Theory of global neuronal workspace by S. Dehaene

A methodological analysis of S. Dehaene's global neural workspace theory argues that philosophical theories of consciousness lack experimentally confirmed data, while concepts like wakefulness and attention describe unconscious processes rather than consciousness. Dehaene proposes an empirically based approach to identify neural correlates that track a stimulus's transition from unconscious to conscious processing. His team offers four such correlates, or 'signatures' of consciousness; the last shows activity shifting from specialized brain regions to the entire neural network. Dehaene predicts that advancing neuroscientific methods will eventually enable 'mind reading'—reproducing conscious states on artificial systems. The theory extends B. Baars's late-20th-century ideas rather than offering a fundamentally new approach. The article identifies misconceptions in neurobiological theories and outlines research directions for consciousness and brain as interrelated parts.

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Abstract

The article deals with a methodological analysis of S. Dehaene’s theory of the global neural workspace. The French neuroscientist criticizes philosophical theories of consciousness because they do not use experimentally confirmed data. Also, he rejects such concepts of consciousness as wakefulness and attention, since they primarily describe the work of the unconscious, and not consciousness. Therefore, he suggests a way to study consciousness that would be solely based on empirical methods and provide univocal neural correlates that could be used to track the transition of a stimulus received in the brain from the unconscious to the conscious area. S. Dehaene’s research team offers four such correlates, or “signature” of consciousness, the last of which demonstrates the transition of activity from different, specialized parts of the brain to the entire neural network. Also, he believes that due to the development of neuroscientific methods of consciousness research and technologies for reading and decrypting neuroactivity in the near future, it will be possible to “read minds”, which means the reproduction of both individual conscious states and consciousness as a whole on artificial systems. This theory is not a fundamentally new way of studying consciousness, since it develops the ideas put forward by B. Baars at the end of the XX century. Based on the theory of the global neural workspace, the article attempts to identify the main misconceptions of neurobiological theories of consciousness, outlining the direction of research programs of consciousness and the brain as interrelated parts, and determining their prospects in solving the problem of consciousness.