bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
June 22, 2026
Julie Boyer, Nathan Beraud, Benoît Béranger et al.
preprint
The neural correlates of conscious perception remain debated, particularly regarding the role of extra-sensory regions such as the prefrontal cortex. One promising approach is to study the dynamical properties of neural processing in task-related and task-free contexts. A previous EEG study showed that conscious perception is associated with all-or-none late activations, giving rise to...
Communications Psychology
June 9, 2026
Daphne Rimsky Robert, Matteo Lisi, Kévin Nguy et al.
What is the role of sensory processing in conscious perception? Current theories of consciousness are divided on this question. Some propose that conscious perception arises during the buildup of sensory representations. Others argue for a secondary process that broadcasts these representations to higher-level areas. This second view makes a counter-intuitive prediction: one could consciously...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
October 9, 2025
Lionel Naccache, Claire Sergent, Stanislas Dehaene et al.
2025) aimed at enriching the progressive build-up of a valid theory of conscious processing using valuable multicentric experimentation and massive data-sharing open to new analyses (Bryant and Whyte 2025).
Cell Reports
March 25, 2025
Ulysse Klatzmann, Sean Froudist-Walsh, Daniel P Bliss et al.
14 citations
Conscious access is suggested to involve "ignition," an all-or-none activation across cortical areas. To elucidate this phenomenon, we carry out computer simulations of a detection task using a mesoscale connectome-based model for the multiregional macaque cortex. The model uncovers a dynamic bifurcation mechanism that gives rise to ignition in a network of associative regions. A hierarchical...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2022
Diane Derrien, Clémentine Garric, Claire Sergent et al.
Abstract Blindsight regroups the different manifestations of preserved discriminatory visual capacities following the damage to the primary visual cortex. Blindsight types differentially impact objective and subjective perception, patients can report having no visual awareness whilst their behaviour suggests visual processing still occurs at some cortical level. This phenomenon hence presents a...
Nature Communications
February 19, 2021
Claire Sergent, M. Corazzol, G. Labouret et al.
An outstanding challenge for consciousness research is to characterize the neural signature of conscious access independently of any decisional processes. Here we present a model-based approach that uses inter-trial variability to identify the brain dynamics associated with stimulus processing. We demonstrate that, even in the absence of any task or behavior, the electroencephalographic...
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
November 5, 2018
Matthias Michel, Stephen M Fleming, Hakwan Lau et al.
The scientific study of consciousness emerged as an organized field of research only a few decades ago. As empirical results have begun to enhance our understanding of consciousness, it is important to find out whether other factors, such as funding for consciousness research and status of consciousness scientists, provide a suitable environment for the field to grow and develop sustainably. We...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2017
Jorge Morales, Yasha Mouradi, Claire Sergent et al.
A recent fMRI study by Webb et al. (Cortical networks involved in visual awareness independent of visual attention, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016;113:13923-28) proposes a new method for finding the neural correlates of awareness by matching attention across awareness conditions. The experimental design, however, seems at odds with known features of attention. We highlight logical and...
PLoS One
February 10, 2016
Louis Thibault, Ronald Van den Berg, Patrick Cavanagh et al.
Cueing attention after the disappearance of visual stimuli biases which items will be remembered best. This observation has historically been attributed to the influence of attention on memory as opposed to subjective visual experience. We recently challenged this view by showing that cueing attention after the stimulus can improve the perception of a single Gabor patch at threshold levels of...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
July 8, 2003
Stanislas Dehaene, Claire Sergent, Jean-Pierre Changeux
The subjective experience of perceiving visual stimuli is accompanied by objective neuronal activity patterns such as sustained activity in primary visual area (V1), amplification of perceptual processing, correlation across distant regions, joint parietal, frontal, and cingulate activation, gamma-band oscillations, and P300 waveform. We describe a neuronal network model that aims at explaining...
Başak Türker, Dragana Manasova, Benoît Béranger et al.
preprint
ABSTRACT One of the goals of the neuroscience of consciousness is to identify neural markers capable of distinguishing brain dynamics in awake, healthy individuals from unconscious conditions. This problem also has a clinical diagnostic interest in disorders of consciousness. Recent research has shown that brain connectivity patterns characterized by long-range interactions and anticorrelations...