Consciousness and the Brain

Global Workspace Theory is probably oversimplified, just like the Newtonian theory of the planets and their orbits. And that's what framework theories usually do. You don't want to go to them for the details, you want to go to them for the overview. And Global Workspace is really an overview.

– Dr. Bernard Baars, originator of Global Workspace Theory and Global Workspace Dynamics, a theory of human cognitive architecture, the cortex and consciousness.

Ep 18: Global Workspace Functions, the Brain and Consciousness: Connectivity, Waking, & Sleep - Part 3

In Episode 18 of our podcast On Consciousness with Bernard Baars, the third in a three-part series on GWT Origins & Evidence, we continue to explore the links between cutting edge brain evidence and how that supports or updates our understanding of consciousness and the Global Workspace Theory.

Talking Points

• 0:00 – Intro and Recap of Episodes 17 & 18 (Parts I & II)

Summary

After some quick introductions and a summary of the previous two episodes by Ilian, the trio delves right into the main subject of the conversation, namely what can sleep tell us about the conscious mind. Bernie explains that in everyday life, sleep is the most natural absence of consciousness and that it can serve as a comparison to moments of awareness.

Next, Alea introduces the work of Marcello Massimini M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at the University of Milan, Italy, whose papers are the central topic of discussion in this episode. She points out that Massimini’s research is devoted to understanding changes in thalamocortical networks when consciousness fades and recovers, such as when we sleep and reawaken. The organ of consciousness inside the brain is a system that includes the cortex, and an egg-shaped structure inside the cortex, called thalamus. They work closely together and we call it the corticothalamic (CT) system. Alea emphasizes that in addition to neurophysiology, Massimini is interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the neuroscience of consciousness.

Bernie, Alea, and Ilian describe the stages and the mechanisms of the sleep cycle, namely the REM and non-REM phases. The trio also define some of the terminology used in this conversation, focusing on neuronal oscillation, or the electrical patterns of activity in the central nervous system. When examined with an EEG, oscillations throughout the brain display which regions are active during a particular state.

The Sleep Slow Oscillation as a Traveling Wave, Massimini et al. (2004) is the first of two papers analyzed. Alea thoroughly summarizes the contents of the paper, indicating that the researchers detected traveling waves in the sleeping brain, particularly during nREM sleep. These waves had a site of origin and a direction, and most frequently originated in anterior (frontal) regions, and propagated posteriorly (back), although they can originate anywhere and propagate in any direction. 

Bernie makes the point that a fundamental framework for Global Workspace Theory is precisely this broadcast and build concept. GWT implies that there is information being transmitted and these traveling waves are obviously one possible way that can reflect the transmission of information. 

The second paper, titled Breakdown of Cortical Effective Connectivity During Sleep, Massimini et al. (2005), makes the observation that when we fall asleep, consciousness fades, yet the brain remains active. The researchers set out to understand why that is. They hypothesize that it is due to changes in information transfer. This ability to transfer and integrate information across multiple systems requires something called “effective connectivity” - or the ability of firing in one group of neurons to affect the firing of another. Massimini and his team suggest that consciousness is dependent on the brain’s ability to integrate information. This paper does seem to offer evidence for the breakdown of long-range connectivity during sleep. This is consistent with the broadcasting hypothesis which was discussed in parts I and II of this GWT series.

Bernie highlights the fact that even though the results appear to support the idea that this ability to transfer and integrate information across distant brain regions is necessary for conscious experience, the paper does have its limitations, such as the timing and measurement of the TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) pulse.

In the final moments of the episode, the trio ponder what these findings might tell us about consciousness. Bernie believes that for him, the conclusions from these papers do not support the grand hypothesis of how consciousness is formed. Alea agrees, and says that although complex questions cannot be answered by a single paper, such studies serve as fundamental stepping stones to gain a better understanding of the grander picture.

Some people suggest that dreaming is a kind of conscious state. Very early sources claim that waking is consciousness of the world, dreaming is consciousness of an inner world, and unconscious sleep is lack of any kind of conscious content. There are several things that we think we know, and there are a lot of things we don’t know. So we make our best guesses and when we find new evidence we change our guesses.

“I actually have a take-home lesson. This is to scientists and it's private. So don't tell anybody else. Try asking your subjects what they are experiencing and maybe you'll learn something.”

-Bernard Baars, PhD

Massimini, M., Ferrarelli, F., Huber, R., Esser, S. K., Singh, H., & Tononi, G. (2005, September 30). Breakdown of cortical effective connectivity during sleep. Science. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1117256 

Massimini, M., Huber, R., Ferrarelli, F., Hill, S., & Tononi, G. (2004, August 4). The sleep slow oscillation as a traveling wave. Journal of Neuroscience.  https://www.jneurosci.org/content/24/31/6862

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Alea Skwara is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis where she studies cognitive neuroscience. Her primary research focuses on compassion and responses to suffering. The main question that Alea is currently trying to answer is whether meditational practices can expand the range of people that a person can feel compassion for.

Ilian Daskalov is a senior undergraduate student at University of California, Irvine where he studies Cognitive Science. He holds an associate degree with honors from San Diego Mesa College. His research interests include sleep, psychedelics, and artificial intelligence. He is passionate about communicating science and promoting critical thinking. 

