The Timing of the Cognitive Cycle

We propose that human cognition consists of cascading cycles of recurring brain events. Each cognitive cycle senses the current situation, interprets it with reference to ongoing goals, and then selects an internal or external action in response. While most aspects of the cognitive cycle are unconscious, each cycle also yields a momentary “ignition” of conscious broadcasting. Neuroscientists have independently proposed ideas similar to the cognitive cycle, the fundamental hypothesis of the LIDA model of cognition. High-level cognition, such as deliberation, planning, etc., is typically enabled by multiple cognitive cycles. In this paper we describe a timing model LIDA's cognitive cycle. Based on empirical and simulation data we propose that an initial phase of perception (stimulus recognition) occurs 80–100 ms from stimulus onset under optimal conditions. It is followed by a conscious episode (broadcast) 200–280 ms after stimulus onset, and an action selection phase 60–110 ms from the start of the conscious phase. One cognitive cycle would therefore take 260–390 ms. The LIDA timing model is consistent with brain evidence indicating a fundamental role for a theta-gamma wave, spreading forward from sensory cortices to rostral corticothalamic regions. This posteriofrontal theta-gamma wave may be experienced as a conscious perceptual event starting at 200–280 ms post stimulus. The action selection component of the cycle is proposed to involve frontal, striatal and cerebellar regions. Thus the cycle is inherently recurrent, as the anatomy of the thalamocortical system suggests. The LIDA model fits a large body of cognitive and neuroscientific evidence. Finally, we describe two LIDA-based software agents: the LIDA Reaction Time agent that simulates human performance in a simple reaction time task, and the LIDA Allport agent which models phenomenal simultaneity within timeframes comparable to human subjects. While there are many models of reaction time performance, these results fall naturally out of a biologically and computationally plausible cognitive architecture.

[1]  J. Müller,et al.  Of the brain. , 1837 .

[2]  J. Murray,et al.  HANDBOOK OF PSYCHOLOGY , 1951 .

[3]  H. Quastler Information theory in psychology , 1955 .

[4]  J. M. Stroud THE FINE STRUCTURE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME , 1967 .

[5]  D. Allport Phenomenal simutaneity and the perceptual moment hypothesis. , 1968, British journal of psychology.

[6]  J. Fermaglich Electric Fields of the Brain: The Neurophysics of EEG , 1982 .

[7]  Allen Newell,et al.  The model human processor: An engineering model of human performance. , 1986 .

[8]  L. Kaufman,et al.  Handbook of perception and human performance , 1986 .

[9]  Allen Newell,et al.  SOAR: An Architecture for General Intelligence , 1987, Artif. Intell..

[10]  B. Baars A cognitive theory of consciousness , 1988 .

[11]  W. Singer,et al.  Stimulus-specific neuronal oscillations in orientation columns of cat visual cortex. , 1989, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[12]  C. Capaday,et al.  Evidence for a contribution of the motor cortex to the long‐latency stretch reflex of the human thumb. , 1991, The Journal of physiology.

[13]  K. Reinikainen,et al.  Selective attention enhances the auditory 40-Hz transient response in humans , 1993, Nature.

[14]  W. Freeman Societies of Brains: A Study in the Neuroscience of Love and Hate. By W. J. Freeman. Erlbaum: Hillsdale, NJ. 1994. , 1997, Psychological Medicine.

[15]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Long-term working memory. , 1995, Psychological review.

[16]  J E Lisman,et al.  Storage of 7 +/- 2 short-term memories in oscillatory subcycles , 1995, Science.

[17]  T. Kellam,et al.  Artificial Minds , 1996, Inf. Process. Manag..

[18]  Arthur C. Graesser,et al.  Is it an Agent, or Just a Program?: A Taxonomy for Autonomous Agents , 1996, ATAL.

[19]  I. K. Wood,et al.  Neuroscience: Exploring the brain , 1996 .

[20]  Denis Fize,et al.  Speed of processing in the human visual system , 1996, Nature.

[21]  A. Glenberg What memory is for: Creating meaning in the service of action , 1997, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[22]  John R. Anderson,et al.  ACT-R: A Theory of Higher Level Cognition and Its Relation to Visual Attention , 1997, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[23]  D E Kieras,et al.  A computational theory of executive cognitive processes and multiple-task performance: Part 1. Basic mechanisms. , 1997, Psychological review.

[24]  G. Edelman,et al.  Complexity and coherency: integrating information in the brain , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[25]  Alan Cowey,et al.  Magnetic stimulation studies of visual cognition , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[26]  D Lehmann,et al.  Event-related electric microstates of the brain differ between words with visual and abstract meaning. , 1998, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[27]  Jeffrey N. Rouder,et al.  Modeling Response Times for Two-Choice Decisions , 1998 .

[28]  L. Barsalou,et al.  Whither structured representation? , 1999, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[29]  John Cummings,et al.  The Scientific Method: An Introduction Using Reaction Time , 1999 .

