Consciencia

Consciencia

Trabajos: Consciencia

Experimental and Theoretical Approaches

to Conscious Processing

Stanislas Dehaene1,2,3,4,* and Jean-Pierre Changeux4,5,*

1INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Gif sur Yvette, 91191 France

2CEA, DSV, I2BM, Neurospin center, Gif sur Yvette, 91191 France

3University Paris 11, Orsay 91401, France

4Colle` ge de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France

5Institut Pasteur CNRS URA 2182, Institut Pasteur, 75015 Paris, France

*Correspondence: stanislas.dehaene@gmail.com (S.D.), changeux@noos.fr (J.-P.C.)

DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.03.018

Recent experimental studies and theoretical models have begun to address the challenge of establishing

a causal link between subjective conscious experience and measurable neuronal activity. The present

review focuses on the well-delimited issue of how an external or internal piece of information goes

beyond nonconscious processing and gains access to conscious processing, a transition characterized

by the existence of a reportable subjective experience. Converging neuroimaging and neurophysiological

data, acquired during minimal experimental contrasts between conscious and nonconscious processing,

point to objective neural measures of conscious access: late amplification of relevant sensory activity,

long-distance cortico-cortical synchronization at beta and gamma frequencies, and ‘‘ignition’’ of

a large-scale prefronto-parietal network. We compare these findings to current theoretical models of

conscious processing, including the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) model according to which

conscious access occurs when incoming information is made globally available to multiple brain systems

through a network of neurons with long-range axons densely distributed in prefrontal, parieto-temporal,

and cingulate cortices. The clinical implications of these results for general anesthesia, coma, vegetative

state, and schizophrenia are discussed.

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