Theories of consciousness from the perspective of an embedded processes view.
Psychological review January 1, 2025 Nelson Cowan, Nick I Ahmed, Chenye Bao et al. 11 citations
A review of recent behavioral and neuroscientific research on consciousness finds that information from various cognitive functions and brain areas is integrated into a conscious whole. The authors propose a new model in which this integration involves funneling information to a hub or focus of attention centered in the parietal lobes, which is functionally connected to areas representing currently attended information. This funneling process is described as the converse of global broadcasting proposed by other theories. The model incorporates many principles from previous research and aims to clarify the relation between consciousness and attention, though no existing theory fully captures the proposed organization of conscious thought.