Theories of Consciousness

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Theories of Consciousness

Key points

  • Literature on consciousness comes from different disciplines: medicine, philosophy, physics, psychology, neurobiology, mathematics, and computer science.1
  • Conscious is considered synonymous with being awake.2
  • The concept of ‘consciousness’ can be found in historical documents since ancient times.
  • Conscious means “being aware of” or denoting or relating to a part of the human mind that is aware of a person’s self, environment, and mental activity and that to a certain extent determines his choices of action.
  • Consciousness is an ambiguous term which may refer to: the waking state, experience or the possession of any mental state.3 
  • Consciousness helps to mobilize and integrate brain functions that are otherwise separate and independent.4
  • Consciousness exists on a continuum.
  • Sensory consciousness is explained by biology, anatomy, physiology, and as well as cognitive neurosciences.5 
  • Restricting the term “consciousness” to sensory events is a narrow definition of consciousness that excludes numerous conscious experiences beyond the senses such as feelings of effort, interoceptive emotional feelings, conscious beliefs and ideas, endogenous visual imagery, and inner speech.6
  • Global workspace theory (GWT) is a framework for thinking about consciousness introduced in 1982, by cognitive scientist Bernard Baars.7 Global workspace (GW) theory was emerged from the cognitive science.8
  • Consciousness is accomplished by a distributed society of specialists that is equipped with a working memory, called a global workspace, whose contents can be broadcast to the system as a whole.9
  • GW theory generates explicit predictions for conscious aspects of perception, emotion, motivation, learning, working memory, voluntary control, and self systems in the brain.8 
  • Global workspace theory suggests a fleeting memory capacity in which only one consistent content can be dominant at any given moment.4
  • Concepts of Global Workspace Theory: The brain is a distributed society of specialist and the society of the specialists is equipped with a global workspace.
  • Global Workspace Dynamics (GWD) is the most current version of Global Workspace Theory (GWT).5
  • Electromagnetic field (EMF) of the brain model of consciousness: Electromagnetic field (EMF) theories of mind/brain integration posit that current flow across neuronal membranes generates an electromagnetic field which, in turn, permits computation and integration of information, that produces a conscious mind.10
  • Consciousness is the product of highly integrated and widespread cortico-thalamic (C-T) activity.5
  • The role of the cortex and thalamus in the conscious experience has been proven in experiments.11 
  • Integrated information theory (IIT) proposes a mathematical model for the consciousness of a system. 
  • Neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) theory proposes the neuronal complexity and information integration towards explaining the concept of consciousness.12

References

  1. Sattin D, Magnani FG, Bartesaghi L, Caputo M, Fittipaldo AV, Cacciatore M, et al. Theoretical Models of Consciousness: A Scoping Review. Brain Sci. 2021 Apr 24;11(5):535.
  2. Gonçalves ÓF, Sayal J, Lisboa F, Palhares P. The experimental study of consciousness: Is psychology travelling back to the future? Int J Clin Health Psychol IJCHP. 2024;24(3):100475.
  3. Zeman A. Consciousness. Brain J Neurol. 2001 July;124(Pt 7):1263–89.
  4. Baars BJ. The conscious access hypothesis: origins and recent evidence. Trends Cogn Sci. 2002 Jan 1;6(1):47–52.
  5. Baars BJ, Geld N, Kozma R. Global Workspace Theory (GWT) and Prefrontal Cortex: Recent Developments. Front Psychol. 2021 Nov 10;12:749868.
  6. Baars BJ, Franklin S, Ramsoy TZ. Global Workspace Dynamics: Cortical “Binding and Propagation” Enables Conscious Contents. Front Psychol. 2013 May 28;4:200.
  7. Prakash R, Prakash O, Prakash S, Abhishek P, Gandotra S. Global workspace model of consciousness and its electromagnetic correlates. Ann Indian Acad Neurol. 2008;11(3):146–53.
  8. Baars BJ. Global workspace theory of consciousness: toward a cognitive neuroscience of human experience. Prog Brain Res. 2005;150:45–53.
  9. Baars BJ. A cognitive theory of consciousness. Cambridge University Press; 1998.
  10. MacIver MB. Consciousness and inward electromagnetic field interactions. Front Hum Neurosci [Internet]. 2022 Nov 17 [cited 2025 June 13];16. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.1032339/full
  11. Baars BJ. The conscious access hypothesis: origins and recent evidence. Trends Cogn Sci. 2002 Jan 1;6(1):47–52.
  12. Seth AK. Consciousness: The last 50 years (and the next). Brain Neurosci Adv. 2018 Nov 22;2:2398212818816019.
This page was last updated on: 18/07/2025