GNW theoretical framework and the ‘Adversarial testing of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness’

A recent publication in Nature aimed at enriching the progressive build-up of a valid theory of conscious processing using a valuable multicentric experimentation and massive data-sharing open to new analyses. It is important to stress that several of the analyses validate key predictions of the Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) including (i) transient ignition following stimulus onset in the predicted time-window (200-800ms), (ii) irrespective of stimulus duration and (iii) of stimulus relevance, as well as (iv) decoding of ‘conscious content in visual, ventrotemporal and inferior frontal cortex, with sustained responses […] and content specific synchronization between frontal and early visual areas’. In other words, this article confirmed that stimuli that are clearly consciously visible elicit a brain-wide activation and synchronization between sensory areas and prefrontal cortex, even in the absence of task-relevance, validating a non-trivial prediction of the GNWT. Also given that this study only used clearly visible stimuli, it could not test the most central predictions of the GNWT which tackle the critical contrast between conscious and non-conscious processing. Hence, several conclusions drawn by the authors about GNWT predictions need to be reconsidered.