Neurodynamics of Mind: The Arrow Illusion of Conscious Intentionality as Downward Causation Joaquín Barutta & Ezequiel Gleichgerrcht & Carlos Cornejo & Agustín Ibáñez Published online: 27 March 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract In cognitive neuroscience, the reissue of the notion of emergence and downward causation has been used as an interlevel model of mind-brain interactions from different perspectives. Within this perspective, intentionality has been interpreted as global to local determination (downward causation) on the neurophysiological level. Consciousness would act as the large-scale, global activity of the system that governs or constrains local interactions of neurons. This argument seems to solve several difficulties with regard to descriptions of consciousness on a neurophysiological and mental level. Nevertheless, the inconsistencies of this argument are shown, and a contextual and pragmatic explanation of the downward causation of consciousness is given. Keywords Large-scale brain dynamics . Consciousness . Emergence . Downward causation . Explanatory pluralism . Reductionism Integr Psych Behav (2010) 44:127–143 DOI 10.1007/s12124-010-9117-8 A. Ibáñez (*) Laboratory of Experimental Psychology & Neurosciences, Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO) and Institute of Neuroscience, Favaloro University, Castex 3293, CP 1425 Buenos Aires, Argentina e-mail: aibanez@neurologiacognitiva.org URL: http://www.neurologiacognitiva.org/ E. Gleichgerrcht : A. Ibáñez Laboratory of Experimental Psychology & Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, INECO, Buenos Aires, Argentina A. Ibáñez National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina J. Barutta Laboratory of Epistemology and History of Medicine (LEPHIM), Instituto Universitario del Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina C. Cornejo Escuela de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile