The Unfinished NCC Project

Abstract

Abstract: The so-called NCC project started in the 1990s. But as with the whole idea of a “revival” of consciousness science, there too is a long and often neglected history well before that. Not knowing our history is a problem because we are prone to repeating the same mistakes. The trouble is that some conceptual issues are hard to avoid, even when we think we are focusing on “straight-ahead” empirical studies of consciousness. This chapter illustrates how common notions of “necessity” and “sufficiency” are often applied wrongly. Amid some exciting calls for moving on to more theoretically adventurous endeavors, there is a worry that the empirical project itself could well be derailed. The purpose of this chapter is to set us back on the right path. If we carefully control for the key experimental confounders, the evidence is in favor of the prefrontal cortex’s role in consciousness—although it may not be for the purpose of global broadcast.