What’s up with prefrontal cortex? : A commentary on John-Dylan Haynes

Abstract

The prefrontal cortex is perhaps one of the most intriguing areas of the brain, and considered by many to be involved in a whole battery of higher cognitive functions. However, evidence for a direct involvement in conscious perception, although often postulated, remains inconclusive. In his paper, John-Dylan Haynes presents results from experiments using multivariate decoding techniques on human functional magnetic resonance imaging data that speak against the assertion that prefrontal cortex broadcasts the contents of consciousness throughout the brain. I consider potential reasons for these null results, as well as where else we may look for the neural correlates of consciousness. Specifically, I propose that conscious perception arises when distributed neurons are bound into coherent assemblies —a process that does not require relay through specific brain areas.