Global workspace models of consciousness in a broader perspective

Abstract

Models of consciousness based on the notion of global workspace (GW), as the core processor of the brain for conscious access and processing of information for higher-level cognitive functions, have been influential in consciousness studies and related neuroscientific investigations over about three decades. The fundamental GW principles proposed in Global Workspace Theory (GWT) of Bernard Baars have further been specified and developed in terms of involved brain regions and neurocognitive processes and mechanisms in the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) model of Stanislas Dehaene and collaborators. In this chapter, after reviewing GWT and the GNW model with other related models, we extend GW principles to a range of consciousness domains, including the influential distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness, mental programs in higher-level conscious cognition, discrete temporal dynamics of consciousness implicating multiple time scales, first- and third-person perspectives about the self, phenomenal consciousness in dreaming and access consciousness in lucid dreaming, meditation, and mindfulness as well as core processes underlying hypnotic states. We thus demonstrate the broad relevance and implications of the GW notion and functional principles for a range of consciousness domains and phenomena, also in terms of their neural correlates.

Topics & Concepts