"I think in terms of consciousness, it seems to me that these Feelings of Knowing are perhaps the conscious tip of the iceberg for this huge amount of unconscious processing that's going on of all this information in our environment, where maybe I couldn't tell you why I know there's danger, but I know."

- Alea Skwara, PhD Candidate in the Perception, Cognition, and Cognitive Neuroscience (PCCN) area of the Psychology Department at UC Davis

Global Workspace Theory: Exploring Evidence for Widespread Integration & Broadcasting of Conscious Signals - Part Two

Episode 17 of the Podcast On Consciousness with Bernard Baars explores the links between cutting edge brain evidence and how that supports or updates our understanding of consciousness and the Global Workspace Theory (GWT).

• 0:00 – Intro

Episode 17 is the second in a three-part series on GWT Origins & Evidence, featuring our student interviewers, Alea Skwara and Ilian Daskalov. Together with Bernard Baars, they examine the recent neuroscientific study of consciousness.

After some quick introductions, Alea briefly summarizes their discussion in Part I on the history of Global Workspace, how the theory evolved, as well as some of the core hypotheses it generates. Now we dive into the brain evidence. 

Global Workspace Theory (or GWT) was first formulated in the ‘80s as a psychological theory of how consciousness might operate. In Part I, we talked about the spotlight metaphor. One of the key predictions of GWT is “widespread integration and broadcasting.” This seems to be one of the predictions that can be most directly tested by brain activity, our topic today.

The trio delves into the first of 4 papers, namely Baars’ 2013 paper called “Global Workspace Dynamics.” This paper comes as the result of four decades of cumulative work, which pulls together the evidence as of 2013. One of its key points connecting GWT to neuroscientific evidence is that GWT does not require (or suggest) an “anatomical hub” of coordinated activity, but, instead, a momentary, dynamic “functional hub.” 

Bernie, Alea and Ilian explore the question: What is the difference between an anatomical hub and a functional hub, and what does it mean to say that a functional hub is dynamic?

Bernie explains how the conscious brain is characterized by ‘widespread integration and broadcasting.’ The cortex is like a large city with specialized neighborhoods, streets and alleys. There is an ever changing flow of traffic between them. He then suggests that the thalamus is more than a relay station of the brain, and that the sensory thalamus is an entryway to the giant cortico-thalamic (CT) system, which integrates and broadcasts conscious information.

Next, Ilian asks how we can experimentally test conscious processes. This moves the conversation to Feelings of Knowing (FOKs), which is one fundamental type of conscious experience. Bernie makes the point that Feelings of Knowing are an integral part of the conscious stream.

The next paper is by Gaillard et al. (2009). It is an outstanding example of reading work from France by Dehaene and Changeux in Paris. The title is “Converging Intracranial Markers of Conscious Access, ” and it represents probably the most precise and accurate evidence so far for cortical integration and broadcasting. The experiment compared conscious and unconscious processing of briefly flashed words. Our trio asks the question: How does the observed effect of longer lasting and more widespread brain activity during conscious perception of a word offer support for GWT?

Alea explains how this evidence confirms that conscious perceptual activity is propagated widely throughout the cortex.

The third target paper is from a famous Yale epilepsy research group, led by Hal Blumenfeld, and the first author is Wendy X. Herman. It is titled, “A Switch and Wave of Neuronal Activity in the Cerebral Cortex During the First Second of Conscious Perception” (2019), and reinforces our message. Alea summarizes this third paper in the discussion, which looks at conscious perception in humans by using direct electrical recordings from the cerebral cortex during a visual perception task. Herman et al. discovered that stimuli that were consciously perceived elicited large-scale network switching, followed by waves of gamma activity. These findings support the hypothesis that such large waves are an indication of coordinated local-global activity. 

Our trio asks: What might be the special significance of the gamma and beta bands to consciousness?

An important recent paper by Deco et al. (2019) links this research to the major discovery of the cortical connectome, the street map of the cortex. It is called “Revisiting the Global Workspace.” 

This fourth and final paper, with coauthors Deco, Vidaurre, and Kringelbach, examined neuroimages from over 1000 participants and created a full brain hierarchy in what the researchers defined as ‘functional rich clubs.’ These ‘clubs’ correlate activity between brain regions and strengthen the idea that Global Workspace is dynamic, but not necessarily in a grossly visible way. Our trio explores: What does Deco’s idea of an “invariant global workspace” mean?

As our trio wraps up, Ilian wants to know about the future of “the quest for consciousness.” Bernie and Alea agree that combining brain recordings with phenomenological interviews during meditation is very exciting.

Paper 1: “Global Workspace Dynamics: Cortical ‘Binding and Propagation’ Enables Conscious Contents

Paper 2: Converging Intracranial Markers of Conscious Access

Paper 3: A Switch and Wave of Neuronal Activity in the Cerebral Cortex During the First Second of Conscious Perception

Paper 4: Revisiting the Global Workspace: Orchestration of the Functional Hierarchical Organisation of the Human Brain

Bios

Alea Skwara is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis where she studies cognitive neuroscience. Her primary research focuses on compassion and responses to suffering. The main question that Alea is currently trying to answer is whether meditational practices can expand the range of people that a person can feel compassion for.

