Recent research using EEG (brain-wave sensing) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) measurements by Steven Laureys of the University of Liege and others supports the “global workspace theory,” proposed by Bernard Baars of The Neuroscience Institute in San Diego: that we only become conscious of “non-conscious” information in different parts of the brain if these signals are broadcast to an assembly of neurons distributed across many different regions of the brain — the “global workspace.”

Neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research predicts that once we have a comprehensive global workspace theory to work with, it will offer a solution to the “hard problem” of consciousness (how these patterns of electrical activity could ever give rise to the many subjective facets of our internal life, or qualia, that we experience) suggested by philosophers like David Chalmers.

The research has important practical applications. Laureys thinks that a patient’s default mode network (DMN — certain regions of the brain’s global workspace that are active even when we are resting and not concentrating on any particular task) could one day determine their prognosis. “I’m predicting those with a higher level of DMN activity will be the ones who will recover from their coma, or vegetative states, or minimally conscious states,” he said.