bioRxiv
January 24, 2026
Karen J. Tian, Brian Maniscalco, Michael L. Epstein et al.
preprint
Visual experience can sometimes depart from visual performance, providing a powerful lens into the mechanisms generating conscious perception. In one proposed dissociation—subjective inflation—unattended locations in the periphery appear stronger than attended ones despite equated performance. Subjective inflation has played a central role in motivating theories of consciousness that reject the...
Communications Psychology
November 26, 2025
Biyu J. He
Consciousness Science is entering an age of unprecedented opportunity, thanks to recent empirical and theoretical advances, increasing interest in the topic, and technological advances in neuroscience. The role theories will play in a maturing science of consciousness deserves a closer look.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
May 30, 2024
Biyu J. He
2 citations
Consciousness science is experiencing a coming-of-age moment. Following 3 decades of sustained efforts by a relatively small group of consciousness researchers, the field has seen exponential growth over the past 5 years. It is increasingly recognized that although the investigation of subjective experiences is a difficult task, modern neuroscience need not and cannot shy away from the...
Neuron
October 1, 2023
Biyu J. He
Consciousness science has matured over the past three decades and is currently on the cusp of explosive growth, with the potential to transform medicine and technology. The global community recently met to synthesize the current state of knowledge and define the most exciting approaches to advance the field.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
May 1, 2023
Biyu J. He
Theories of consciousness are often based on the assumption that a single, unified neurobiological account will explain different types of conscious awareness. However, recent findings show that, even within a single modality such as conscious visual perception, the anatomical location, timing, and information flow of neural activity related to conscious awareness vary depending on both...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2021
Shira Baror, Biyu J. He
Flipping through social media feeds, viewing exhibitions in a museum, or walking through the botanical gardens, people consistently choose to engage with and disengage from visual content. Yet, in most laboratory settings, the visual stimuli, their presentation duration, and the task at hand are all controlled by the researcher. Such settings largely overlook the spontaneous nature of human...
Nature Human Behaviour
February 1, 2019
M. Michel, Diane M Beck, Ned Block et al.
Scientific research on consciousness is critical to multiple scientific, clinical, and ethical issues. The growth of the field could also be beneficial to several areas including neurology and mental health research. To achieve this goal, we need to set funding priorities carefully and address problems such as job creation and potential media misrepresentation.
Frontiers in Psychology
August 26, 2014
Megan Wang, Biyu J. He
What neural mechanisms underlie the seamless flow of our waking consciousness? A necessary albeit insufficient condition for such neural mechanisms is that they should be consistently modulated across time were a segment of the conscious stream to be repeated twice. In this study, we experimentally manipulated the content of a story followed by subjects during functional magnetic resonance...
Advances in Consciousness Research
October 28, 2010
Biyu J. He, Marcus E. Raichle
We propose a neurophysiological hypothesis on the emergence of consciousness, which postulates that the slow cortical potential (SCP) recorded from the surface of the brain provides an index of the activities of superficial-layer pyramidal neurons that directly contribute to the emergence of conscious awareness. This hypothesis is supported by existing data from manipulations of conscious...
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
June 15, 2009
Biyu J. He, Marcus E. Raichle
As functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become a driving force in cognitive neuroscience, it is crucial to understand the neural basis of the fMRI signal. Here, we discuss a novel neurophysiological correlate of the fMRI signal, the slow cortical potential (SCP), which also seems to modulate the power of higher-frequency activity, the more established neurophysiological correlate of...