PNAS Nexus
July 1, 2026
David S Jin, Oumayma Agdali, Taruna Yadav et al.
Awareness of action (AoA), or conscious awareness of an action just performed, is an important part of daily experience with major practical and ethical relevance, yet the neural mechanisms of AoA remain largely unknown. The main barrier to studying AoA is a lack of experimental paradigms to directly compare neural activity in aware versus unaware actions. Borrowing from the field of perceptual...
Scientific Data
May 7, 2026
Aya Khalaf, David Richter, Yamil Vidal et al.
We present a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) dataset collected as part of an adversarial collaboration aimed at arbitrating between the Global Neuronal Workspace theory (GNWT) and the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of consciousness. Participants (N = 118) were presented with suprathreshold visual stimuli belonging to four different categories (faces, objects, letters, false fonts)...
Elife
January 13, 2026
François Stockart, Alexis Robin, Hal Blumenfeld et al.
Despite many years of research, the quest to identify neural correlates of perceptual consciousness (NCC) remains unresolved. One major obstacle lies in methodological limitations: most studies rely on non-invasive neural measures with limited spatial or temporal resolution making it difficult to disentangle proper NCCs from concurrent cognitive processes. Additionally, the relatively low...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
October 7, 2025
Stefan Sumsky, Rory Ashmeade, Jiayang Liu et al.
preprint
Absence epilepsy is marked by sudden lapses in consciousness accompanied by spike-wave discharges (SWDs), yet the neural mechanisms underlying impaired sensorimotor processing in these episodes remain unresolved. Prior work has shown that normal-appearing signals can persist in primary sensory cortical areas during seizures, suggesting that impaired behavioral responsiveness may arise from...
Nature
June 1, 2025
Oscar Ferrante, Urszula Gorska-Klimowska, Simon Henin et al.
94 citations
Different theories explain how subjective experience arises from brain activity1,2. These theories have independently accrued evidence, but have not been directly compared3. Here we present an open science adversarial collaboration directly juxtaposing integrated information theory (IIT)4,5 and global neuronal workspace theory (GNWT)6-10 via a theory-neutral consortium11-13. The theory...
Neuroimage
May 15, 2025
Aya Khalaf, Erick Lopez, Jian Li et al.
6 citations
Subcortical arousal systems are known to play a key role in controlling sustained changes in attention and conscious awareness. Recent studies indicate that these systems have a major influence on short-term dynamic modulation of visual attention, but their role across sensory modalities is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated shared subcortical arousal systems across sensory...
Cell Reports
December 24, 2024
Lim-Anna Sieu, Shobhit Singla, Jiayang Liu et al.
8 citations
Patients with focal temporal lobe seizures often experience loss of consciousness associated with cortical slow waves, like those in deep sleep. Previous work in rat models suggests that decreased subcortical arousal causes depressed cortical function during focal seizures. However, these studies were performed under light anesthesia, making it impossible to correlate conscious behavior with...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 23, 2023
Oscar Ferrante, Urszula Gorska-Klimowska, Simon Henin et al.
preprint
Different theories explain how subjective experience arises from brain activity1,2. These theories have independently accrued evidence, yet, confirmation bias and dependence on design choices hamper progress in the field3. Here, we present an open science adversarial collaboration which directly juxtaposes Integrated Information Theory (IIT)4,5 and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT)6–10,...
PLoS One
February 10, 2023
Lucia Melloni, Liad Mudrik, Michael Pitts et al.
106 citations
The relationship between conscious experience and brain activity has intrigued scientists and philosophers for centuries. In the last decades, several theories have suggested different accounts for these relationships. These theories have developed in parallel, with little to no cross-talk among them. To advance research on consciousness, we established an adversarial collaboration between...
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.
The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry
October 2003
Hal Blumenfeld, Jacob Taylor
Model systems are needed for the scientific investigation of consciousness. A good model system should include variable states of consciousness, allowing the relationship between brain activity and consciousness to be investigated. Examples include sleep, anesthesia, focal brain lesions, development, evolution, and epilepsy. One advantage of epilepsy is that changes are dynamic and rapidly...