similarity in difference (sameness):
There seems to be a complemental functional
division between left- and right-hemispheres such as:verbal/pictorial, digital/analog, temporal/spatial,
sequential/parallel, analytic/synthetic, differential/integral, deductive/inductive, quantitative/qualitativeand quantum/qualia.
In conclusion it is hoped that the chemical
neuro-transmitter substances involved in eliciting
different behavioral responses (Fig.2) by hormonal
mechanisms will eventually be identified. The
accuracy and stability of long-term memories
conducting our routinized daily behavior which
depend on the specificity of those neurotransmitters would therefore be confirmed.

4. Classification of qualia eliciting behavioral
responses
In Plato's writing qualia was implied as
something elicited in deeply unconscious region (ofreflexive and emotive brain which cannot express
themselves in language) at the sight of (by thesensory information from) what is real, true andbeautiful (biologically favorable). Though Buddhist
middle way philosophy [6] defines qualia as "thatness (likeliness)" and emphasizes the inseparabilityof observer (subject), observing (cognitive process)and observed (object), Chalmer [7] defined qualia
simply as a qualitative feel of experience following
Aristotelian definition of qualia as a momentary
faint feeling of awareness. In this section proposal
is made to classify qualia by its biological value(evolutionary significance and survival value) of
elicited behavioral responses, reflexive and emotive[8].
In Fig.2.the equator of the sphere, extending
MacLean's scheme for analyzing emotions [1],divides the behavioral responses elicited by a qualia
into what is biologically favorable (upperhemisphere) and unfavorable (lower hemisphere),
while four lines of longitude separate four kinds ofsurvivalvalue:
self-andspecies-preserving,exploring and aesthetic. A qualia eliciting reflexive
or emotive reactions falling on the equator has little
biological value and enters into consciousness only

References
1.

MacLean, P. M. The Triune Brain in Evolution, Plenum
Press, New York, 1990.
2. Lettvin, J.Y., Maturana, H. R., McCulloch, W. S. and Pitts,
W. H. What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain, Proc. IRE
47, 1940-1950 (1959).
3. Monod J. Chance and Necessity, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.,New York, 1971.
4. Arbib, M. A. Brains, Machines and Mathematics,
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964.
5. Chandrasekhar, S. Beauty and the quest for beauty inscience, Physics Today, 25-30 (1979).
6. Garfield, J. The Fundamental wisdom of the Middle Way,
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.
7. Chalmers, D. J. Conscious Mind, Oxford University Press,Oxford, 1996.
8. Hokkyo, N. Evolutionary regeneration model of thoughtprocess, Prog. Theor. Phys. 67, 1029-1037 (1982).
9. Hokkyo, N. Evolutionary origin of binary decision system,
pp.157-158, in Pályi, G., Zucchi, C. and Caglioti, L. Eds.,
Progress of Biochirality, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2004.
10. Eccles, J. C. Do mental events cause neural events
analogously to the probability fields of quantum
mechanics? , Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B227, 411-428 (1986).

Figure 2. Classification of qualia by its reflexive andemotive responses. The equator divides responses into
what is biologically favorable (upper hemisphere) andunfavorable (lower hemisphere) [8].
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Appendix: some vaguely defined words in thetext
aesthetic = concerned with beauty or theappreciation of beauty.
beauty = a combination of qualities such as shape,color, sound, etc., that pleases the aesthetic senses.
consciousness = awareness of one's surroundings(outer world) and identity (inner world).
eureka = excessive expression, such as cry, of theannouncement: “I have found it!” attributed toArchimedes.
familiarity = being well known, informed orexperienced.
newness = being inexperienced, experienced now
for the first time.
sameness = being previously known, informed orexperienced and continued.
qualia = something in the outer (physical) world aswell as in the inner world (neural organization) thatelicits consciousness.

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