[30]  Aaron Sloman,et al.  What Sort of Architecture is Required for a Human-Like Agent? , 1999 .

[31]  I. Winkler,et al.  The concept of auditory stimulus representation in cognitive neuroscience. , 1999, Psychological bulletin.

[32]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  Foundations of Rational Agency , 1999 .

[33]  F. Varela,et al.  Perception's shadow: long-distance synchronization of human brain activity , 1999, Nature.

[34]  A. Glenberg,et al.  Symbol Grounding and Meaning: A Comparison of High-Dimensional and Embodied Theories of Meaning , 2000 .

[35]  D. G. Albrecht,et al.  Spikes versus BOLD: what does neuroimaging tell us about neuronal activity? , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[36]  F. Varela,et al.  Radical embodiment: neural dynamics and consciousness , 2001, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[37]  Walter J. Freeman,et al.  Consciousness, Intentionality, and Causality , 2001 .

[38]  M. Conway Sensory-perceptual episodic memory and its context: autobiographical memory. , 2001, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[39]  J. Martinerie,et al.  The brainweb: Phase synchronization and large-scale integration , 2001, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[40]  Cristiano Castelfranchi,et al.  Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Intelligent Agents VII. Agent Theories Architectures and Languages , 2000 .

[41]  A. Cowey,et al.  The role of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in studies of vision, attention and cognition. , 2001, Acta psychologica.

[42]  S. Thorpe,et al.  The Time Course of Visual Processing: From Early Perception to Decision-Making , 2001, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[43]  Dietrich Lehmann,et al.  Millisecond by Millisecond, Year by Year: Normative EEG Microstates and Developmental Stages , 2002, NeuroImage.

[44]  Joaquin M. Fuster,et al.  Physiology of executive functions: The perception-action cycle. , 2002 .

[45]  H. Petsche,et al.  Phase-coupling of theta-gamma EEG rhythms during short-term memory processing. , 2002, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[46]  D. Stuss,et al.  Principles of frontal lobe function , 2002 .

[47]  Walter J. Freeman,et al.  The limbic action-perception cycle controlling goal-directed animal behavior , 2002, Proceedings of the 2002 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks. IJCNN'02 (Cat. No.02CH37290).

[48]  Tracy Brown,et al.  The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience , 2002, Cybern. Hum. Knowing.

[49]  E Halgren,et al.  Rapid distributed fronto-parieto-occipital processing stages during working memory in humans. , 2002, Cerebral cortex.

[50]  C. Koch,et al.  Is perception discrete or continuous? , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[51]  B. Baars,et al.  How conscious experience and working memory interact , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[52]  Valerie A. Carr,et al.  Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Modality-Specific and Supramodal Word Processing , 2003, Neuron.

[53]  Robert W. Proctor,et al.  Handbook of Psychology: Experimental Psychology , 2003 .

[54]  John R Anderson,et al.  An integrated theory of the mind. , 2004, Psychological review.

[55]  G. Tononi An information integration theory of consciousness , 2004, BMC Neuroscience.

[56]  B. Baars,et al.  The Role of Consciousness in Memory , 2005 .

[57]  S. Dehaene,et al.  Timing of the brain events underlying access to consciousness during the attentional blink , 2005, Nature Neuroscience.

[58]  Parashkev Nachev,et al.  Volition and Conflict in Human Medial Frontal Cortex , 2005, Current Biology.

[59]  O. Bertrand,et al.  Attention modulates gamma-band oscillations differently in the human lateral occipital cortex and fusiform gyrus. , 2005, Cerebral cortex.

[60]  B. Baars Global workspace theory of consciousness: toward a cognitive neuroscience of human experience. , 2005, Progress in brain research.

[61]  R. Ratcliff,et al.  Neural Representation of Task Difficulty and Decision Making during Perceptual Categorization: A Timing Diagram , 2006, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[62]  Jose-Manuel Alonso,et al.  Fundamentals of vision : low and mid-level processes in perception , 2006 .

[63]  P. Maes How to Do the Right Thing , 1989 .

[64]  Adam Kepecs,et al.  Seeing at a glance, smelling in a whiff: rapid forms of perceptual decision making , 2006, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[65]  Stan Franklin,et al.  IDA, a Conscious Artifact? , 2006 .

[66]  Discourse and the brain , 2006 .

[67]  R. Oostenveld,et al.  Theta and Gamma Oscillations Predict Encoding and Retrieval of Declarative Memory , 2006, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[68]  M. Berger,et al.  High Gamma Power Is Phase-Locked to Theta Oscillations in Human Neocortex , 2006, Science.

[69]  Janine Willis,et al.  First Impressions , 2006, Psychological science.

[70]  M. Sigman,et al.  Dynamics of the Central Bottleneck: Dual-Task and Task Uncertainty , 2006, PLoS biology.

[71]  Bernard J. Baars,et al.  An architectural model of conscious and unconscious brain functions: Global Workspace Theory and IDA , 2007, Neural Networks.

