Consciousness

• Preface.- What is consciousness?- The Global Neuronal Workspace model. An introduction to information theory. The Shannon Coding Theorem. More heuristics: a 'tuning theorem'. The Shannon-McMillan Theorem. The Rate Distortion Theorem. Large deviations.- Fluctuations. The fundamental homology with statistical physics. Cognition as generalized language.- Theory. Two neural network examples. Interacting cognitive modules.- Representations. Language-on-a-network models. 'Biological' phase transitions. Universality class distribution. Universality class tuning. More on behavior far from the critical point. Extending the model. The simplest tunable retina. Tuning the visual retina. The torus and the sphere. Expanding the workspace. Energy efficiency and consciousness. Where does all this lead? Sociocultural context as selection pressure. Autocognitive developmental disorder. Toward a 'General Cognitive Model'. Evading the mereological fallacy.- References. Appendix on coarse graining.

From the reviews: "To formulate a serious, clear-cut and transparent formal framework for cognitive neuroscience is a challenge ... . I think that Wallace's book presents an appreciable step in the right direction. ... Beyond references that are necessary for basic elements of his work, the author has put together additional interesting reading material ... . It is a book that can unfold its potential to well-educated readers with genuinely interdisciplinary ambitions ... ." (Harald Atmanspacher, Acta Biotheoretica, Vol. 54, 2006)