More from Tanya Lewis in ‘livescience.com’ (“Scholars closing in on theory of Consciousness”)
“ Global workspace
Another promising theory suggests that consciousness works a bit like computer memory, which can call up and retain an experience even after it has passed.
Bernard Baars, a neuroscientist at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California, developed the theory, which is known as the global workspace theory. This idea is based on an old concept from artificial intelligence called the blackboard, a memory bank that different computer programs could access.
Anything from the appearance of a person’s face to a memory of childhood can be loaded into the brain’s blackboard, where it can be sent to other brain areas that will process it. According to Baars’ theory, the act of broadcasting information around the brain from this memory bank is what represents consciousness.
The global workspace theory and integrated information theories are not mutually exclusive, Koch said. The first tries to explain in practical terms whether something is conscious or not, while the latter seeks to explain how consciousness works more broadly.
“At this point, both could be true,” Koch said.”
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 