Ilian Daskalov is a senior undergraduate student at University of California, Irvine where he studies Cognitive Science. He holds an associate degree with honors from San Diego Mesa College. His research interests include sleep, psychedelics, and artificial intelligence. He is passionate about communicating science and promoting critical thinking. 

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"One of the major features of the Global Workspace hypothesis began with limited capacity, that there has to be a compensatory event in the brain happening, and the most plausible one, for various reasons, including other people's work, of course, was that there's some kind of very wide recruitment of brain resources that happens as a function of becoming conscious of something."

– Dr. Bernard Baars, originator of Global Workspace Theory and Global Workspace Dynamics, a theory of human cognitive architecture, the cortex and consciousness.

In episode 16 of the Podcast On Consciousness, psychobiologist and author Bernard Baars, and Student Interviewers Alea Skwara, a PhD candidate at UC Davis and Ilian Daskalov, a senior undergrad student at UC Irvine unpack the origins and various components of Baars’ Global Workspace Theory (GWT), a theory of human cognitive architecture, the cortex, and consciousness. GWT is a widely used framework for the role of conscious and unconscious events in the functioning of the brain, a set of explicit assumptions that can be tested, as many of them have been in the last twenty years. Global Workspace Dynamics (GWD) is the most current version of GWT – attempting to take into account the complexities of the living brain.

Talking Points

• 0:00 – Intro by Natalie Geld, Bernard Baars, Alea Skwara & Ilian Daskalov

Summary

Bernie opens the conversation with the point that consciousness has largely been perceived as a passive state. When scientists initially started recording brain activity, the collection of brain regions which were active in the absence of a given task were considered to be “the brain’s metabolic baseline.” This notion, however, has received plenty of pushback in recent years, and this baseline is now regarded as an active cognitive task.

In an effort to get everyone on the same page, Ilian asks Bernie to define consciousness for the listeners. By using a metaphorical comparison to Galileo and his thermometer, Baars indicates that our current science is only able to give us an “operational definition,” which may differ from what consciousness actually is. In addition, by reiterating one of Baars’ metaphors, Alea explains that awareness is like a shining spotlight in a theater, while the unilluminated part of the stage, which is the majority of it, is where all the unconscious processes occur.

Ilian asks Bernie about the origins of Global Workspace Theory, and what inspired his thought process. 

Bernie shares his story on how he became interested in studying consciousness, which was initially ignited by the limitations of strictly behavioristic views imposed upon the scientific thinking of the time. Additionally, by exploring altered states of consciousness through the practice of transcendental meditation and inspired by the field of artificial intelligence, Bernie began to formulate a model to explain the nature of awareness. The key to any scientific concept is “relative evidence.” Without that we simply get lost. And the history of speculation about consciousness is mostly about people getting lost, arguing about semantic questions and frankly wasting time. What we want, in fact, is to study nature through facts. Baars has argued that “contrastive evidence” involves the most relevant set of facts, such as sleep and waking states.

Diving further into the various characteristics of Global Workspace and the questions which the theory attempts to answer, Bernie and Alea examine one of its most notable features, namely Limited Capacity, or the process of being aware of only a small percentage of what is happening in one’s mind. Limited capacity appears to be a genuine feature of the brain that continues to be a paradox. In the history of science, puzzles like this are the hardest fundamental questions to solve.

Building on this topic, they also incorporate the subject of parallel integrated computing, which describes how a number of processors simultaneously tackle the same problem in order to reach the most optimal solution.

The discussion then moves on to the core prediction of GWT, which is “widespread integration and broadcasting.” Bernie uses the example of a chirping bird to explain that integration is the process of sound traveling to both ears at slightly different times, all the while being perceived as one. 

Furthermore, Alea summarizes the broadcasting aspect of Global Workspace as the ability to “hyper focus on a narrow piece of experience.”

In the final segment of the episode, Ilian and Bernie discuss some of the common misconceptions about Global Workspace Theory. Referring to the analogy of a traffic jam’s changing epicenter, Baars explains that the Global Workspace is a dynamic hub in the brain - and not static - as commonly thought. 

In Episode 17 - Part 2 of our series on GWT, Bernie, Ilian, and Alea will explore the links between cutting edge brain evidence and how that supports or updates our understanding of consciousness and the Global Workspace Theory. They will begin with Bernie’s co-authored paper from 2013 -- “Global Workspace Dynamics: Cortical “binding and propagation” enables conscious contents” -- the result of four decades of cumulative work, which is important because it pulls all the current strands together. Three recent scientific papers will be unpacked that point out a plausible way in which all our sources can converge - can come together into a single conception. 

This is only a start and we hope that this conversation triggers further questions.

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Alea Skwara is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis where she studies cognitive neuroscience. Her primary research focuses on compassion and responses to suffering. The main question that Alea is currently trying to answer is whether meditational practices can expand the range of people that a person can feel compassion for.

Ilian Daskalov is a senior undergraduate student at University of California, Irvine where he studies Cognitive Science. He holds an associate degree with honors from San Diego Mesa College. His research interests include sleep, psychedelics, and artificial intelligence. He is passionate about communicating science and promoting critical thinking. 

"The idea is to help people understand how this science is relevant to their daily lives. Our brain likes novelty. It gets this sort of dopamine hit when you give it new information. Capturing attention and getting people excited about the information is really important, especially when dealing with things like public health issues, for example.”

