"On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity represents a landmark effort to comprehensively address, in an accessible way, the various dimensions of the global workspace, from its cognitive architecture to the living brain dynamics through which it is manifest. This book is an indispensable addition to the library of both students and experts who study consciousness.” —George A. Mashour, MD, PhD, Director, Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Global Workspace Theory (GWT) provides a widely used framework to date for our rapidly accumulating body of evidence of conscious and unconscious brain functions. Global Workspace Dynamics (GWD) is the most current version – attempting to account for complexities of the living brain. These updated works spanning 1988 - 2013 trace the beginnings of GWT/GWD through the continued rise of brain evidence and psychological understanding.
Since the rise of neuroimaging our brain evidence has improved spectacularly, and the biological basis of subjectivity has now become a recognized goal in the sciences. Far from contradicting each other, public and private evidence is generally mutually supportive.
CONTENTS
Author’s Note 1
Cortex is the organ of mind. 10
PART I.
Consciousness Explored: Making sense of the evidence 13
Introduction 15
1. Conscious experiences 19
2. Unconscious states 31
3. General conclusions 33
4. Major features of conscious states and contents 35
5. Consciousness in philosophy and science 45
6. Consciousness in animals and machines 47
PART II.
A Scientific Approach to Consciousness 55
Introduction 57
1. You are conscious, and so am I. 61
2. Evidence. 89
3. A Working Theater of Consciousness. 99
PART III.
A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness 113
Preface 115
One: AN INTRODUCTION
1. What is to be explained? Some preliminaries 125
Two: THE BASIC MODEL
2. Model 1: Conscious representations are internally consistent and globally distributed 203
3. The neural basis of conscious experience 255
Three: THE FUNDAMENTAL ROLE OF FRAMES
4. Model 2: Unconscious frames shape conscious experience 275
5. Model 3: Conscious experience is informative — it always demands some degree of adaptation 321
Four: GOALS AND VOLUNTARY CONTROL
6. Model 4: Goal frames, spontaneous problem solving, and the stream of consciousness 375
7. Model 5: Volition as ideomotor control of thought and action 401
Five: ATTENTION, SELF, AND CONSCIOUS SELFMONITORING
8. Model 6: Attention as control of access to consciousness 459
9. Model 7: Self as the dominant frame of experience and action 487
Six: CONSCIOUSNESS IS FUNCTIONAL
10. The functions of consciousness 513
Seven: CONCLUSION
11. A summary and some future directions 527
Glossary and guide to theoretical claims 536
Conscious Access Themes 565
PART IV
Global workspace dynamics (GWD): Cortical “binding and propagation” enables conscious contents 571
Introduction 573
1. Dynamic Global Workspace: A functional hub of binding and propagation
in a population of loosely coupled signaling elements 575
2. States and Contents 601
3. Sensory Percepts vs. Feelings of Knowing 613
4. Voluntary Reports of Conscious Events 623
5. The Hippocampus and Conscious Contents: A Novel Prediction 627
6. Summary 629
Appendix 632
Acknowledgments 636
Notes 638
References 639
Extended Credits 668
Illustration & Image Credits 669
