Cortical activity is more stable when sensory stimuli are consciously perceived.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America April 21, 2015 Aaron Schurger, Ioannis Sarigiannidis, Lionel Naccache et al.
According to recent evidence, stimulus-tuned neurons in the cerebral cortex exhibit reduced variability in firing rate across trials, after the onset of a stimulus. However, in order for a reduction in variability to be directly relevant to perception and behavior, it must be realized within trial--the pattern of activity must be relatively stable. Stability is characteristic of decision states...