Consciousness and Cognition - The Consciousness Library

Aphantasia and the unconscious imagery hypothesis.

Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2025 Andy Mckilliam, Manuela Kirberg 5 citations

Until recently, mental imagery has largely been regarded as an exclusively conscious phenomenon. However, recent empirical results suggest that mental imagery can also occur unconsciously. People who report having no experiences of mental imagery often perform similar to controls on behavioural tasks thought to require imagery. A surprising number of them also display significant levels of...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103924 Full text Aphantasia Measures of consciousness Mental imagery Natural kind method +2

Building blocks for theories of consciousness

Consciousness and Cognition August 13, 2025 Azenet Lopez, Wanja Wiese

• Building-block approaches facilitate the assessment, integration, and unification of theories of consciousness. • Descriptive building-block approaches examine key constructs of existing theories. • Normative building-block approaches emphasise foundational constructs of a mature theory of consciousness. • Two foundational building blocks, given their roles in leading theories, are attention...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103919 Unification Cognitive science Epistemology Phenomenon +4

A plank across the explanatory gap: The case of pain.

Consciousness and Cognition July 1, 2025 Michael Pauen

According to a widely shared belief, an explanation of phenomenal experience in terms of neural mechanisms is impossible in principle. The reason for this "Explanatory Gap" is supposed to be a basic incompatibility between phenomenal and neuroscientific knowledge: while the latter is framed in terms of functional relationships, it is impossible to capture phenomenal experience in functional...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103871 Full text Philosophy of mind Explanatory gap Functional description Mechanistic explanation +4

Neurophysiological features of dream recall and the phenomenology of dreams: Auditory stimulation impacts dream experiences.

Consciousness and Cognition July 1, 2025 Gulshan Kumar, Safoora Naaz, Nahida Jabin et al.

Studies on the electrophysiological and phenomenological aspects of dream experiences provide insight on consciousness during sleep. Whole night polysomnography (PSG) studies were conducted among 29 healthy young participants with high dream recall abilities. Dreams reports were collected during the second night by multiple awakening protocol. On the third night, participants were presented...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103869 Full text Default mode network Dream recall Beta activity Dream experience +5

Why is mindfulness helpful? Exploration of the flexibility of cortical control in practitioners of Buddhism.

Consciousness and Cognition June 28, 2025 Jei-Yi Lu, Chih-Chieh Chang, Tzu-Ling Chang et al. 1 citation

Empirical evidence has demonstrated the beneficial effects of mindfulness in the enhancement of positive psychology factors and cognitive performances, as well as in the remission of psychological distress. Researchers have proposed mechanisms for mindfulness' comprehensive effects, such as through mental flexibility, and examined indices of neurophysiological changes. This study provided a new...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103902 Full text Buddhist mindfulness Mental flexibility Neurofeedback Self-esteem +2

Dreaming is a conscious experience in its own right: proponents of non-cognitive and non-executive theories of dreaming suffer from a retrospective illusion of their waking extended self.

Consciousness and Cognition May 30, 2025 Ludwig Crespin

To many influential dream researchers, dreaming consciousness is not of the same kind as waking. In its most radical and paradoxical form, this theoretical stance consists in maintaining that dream is a case of conscious experience lacking cognitive access. In a more moderate and common form, dreamers have cognitive access to their oneiric experience but lack any executive function: they have...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103890 Full text Dreaming Autobiographical self Cognitive access Episodic memory +5

Dynamics of mental imagery.

Consciousness and Cognition May 1, 2025 Ishan Singhal, Nisheeth Srivastava 4 citations

Phenomenology of mental imagery can reveal the structure of underlying mental representations, yet progress has been limited because of its private nature. Through a phenomenology-recreation task we elucidate the dynamics of mental imagery. Specifically, the temporal grain, speed of object manipulation, smoothness of contents unfolding, and temporal extent of stability of imagined contents. To...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103865 Full text Phenomenology Mental imagery Temporal dynamics Time-consciousness

Experience after Floatation-REST: Relaxation during floating mediates the afterglow effect.

Consciousness and Cognition April 1, 2025 Iraklis Pantazis, Marc Wittmann 5 citations

The term "afterglow" originally described the heightened mood and relaxation following psychedelics and later extended to other altered states. Despite anecdotal reports, little research has explored this effect, especially in Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Technique). In this method, individuals float in thermoneutral, supersaturated salt water in a dark, quiet tank. Using...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103836 Full text Afterglow Body boundaries Floatation-rest Interoception +2

Individual differences in prioritization for consciousness and the conscious detection of changes.

