6th
… the term consciousness still has no adequate definition, and the question of how it is generated by the brain is the biggest challenge to modern neuroscience. Researchers investigating this mysterious phenomenon therefore use a working definition, and focus on the subjective contents of conscious awareness. This is usually done indirectly, by using functional neuroimaging to investigate, for example, the neural correlates of visual perception.
Now a group of French researchers and clinicians report that they have measured the neural correlates of conscious awareness directly, and with higher spatial and temporal resolution that previous studies, using electrodes implanted into the brains of patients undergoing surgery for epilepsy. Their findings, which have just been published in the open access journal PLoS Biology, lend support to the global workspace model of consciousness.
