Creativity and the neural basis of qualia
Abstract
_In what computational aspect is the brain different from the_ _computer? In what objective measures can the brain said to be_ _“creative”? These are the fundamental questions that concerns the_ _neural basis of human mental activity. Here we discuss several_ _important aspects of the essential computational ingredients of human_ _mind in order to understand the “creative” process going on in the_ _brain. One of the key concepts is the nature of the source of_ _"externality" that adds new ingredients to the system and its output. We_ _argue that in addition to information input and stochasticity, we need to_ _consider a third possibility, namely "dynamics-embedded externality"._ _We discuss how the neural origin of the subjective sensory qualities_ _ is related to this aspect of creativity. The invariance of qualia _ _under a certain class of transformation, and the mapping of discrete,_