VI. Life’s Cerebral Cognizance Becomes More Complex, Smarter, Informed, Proactive, Self-Aware

B. A Neural Encephalization from Minimal Stirrings to an Earthuman Cognizance

Zacks, Oryan and Eva Jablonka.. The evolutionary origins of the Global Neuronal Workspace in vertebrates. Neuroscience of Consciousness. Number 1, 2023. . Tel Aviv University neuro-philosophers contribute a latest illustrated survey by joining this popular model (see below) with their own Associative Learning Theory (see EJ). The GWT considers five perception, motor control, memory, value and attention categories, which are seen to be graphically arrayed across the evolution of eels, fish, reptile, avian and mammals. These further insights that can be newly traced back to earliest inklings, serve to define life’s sensory, cognitive, knowledge gaining progression to our worldwide retrospective discovery.

The Global Neuronal Workspace theory offers a functional architecture that relates consciousness to cognitive abilities such as perception, attention, memory, and evaluation. We show that this popular version corresponds to the cognitive-affective model proposed by Unlimited Associative Learning theory. However, when applied to basal vertebrates, they both require modifications due to what has been learned about the evolution of the brain. Comparative studies suggest that the Global Neuronal Workspace is instantiated by the event memory system found in the hippocampal homolog. This proposal has testable predictions for understanding hippocampal and cortical functions, and the relations between memory and consciousness. (Abstract)

In this paper, we have discussed the evolutionary origin of the GNW architecture, which, we suggested, is an essential part ofmthe dynamic frame that underlies minimal consciousness in vertebrates. We believe that a similar evolutionary analysis may be applied to other theories of consciousness that are centered on humans, such as IIT and recurrent processing. Since an origin-focused evolutionary
approach can uncover fundamental principles of minimal consciousness, we expect that such analyses will both suggest better differentiation among different theories and highlight their common ground. (14)

Global workspace theory (GWT) is a framework for thinking about consciousness proposed by cognitive scientists Bernard Baars and Stan Franklin in the late 1980s. It was developed to qualitatively account for a large set of matched pairs of conscious and unconscious processes. GWT has been influential in modeling consciousness and higher-order cognition as emerging from competition and integrated flows of information across widespread, parallel neural processes.

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