The DLPFC is not a NCHOT
a reply to Sebastián
pp. 445-449
in: Richard S. BROWN (ed), Consciousness inside and out, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
In his article, Sebastián argues that experiments by Lau and Passingham (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103:18763–18768, 2006) demonstrate that proponents of higher-order thought ("HOT") theory should be committed to the claim that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex ("dlPFC") is the neural correlate of HOT ("NCHOT"). In this commentary I briefly describe what I take to be a promising response on behalf of the HOT theorist: namely, that an alternative interpretation of the function of the dlPFC allows the defender of HOT theory to hold that the dlPFC isn't a NCHOT of the sort that is required to make an experience phenomenally conscious.