PsyArXiv
May 29, 2026
Zefan Zheng, Robert Chis-Ciure, Peter Thestrup Waade et al.
1 citation
preprint
Consciousness science is fragmented, and empirical investigations are confined within each theory of consciousness’ (TOC) framework. Proliferating ToCs accumulate anomalies without progress, operating orthogonally. The principle of recurrency – functional and architectural – offers a unifying, mechanistic scaffold for consciousness to arise. We show that all theories tacitly invoke feedback...
Cell Reports
April 7, 2026
Nicolas Decat, Arthur Le Coz, Jade Sénéchal et al.
A popular view holds that mental experiences uniquely differ between wakefulness and sleep, yet recent work suggests continuity across these stages. Here, we address this question by examining the wake-sleep transition, a window marked by rapid shifts in wake/sleep stages and mental experiences. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) activity in 92 participants during two daytime resting...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
January 13, 2026
Iván Mindlin, Carlos Coronel-Oliveros, Jacobo Sitt et al.
A main characteristic of biological systems is their capacity to dynamically adapt to environmental changes. In the brain, synaptic plasticity enables the strengthening or weakening of connections between neurons, allowing neural circuits to adapt based on experience, learning, and environmental changes. Yet, it is homeostatically regulated such that it avoids excessive proliferation of...
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...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
November 8, 2025
Lucie Berkovitch, Alexandre Salvador, Thomas Andrillon et al.
preprint
Ketamine is an NMDA-receptor antagonist, which alters the state of wakeful consciousness at high doses. At lower doses, it induces reversible psychotic-like symptoms and has been used as a pharmacological model of psychosis. In this study, we explore whether low doses of ketamine disrupt conscious access in relation with its psychotomimetic effects, and investigate the neural correlates of its...
September 3, 2025
Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis, Athena Demertzi, Jaco Sitt et al.
preprint
Consciousness research is commonly divided into two main areas: the study of states of consciousness and the study of contents of consciousness. States of consciousness refer to discrete modes of awareness elicited by normal states of the brain, such as those associated with wakefulness and sleep, and by abnormal factors, including brain lesions, pharmacological agents and other external...
Nature Communications
August 13, 2025
William Wong, Rubén Herzog, Kátia Cristine Andrade et al.
10 citations
Magneto/electroencephalography (M/EEG) studies of dreaming are an essential paradigm in the investigation of neurocognitive processes of human consciousness during sleep, but they are limited by the number of observations that can be collected per study. Dream research also involves substantial methodological and conceptual variability, which poses problems for the integration of results. To...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
July 16, 2025
Borjan Milinkovic, Anil K. Seth, Lionel Barnett et al.
2 citations
preprint
Conscious experience depends on the coordinated activity of neural processes that span multiple scales—from synapses to whole-brain dynamics. A recently introduced measure, dynamical independence, identifies, characterises and quantifies these multi-scale relationships using an information-theoretic dimensionality-reduction approach. Here, we use DI to examine changes in emergent dynamical...
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
March 12, 2025
Thomas Andrillon, Antoine Lutz, Jennifer Windt et al.
14 citations
During wakefulness, our thoughts transition between different contents. However, there are moments that are seemingly devoid of reportable content, referred to as mind blanking (MB). It remains unclear what these blanks represent, highlighting the definitional and phenomenological ambiguities surrounding MB. We map out MB in terms of its reportable expressions, neurophysiology, and relationship...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2025
Jasmine Walter, Thomas Andrillon, Jennifer Windt
Fluctuations in the presence, experiential quality and contents of consciousness occur naturally during sleep and wakefulness and are core features of the healthy human mind. The purpose of this article is to consider the possibility that such fluctuations, including mind wandering and dreaming, which we refer to collectively as spontaneous thoughts and experiences (STE), may also be important...
PNAS Nexus
December 1, 2024
Emilia Fló, Laouen Belloli, Álvaro Cabana et al.
10 citations
Attention shapes our consciousness content and perception by increasing the probability of becoming aware and/or better encoding a selection of the incoming inner or outer sensory world. Engaging interoceptive and exteroceptive attention should elicit distinctive neural responses to visceral and external stimuli and could be useful in detecting covert command-following in unresponsive patients....
Eur J Neurosci
November 18, 2024
Athina Tzovara, Thomas Andrillon, Katrin H. Preller et al.
Understanding what makes us conscious is one of the major frontiers of science. There are two main approaches to the mystery of consciousness. The first regards conscious states (i.e., being conscious) and how certain global states (e.g., of arousal) can support the formation of any conscious experience. Insights into the neural processes underlying the capacity for consciousness stem from...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
December 1, 2023
Thomas Andrillon, Delphine Oudiette
44 citations
Wakefulness, non-rapid eye-movement (NREM) and rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep differ from each other along three dimensions: behavioral, phenomenological, physiological. Although these dimensions often fluctuate in step, they can also dissociate. The current paradigm that views sleep as made of global NREM and REM states fail to account for these dissociations. This conundrum can be dissolved...
May 16, 2023
William Wong, Kátia C. Andrade, Thomas Andrillon et al.
21 citations
preprint
Magneto/electroencephalography (M/EEG) studies of dreaming are an essential paradigm in the investigation of neurocognitive processes of human consciousness during sleep, but they are limited by the number of observations that can be collected per study. Dream research also involves substantial methodological and conceptual variability, which poses problems for the integration of results. To...
Nature Communications
June 29, 2021
Thomas Andrillon, Angus C. Burns, Teigane Mackay et al.
13 citations
Attentional lapses occur commonly and are associated with mind wandering, where focus is turned to thoughts unrelated to ongoing tasks and environmental demands, or mind blanking, where the stream of consciousness itself comes to a halt. To understand the neural mechanisms underlying attentional lapses, we studied the behaviour, subjective experience and neural activity of healthy participants...
Current biology : CB
June 22, 2020
Matthieu Koroma, Célia Lacaux, Thomas Andrillon et al.
34 citations
Sleep leads to a disconnection from the external world. Even when sleepers regain consciousness during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, little, if any, external information is incorporated into dream content [1-3]. While gating mechanisms might be at play to avoid interference on dreaming activity [4], a total disconnection from an ever-changing environment may prevent the sleeper from promptly...
Jennifer Windt, Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Thomas Andrillon
preprint
We spend a third of our lives asleep, and sleep teems with vivid dreams. While most people rarely remember their dreams, laboratory studies using timed awakenings show that healthy adults experience multiple dreams per night. Dreams have been hypothesised to play a key role in the development of consciousness and cognition1,2. Dreams are believed to contribute to sleep-related memory...
Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Thomas Andrillon, Andrew M. Haun
preprint
In their recent article, the unfolding argument, Doerig et al argue that a theory of consciousness cannot be based in the characterization of the physical structure of the brain. They argue that such theories must be “either false or outside the realm of science”. Instead, they prefer theories of consciousness based only on “input-output” descriptions. By their implicit treatment of phenomenal...