– Dr. Heather Berlin, Neuropsychologist and Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai

Episode 15: "Communicating Science Effectively and The Notion of Free Will" with Dr. Heather Berlin *On Consciousness* 

For Episode #15, our returning guest is neuropsychologist Dr. Heather Berlin, an Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Berlin is a trained neuroscientist and a clinical psychologist. She is also interested in the neural basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, the use of psychedelics to treat mental disorders, and in the neural basis of creativity. We discuss her work and passions in this episode.

• 0:00 - Intro with Bernard Baars, Dr. Heather Berlin & Student Interviewer, Ilian Daskalov

Bernie Baars expresses his interest in the topic of human impulsivity and invites Dr. Berlin to share how her work has been shaped by studying the nature of self-regulation. Heather discusses her pursuit of trying to understand what makes us distinctly human, which led her on a journey of studying the functions of the prefrontal cortex. Additionally, the two also briefly touch on how Freud’s work has contributed to our understanding of the human mind.

Bernie then welcomes Student Interviewer Ilian Daskalov, a Cognitive Science student at University of California, Irvine into the conversation to further explore her unique work, research and creative endeavors. 

They begin with the question “What makes someone an effective science communicator?” Heather explains that while there are many ways to communicate science, the key to capturing your audience’s attention stems from relating science information to their daily lives. Heather says:

“First of all, find what you are good at, what medium you might be best at. You know, my husband raps about science, right? That's his medium. Then start to cultivate your medium. I think the kind of overarching aim that runs across them all is about connecting with people. I think on an emotional level, on a personal level -- because sometimes science can be abstract and objective, and that's what we want with science. It's objective. It's not amenable to our subjectivity, but at the same time that can feel very clinical. Distant. 

The idea is to help people understand how this science is relevant to their daily lives. How it's meaningful and what it means to them. Even if it's just inspiring a sense of awe, like, I don't know for sure about astrophysics, maybe it doesn't have any direct impact on our daily life, but just living in this universe and the enormity of it!! It’s awe inspiring! 

Our brain likes novelty. It gets this sort of dopamine hit when you give it new information. Capturing attention and getting people excited about the information is really important, especially when dealing with things like public health issues, for example.”

Recalling a recent interview between Heather Berlin and Sophia the Robot, Ilian seeks to understand where the future development of general artificial intelligence is heading. Both Bernie and Heather express their skepticism that humanity will be able to create conscious machines. They go on to explain that while our understanding of consciousness is yet incomplete, the biological components that it consists of appear to be fundamental building blocks.

Following the topic of AI, the discussion moves on to the notion of Free Will. Heather points out that although there is no evidence for the Cartesian definition of Free Will, the unconscious processes may not be predetermined. She further highlights the fact that the lack of Free Will does not excuse inappropriate human behavior as we have evolved the capacity to have self-control, primarily due to the maturation of the prefrontal cortex. 

Bernie shares his thoughts on consciousness and the sense of Free Will:

“Consciousness has been a huge taboo in the last 100 years, and so people are very often a little bit ashamed or inhibited or afraid of getting criticized when they speak freely of consciousness and Free Will. The key move in this new and confusing area is to state our questions in a testable and open-minded way. In good science, we should never impose our answers onto nature. 

The way to study the sense of freedom that we all have is profoundly important -- it is very real -- and not an illusion. There are profound biological reasons as to why humans and animals prefer freedom over coercion. Once we ask the question this way, we can study it.”

In the final moments of the episode, Ilian inquires about any future scientific discoveries that Heather is most enthusiastic about. She shares her excitement for the potential uses of neural implants which will aid in manipulating pathways in our brains, leading to enhanced memory, creativity, and intelligence. She also expresses optimism that through gene editing, we would be able to eliminate some neurological illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s Disease.

In closing, Ilian asks: “What general advice do you have for students of neuroscience and psychology?” Heather responds by urging science students to be persistent in chasing their goals and to always be bold and take risks, and says,

“Just keep going, keep going, keep going, and don't let anybody stop you unless it's illegal.”

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Dr. Heather Berlin is a dual-trained neuroscientist and clinical psychologist, and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mont Sinai in NY. She explores the neural basis of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric and neurological disorders with the aim of developing novel treatments. She is also interested in the brain basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity. Clinically, she specializes in lifespan (child, adolescent, and adult) treatment of anxiety, mood, and impulsive and compulsive disorders (e.g. OCD), blending her neural perspective with cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and humanistic approaches. You can visit her website at https://www.heatherberlin.com/

Ilian Daskalov is a senior undergraduate student at University of California, Irvine where he studies Cognitive Science. He holds an associate degree with honors from San Diego Mesa College. His research interests include sleep, psychedelics, and artificial intelligence. He is passionate about communicating science and promoting critical thinking. 

“In many cases you can see an immediate effect, as in chronic depression – suddenly you turn on the electrodes – you don't tell them when it's on or off, right? And their whole face lights up. And you ask, "What do you feel like?" And they say, "Oh, it feels wonderful. It feels like I won the lottery! It's so great!"

