PLoS One
February 10, 2023
Lucia Melloni, Liad Mudrik, Michael Pitts et al.
106 citations
An adversarial collaboration between proponents of Global Neuronal Workspace and Integrated Information Theory devised and preregistered two experiments that test contrasting predictions about the location and timing of correlates of visual consciousness. Six theory-impartial laboratories will follow the study protocol using fMRI, M-EEG, and intracranial EEG, with built-in replications between labs and within datasets. The project aims to provide decisive evidence for or against the two theories and clarify the neural footprints of conscious visual perception, while modeling large-scale, collaborative, and open science practice.
Nature
June 1, 2025
Oscar Ferrante, Urszula Gorska-Klimowska, Simon Henin et al.
94 citations
Different theories explain how subjective experience arises from brain activity. An open science adversarial collaboration directly juxtaposed integrated information theory (IIT) and global neuronal workspace theory (GNWT). Human participants (n = 256) viewed suprathreshold stimuli for variable durations while neural activity was measured with fMRI, MEG, and intracranial EEG. Information about conscious content was found in visual, ventrotemporal, and inferior frontal cortex, with sustained responses in occipital and lateral temporal cortex reflecting stimulus duration, and content-specific synchronization between frontal and early visual areas. These results align with some predictions of IIT and GNWT but substantially challenge key tenets of both theories, including a lack of sustained posterior cortex synchronization for IIT and a lack of ignition at stimulus offset and limited prefrontal representation for GNWT.
Neuroscience of Consciousness
January 1, 2022
Joachim Bellet, Marion Gay, Abhilash Dwarakanath et al.
57 citations
Neuronal populations in the macaque prefrontal cortex (PFC) reliably encode visual stimuli even under conditions that challenge conscious perception and reduce post-perceptual processing. Recordings from the ventrolateral PFC during isolated trials and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) showed that stimulus identity could be decoded from population activity, with first signals at 60 ms and peak information at 150 ms. In RSVP, decoding accuracy dropped to chance by 200 ms as the next stimulus became decodable. Decoding in ventrolateral PFC was stronger than in posterior parietal cortex. The findings indicate PFC encodes visual information under conditions that limit conscious access and post-perceptual elaboration, raising questions about whether this reflects conscious access, phenomenal consciousness, or preconscious bottom-up processing.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
January 29, 2020
Abhilash Dwarakanath, Vishal Kapoor, Joachim Werner et al.
15 citations
preprint
Access of sensory information to consciousness depends on neural activity crossing a threshold in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), yet how brain state fluctuations interact with conscious content is unclear. Using multielectrode recordings during a no-report binocular rivalry task in animals, two distinct prefrontal states were identified: low-frequency (1-9 Hz) bursts that precede spontaneous switches in conscious perception (perceptual update), and beta-band (20-40 Hz) bursts correlated with stable perception. Beta bursts synchronize neural ensembles coding the perceived stimulus. Similar fluctuations occur during rest, suggesting they are endogenous. The findings indicate that global cortical states, not selective spiking, drive internal switches in conscious perception.
PLoS One
January 1, 2026
Matilda Gibbons, Ethan G McBride, Raghuram Holenarasipura Venkatasubbaiah et al.
An adversarial collaboration will test competing predictions from Global Neuronal Workspace Theory and Integrated Information Theory about the neural correlates of consciousness. Non-human primates and mice will perform a go-nogo task with supra-threshold visual and auditory stimuli while neural activity is recorded from multiple cortical areas using Neuropixels electrodes. To causally test timing and location predictions, prefrontal cortex activity will be manipulated via electrical stimulation in primates or optogenetic silencing in mice. The protocol details experimental design, analyses, divergent predictions, and anticipated outcomes.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 23, 2023
Oscar Ferrante, Urszula Gorska-Klimowska, Simon Henin et al.
preprint
An open science adversarial collaboration directly juxtaposed Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) by investigating neural correlates of visual experience. 256 human subjects viewed suprathreshold stimuli for variable durations while neural activity was measured with fMRI, MEG, and ECoG. Information about conscious content was found in visual, ventro-temporal, and inferior frontal cortex, with sustained responses in occipital and lateral temporal cortex reflecting stimulus duration, and content-specific synchronization between frontal and early visual areas.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
January 28, 2020
Vishal Kapoor, Abhilash Dwarakanath, Shervin Safavi et al.
preprint
The prefrontal cortex can represent the contents of conscious perception even when no overt report is required. Recordings from macaque monkeys during binocular rivalry—where perception alternates between two conflicting images—showed that neural ensemble activity in the prefrontal cortex decoded which image the animal was seeing as accurately as when images were presented without competition. This decoding remained significant even when eye movements were suppressed, indicating that the signals were not solely due to oculomotor confounds. The findings suggest that prefrontal population dynamics reflect internally driven changes in conscious perception during multistable vision.