We consider the relationship between neural and behavioural evidence for animal consciousness. critically examine two recent studies: one behavioural. The first, on crows, finds different activity depending whether a stimulus is reported as seen or unseen. However, to implicate this in consciousness, we must assume that specific conditioned behaviour report of conscious experience. second study...

In the present chapter, we first overview the precursors that allowed the development of cognitive theories of consciousness, and in particular we consider the notions of attention, working-memory, modularity and the distinction between automatic and controlled processes. Then we present a selection of influential contemporary accounts of consciousness, based on three themes: consciousness resu...

Subliminal priming refers to behavioral modulation by an unconscious stimulus, and can thus be regarded as a form of unconscious visual processing. Theories on recurrent processing have suggested that the neural correlate of consciousness (NCC) comprises of the non-hierarchical transfer of stimulus-related information. According to these models, the neural correlate of subliminal priming (NCSP)...

Newell & Shanks (N&S) argue that an explanation for blindsight need not appeal to unconscious brain processes, citing research indicating that the condition merely reflects degraded visual experience. We reply that other evidence suggests blindsighters' predictive behavior under forced choice reflects cognitive access to low-level visual information that does not correlate with visual conscious...

In the last decade, careful studies of the living brain have opened the way for human consciousness to return to the heights it held before the behavioristic coup of 1913. This is illustrated by seven cases: (1) the discovery of widespread brain activation during conscious perception; (2) high levels of regional brain metabolism in the resting state of consciousness, dropping drastically in unc...