Brain, conscious experience and the observing self
Open accessAbstract
Conscious perception, like the sight of a coffee cup, seems to involve the brain identifying a stimulus. But conscious input activates more brain regions than are needed to identify coffee cups and faces. It spreads beyond sensory cortex to frontoparietal association areas, which do not serve stimulus identification as such. What is the role of those regions? Parietal cortex support the 'first person perspective' on the visual world, unconsciously framing the visual object stream. Some prefrontal areas select and interpret conscious events for executive control. Such functions can be viewed as properties of the subject, rather than the object, of experience - the 'observing self' that appears to be needed to maintain the conscious state.
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References 34 · Cited by 404
- Authors
- Baars, B. J., Ramsøy, T. Z., & Laureys, S.
- Affiliations
- Neurosciences Institute (US)
- Copenhagen University Hospital (DK)
- University of Liège (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Baars, Bernard J.
- Venue
- Trends in Neurosciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2003-12
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 671-675
- ISSN
- 0166-2236 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2039219460
- Cited by
- 404
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 2.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- orbi.uliege.be
- Licence
- Locations
- Trends in Neurosciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Open Repository and Bibliography (University of Liège) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- conscious perception, first-person perspective, parietal cortex, prefrontal cortex, executive function, visual object recognition, neural correlates of consciousness
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Consciousness, Ego, Humans, Unconsciousness
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