Current neuroscience research has made good progress in detecting the damage to consciousness in human brains. However, scientists and philosophers alike still have a difficult time defining consciousness altogether. Despite there being better equipment available for brain imaging, they still heavily rely on a posteriori evidence and experience to explain the phenomena and continue to struggle to come up with a successful theoretical framework.
Recent tailwinds in AI have motivated further research on consciousness science, leading to numerous competing theories that seek to explain how consciousness emerges:
- Global Neuronal Workspace Theory is one such theory that images consciousness as a kind of stage where thoughts and sensations on the “global workspace” are broadcast around the brain for further action or attention.
- Predictive Processing Theories propose that consciousness emerges from the balance between perception and prediction. The brain ‘fills in the gaps’ of conscious experience by connecting real world phenomena to abstract thoughts and feelings based on available information.
- Integrated information theory views consciousness as universal—it can exist outside of brains, like a kind of panpsychism. In IIT, consciousness corresponds to the amount integrated information in a system.
Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Electroencephalography techniques, neuroscientists have tried to validate the aforementioned theories. Thus far, they do a decent job at explaining how a brain reaches the state of consciousness but not what happens once it is there.
Overall, the results are mixed. Some elements of these theories match experimental results but only partially. Scientists are hoping that the field will continue to enjoy the leaps of progress its had in the past three decades, and not suffer another ‘research winter’ due to the repeated dismissals of the field as pseudoscience.
References
Parshall, A. (2026). What is consciousness? Science faces its hardest problem yet. In Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-consciousness-science-faces-its-hardest-problem-yet/
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