Why are we conscious? Is cortex the organ of mind?
Throughout human history, people have perceived the conscious brain as the great nexus of human life, of social relationships, of their personal identities and histories, in encounters with new challenges.
In Episode #5 of the podcast On Consciousness, Bernard Baars talks with neuroscientists David Edelman and Jay Giedd, roboticist Jeff Krichmar, magician Mark Mitton, and editor Natalie Geld about our growing understanding of the many relationships between the structure and functions of the brain and our own private experiences.
Discover the conscious brain.
Consciousness under its many labels and manifestations is widely seen to be one of the core mysteries of life. A great many therapeutic approaches can be viewed in a global workspace framework, including traditional psychodynamics and depth psychology, but also cognitive behavioral techniques, and, indeed, many other kinds of carefully studied human functions. Making progress in understanding consciousness therefore has an endless number of implications – philosophical, metaphysical, scientific, medical, clinical, and practical.
“Baars’ Global Workspace Theory is practical and elegant, addressing both conscious and unconscious activity. If anyone thinks there is a “hard problem” in this field, they need to read On Consciousness before they make that assumption.”
– Stanley Krippner, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Saybrook University
Bios
- Bernard J.Baars: Cognitive Neurobiologist, originator of GWT, and author of “ON CONSCIOUSNESS: Science & Subjectivity – Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory”
- Neuroscientist David Edelman, PhD: Visiting Scholar, Dept of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
- Neuroscientist Dr. Jay Giedd: Director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Rady Children’s Hospital; Professor of Psychiatry, UCSD School of Medicine
- Jeffrey Krichmar, PhD: Neuroscientist & Roboticist at UC Irvine
- Professional Magician Mark Mitton
- Natalie Geld: Editor of “ON CONSCIOUSNESS” and CEO & Founder of MedNeuro, Inc.
Global Workspace Theory (GWT) began with this question: “How does a serial, integrated and very limited stream of consciousness emerge from a nervous system that is mostly unconscious, distributed, parallel and of enormous capacity?”
GWT is a widely used framework for the role of conscious and unconscious experiences in the functioning of the brain, as Baars first suggested in 1983.
A set of explicit assumptions that can be tested, as many of them have been. These updated works by Bernie Baars, the recipient of the 2019 Hermann von Helmholtz Life Contribution Award by International Neural Network Society form a coherent effort to organize a large and growing body of scientific evidence about conscious brains.
