Consciousness, Representation, Action: The Importance of Being Goal-Directed

Trends Cogn Sci. 2018 Feb;22(2):137-153. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.10.006. Epub 2017 Dec 7.

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed fierce debates on the dependence of consciousness on interactions between a subject and the environment. Reviewing neuroscientific, computational, and clinical evidence, I will address three questions. First, does conscious experience necessarily depend on acute interactions between a subject and the environment? Second, does it depend on specific perception-action loops in the longer run? Third, which types of action does consciousness cohere with, if not with all of them? I argue that conscious contents do not necessarily depend on acute or long-term brain-environment interactions. Instead, consciousness is proposed to be specifically associated with, and subserve, deliberate, goal-directed behavior (GDB). Brain systems implied in conscious representation are highly connected to, but distinct from, neural substrates mediating GDB and declarative memory.

Keywords: awareness; deliberation; goal-directed behavior; internally generated sequence; memory; planning; representation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Awareness*
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Consciousness / physiology*
  • Goals*
  • Humans
  • Motivation
  • Visual Perception