The Link Between Brain Learning, Attention, and Consciousness

[Stephen Grossberg]

The following article can be accessed at

http://cns-web.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossberg

Paper copies can also be gotten by writing Ms. Diana Myers, Department of
Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Boston,
MA 02215 or diana at cns.bu.edu.

Grossberg, S. (1998). The link between brain learning, attention, and
consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, in press. Preliminary version
as Boston University Technical Report, CAS/CNS-TR-97-018. Available in
gzip'ed postscript (170Kb).

Abstract:

The processes whereby our brains continue to learn about a changing
world in a stable fashion throughout life are proposed to lead to
conscious experiences. These processes include the learning of
top-down expectations, the matching of these expectations against
bottom-up data, the focusing of attention upon the expected clusters
of information, and the development of resonant states between
bottom-up and top-down processes as they reach an attentive consensus
between what is expected and what is there in the outside world. It is
suggested that all conscious states in the brain are resonant states,
and that these resonant states trigger learning of sensory and
cognitive representations. The models which summarize these concepts
are therefore called Adaptive Resonance Theory, or ART,
models. Psychophysical and neurobiological data in support of ART are
presented from early vision, visual object recognition, auditory
streaming, variable-rate speech perception, somatosensory perception,
and cognitive-emotional interactions, among others.  It is noted that
ART mechanisms seem to be operative at all levels of the visual
system, and it is proposed how these mechanisms are realized by known
laminar circuits of visual cortex. It is predicted that the same
circuit realization of ART mechanisms will be found in the laminar
circuits of all sensory and cognitive neocortex. Concepts and data are
summarized concerning how some visual percepts may be visibly, or
modally, perceived, whereas amodal percepts may be consciously
recognized even though they are perceptually invisible.  It is also
suggested that sensory and cognitive processing in the What processing
stream of the brain obey top-down matching and learning laws that are
often complementary to those used for spatial and motor processing in
the brain's Where processing stream. This enables our sensory and
cognitive representations to maintain their stability as we learn more
about the world, while allowing spatial and motor representations to
forget learned maps and gains that are no longer appropriate as our
bodies develop and grow from infanthood to adulthood. Procedural
memories are proposed to be unconscious because the inhibitory
matching process that supports these spatial and motor processes
cannot lead to resonance.