An adaptive workspace hypothesis about the neural correlates of consciousness: insights from neuroscience and meditation studies.
Antonino Raffone, Narayanan Srinivasan
Progress in Brain Research 2009 DOI: 10.1016/s0079-6123(09)17620-3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation Philosophy of mind |
| Key points | Proposes an adaptive workspace hypothesis for the neural correlates of consciousness, emphasizing transient resonant neurodynamics and prefrontal cortex function, with meditation-related characterizations of conscious experiences. |
Abstract
While enormous progress has been made to identify neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), crucial NCC aspects are still very controversial. A major hurdle is the lack of an adequate definition and characterization of different aspects of conscious experience and also its relationship to attention and metacognitive processes like monitoring. In this paper, we therefore attempt to develop a unitary theoretical framework for NCC, with an interdependent characterization of endogenous attention, access consciousness, phenomenal awareness, metacognitive consciousness, and a non-referential form of unified consciousness. We advance an adaptive workspace hypothesis about the NCC based on the global workspace model emphasizing transient resonant neurodynamics and prefrontal cortex function, as well as meditation-related characterizations of conscious experiences. In this hypothesis, transient dynamic links within an adaptive coding net in prefrontal cortex, especially in anterior prefrontal cortex, and between it and the rest of the brain, in terms of ongoing intrinsic and long-range signal exchanges, flexibly regulate the interplay between endogenous attention, access consciousness, phenomenal awareness, and metacognitive consciousness processes. Such processes are established in terms of complementary aspects of an ongoing transition between context-sensitive global workspace assemblies, modulated moment-to-moment by body and environment states. Brain regions associated to momentary interoceptive and exteroceptive self-awareness, or first-person experiential perspective as emphasized in open monitoring meditation, play an important modulatory role in adaptive workspace transitions.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 37
- Beyond the veil of duality—topographic reorganization model of meditation Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022
- A global workspace model for phenomenal and access consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition June 1, 2010
- Reflections on Inner and Outer Silence and Consciousness Without Contents According to the Sphere Model of Consciousness Frontiers in Psychology August 12, 2020
- Common and distinct lateralised patterns of neural coupling during focused attention, open monitoring and loving kindness meditation Scientific Reports 2020
- Meditation and Hypnosis: Two Sides of the Same Coin? International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 2017
and 32 more in the library
Cites 20
- On a confusion about a function of consciousness Behavioral and Brain Sciences June 1, 1995
- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Neuroreport November 7, 2005
- Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences October 11, 2007
- Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 8, 2004
- Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience August 13, 2007
and 15 more in the library