The neural-cognitive basis of the Jamesian stream of thought.
William James described the stream of thought as having two components: (1) a nucleus of highly conscious, often perceptual material; and (2) a fringe of dimly felt contextual information that controls the entry of information into the nucleus and guides the progression of internally directed thought. Here I examine the neural and cognitive correlates of this phenomenology. A survey of the cognitive neuroscience literature suggests that the nucleus corresponds to a dynamic global buffer formed by interactions between different regions of the brain, while the fringe corresponds to a set of mechanisms in the frontal and medial temporal lobes that control the contents of this global buffer. A consequence of this account is that there might be conscious imagistic representations that are not part of the nucleus. I argue that phenomenology can be linked to psychology and neuroscience and a meaningful way that illuminates both.
Epstein
R
R
Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Rd., Cambridge, CB2 2EF, United Kingdom.
D003071:Cognition; D003243:Consciousness; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009415:Nerve Net