Abstract
An increasing number of authors suggest that the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) have no selective, executive, or metacognitive function. It is believed that attention unconsciously selects the contents that will become conscious. Consciousness would have only the fundamental function of transforming the selected contents into a format easily used by high-level processors, such as working memory, language, or autobiographical memory. According to Dehaene, the neural correlates (NC) of access consciousness (AC; cognitive consciousness) constitute a widespread network in the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortices. While Tononi localized the correlates of phenomenal consciousness (PC; subjective consciousness) to a posterior “hot zone” in the temporo-parietal cortex. A careful examination of the works of these two groups leads to the conclusion that the correlates of access and PC coincide. The two consciousnesses are therefore two faces of the same single consciousness with both its cognitive and subjective contents. A review of the literature of the pathology called “neglect” confirms that the common correlates include 10: a memory center, an activation center, and eight parallel centers. From study of the “imagery” it can be deduced that these eight parallel centers would operate as points of convergence in the third person linking the respective eight sensory-motor-emotional areas activated by external perceptions and the corresponding memories of these perceptions deposited in the memory center. The first four centers of convergence appear in the most evolved fish and gradually reach eight in humans.
Highlights
In the current state of the field, the consensus is increasing in favor of the hypothesis that there is a clear separation between attention and consciousness
If we examine the consequences of bilateral lesioning of each of the other eight neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), it is noted that they involve important and specific cognitive deficits but do not cause loss of consciousness
All of these perceptions are connected in an innate or acquired way to the centers of emotional evaluation, located mainly in the ventral striatum and in the amygdala; these areas are the architects of a selection which is communicated to the thalamus
Summary
In the current state of the field, the consensus is increasing in favor of the hypothesis that there is a clear separation between attention and consciousness (van Boxtel et al, 2010; Cohen et al, 2012; Koch and Tsuchiya, 2015; Baier et al, 2020; Davidson et al, 2020). This “ignition” would make the selected bottom-up processes aware In this new format (access consciousness), contents are able to “access” the high-level brain processors which, as mentioned, are responsible for the working memory, the reasoning, the verbal report, decisions, meta cognition, and voluntary control of attention or conscious memories (e.g., semantic, episodic, autobiographical; Baars, 1988, 1997; Dehaene and Changeux, 2004). Regarding the 10 NCC, only lesioning of the medial parietal lobe (posterior cingulate-retrospenial-precuneus) in the “hot zone” leads to loss of consciousness (Damasio, 1999; Vogt and Laureys, 2005; Cavanna, 2007) This is because this brain area constitutes the complex of memories (motor, emotional, semantic, episodic, and autobiographical; Rolls, 2019), which is a fundamental NC for consciousness. From the study of neglect described below, it will be possible to confirm this statement and demonstrate that the mechanisms generating the AC have the simultaneous consequence of generating the PC
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