In this post, the last of a five-part series, we will acquire an understanding of various theories that emphasize the importance of top-down signaling in shaping and enabling conscious perception.

Since the dawn of human consciousness, people have grappled with the problem of what it is and how it works. In academic circles, this is formally known as “the hard problem of consciousness.” David ...

Of the 800m people using ChatGPT every week, only a vanishingly small number will have seriously considered whether ChatGPT might have experiences worth caring about. AI welfare — the project of ...

One of the most enduring human mysteries is why we possess sentient awareness, a paradox known to science as the “hard problem of consciousness.” At the physiological level, we have a good ...

In the 1990s Australian philosopher David Chalmers framed the challenge of distinguishing between the “easy” problems and the “hard” problem of consciousness. Easy problems involve explaining behavior ...

Meditate on this Zen Buddhist koan (a paradox used to train Zen Buddhist monks) long enough, promises neuroscientist Nikolay Kukushkin at the start of his book, and the origins of mind, and perhaps ...

Scientists and philosophers have long struggled to explain how the brain generates conscious experiences. Some doubt whether the objective tools of science can ever get to grips with a phenomenon that ...

A neuroscientist clad in gold and red and a philosopher sheathed in black took the stage before a packed, murmuring auditorium at New York University on Friday night. The two men were grinning, ...