A Neurobiological Framework for Consciousness

Abstract

Visual awareness is a favorable form of consciousness to study neurobiologically. We propose that it takes two forms: a very fast form, linked to iconic memory, that may be difficult to study; and a somewhat slower one involving visual attention and short-term memory. In the slower form an attentional mechanism transiently binds together all those neurons whose activiry relates to the relevant features of a single visual object. We suggest this is done by generating coherent semisyru:hronous oscillations, probably in the 40-70Hz range. These oscillations then activate a transient short-term (working) memory. We outline several lines of experimental work that might advance the understanding of the neural mechanisms involved. The neural basis of very short-term memory espedally needs more experimental study.

Dynamics of brain activity underlying working memory for music in a naturalistic condition

“…It seems that conscious recall of sensory contents requires information binding to combine the spatially isolated brain areas within this emergent distributed network (Damasio, 1990;Fodor & Pylyshyn, 1988). In relation to this, Crick & Koch (1990) posited that binding and sensory awareness might be intimately related. It also has been proposed that information transfer to WM is mediated by a temporal pattern of synchronous discharges in selected neuronal populations induced by attentional mechanisms, i.e., binding of neural activity by synchronization activates WM (Crick & Koch, 1990).…”

“…In relation to this, Crick & Koch (1990) posited that binding and sensory awareness might be intimately related. It also has been proposed that information transfer to WM is mediated by a temporal pattern of synchronous discharges in selected neuronal populations induced by attentional mechanisms, i.e., binding of neural activity by synchronization activates WM (Crick & Koch, 1990). Similarly, Engel and Singer (2001) support the hypothesis that neural synchrony within millisecond precision may be implicated in arousal, perceptual integration, attentional selection and WM.…”

Towards a computational theory of experience

“…The appeal of state vector semantics seems to be universal: it is ubiquitous in computational theorizing and philosophical analysis of experience (Smart, 2007;Brown, 2006) and is tacitly assumed in neuroscientific research into consciousness (Crick and Koch, 1990). The attractiveness of this approach seems to stem from a deep-rooted constructivist intuition, according to which experience can be woven frame by frame, just as phenomenally continuous movies are constituted by a succession of brief images.…”

Bodily self-consciousness, and the primacy of self related signals such as the 1stperson perspective and self-location

“…On sheer speculation, the second possibility seems more likely. Certainly, the importance to consciousness of binding information across wide regions of the brain has been discussed before (e.g., Baars, 1983;Crick & Koch, 1990;Damasio, 1990;Engel & Singer, 2001;Grossberg, 1999;Lamme, 2006;Llinas & Ribary, 1994;Newman & Baars, 1993;Treisman, 1988;von der Malsburg, 1997). From the perspective of information theory, it has been suggested that consciousness is massively linked information (Tononi, 2008;Tononi & Edelman, 1998).…”