1. Conscious experiences trigger
Available for download from:
www. bernardbaars.pbwiki.com
Bernard J. Baars
The Neurosciences Institute
San Diego
Conscious experiences trigger
widespread adaptive changes in the human brain:
The case of conscious neurofeedback.
Train movie -

2. How can scientists study consciousness?
“The study… of the distribution of consciousness shows it to be exactly such as we might expect in an organ added for the sake of steering a nervous system grown too complex to regulate itself.”
--- William James,
The Principles of Psychology,
1890, p. 141
That is, we need to study contrastive cases… allowing experimental comparisons between closely matched conscious and unconscious conditions.
Wiliam James ( )

3. As William James recommended, We compare similar conscious and unconscious conditions experimentally --- Binocular competition for consciousness - gamma resonance. (Engel & Singer, 1995)
Max gamma synchrony

4. Global Workspace Theory
Global Workspace Theory. Conscious experiences evoke brain-wide distribution of focal (conscious) contents.
Evidence from:
fMRI (Dehaene, Rees, etc),
Episodic learning
MTL-neocortex'
NN Models & large-scale simulations;
EEG evoked potentials (Revonsuo, Dehaene),
Waking vs. unconscious EEG;
… and
THE VERY WIDE REACH OF
conscious NEUROFEEDBACK.
Global broadcasting of conscious visual contents
Visual
cortex
Visual
cortex

5. A remarkable range of conscious N-feedback phenomena
A remarkable range of conscious N-feedback phenomena. (neurofeedback = brain-based biofeedback; Baars, 1988, etc.) (PubMed refs: about 7,000).
GWT suggested that conscious feedback from the brain-triggered display is broadcast globally, so that motor networks can act locally to plan and trigger voluntary actions --- unless they encounter inhibition.
(Technically: "local processing initiative in a highly distributed society of parallel processors"; Baars, 1988)
Feedback must be conscious --- almost everything else is not.

6. Intracranial recordings
A very large range of brain activities are modified by conscious N-Feedback. (Baars, 1988, etc)
In animals --- learned, voluntary control of almost any arbitrary SINGLE NEURON, or almost any arbitrary POPULATION of neurons has been reliablr reported for about fifty years [called "Operant conditioning"]
In humans, alpha EEG. EMG a\nd e control autonomic functions has been long known.
Newer findings: conscious neurofeedback learning has been reported for:
EEG --- almost any brain rhythm, frequency band or scalp location, singly or combined.
Brain rhythms associated with specific brain functions, like memory recall, executive functions, and motor control.
Normative EEG patterns associated with specific populations, both normal and dysfunctional. (Using QEEG, Loreta, Vareta)
Intracranial recordings
Evoked brain activity, including evoked synchrony and desynchrony.
6. fMRI --- BOLD activity in local cortical regions, e.g., anterior insula.

7. ADD/ADHD in children and adults - using slow cortical potentials
A great range of health conditions can be modified by conscious N-feedback.
ADD/ADHD in children and adults - using slow cortical potentials
Epileptic brain activity
Cognitive functions, IQ, and musical performance (JAMA, 2006)
Autistic spectrum signs
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and insomnia.
Improvements in psychiatric disorders, depression and schizotypy, auditory hallucinations.
Bladder control, heart-rate, blood pressure,
Chronic pain and fibromyalgia.
Experience-dependent cortical and subcortical plasticity (Merzenich).
This is not to say that these are mature, well-tested treatments. However, the very wide range and robust short-term effects are quite remarkable. They tell us something fundamental about consciousness, and suggest important practical applications.

8. How is this possible? The ideomotor hypothesis.
Motor regional assembly is triggered by broadcast image ….
Ideomotor hypothesis:
Conscious feedback from the brain-triggered visual display is broadcast globally, and local unconscious motor routines act to plan and trigger voluntary actions --- unless they encounter conscious inhibition.
(Baars, 1988, 2002, etc.)
Conscious image is broadcast ….
Note: The feedback signal must be conscious, but it doesn’t matter what kind of signal is used - sense modality, pattern, etc.

9. Some rules of thumb for neurofeedback training.
A distinctive brain signature, linked to the behavior of interest.
Conscious feedback with minimal time delay. (A few seconds). Any kind of conscious feedback seems to work.
Minimize distraction and noise.
The target behavior should not be tightly bound by homeostatic limits. (e.g. heart rate, etc.)
Gradual steps to the goal.
Incentives to keep learning, spaced practice sessions over time, adequate sleep, and so on.

