How sustainable are different levels of consciousness?

TL;DR

This paper explores how different types of information and emotional responses influence whether processing in the brain is conscious or subconscious, expanding the Global Workspace theory to include sustainability and control of cognitive processes.

Contribution

It proposes a nuanced model linking emotional intensity and familiarity to the sustainability of conscious and subconscious processing within the Global Workspace framework.

Findings

Familiar, unemotional input is processed subconsciously and can be sustained.

Intense emotional input tends to be processed consciously with high sustainability.

Meta-conscious processing is less sustainable but can influence other cognitive functions.

Abstract

The human brain processes a wide variety of inputs and does so either consciously or subconsciously. According to the Global Workspace theory, conscious processing involves broadcasting of information to several regions of the brain and subconscious processing involves more localized processing. This theoretical paper aims to expand on some of the aspects of the Global Workspace theory: how the properties of incoming information result in it being processed subconsciously or consciously; why processing can be either be sustained or short-lived; how the Global Workspace theory may apply both to real-time sensory input as well as to internally retained information. This paper proposes that: familiar input which does not elicit intense emotions becomes processed subconsciously and such processing can be continuous and sustained; input that elicits relatively intense emotions is subjected to highly sustainable conscious processing; input can also undergo meta-conscious processing. Such processing is not very sustainable but can exert control over other cognitive processes. This paper also discusses possible benefits of regulating cognitive processes this way.