Brain research has shown that even stimuli presented in a single modality, like vision, are built up out of the activities of multiple processing areas specialized for edge detection, contrast, color, movement, etc. The CNS, then, requires some mechanism for binding the diverse representations generated by multiple unconscious processors into a coherent stream of consciousness. It is our contention that global activation, as described briefly above, provides the necessary basis for such binding. As these criteria and examples illustrate, any approach that hopes to define the nature of consciousness must develop contrasting perspectives for elucidating conscious and unconscious processes. These perspectives should be understood as complimentary rather than mutually exclusive, however.
Conscious contents provide the nervous system with coherent global information.
The cognitive revolution in psychology. A cognitive theory of consciousness. A thoroughly empirical approach to consciousness. Towards a neurobiological theory of consciousness.