Consciousness and the prefrontal parietal network: Insights from attention, working memory and chunking
Frontiers in Psychology May 22, 2014 Daniel eBor, Anil K Seth
The prefrontal parietal network (PPN) is closely linked to both consciousness and cognitive processes like attention, working memory, and executive control. Although attention and consciousness can be dissociated under certain circumstances, attention as a content selection and boosting mechanism is an important and necessary aspect of consciousness. Chunking, which involves detecting useful patterns within integrated, attended information, activates the PPN particularly robustly compared to other cognitively demanding tasks. The authors propose that these cognitive functions together form the core psychological components of consciousness, and that the main evolutionary purpose of consciousness may be to provide innovative solutions to complex or novel problems.