Toward a standard model of consciousness: Reconciling the attention schema, global workspace, higher-order thought, and illusionist theories
Cognitive Neuropsychology May 18, 2020 M. Graziano, Arvid Guterstam, Branden J. Bio et al.
People's understanding of consciousness may be shaped by an implicit theory of mind, a social cognition approach that helps explain a divide between the physically incoherent consciousness people think they have and the complex, rich, but mechanistic consciousness they may actually have. This approach helps reconcile current cognitive neuroscience theories of consciousness. A single, coherent explanation of consciousness is available and has been for some time, encompassing the views of many researchers, but is not yet recognized. It is obscured partly by terminological differences and because researchers view isolated pieces as rival theories. A deeper, coherent pool of ideas, a kind of standard model, may explain multiple layers of consciousness and how they relate to specific brain networks.