Consciousness and Cognition March 1, 2025 Gal R. Chen, Yuval Harris, Ran R. Hassin

A recent discovery documented robust and reliable individual differences in how quickly people become aware of non-conscious visual stimuli (Sklar, Goldstein, et al., 2021). Given the seemingly large role that conscious experiences play in our lives, this trait is likely to be associated with later cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes. Here we examine the possible implications of...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103831 Full text Change blindness Consciousness Individual differences Vision

States of mind: Towards a common classification of mental states.

Consciousness and Cognition March 1, 2025 Charlotte Van den Driessche, Clotilde Chappé, Mahiko Konishi et al.

Thanks to the wealth of studies on mind-wandering, the stream of thought has now become, again, the focus of mainstream investigations in cognitive psychology. Yet, how one should describe and measure the stream of thought is still very much left undecided. Here, we approach the problem through the notion of mental states. Based on conceptual analysis and previous empirical data, we identify...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103828 Full text Executive control Mind wandering Mind-blanking Random probe +4

Opening the black box: Think Aloud as a method to study the spontaneous stream of consciousness.

Consciousness and Cognition February 1, 2025 Anusha Garg, Shivang Shelat, Madeleine E. Gross et al. 13 citations

Asking participants to Think Aloud is a common method for studying conscious experience, but it remains unclear whether this approach alters thought qualities-such as meta-awareness, rate of topic shifts, or the content of thoughts in task-absent conditions. To investigate this, we conducted two studies comparing thinking aloud to thinking silently. In Study 1, 111 participants alternated...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103815 Full text Mind wandering Natural language processing Resting state Stream of consciousness +3

Immersive exposure to simulated visual hallucinations modulates high-level human cognition.

Consciousness and Cognition February 1, 2025 Antonino Greco, Clara Rastelli, Andrea Ubaldi et al.

Psychedelic drugs offer valuable insights into consciousness, but disentangling their causal effects on perceptual and high-level cognition is nontrivial. Technological advances in virtual reality (VR) and machine learning have enabled the immersive simulation of visual hallucinations. However, comprehensive experimental data on how these simulated hallucinations affects high-level human...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103808 Full text Altered perception Deep neural networks Deepdream Human cognition +3

Functions of consciousness in emotional processing.

Consciousness and Cognition 2025 Dylan Ludwig 2 citations

Contrary to the leading theories of consciousness on offer, it is a fruitful working hypothesis that conscious experiences facilitate a variety of functional capacities that are distinct to particular psychological tasks, individuals, and species (i.e., functional pluralism). In this paper, I illustrate this novel methodological point by identifying some of the functional contributions that...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103801 Full text Consciousness Emotion Functions Pluralism +1

How can virtual reality help to understand consciousness? A thematic analysis of students' experiences in a novel virtual environment.

Consciousness and Cognition 2025 Keelan R Gorman, Aimee Wrightson-Hester, Michael Landman et al. 1 citation

Research on consciousness typically presents stimuli and records the responses that follow, to infer the intervening processes. Yet, VR allows ecological validity by giving the user freedom to continuously control their sensory input across three spatial dimensions via head and eye movement. We designed a virtual world in which the angle of view relates to the information complexity of the...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103792 Full text Consciousness Global workspace Information integration Optimal stimulation +2

Better bridges: Integrating the neuroscience and philosophy of consciousness.

Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2024 Benjamin Kozuch 5 citations

Contemporary consciousness research has given rise to numerous theories in both the philosophical and neuroscientific domains (such as higher-order theory and global neuronal workspace), raising the question as to how well each is supported. This article develops a relatively novel method for determining this, which is to use evidence, not just from a theory's own domain, but also from its...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103774 Full text

Unconscious temporal attention induced by invisible temporal association cues.

Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2024 Yangyang Sun, Keshuo Wang, Xingjie Liang et al. 1 citation

Temporal attention is the ability to prioritize information based on timing. While conscious perception of temporally structured information is known to generate temporal attention, whether it occurs unconsciously remains uncertain. This study used a temporal cueing paradigm with masking techniques to explore the differences between conscious and unconscious temporal attention mechanisms....

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103786 Full text Cnv Hierarchical drift–diffusion modeling P300 Temporal association cues +2

Ontological conceptions of information cannot account for consciousness.

Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2024 Peter Ulric Tse

Epistemological and ontological conceptions of information are contrasted. The former are based on acts of decoding of extrinsic inputs that result in a decoder becoming informed. The latter are based on intrinsic states or state changes of the system independent of any external factors such as inputs to the system. Ontological conceptions of information, such as those that underlie integrated...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103772 Full text Consciousness Decoding Information Panpsychism

Provoking lucid dreams at home with sensory cues paired with pre-sleep cognitive training.

Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2024 Karen R Konkoly, Nathan W Whitmore, Remington Mallett et al. 4 citations

The ability to realize that you're dreaming - lucid dreaming - has value for personal goals and for consciousness research. One route to lucid dreaming is to first undergo pre-sleep training with sensory cues and then receive those cues during REM sleep. This method, Targeted Lucidity Reactivation (TLR), does not demand extensive personal effort but generally requires concurrent polysomnography...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103759 Full text Dreaming Application Dreams Lucid +5

Partial awareness during voluntary endogenous decision.

Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2024 Benjamin Rebouillat, Nicolas Barascud, Sid Kouider

Despite our feeling of control over decisions, our ability to consciously access choices before execution remains debated. Recent research reveals prospective access to intention to act, allowing potential vetoes of impending decisions. However, whether the content of impending decision can be accessed remain debated. Here we track neural signals during participants' early deliberation in free...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103769 Full text Agency Brain–computer interface Contents of consciousness Decision +2

Evaluating the explanatory power of the Conscious Turing Machine.

Consciousness and Cognition September 1, 2024 Asger Kirkeby-Hinrup, Jakob Stenseke, Morten Overgaard

The recent "Conscious Turing Machine" (CTM) proposal offered by Manuel and Lenore Blum aims to define and explore consciousness, contribute to the solution of the hard problem, and demonstrate the value of theoretical computer science with respect to the study of consciousness. Surprisingly, given the ambitiousness and novelty of the proposal (and the prominence of its creators), CTM has...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103736 Full text Philosophy of mind Ctm Cognitive neuroscience Consciousness +2

Metacognition bridges experiences and beliefs in sense of agency.

Consciousness and Cognition September 1, 2024 John P Veillette, Letitia Ho, Howard C Nusbaum

Cognitive scientists differentiate the "minimal self" - subjective experiences of agency and ownership in our sensorimotor interactions with the world - from declarative beliefs about the self that are sustained over time. However, it remains an open question how individual sensory experiences of agency are integrated into the belief ofbeing an agent.We administered a sensorimotor task to...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103745 Full text Action Agency Awareness Beliefs +2

Effects of expectations and sensory unreliability on voice detection - A preregistered study.

Consciousness and Cognition August 1, 2024 Piotr Szymanek, Marek Homan, Michiel van Elk et al.

The phenomenon of "hearing voices" can be found not only in psychotic disorders, but also in the general population, with individuals across cultures reporting auditory perceptions of supernatural beings. In our preregistered study, we investigated a possible mechanism of such experiences, grounded in the predictive processing model of agency detection. We predicted that in a signal detection...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103718 Full text Agency detection Expectations Predictive processing Religious experience +2

Non-dual awareness and sensory processing in meditators: Insights from startle reflex modulation

Consciousness and Cognition July 8, 2024 Veena Kumari, Umisha Tailor, A. Saifullah et al. 5 citations

Startle modulation paradigms, namely habituation and prepulse inhibition (PPI), can offer insight into the brain's early information processing mechanisms that might be impacted by regular meditation practice. Habituation refers to decreasing response to a repeatedly-presented startle stimulus, reflecting its redundancy. PPI refers to response reduction when a startling stimulus "pulse" is...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103722 Meditation Habituation Prepulse inhibition Stimulus psychology +7

Sleep and dream disturbances associated with dissociative experiences.

Consciousness and Cognition July 1, 2024 John Balch, Rachel Raider, Joni Keith et al.

Some dissociative experiences may be related, in part, to REM intrusion into waking consciousness. If so, some aspects of dream content may be associated with daytime dissociative experiences. We tested the hypothesis that some types of dream content would predict daytime dissociative symptomology. As part of a longitudinal study of the impact of dreams on everyday behavior we administered a...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103708 Full text Dissociation Dreams Nightmares Rem intrusion

Enhancing and advancing the understanding and study of dreaming and memory consolidation: Reflections, challenges, theoretical clarity, and methodological considerations

Consciousness and Cognition June 27, 2024 Anthony Bloxham, Caroline L. Horton 11 citations

Empirical investigations that search for a link between dreaming and sleep-dependent memory consolidation have focused on testing for an association between dreaming of what was learned, and improved memory performance for learned material. Empirical support for this is mixed, perhaps owing to the inherent challenges presented by the nature of dreams, and methodological inconsistencies. The...

DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103719 Clarity Memory consolidation Consolidation business Dream +4

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