A new approach to understanding the interaction between cortical areas is provided by a mathematical analysis of biased competition, which describes many interactions between cortical areas, including those involved in top-down attention. The analysis helps to elucidate the principles of operation of such cortical systems, and in particular the parameter values within which biased competition […]

Similar to humans, the normal aged rat population is not homogenous in terms of cognitive function. Two distinct subpopulations of aged Sprague-Dawley rats can be identified on the basis of spatial memory performance in the hole-board paradigm. It was the aim of the study to reveal protein changes relevant to aging and spatial memory performance. […]

The higher-order theory (HOT) of consciousness has often been misunderstood by critics. Here, we clarify its position on several issues, and distinguish it from other views, such as the global workspace theory (GWT) and early sensory models (e.g., first-order local recurrency theories). For example, HOT has been criticized for overintellectualizing consciousness. We show that, while […]