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Abstract
Concepts of space and time are widely developed in physics. However, there is a considerable
lack of biologically plausible theoretical frameworks that can demonstrate how space
and time dimensions are implemented in the activity of the most complex life-system
- the brain with a mind. Brain activity is organized both temporally and spatially,
thus representing space-time in the brain. Critical analysis of recent research on
the space-time organization of the brain's activity pointed to the existence of so-called
operational space-time in the brain. This space-time is limited to the execution of
brain operations of differing complexity. During each such brain operation a particular
short-term spatio-temporal pattern of integrated activity of different brain areas
emerges within related operational space-time. At the same time, to have a fully functional
human brain one needs to have a subjective mental experience. Current research on
the subjective mental experience offers detailed analysis of space-time organization
of the mind. According to this research, subjective mental experience (subjective
virtual world) has definitive spatial and temporal properties similar to many physical
phenomena. Based on systematic review of the propositions and tenets of brain and
mind space-time descriptions, our aim in this review essay is to explore the relations
between the two. To be precise, we would like to discuss the hypothesis that via the
brain operational space-time the mind subjective space-time is connected to otherwise
distant physical space-time reality.
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