– Dr. Heather Berlin, Neuropsychologist and Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai

In this episode, our guest is neuropsychologist Dr. Heather Berlin, an Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Berlin conducts research to better understand the neural basis of impulsivity, compulsivity, and emotion with the goal of more targeted treatment. She employs neuroimaging and neuropsychological and psychopharmacological testing of brain lesion and compulsive, impulsive, and personality disorder patients. She is also interested in the neural basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, the use of psychedelics to treat mental disorders, and in the neural basis of creativity. We discuss her work and interests in this episode.

• 0:00 – Introduction 

Dr. Berlin has done an enormous range of work, which you can distill into this very profound question: “How do we control our unwanted impulses, our desires, our emotions, our reactions with other people?” These are very common questions, starting very early in life.

For example, imagine yourself as a child looking at the most delicious food, let’s use ice cream, and not being allowed to eat it… impulse control is having to wait. Impulse control is not just a problem in childhood, it is perhaps the major problem in adults who have significant psychological troubles. This includes the addictions, but also severe mood swings that adults want to change, but do not seem to have the power to change in these moments. When it is hard to control repeated impulses, we talk about compulsions; cigarette smoking can be seen as a compulsion. When repetitive thoughts are hard to regulate, we talk about obsessions. 

There seems to be a tug of war between those deep midbrain nuclei and the control system which involves the prefrontal cortex. Various areas of the prefrontal cortex have somewhat different effects, but prefrontal is associated with self regulation, while midbrain nuclei have to do with impulses, motivations, emotions, and so on. The prefrontal cortex is sometimes called the “organ of civilization” or as Heather dubs it, “the brake system”.

It is amazing how low level electrical stimulation by microscopic electrodes can profoundly change human mood disorders, like severe depression. The brain areas stimulated include the nucleus accumbens and ventral striatum of the basal ganglia, and local areas in the prefrontal cortex. 

“Medical science is often an art as well as a science, but Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) really can have significant effect and impact on people with difficult-to-treat conditions, like OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but also people with intractable or untreatable depression,” says Dr. Heather Berlin.

DBS can be surprisingly effective. As Dr. Berlin points out, “DBS is a huge success story. 40 to 50% of patients with severe untreatable depression, and about 60 to 70% of patients with severe OCD all have significant improvement in people who’ve tried every first line treatment and nothing has worked. In many cases you can see an immediate effect, as in chronic depression -- suddenly you turn on the electrodes -- you don't tell them when it's on or off, right? And their whole face lights up. And you ask "What do you feel like?" And they say "Oh, it feels wonderful. It feels like I won the lottery! It's so great!" And as they're talking, you turn off the electrodes and you just see their whole affect drop right back down.” 

In the 1960s, psychedelics got a mixed reception, because many people had spectacular experiences, but physicians often wondered if there were harmful side effects. Now we are seeing a return to psychedelics as a promising treatment for different neuropsychiatric conditions. 

The new therapies always combine the psychedelic-assisted treatment with the presence of a specialized psychotherapist. Dr. Berlin gives us a summary of the new discoveries in the use of psychedelics, including MDMA for the treatment of PTSD, psilocybin to treat anxiety and people with end of life issues, ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, for the treatment of severe depression and particular suicidality, and more recently DMT (or ayahuasca) as a treatment for certain psychiatric illnesses. 

After 50 years of persistent efforts to find solutions, in the last decade we finally have treatments with dramatic positive effects. Dr. Heather Berlin presents us with recent medical breakthroughs for very severe life problems that have been difficult to address.

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Dr. Heather Berlin is a dual-trained neuroscientist and clinical psychologist, and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mont Sinai in NY. She explores the neural basis of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric and neurological disorders with the aim of developing novel treatments. She is also interested in the brain basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity. Clinically, she specializes in lifespan (child, adolescent, and adult) treatment of anxiety, mood, and impulsive and compulsive disorders (e.g. OCD), blending her neural perspective with cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and humanistic approaches. You can visit her website at https://www.heatherberlin.com/

"The only way we get certainty or stability in the world is to start from what we know, and gradually move to what we don't know."

- Bernard Baars, PhD, originator of the Global Workspace Theory, a theory of cognitive architecture and consciousness. 

• 0:04 – Intro

David Edelman, PhD: A neuroscientist and currently Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, David has taught neuroscience at the University of San Diego and UCSD. He was Professor of Neuroscience at Bennington College until 2014 and visiting professor in the Department of Psychology, CUNY Brooklyn College from 2015-2017.

He has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including mechanisms of gene regulation, the relationship between mitochondrial transport and brain activity, and visual perception in the octopus. A longstanding interest in the neural basis of consciousness led him to consider the importance—and challenge—of disseminating a more global view of brain function to a broad audience.

Get a 40% Discount for your copy of Bernie Baars' acclaimed new book On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory

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"Consciousness can be firmly embedded in biology, based on the fact that all kinds of [demonstrably biological] processes that are not [by themselves] conscious are important for conscious process[ing].”

- David Edelman, PhD, A neuroscientist and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College

Episode 12: "Consciousness in Context - The Brain is Embodied and the Body is Embedded"

In the 12th episode of ‘On Consciousness,’ psychobiologist Bernard Baars and neuroscientist David Edelman are joined by renowned master of misdirection and sleight of hand, professional magician Mark Mitton, as they consider the problem of consciousness within the larger scope of biology.

• 00:03 – Introduction by Bernard Baars.

