NEUROSC M101C Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Blindsight, High-Occupancy Vehicle Lane, Phosphene
Document Summary
In everyday usage, consciousness often refers to wakefulness. if you drink too much (alcohol), you pass out, unconscious. if one gets knocked on the head, one may get into a coma, losing consciousness. etc. Some people do study consciousness of those kinds. but most people in the field take perceptual awareness as a more central problem. Originated from bernard baars the cognitive psychologist, revived / popularized 10/15 years ago by stanislas dehaene, who fashioned it in neuronal terms (sometimes called the neuronal. When information enter such workspace, they become conscious. Workspace neurons are supposed to be in frontal and parietal areas. Demonstration: when we compare visible words to invisible (backward masked) words, the frontal parietal areas go from baseline to activated (as e. g. measured in fmri) (discussion paper 1) Having the right kind / amount of early sensory activity alone is enough to support visual awareness.
