What are the neural processes associated with perceptual awareness that are distinct from preconscious sensory encoding and postperceptual processes such as reporting an experience? Using electroencephalography and a no-report visual masking paradigm, we manipulated stimulus visibility by varying the time between stimuli and masks in linear steps (17, 33, 50, 67, and 83 ms). Awareness increased...
Much research on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) has focused on two evoked potentials, the P3b and the visual or auditory awareness negativity (VAN, AAN). Surveying a broad range of recent experimental evidence, we find that repeated failures to observe the P3b during conscious perception eliminate it as a putative NCC. Neither the VAN nor the AAN have been dissociated from...
We critically review the recent literature on six EEG and MEG markers of the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) for visual, auditory and tactile stimuli in neurotypical volunteers and neurological patients. After ruling out four of these as candidate NCC, we focus on two prominent evoked signals – an early, modality-specific negativity, termed the visual or auditory awareness negativity...