Starting with the example of magic as it has recently been used by some neuroscientists to explore conscious and unconscious processing in the brain, Mitton highlights the problem of reconciling two nomenclatures and the fact that magicians and neuroscientists think about the processes they manipulate and exploit in some very different ways. This leads to a poignant and topical question, first posed by Mitton and then echoed by Edelman: What are the boundaries of our knowledge? Most magicians think of what they do as craft, and in thinking this way, are willing to afford a degree of mystery to the realm in which they ply their craft. But what about neuroscientists? It can probably be said without exaggeration that many neuroscientists are not necessarily comfortable with the limits of their own knowledge.

Baars, Edelman, and Mitton mull over the relatively recent appreciation of the richness of biological complexity and how this must necessarily alter our view of how consciousness and other aspects of natural phenomena can be woven into a unified view of biology. The complexity of myriad processes across all levels of biological organization seems to stymie our best efforts at formulating a grand theoretical framework that integrates all that we observe in nature.

In confronting the problem of biological complexity, Baars makes the point that, at least in the case of consciousness, the role of the individual hasn’t been well understood or appreciated. Once individual variation is taken into account, the notion of what adaptation means at all levels of biological organization changes radically.

Mitton offers the example of the immune response. How does the immune system recognize a foreign invader it hasn’t encountered before — or, for that matter, a chemical compound that has never existed in the history of the planet — and mount a successful defense of the body? The key to an effective immune response is a vast preexisting (and ever diversifying) repertoire of different kinds of antibodies.

Edelman contrasts this with the case of the digital computer, in which the actions of a machine are instructed by an extrinsic program. Though the example of the immune response seems quite far from the problem of conscious brain function, the role of individual variability and selectional interactions — whether between antibody and antigen or brain and the world it perceives — may be common to both biological processes.

The trio consider how we should proceed in conscious science, knowing what we don’t know. Baars suggests that, while a practical scientific approach might avoid drawing absolute lines, it makes sense to first assume that in order to be conscious, an organism must have a nervous system. All three then acknowledge that many of the functional requisites of consciousness have been objects of study for a long time, such as memory. Consciousness not only overlies the neural faculty of memory, it also depends, for what it is and what it does, on memory and other faculties that have been around for tens of millions of years. All kinds of processes that aren’t by themselves conscious are nevertheless critical to conscious processing.

Finally, Baars, Mitton, and Edelman return to the idea that consciousness is fundamentally biological, even if it seems to thrust us into a weird purview in which we need to deal with a material object called the brain that instantiates immaterial thoughts.

In closing, Mitton offers a phrase coined by Gerald Edelman that neatly encapsulates the idea of placing the mind firmly in biological perspective: “the brain is embodied and the body is embedded.” 

Get a 40% Discount for your copy of Bernie Baars' acclaimed new book On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory

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Mark Mitton is a professional magician who is fascinated by using magic to better understand how we see the world. In addition to performing at private and corporate events all over the world, and creating magic for film, television, the Broadway stage, and Cirque du Soleil, Mark explores the theme of 'Misdirection' from an interdisciplinary standpoint. He regularly presents on 'Perception' at universities and conferences in North America and Europe, including the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, and has lectured with the late Nobel Laureate Dr. Gerald Edelman on The Neurosciences Institute. http://markmitton.com

David Edelman, PhD: A neuroscientist and currently Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, David has taught neuroscience at the University of San Diego and UCSD. He was Professor of Neuroscience at Bennington College until 2014 and visiting professor in the Dept of Psychology, CUNY Brooklyn College from 2015-2017.

He has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including mechanisms of gene regulation, the relationship between mitochondrial transport and brain activity, and visual perception in the octopus. A longstanding interest in the neural basis of consciousness led him to consider the importance—and challenge—of disseminating a more global view of brain function to a broad audience.

"Episodic memory involves conscious experiences being encoded. Same goes for semantic and autobiographical memories. All varieties of memories come in through conscious moments of recall. So, I think that consciousness is the means by which any kinds of memories are established."

- Bernard Baars, PhD, originator of global workspace theory and global workspace dynamics, former Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA, editor in Chief of the Society for MindBrain Sciences, and a recipient of the 2019 Hermann von Helmholtz Life Contribution Award by the International Neural Network Society.

EPISODE 11: Roundtable Part Four "Brain Regions and Neural Functions Critical to Conscious States" 

In the final episode of their roundtable talks, originator of Global Workspace Theory Bernard Baars, neuroscientist David Edelman, and developmental neuropsychiatrist Dr. Jay Giedd conclude their discussion by analyzing the brain areas which are critical for higher brain function, neuroimaging techniques associated with detecting conscious experiences, and the possible existence of consciousness in non-mammalian animals.

Get your 40% Discount for your copy of Bernie Baars' acclaimed new book On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory

• GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars 

• 00:03 – Introduction by David Edelman

In this absorbing episode of ‘On Consciousness,’ Bernard Baars, David Edelman, and developmental neuropsychiatrist Dr. Jay Giedd initiate the conversation by considering the functional aspects of the brain that are believed to be absolutely critical to consciousness.

