Chapter 7

Question 1

Local-Global task with infants

Answer 1

• 3 month olds process novelty at two distinct levels
• Violations of local expectancies: early auditory mismatch response
• Violations of global expectancies: late negative slow wave
• This suggests that hierarchical learning mechanisms are present in young infants

Question 2

Global ignition vs linear accumulation in infants

Answer 2

Higher threshold for consciousness in younger children is observed. Therefore a simulus must be presented longer for it to be consciously processed.
Global workspace develops late in human lifespan. However early on babies show characteristics of global workspace processes. Although it is much slower due to lack of myelination.
Signal of consciousness look different in infants (negative polarity for P3).

Question 3

GNWS in animals

Answer 3

Macaque monkeys have a dense network of long-distance connections that links the prefrontal cortex with other associative cortexes. This workspace system may be present in all mammals. Even mice have tiny prefrontal and cingulate cortexes that get activated when keeping visual information in mind.

Question 4

General anesthesia in monkeys

Answer 4

This suppresses GNW connectivity and recurrent processing

Question 5

Local-global task in monkeys

Answer 5

Local and global novelty matches with human fMRI results

Question 6

Detection task with birds

Answer 6

Stimulus is presented, birds indicate by picking if they have seen the stimulus.
Two stage (FF and FB) process is also observed in crow brain (the latter is present only on seen trials). Based on anatomy, neurophysiology and behaviour, it seems that the presence of consciousness is a graded phenomenon.

Question 7

Monitoring consciousness

Answer 7

Metacognitive knowledge of one’s own mental states. Metacognitive representations: “I know that I see a face”, “I know that I made an error”.

Question 8

Metacognition in animals

Answer 8

Monkeys have to indicate what is the overall direction of the stimuli. Prior to the decision, a third target, called a sure target, is added in some trials.
If this target is selected the reward is always the same but small. This choice reflects the refusal to respond, which indicates the uncertainty or lack of confidence of the animal in the decision.

Behaviour reflects animals confidence in the decision:
- Objective performance is better when the animal has the option to opt out vs when this option is not available.
- Under identical stimuli, the animal systematically rejects trials where the animal thinks that it is unable to give the correct answer.

Question 9

3 critical functions that current computers miss for having consciousness

Answer 9

• Flexible communication
• Plasticity
• Autonomy