Hitting the Right Note

Abstract

Abstract: The chapter begins by questioning whether the prefrontal cortex plays a causal role in conscious perception. The dorsolateral prefrontal areas and the frontal polar cortex of the prefrontal cortex are identified as important because they seem to have survived the controls for all three kinds of confounders discussed in this volume: stimulus, report, and performance capacity. However, at the theoretical level, it is worth emphasizing that global theories do not fixate on these prefrontal areas alone. And yet, the prefrontal cortex is often a key focus in current debates. One main argument against the prefrontal cortex as part of the neural correlates of consciousness has to do with lesion effects. But lesions and stimulation studies are often conceptually misinterpreted or factually misrepresented. Once these issues are clarified, we can see that there is good evidence for the causal involvement of the prefrontal cortex in consciousness.