Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
August 1, 2026
Andrew W. Corcoran, Andrew M. Haun, Reinder Dorman et al.
As neuroscientific theories of consciousness continue to proliferate, the need to assess their similarities and differences - as well as their predictive and explanatory power - becomes ever more pressing. Recently, a number of structured adversarial collaborations have been devised to test the competing predictions of several candidate theories of consciousness. In this review, we compare and...
Mindfulness
July 3, 2026
Aron T. Hill, Sung Wook Chung, Melanie Emonson et al.
Abstract Objectives Mindfulness meditation has been linked to differences in attention and executive function, which may be related to differences in neural activity patterns. To explore this, we used an electroencephalography (EEG)-based event-related potential (ERP) paradigm to examine brain responses associated with conflict monitoring and attention in experienced meditators, compared to...
Physics of Life Reviews
March 1, 2026
Christopher J. Whyte, Andrew W. Corcoran, Jonathan Robinson et al.
5 citations
The multifaceted nature of subjective experience poses a challenge to the study of consciousness. Traditional neuroscientific approaches often concentrate on isolated facets, such as perceptual awareness or the global state of consciousness and construct a theory around the relevant empirical paradigms and findings. Theories of consciousness are, therefore, often difficult to compare; indeed,...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
December 30, 2025
Esteban Munoz-Musat, Arthur Le Coz, Andrew W. Corcoran et al.
5 citations
Does being awake necessarily mean being conscious of something? This study investigates the phenomenon of mind blanking (MB), characterized by an "emptiness of mind," comparing it with mind wandering (MW) and on-task (ON) states. Using a sustained attention task and electroencephalogram monitoring, behavioral, and neurophysiological signatures of MB were examined in 62 participants. MB...
PLoS One
December 4, 2025
Jonathan Robinson, Andrew W. Corcoran, Christopher J. Whyte et al.
1 citation
Active inference, a first-principles framework for modelling the behaviour of sentient agents, is beginning to be applied in consciousness research. One hypothesis arising from the framework is that active inference is necessary for changes in conscious content. As one component of an extensive adversarial collaboration among competing theories of consciousness, active inference will be...
September 30, 2025
Toby J. Woods, Andrew W. Corcoran, Olivia Carter et al.
preprint
The most well known study on doing nothing concluded that being alone for 15 mins with nothing to do but think is aversive. Here we examine skilful doing nothing in the form of Stillness Meditation. Meditation-naive adult participants (N = 165) were randomly allocated to 15 mins of Stillness Meditation or one of two active controls (Focused Attention and Audiobook). Stillness Meditation...
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
July 2, 2025
Neil W. Bailey, Aron T. Hill, Kate Godfrey et al.
4 citations
Mindfulness meditation involves training attention, commonly toward sensory experiences, with nonjudgmental awareness. Theoretical perspectives propose that meditation increases the precision of sensory processing and reduces the generation/elaboration of top-down expectations. Research suggests forward traveling cortical alpha waves may reflect bottom-up inhibition to enhance signal-to-noise...
Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
2025
Andrew W. Corcoran, Kelsey Perrykkad, Daniel Feuerriegel et al.
19 citations
Embodied cognition-the idea that mental states and processes should be understood in relation to one's bodily constitution and interactions with the world-remains a controversial topic within cognitive science. Recently, however, increasing interest in predictive processing theories among proponents and critics of embodiment alike has raised hopes of a reconciliation. This article sets out to...
Translational Psychiatry
September 30, 2024
Elizabeth L. Fisher, Ryan Smith, Kyna Conn et al.
14 citations
Psilocybin has shown promise as a novel pharmacological intervention for treatment of depression, where post-acute effects of psilocybin treatment have been associated with increased positive mood and decreased pessimism. Although psilocybin is proving to be effective in clinical trials for treatment of psychiatric disorders, the information processing mechanisms affected by psilocybin are not...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
May 17, 2024
Elizabeth L. Fisher, Ryan Smith, Andrew W. Corcoran et al.
2 citations
preprint
Abstract Psilocybin has shown promise as a novel pharmacological intervention for treatment of depression, where post-acute effects of psilocybin treatment have been associated with increased positive mood and decreased pessimism. Although psilocybin is proving to be effective in clinical trials for treatment of psychiatric disorders, the information processing mechanisms affected by psilocybin...