A central feature of consciousness is the association between external events and subjective experiences of content. These experiences range from low level (detection) to high level (identification). For example, a visual experience may range from seeing something on a computer screen (detection) to seeing the digit 3 (identification). In research, neural processes that correlate with these...
The neurological basis for perceptual awareness remains unclear, and theories disagree as to whether sensory cortices per se generate awareness. Critically, neural activity in the sensory cortices is only a neural correlate of consciousness (NCC) if it closely matches the contents of perceptual awareness. Research in vision and touch suggest that contralateral activity in sensory cortices is an...
In hearing, two neural correlates of awareness are the auditory awareness negativity (AAN) and the late positivity (LP). These correlates of auditory awareness are typically observed with tasks in which subjects are required to report their awareness with manual responses. Thus, the correlates may be confounded by this manual response requirement. We manipulated the response requirement in a...