Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 28, 2026

Recording Behavioral Responses to Reflection in Crayfish
Published on: May 14, 2010
Theoretical modeling of the subject: Western and Eastern types of human reflexion
1University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
Abstract:
The author puts forth the hypothesis that mental phenomena are connected with thermodynamic properties of large neural network. A model of the subject with reflexion and capable for meditation is constructed. The processes of reflexion and meditation are presented as the sequence of heat engines. Each subsequent engine compensates for the imperfectness of the preceding engine by performing work equal to the lost available work of the preceding one. The sequence of heat engines is regarded as a chain of the subject's mental images of the self. Each engine can be interpreted as an image of the self that the engine next to it has, and the work performed by engines as the emotions that the subject and his images are experiencing. Two types of meditation are analyzed: The dissolution in nothingness and union with the Absolute. In the first type, the initial engine is the one that yields heat to the coldest reservoir, and in the second type, the initial engine is the one that takes heat from the hottest reservoir. The main concepts of thermodynamics are reviewed in relation to the process of human reflexion.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Self Within Cultural Contexts
Introspection
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Implicit Personality Theories
Structuralism
Titchener's approach to structuralism was unique. He...
Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model

