Neuroscience of consciousness: cognition, physics and philosophy of decoding the human brain
Journal of Applied Cognitive Neuroscience December 11, 2022 Berenika Maciejewicz 1 citation
Consciousness remains unexplained despite centuries of debate. Contemporary theories often fail to connect or produce complete, empirically proven accounts. This investigation explores approaches linking neuronal brain activity with physics and philosophical principles behind consciousness. It evaluates relationships between consciousness, attention, working memory, and types of consciousness (access vs. phenomenal). Conscious and unconscious perception, including visual and subliminal inputs, are contrasted to discuss neural correlates of self-awareness. Consciousness is considered as global information broadcast to integrated brain modules, and the brain as a parallel processor linked to attention. The interplay between consciousness and attention—including attention without consciousness and vice versa—is examined. Implications and shortcomings of approaches from brain science, philosophy, and quantum physics are covered.