Region Details
Click on a brain region to learn about its role in consciousness
Executive control, decision-making, working memory, planning. Often called the "CEO of the brain."
Category (face vs object) was decodable here, but orientation was NOT. Challenges GNWT's prediction that all conscious content is represented.
IIT View
Not essential for consciousness — involved in reporting and acting on experience, not having it.
GNWT View
Central to the global workspace. Required for conscious access and broadcast.
Spatial processing, attention, sensory integration. Combines information from multiple senses.
Part of the frontoparietal network. Showed some involvement but less specific to conscious content than expected by GNWT.
IIT View
Part of the posterior "hot zone" — contributes to conscious experience, especially spatial awareness.
GNWT View
Part of the global workspace network — helps broadcast content brain-wide.
Object recognition, face processing, language comprehension, memory. "What" pathway of vision.
Essential for conscious perception of objects and faces. Damage causes visual agnosia — seeing without recognizing.
IIT View
Part of the posterior cortex — integrated information here contributes to visual experience.
GNWT View
Specialized processor that competes for access to the global workspace.
Primary visual processing. First cortical region to receive visual input. Processes basic features: edges, colors, motion.
Orientation information successfully decoded here — supporting IIT's posterior cortex prediction.
IIT View
Core of the posterior "hot zone" — where visual consciousness primarily resides.
GNWT View
Early sensory processing — must be broadcast to workspace for consciousness.
IIT's proposed seat of consciousness — the temporo-parietal-occipital junction. Named by Koch and colleagues.
This region's recurrent architecture maximizes integrated information (Φ). It's where experience happens according to IIT.
IIT View
THE substrate of consciousness. Activity here IS experience — no broadcast required.
GNWT View
Sensory processing region. Consciousness requires additional prefrontal involvement.
The Core Dispute: Where Does Consciousness Live?
IIT: Posterior Cortex
Consciousness is generated by integrated information in the posterior "hot zone." The prefrontal cortex is for cognition and report, not experience itself. You can be conscious without being able to report it.
GNWT: Frontoparietal Network
Consciousness requires global broadcast via workspace neurons spanning frontal and parietal cortex. Without prefrontal involvement, sensory content remains unconscious — processed but not experienced.
What Cogitate Found
The truth may be nuanced: category information reaches prefrontal, but orientation stays in posterior cortex. Perhaps some dimensions of experience require broadcast while others don't.
The Unresolved Question
Is prefrontal activity necessary for consciousness, or does it just enable report? This remains the central empirical question dividing the field.