Bernie, Jay, and David ponder the role of cortex and thalamus in higher brain function, including conscious processing. Bernie underlines the problem of considering the linkage between thalamus and cortex as merely a simple feedback loop. From an engineering perspective, this sort of circuit could not possibly work as such an arrangement would inevitably, as Bernie puts it, lead to effective failure of the thalamocortical circuit. Instead, it seems to be the case that the cortex functions in a state of near-criticality. As Jay indicates, this implies that the cortex is always at a tipping point, i.e., close to a phase transition and “always ready to be influenced.”

Elucidating the neurobiology of consciousness has been somewhat hindered by technical hurdles. But, despite the spatial and temporal limitations of current neurophysiological and imaging technologies, David observes that certain aspects of brain anatomy—including cortex and thalamus—have been established as the sine qua non of conscious experience in mammals. In an optimistic vein, Jay offers that new combinations of existing techniques (such as MEG, EEG, and fMRI) may soon yield a much clearer picture.

Next, Edelman, Baars, and Giedd consider the idea that certain higher neural processes are central to consciousness, even though those processes may often function independently of any state of awareness. Memory, which seems to be fundamental to conscious experience, is one such process. While memory and recall figure prominently in conscious experience, it’s certainly the case that some varieties of memory are regularly engaged during non-conscious states and behaviors.

The trio concludes the conversation by reflecting on the prospect of consciousness as a biological phenomenon. Additionally, they consider the possibility of consciousness in animals distant from the mammalian line and as it is the case of the octopus, a creature separated from the vertebrate radiation by more than half a billion years. The octopus as a possible test case for consciousness beyond the realm of vertebrates is particularly tantalizing, given that, unlike mammals, it has neither a cerebral cortex nor a thalamus.

David Edelman, PhD: A neuroscientist and currently Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, David has taught neuroscience at the University of San Diego and UCSD. He was Professor of Neuroscience at Bennington College until 2014 and visiting professor in the Dept of Psychology, CUNY Brooklyn College from 2015-2017.

He has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including mechanisms of gene regulation, the relationship between mitochondrial transport and brain activity, and visual perception in the octopus. A longstanding interest in the neural basis of consciousness led him to consider the importance—and challenge—of disseminating a more global view of brain function to a broad audience.

*Watch Episode 11 on Our YouTube Channel!

"All models are wrong, but some are useful." And I think ultimately that's the test of a construct like Global Workspace Theory - does it lead us to greater knowledge? Does it suggest areas of research? Does it make predictions that we can test? And that's why I think Global Workspace Theory has stood the test of time. It has succeeded on all of those fronts."

- Dr. Jay Giedd, Chair of child psychiatry at Rady Children's Hospital - San Diego and director of child and adolescent psychiatry, professor of psychiatry at UCSD School of Medicine, and professor in the Dept of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

EPISODE 10: Roundtable Part Three - Global Workspace Theory - Brain Aspects and Evidence with Dr. Jay Giedd

In the third part of their roundtable talk, neuroscientist David Edelman, Bernard Baars, originator of the global workspace theory and global workspace dynamics, and developmental neuropsychiatrist Jay Giedd consider underlying neural processes and anatomical features of Global Workspace Theory and continue on their journey to unravel the complexities surrounding conscious experiences.

How does consciousness come together in the brain? How does memory figure into conscious experience? Knowing how we acquire coherent perceptual insights about the world and then commit those insights to memory, can we tune the learning process to optimize the acquisition of new skills?

Get your 40% Discount for your copy of Bernie Baars' acclaimed new book On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory

• GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars 

• 00:00 – Intro by David Edelman.

How does consciousness come together in the brain? How does memory figure into conscious experience? Knowing how we acquire coherent perceptual insights about the world and then commit those insights to memory, can we tune the learning process to optimize the acquisition of new skills?  

In this engrossing episode of ‘On Consciousness,' Bernard Baars, David Edelman, and developmental neuropsychiatrist Jay Giedd consider Global Workspace Theory (GWT) and its underlying neural processes and anatomical features, as well as the development of the imaging technology which has afforded a detailed view of brain activity in near-real time that appears to support GWT.

To begin the discussion, Bernie provides an outline of GWT. He points to the paradox that our thought processes seem to unfold serially, yet the brain architecture underlying those thought processes resembles a collection of massively parallel processors. With this insight in mind, Bernie proposed a Global Workspace in which nonconscious processes arising in different neural regions come together, those processes are somehow polled, and the most ‘popular’ among them gets broadcast throughout the cerebral cortex, amounting to a sort of ‘ignition’ of conscious experience. 

From Bernie’s summary of GWT, the discussion turns to perceptual learning. As humans negotiating an incredibly complex world, one of our greatest advantages is a long maturation period that affords us the time to acquire many sophisticated skills. Given time, a rich suite of sensory faculties, a large brain, and a good understanding of the neural processes underlying learning and memory, can we somehow optimize the acquisition of specialized skills? Elaborating on this, Jay proposes the prospect of replacing native skills that are losing ground to technology with new ones — sophisticated pattern recognition being just one example. Human beings are still much better at pattern recognition than the most powerful supercomputers. 

Central to conscious perception is the ability of the brain to bind perceptual input from different sensory organs into cohesive, unified percepts that somehow hold together and persist in memory. Jay observes that during development, there must be an accretive weaving together of percepts which at some point passes a threshold of complexity, yielding conscious experience. But, when do developing humans and some non-human animals cross this rubicon of awareness? New imaging techniques, including fMRI and MEG, have made it possible for researchers to record some of the functional signatures of integration of percepts. Someday, using improved versions of such techniques, we may increasingly observe the emergence of complex states of consciousness in human infants and young non-human animals.

