The DOI matches its Crossref record; 9 of the 9 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Theories of consciousness and a life worth living
Open accessAbstract
What is it that makes a life valuable? A popular view is that life’s moral worth depends in some way on its relationship to consciousness or subjective experience. But a practical application of this view requires the ability to test for consciousness, which is currently lacking. Here, we examine how theories of consciousness (ToCs) can help do so, focusing especially on difficult cases where the answer is not clear (e.g. fetuses, nonhuman animals, unresponsive brain-injured patients, and advanced artificial systems). We consider five major ToCs and what predictions they offer: Integrated information theory, Higher-Order Thought Theory, Recurrent Processing Theory, Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, and Attention Schema Theory. We highlight the important distinction between the capacity and potential for consciousness and use it to explore the limitations in our ability to draw firm conclusions regarding an entity's consciousness on the basis of each theory.
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Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: basic evidence and a workspace framework
Dehaene, S. (2001) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(00)00123-2 · Cited by 2,498 · cited 2×
“Third, consciousness is often conceptualized as human-consciousness, and ToCs have been developed either based on data mostly from human participants (e.g. [3].”
An information integration theory of consciousness
Tononi, G. (2004) · BMC Neuroscience · doi:10.1186/1471-2202-5-42 · Cited by 1,958 · cited 2×
“One theory that tries to address this issue is Integrated Information Theory (IIT [5,11]).”
Conscious Processing and the Global Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis
Mashour, G. A., Roelfsema, P., Changeux, J.-P., & Dehaene, S. (2020) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2020.01.026 · Cited by 1,164 · cited 1×
“The Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT [3,15]) proposes that consciousness is associated with the activation of a global network of specialized neurons that broadcast information throughout the brain.”
Empirical support for higher-order theories of conscious awareness
Lau, H., & Rosenthal, D. (2011) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2011.05.009 · Cited by 869
Stratification of unresponsive patients by an independently validated index of brain complexity
Casarotto, S., Comanducci, A., Rosanova, M., Sarasso, S., Fecchio, M., Napolitani, M., Pigorini, A., G. Casali, A., Trimarchi, P. D., Boly, M., et al. (2016) · Annals of Neurology · doi:10.1002/ana.24779 · Cited by 487 · cited 1×
“Some have generated successful tests for disorders of consciousness (i.e. IIT [26] and GNW [27]), but it remains unclear whether any such test specifically indexes the presence of consciousness or picks up co-occurring typical features of a healthy working brain, other than consciousness.”
Two distinct modes of sensory processing observed in monkey primary visual cortex (V1)
Supèr, H., Spekreijse, H., & Lamme, V. A. F. (2001) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/85170 · Cited by 467
The attention schema theory: a mechanistic account of subjective awareness
Graziano, M. S. A., & Webb, T. W. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00500 · Cited by 224
Hard criteria for empirical theories of consciousness
Doerig, A., Schurger, A., & Herzog, M. H. (2021) · Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17588928.2020.1772214 · Cited by 194 · cited 1×
“A good ToC should account for multiple-realizability [7], the possibility for consciousness to be realized in different, nonhuman systems.”
Self-citationMagnetoencephalographic signatures of conscious processing before birth
Moser, J., Schleger, F., Weiss, M., Sippel, K., Semeia, L., & Preissl, H. (2021) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100964 · Cited by 61
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Identifying indicators of consciousness in AI systems
Butlin, P., Long, R., Bayne, T., Bengio, Y., Birch, J., Chalmers, D., Constant, A., Deane, G., Elmoznino, E., Fleming, S. M., et al. (2026) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2025.10.011 · Cited by 56
Self-citationSimulacra as conscious exotica
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Gams, M., & Kramar, S. (2024) · Journal of Computer and Communications · doi:10.4236/jcc.2024.123014 · Cited by 15
Metadata
- Authors
- Mudrik, L., Mylopoulos, M., Negro, N., & Schurger, A.
- Affiliations
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- Carleton University (CA)
- Inserm (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Mudrik, Liad
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-10
- Volume
- 53
- Pages
- 101299
- ISSN
- 2352-1546 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4386571342
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 0.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Chapman University Digital Commons (Chapman University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- John Templeton Foundation (61283)
- Fetzer Institute (61283)
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Free Will and Agency
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Keywords
- theory of consciousness, subjective experience, integrated information theory, higher-order thought theory, recurrent processing theory, global neuronal workspace theory, attention schema theory, fetal consciousness, animal consciousness, brain-damaged patients, artificial consciousness
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