Biomedical subjects

Bernard J. Baars

Publications and source records attributed to Bernard J. Baars.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

How conscious experience and working memory interact.

Active components of classical working memory are conscious, but traditional theory does not account for this fact. Global Workspace theory suggests that consciousness is needed to recruit unconscious specialized networks that carry out detailed working memory functions. The IDA model provides a fine-grained analysis of this process, specifically of two classical working-memory tasks, verbal rehearsal and the utilization of a visual image. In the process, new light is shed on the interactions between conscious and unconscious aspects of working memory.

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PubMed2002

Behaviorism redux?

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Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

The conscious access hypothesis: origins and recent evidence.

Consciousness might help to mobilize and integrate brain functions that are otherwise separate and independent. Evidence for this 'conscious access hypothesis' was described almost two decades ago, in a framework called global workspace theory. The theory had little impact at first, for three reasons: because consciousness was controversial; the evidence, though extensive, was indirect; and integrative theory was unfashionable. Recent neuroimaging evidence appears broadly to support the hypothesis, which has implications for perception, learning, working memory, voluntary control, attention and self systems in the brain.

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PubMed1997

A Neural Global Workspace Model for Conscious Attention.

Considerable progress is being made in interdisciplinary efforts to develop a general theory of the neural correlates of consciousness. Developments of Baars' Global Workspace theory over the past decade are examples of this progress. Integrating experimental data and models from cognitive psychology, AI and neuroscience, we present a neurocognitive model in which consciousness is defined as a global integration and dissemination system - nested in a large-scale, distributed array of specialized bioprocessors - which controls the allocation of the processing resources of the central nervous system. It is posited that this global control is effected via cortical 'gating' of a strategic thalamic nucleus. The basic circuitry of this neural system is reasonably well understood, and can be modeled, to a first approximation, employing neural network principles.

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