At the close of the discussion, Bernie, Jay, and David reflect on the work of Wilder Penfield, whose contributions included the identification of numerous brain regions with particular functional specializations and the seminal insight that the cerebral cortex is the organ of mind. The pioneering refinements in open skull surgery which made possible these contributions also led Penfield to observe that variations in blood coloration associated with changes in flow were strongly correlated with differences in brain area activation. In a sense, as Jay remarks, Penfield’s observation presaged the development of fMRI. Tempering the promise of neuroimaging, Jay and David conclude the conversation by pondering the shortcomings of fMRI, including limits on spatial and temporal resolution, extreme computational processing (which can lead to ‘data massaging’), and the danger of overinterpreting results.

David Edelman, PhD: A neuroscientist and currently Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, David has taught neuroscience at the University of San Diego and UCSD. He was Professor of Neuroscience at Bennington College until 2014 and visiting professor in the Dept of Psychology, CUNY Brooklyn College from 2015-2017.

He has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including mechanisms of gene regulation, the relationship between mitochondrial transport and brain activity, and visual perception in the octopus. A longstanding interest in the neural basis of consciousness led him to consider the importance—and challenge—of disseminating a more global view of brain function to a broad audience.

*Watch Episode 10 on Our YouTube channel!

"You highlighted the difference that makes a difference. Тhis is not only a neat catchphrase, but there's also something very deep about it. And sleep, in fact, is a really interesting aspect of behavior, that maybe gives us a window on the difference between conscious and non-conscious processes in the brain, because there is a distinct difference and it is recordable."

- David Edelman, PhD, A neuroscientist and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College

In a continuation from their previous conversation, Neuroscientist David Edelman and Developmental Neuropsychiatrist Jay Giedd, Professor of Psychiatry at UCSD School of Medicine and Director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Rady Children's Hospital are joined by Bernard Baars, the originator of the global workspace theory and global workspace dynamics, a theory of human cognitive architecture, the cortex and consciousness. In this contemplative conversation the trio touches on subjects involving how consciousness gets defined, the developing process of an adolescent human brain, and the role that sensory organs play in an individual's perception of reality. 

Get your 40% Discount for your copy of Bernie Baars' acclaimed new book On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory

• GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars 

• 0:00 – Intro by David Edelman.

Bernard Baars has often referred to consciousness as the difference that makes a difference. When we reflect on our everyday experience versus the absence of anything attended to or recalled, as is the case during a deep, dreamless sleep or under general anesthesia — that difference which distinguishes conscious experience from the rest of our mental lives becomes quite obvious.But, how would we characterize that difference?What is it about a particular animal’s makeup — its nervous and sensory systems, its behavior, its social interactions — that singles out that animal as truly conscious?

In this episode of ‘On Consciousness’, Baars, Edelman, and Giedd explore these questions in a thought-provoking discussion, starting with their perspectives on the nature of consciousness. To begin with, David posits a relatively straightforward definition of consciousness: namely, the weaving together of different sensory threads into a coherent unified percept and the persistence of that percept in memory. Bernie then offers that humans have studied consciousness for millennia, and out of that long rumination has come the realization that teaching and learning — the process of communicating and internalizing information — is an interactive exchange of conscious thought.

This social domain of conscious experience could therefore be subsumed within an operational definition of awareness — at least in the human case. As David points out (and Jay amplifies) Bernie’s emphasis on the kind of social interchange of conscious percepts that occurs between humans doesn't take into account the long history of life on earth and in particular the many animals with complex brains and elaborate sensory faculties that have preceded us.

Human sociality is a recent evolutionary innovation, and it seems clear that some form of consciousness existed long before we came along. And, while Bernard emphasizes the idea that human sociality accommodates our conscious experience, Jay flips this on its head, suggesting instead that consciousness may be what ultimately affords our particular social lives as humans.

Moreover, for many non-human animals, survival and reproduction are contingent on social skills — but this was true long before humans walked the earth. In any case, as Jay points out, we should be able to infer whether an animal has the capacity to convey its interpretation of reality to others from the structure and function of its nervous system. Such an inference would be strongly suggestive of a rich conscious life.

Next, the conversation focuses on the role of certain brain structures and sensory faculties in defining and elaborating conscious experience. In the case of human development, we can track the emergence of different perceptual and cognitive capacities, as well as the elaboration of underlying brain areas and circuitry, from infancy well into adulthood. Thus, as Jay suggests, we could in principle observe as the capacity to weave together sensory percepts into a neural representation emerges and is elaborated in the brain of a young child. In this regard, Jay asks two questions:

David Edelman, PhD: A neuroscientist and currently Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, David has taught neuroscience at the University of San Diego and UCSD. He was Professor of Neuroscience at Bennington College until 2014 and visiting professor in the Dept of Psychology, CUNY Brooklyn College from 2015-2017.

He has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including mechanisms of gene regulation, the relationship between mitochondrial transport and brain activity, and visual perception in the octopus. A longstanding interest in the neural basis of consciousness led him to consider the importance—and challenge—of disseminating a more global view of brain function to a broad audience.

*Watch Episode 9 on Our YouTube Channel!