by Bernard J. Baars | May 5, 2021 | conscious brain, Conscious Experiences, Cortex and Consciousness
The cortex is a flat sheet, shown beautifully here by Van Essen et al (see the Van Essen Lab at the University of St. Louis). This is the six-layered sheet of cells and fibers that makes up our cortex, the “neo-cortex” (because it really expands for mammals like...
by Bernard J. Baars | Mar 15, 2021 | conscious brain, Conscious Experiences, Global Workspace Theory
[This is an excerpt from Part II of my latest book On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity and is Part 2 in a 3 Part series on “A Working Theater of Consciousness”. To read part 1, please click here] ...
by Bernard J. Baars | Mar 1, 2021 | conscious brain, Conscious Experiences, Global Workspace Theory
. . . “Why don’t we start out with a little bit of a definition of what we’re talking about when we’re talking about ‘consciousness’, because we can mean a whole lot of different things by it. I’m wondering if...
by Bernard J. Baars | Feb 22, 2021 | conscious brain, Conscious Experiences, Cortex and Consciousness
[This is an excerpt from Part II of my latest book On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity.] In Book VII of Plato’s Republic (Plato, 1956) we find the following allegory: Imagine mankind as dwelling in an underground cave with necks and legs fettered, so they...
by Bernard J. Baars | Nov 18, 2020 | Conscious Experiences, Feelings of knowing, mindbrain, Podcast, Psychobiology, Unconscious States
“Consciousness can be firmly embedded in biology, based on the fact that all kinds of [demonstrably biological] processes that are not [by themselves] conscious are important for conscious process[ing].” — David Edelman, PhD, a neuroscientist and a...
by Bernard J. Baars | Oct 22, 2020 | conscious brain, Conscious Experiences, Cortex and Consciousness, Podcast, Psychobiology
“Episodic memory involves conscious experiences being encoded. Same goes for semantic and autobiographical memories. All varieties of memories come in through conscious moments of recall. So, I think that consciousness is the means by which any kinds of memories...
by Bernard J. Baars | Sep 22, 2020 | conscious brain, Conscious Experiences, Global Workspace Theory, Podcast, Psychobiology
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” And I think ultimately that’s the test of a construct like Global Workspace Theory – does it lead us to greater knowledge? Does it suggest areas of research? Does it make predictions that we can...
by Bernard J. Baars | Aug 22, 2020 | conscious brain, Conscious Experiences, Podcast, Psychobiology
“I want to try to understand consciousness from a neuroanatomy and neuro-function standpoint. What would consciousness look like in a brain scanner and other types of imaging? What are we looking for, in a sense, and could I predict from basically the...