10. Conscious neurofeedback demonstrates exactly the opposite of "epiphenomenalism" the notion that consciousness does nothing useful.
"Epi-phenomena-l-ism" as defined by T.H. Huxley:
"Consciousness would appear to be related to the mechanism of the body … simply as a [side-] effect of its working, and to be completely without any power of modifying that working, as the [sound of] a steam whistle which accompanies the work of a locomotive … is without influence upon its machinery."
The uselessness of consciousness was enormously widespread in behaviorism. Some philosophers and scientists still favor it --- because they don't look at contrastive evidence.
Consciousness is some steam whistle!
Thomas Henry Huxley
"Darwin's bulldog."

11. William James unable to get off his couch…
William James up and dancing …
all because of a conscious idea!
"We know what it is to get out of bed on a freezing morning in a room without a fire,
and how … we say,"I must get up, this is ignominious," etc; but still the warm couch
feels too delicious, the cold outside too cruel, and resolution faints away...
Now how do we ever get up under such circumstances? … We suddenly find that we have got up. A fortunate lapse of consciousness occurs; we forget both the warmth and the cold;… the (spontaneous) idea flashes across us, "Hollo, I must lie here no longer" --- an idea which at that lucky instant awakens no contradictory or paralyzing suggestions, and consequently produces immediately its appropriate motor effects. ... This case seems to me to contain … the data for an entire psychology of volition. ..."
--- William James, 1890, on the ideomotor theory of voluntary control.

12. not epi-phenomenalism.
James' ideomotor theory fits easily into Global Workspace Theory. (Baars, 1988, etc)
ideomotor theory. The notion that conscious goals and images are inherently impulsive, and tend to be carried out by default, unless they are inhibited by other conscious thoughts or intentions.
This theory can be straightforwardly incorporated into GW theory, and helps to explain basic features of voluntary action … (7.3).
--- Baars, 1988, A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness, Glossary
Bottom line: "Conscious experiences provide the primary adaptive input to the brain: The evidence shows omni-phenomenalism,
not epi-phenomenalism.
Conscious experience is very powerful. (Slide 6)

13. Why are the huge effects of conscious feedback training not better known?
1. There are still epiphenomenalists. Some scientists still believe that consciousness is a side-effect, a steam whistle on the locomotive of the brain. (e.g., Daniel Wegner). This is simply, demonstrably false.
2. Many scientists just don't look at contrastive experiments.
3. Contrastive conditions (such as unconscious feedback) are rarely if ever run in neurofeedback experiments --- probably because nobody really believes that unconscious feedback will have any effect. That suggests that implicitly, researchers believe that consciousness is a necessary condition for neurofeedback learning --- which it is. They just don't know that they know it. Bizarre? Yes!
4. Better empirical studies are still needed,
designed to test major theoretical questions. (Zaidel et al).
5. Bottom line: We still need better research and education.

14. Neurofeedback is not the only kind of learning enabled by conscious experiences…
Episodic memory and the MTL-neocortical system involves conscious input and recall.
Semantic memory is believed to "ride" on the conscious episodic memory system.
Perceptual learning always involves conscious contents.
Procedural learning appears to require conscious access during acquisition, and then becomes less conscious with practice, coinciding with less cortical involvement. (Haier, etc.)
Experience- dependent plasticity --- but scientists still avoid the word 'conscious experience'. They also don't run the unconscious controls.
There are some demonstrated cases of unconscious input processing and possibly learning. For historical reasons, the professional payoffs are far greater for demonstrating unconscious learning than for consciously-mediated learning. Both are obviously important.
In sum, the evidence for the role of conscious experiences in brain adaptation is even more widespread than neurofeedback.
Consciously-mediated learning is the norm, not the exception.

15. Experimental results:
Wide forward activation due to conscious visual input, but not unconscious.
From Dehaene et al, 2001

16. Cortex Medial Temporal Lobe
Conscious experiences are automatically transformed into longterm memory traces by MTL-neocortical resonance.
Cortex
Conscious input allows the cortex to constantly learn and update itself with new and significant information.
(Nadel & Moscovitch - Multiple Trace Theory. Figure from M. Moscovitch, personal comm. )
Medial Temporal Lobe
Conscious episodes

17. Working Memory requires conscious contents to function
(Baars & Franklin, 2003, TICS)

18. Rapid cortical finger plasticity (monkeys)
(JNS 2002)
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