An information integration theory of consciousness.

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Abstract

Consciousness poses two main problems. The first is understanding the conditions that determine to what extent a system has conscious experience. For instance, why is our consciousness generated by certain parts of our brain, such as the thalamocortical system, and not by other parts, such as the cerebellum? And why are we conscious during wakefulness and much less so during dreamless sleep? The second problem is understanding the conditions that determine what kind of consciousness a system has. For example, why do specific parts of the brain contribute specific qualities to our conscious experience, such as vision and audition?

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Dynamic predictions: oscillations and synchrony in top-down processing.

A K Engel, P Fries, W. Singer (2001)

Classical theories of sensory processing view the brain as a passive, stimulus-driven device. By contrast, more recent approaches emphasize the constructive nature of perception, viewing it as an active and highly selective process. Indeed, there is ample evidence that the processing of stimuli is controlled by top-down influences that strongly shape the intrinsic dynamics of thalamocortical networks and constantly create predictions about forthcoming sensory events. We discuss recent experiments indicating that such predictions might be embodied in the temporal structure of both stimulus-evoked and ongoing activity, and that synchronous oscillations are particularly important in this process. Coherence among subthreshold membrane potential fluctuations could be exploited to express selective functional relationships during states of expectancy or attention, and these dynamic patterns could allow the grouping and selection of distributed neuronal responses for further processing.

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The distinct modes of vision offered by feedforward and recurrent processing.

Victor Lamme, Pieter Roelfsema (2000)

An analysis of response latencies shows that when an image is presented to the visual system, neuronal activity is rapidly routed to a large number of visual areas. However, the activity of cortical neurons is not determined by this feedforward sweep alone. Horizontal connections within areas, and higher areas providing feedback, result in dynamic changes in tuning. The differences between feedforward and recurrent processing could prove pivotal in understanding the distinctions between attentive and pre-attentive vision as well as between conscious and unconscious vision. The feedforward sweep rapidly groups feature constellations that are hardwired in the visual brain, yet is probably incapable of yielding visual awareness; in many cases, recurrent processing is necessary before the features of an object are attentively grouped and the stimulus can enter consciousness.

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Cellular networks underlying human spatial navigation.

Arne D Ekstrom, Michael J Kahana, Jeremy B Caplan … (2003)

Place cells of the rodent hippocampus constitute one of the most striking examples of a correlation between neuronal activity and complex behaviour in mammals. These cells increase their firing rates when the animal traverses specific regions of its surroundings, providing a context-dependent map of the environment. Neuroimaging studies implicate the hippocampus and the parahippocampal region in human navigation. However, these regions also respond selectively to visual stimuli. It thus remains unclear whether rodent place coding has a homologue in humans or whether human navigation is driven by a different, visually based neural mechanism. We directly recorded from 317 neurons in the human medial temporal and frontal lobes while subjects explored and navigated a virtual town. Here we present evidence for a neural code of human spatial navigation based on cells that respond at specific spatial locations and cells that respond to views of landmarks. The former are present primarily in the hippocampus, and the latter in the parahippocampal region. Cells throughout the frontal and temporal lobes responded to the subjects' navigational goals and to conjunctions of place, goal and view.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Neurosci

Title: BMC neuroscience

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2202

ISSN (Print): 1471-2202

Publication date (Electronic): Nov 02 2004

Volume: 5

Affiliations

[1 ] Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. gtononi@wisc.edu

Article

Publisher Item ID: 1471-2202-5-42

DOI: 10.1186/1471-2202-5-42

PMC ID: 543470

PubMed ID: 15522121

SO-VID: f706718f-ff24-42d1-9848-04fa5f9a217c

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