Top Rated Posts
-
Recent Comments
Follow SelfAwarePatterns
Tag Archives: Neuroscience
Stephen Macknik’s work on prosthetic vision
This is pretty wild. In her latest Brain Science podcast, Ginger Campbell interviews Stephen Macknik on his work to develop a visual replacement implant for blind people. For a quick overview, check out this short video. One question Campbell asks, … Continue reading
Posted in Zeitgeist
Tagged Brain Science Podcast, Ginger Campbell, Neuroscience, Stephen Macknick, vision prosthetics
2 Comments
Is there a conscious perception finish line?
Global workspace theory (GWT) is the proposition that consciousness is composed of contents broadcast throughout the brain. Various specialty processes compete for the limited capacity of the broadcasting mechanisms, to have their content broadcast to the all the other specialty … Continue reading
The battle between integration and workspace will take a while
Well, I find this a bit disappointing. I was hoping that the contest between global workspace theory (GWT) and integrated information theory (IIT) would be announced sometime this year. Apparently, I’m going to have to wait awhile: Pitts describes the … Continue reading
Posted in Zeitgeist
Tagged Brain, Consciousness, global workspace theory, Integrated Information Theory, Mind, Neuroscience
30 Comments
The issues with higher order theories of consciousness
After the global workspace theory (GWT) post, someone asked me if I’m now down on higher order theories (HOT). It’s fair to say I’m less enthusiastic about them than I used to be. They still might describe important components of … Continue reading
Posted in Mind and AI
Tagged Brain, Consciousness, higher order theory, Mind, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
57 Comments
Global workspace theory: consciousness as brain wide information sharing
Lately I’ve been reading up on global workspace theory (GWT). In a survey published last year, among general consciousness enthusiasts, integrated information theory (IIT) was the most popular theory, followed closely by GWT. However, among active consciousness researchers, GWT was … Continue reading
Posted in Mind and AI
Tagged Brain, Neuroscience, Consciousness, Philosophy of Mind, Mind, global workspace theory
55 Comments
The magic step and the crucial fork
Those of you who’ve known me for a while may remember the long fascination I’ve had with Michael Graziano’s attention schema theory of consciousness. I covered it early in this blog’s history and have returned to it multiple times over … Continue reading
Posted in Mind and AI
Tagged attention schema theory, Brain, Consciousness, Michael Graziano, Mind, Neuroscience
56 Comments
The information generation theory of consciousness
James of Seattle called my attention to an interesting paper in the Neuroscience of Consciousness journal: Information generation as a functional basis of consciousness: Drawing upon empirical research into consciousness, we propose a hypothesis that a function of consciousness is … Continue reading
Conscious visual perception happens in the frontal lobes
(warning: neuroscience weeds) Okay, switching back to the other major debate in neuroscience: whether conscious perception happens in the back or front of the brain. A new study presents evidence that seems to bolster the frontal view: Neural Correlates of … Continue reading
The layers of emotional feelings
One of the ongoing debates in neuroscience is on the nature of emotions, where they originate, where they are felt, and how innate versus learned they are. One view, championed by the late Jaak Panksepp and his followers, see emotions … Continue reading
Debate: Do split-brain patients have two minds?
I went to the NYU Consciousness site this morning hoping to see if the recent debate on the relationship of prefrontal activity to consciousness had been posted yet. It hasn’t, and based on what I can see, it might be … Continue reading
