Machine learning (ML) techniques have steadily gained popularity in Neuroscience research, particularly when applied to the analysis of neuroimaging data. One of the most discussed topics in this field, the neural correlates of conscious (and unconscious) information, has also benefited from these approaches. Nevertheless, further research is still necessary to better understand the minimal...
We are conscious and verbally report some of the information reaching our senses, although a big amount of information is processed unconsciously. There is no agreement about the neural correlates of consciousness, with low-level theories proposing that neural processing on primary sensory brain regions is the most important neural correlate of consciousness, while high-level theories propose...
Our environment is constantly overloaded with information, although we cannot consciously process all the stimulation reaching our senses. Current theoretical models are focused on the cognitive and neural processes underlying conscious perception. However, cognitive processes do not occur in an isolated brain but in a complex interaction between the environment, the brain, and the organism....
The relation between attention and consciousness is a highly debated topic in Cognitive Neuroscience. Although there is an agreement about their relationship at the functional level, there is still no consensus about how these two cognitive processes interact at the neural level. According to the gateway hypothesis (Posner, 1994), attention filters the information accessing to consciousness,...
Attention is considered as one of the pre-requisites of conscious perception. Phasic alerting and exogenous orienting improve conscious perception of near-threshold information through segregated brain networks. Using a multimodal neuroimaging approach, combining data from functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), we investigated the influence of white matter properties of the...
Only a small fraction of all the information reaching our senses can be the object of conscious report or voluntary action. Although some models propose that different attentional states (top-down amplification and vigilance) are necessary for conscious perception, few studies have explored how the brain activations associated with different attentional systems (such as top-down orienting and...
The quest for the neural correlates of consciousness has led to controversial results. When contrasting consciously seen versus unseen stimuli, some authors have proposed that consciousness is related to activity in visual areas along the ventral cortical visual stream, while others propose the implication of parietal and frontal regions ( Dehaene and Changeux 2011). When invisibility is caused...
The relationships between spatial attention and conscious perception are currently the object of intense debate. Recent evidence of double dissociations between attention and consciousness cast doubt on the time-honored concept of attention as a gateway to consciousness. Here we review evidence from behavioral, neurophysiologic, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging experiments, showing that...