Probing the circuits of conscious perception with magnetophosphenes.
Journal of Neural Engineering July 3, 2020 Julien Modolo, Mahmoud Hassan, Giulio Ruffini et al.
Conscious perception involves large-scale, coordinated activation of distant brain regions, a process called ignition or integration. Combining a magnetically-induced phosphene perception task with electroencephalography, functional cortical networks were identified using graph theory. Conscious phosphene perception activated frequency-specific networks, each linked to a particular spatial scale of information processing. Integration increased within an alpha-band functional network, while segregation changed in the beta band. These findings confirm the key role of integration processes for conscious perception in humans and bring evidence for the functional role of distinct brain oscillations.