[72]  Anna C Nobre,et al.  Subsecond Changes in Top–Down Control Exerted by Human Medial Frontal Cortex during Conflict and Action Selection: A Combined Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation–Electroencephalography Study , 2007, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[73]  J. Kaiser,et al.  Human gamma-frequency oscillations associated with attention and memory , 2007, Trends in Neurosciences.

[74]  Ron Sun,et al.  The importance of cognitive architectures: an analysis based on CLARION , 2007, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell..

[75]  Stan Franklin,et al.  The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness: Computational Models of Consciousness: A Taxonomy and Some Examples , 2007 .

[76]  S. Dehaene,et al.  Brain Dynamics Underlying the Nonlinear Threshold for Access to Consciousness , 2007, PLoS biology.

[77]  C. Schroeder,et al.  Neuronal Oscillations and Multisensory Interaction in Primary Auditory Cortex , 2007, Neuron.

[78]  Alexa B. Roggeveen,et al.  Large-scale gamma-band phase synchronization and selective attention. , 2008, Cerebral cortex.

[79]  Timothy D. Hanks,et al.  Neurobiology of Decision Making , 2008 .

[80]  M. Paradiso,et al.  V1 response timing and surface filling-in. , 2008, Journal of neurophysiology.

[81]  Timothy D. Hanks,et al.  Neurobiology of decision making: An intentional framework , 2008 .

[82]  A. Pérez-Villalba Rhythms of the Brain, G. Buzsáki. Oxford University Press, Madison Avenue, New York (2006), Price: GB £42.00, p. 448, ISBN: 0-19-530106-4 , 2008 .

[83]  A. Nobre,et al.  Dissociating explicit timing from temporal expectation with fMRI , 2008, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[84]  O. Bertrand,et al.  Visual Activation and Audiovisual Interactions in the Auditory Cortex during Speech Perception: Intracranial Recordings in Humans , 2008, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[85]  W. Singer,et al.  Better than conscious? : decision making, the human mind, and implications for institutions , 2008 .

[86]  P. Haggard Human volition: towards a neuroscience of will , 2008, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[87]  H. Shibasaki Human brain mapping: Hemodynamic response and electrophysiology , 2008, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[88]  C. Tallon-Baudry,et al.  Neural Dissociation between Visual Awareness and Spatial Attention , 2008, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[89]  Bernard J. Baars,et al.  CONSCIOUSNESS IS COMPUTATIONAL: THE LIDA MODEL OF GLOBAL WORKSPACE THEORY , 2009 .

[90]  Pat Langley,et al.  Cognitive architectures: Research issues and challenges , 2009, Cognitive Systems Research.

[91]  Kimron Shapiro,et al.  Attentional blink , 2009, Scholarpedia.

[92]  G. Kreiman,et al.  Timing, Timing, Timing: Fast Decoding of Object Information from Intracranial Field Potentials in Human Visual Cortex , 2009, Neuron.

[93]  Jean Régis,et al.  Ultra-Rapid Sensory Responses in the Human Frontal Eye Field Region , 2009, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[94]  Diane M. Beck,et al.  To See or Not to See: Prestimulus α Phase Predicts Visual Awareness , 2009, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[95]  Narayanan Srinivasan,et al.  An adaptive workspace hypothesis about the neural correlates of consciousness: insights from neuroscience and meditation studies. , 2009, Progress in brain research.

[96]  Robert Oostenveld,et al.  Tactile stimulation accelerates behavioral responses to visual stimuli through enhancement of occipital gamma-band activity , 2009, Vision Research.

[97]  L. M. Ward,et al.  Rhythms of Consciousness: Binocular Rivalry Reveals Large-Scale Oscillatory Network Dynamics Mediating Visual Perception , 2009, PloS one.

[98]  Markus Siegel,et al.  Phase-dependent neuronal coding of objects in short-term memory , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[99]  S. Dehaene,et al.  Converging Intracranial Markers of Conscious Access , 2009, PLoS biology.

[100]  Mika Koivisto,et al.  The relationship between awareness and attention: Evidence from ERP responses , 2009, Neuropsychologia.

[101]  Peter G. Morris,et al.  fMRI at 1.5, 3 and 7 T: Characterising BOLD signal changes , 2009, NeuroImage.

[102]  J. Kalaska,et al.  Neural mechanisms for interacting with a world full of action choices. , 2010, Annual review of neuroscience.

[103]  Haline E. Schendan,et al.  Object-sensitive activity reflects earlier perceptual and later cognitive processing of visual objects between 95 and 500ms , 2010, Brain Research.

[104]  Alexandra J. Golby,et al.  Robust Selectivity to Two-Object Images in Human Visual Cortex , 2010, Current Biology.

[105]  S. Dehaene Conscious and Nonconscious Processes:Distinct Forms of Evidence Accumulation? , 2011 .

[106]  Andrew P. Sage,et al.  Handbook of Systems Engineering and Management , 2011 .

[107]  Harvey Swadlow,et al.  Axonal conduction delays , 2012, Scholarpedia.