ISSN 2057-2107
168 papers in the library · 2,750 citations · publishing 2015-2026
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2023 R. Ambron
Abstract Studies of consciousness are hindered by the complexity of the brain, but it is possible to study the consciousness of a sensation, namely pain. Three systems are necessary to experience pain: the somatosensory system conveys information about an injury to the thalamus where an awareness of the injury but not the painfulness emerges. The thalamus distributes the information to the...
Neuroscience of Consciousness August 29, 2022 Camilo Miguel Signorelli, Ignacio Cea, Robert Prentner 8 citations
Models of consciousness need to explain both the objective correlates of conscious experience as well as its subjective structure. However, such an explanation would not need to entail a reduction exclusively in terms of physical or neural systems. A model that intends to avoid such reduction is integrated information theory (IIT). In this article, we discuss the explanatory rationale of IIT,...
Neuroscience of Consciousness April 1, 2022 Nike Walter, Thilo Hinterberger
Abstract This study was based on the contemporary proposal that distinct states of consciousness are quantifiable by neural complexity and critical dynamics. To test this hypothesis, it was aimed at comparing the electrophysiological correlates of three meditation conditions using nonlinear techniques from the complexity and criticality framework as well as power spectral density. Thirty...
Neuroscience of Consciousness January 21, 2022 Aaron Schurger, M. Graziano
Abstract Consciousness is an unusual phenomenon to study scientifically. It is defined as a subjective, first-person phenomenon, and science is an objective, third-person endeavor. This misalignment between the means—science—and the end—explaining consciousness—gave rise to what has become a productive workaround: the search for ‘neural correlates of consciousness’ (NCCs). Science can sidestep...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 Axel Cleeremans, Catherine Tallon-Baudry 97 citations
'Why would we do anything at all if the doing was not doing something to us?' In other words: What is consciousness good for? Here, reversing classical views, according to many of which subjective experience is a mere epiphenomenon that affords no functional advantage, we propose that subject-level experience-'What it feels like'-is endowed with intrinsic value, and it is precisely the value...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 Jolien C. Francken, L. Beerendonk, D. Molenaar et al. 96 citations
Abstract We report the results of an academic survey into the theoretical and methodological foundations, common assumptions, and the current state of the field of consciousness research. The survey consisted of 22 questions and was distributed on two different occasions of the annual meeting of the Association of the Scientific Study of Consciousness (2018 and 2019). We examined responses from...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 Joachim Bellet, Marion Gay, Abhilash Dwarakanath et al. 57 citations
The role of the primate prefrontal cortex (PFC) in conscious perception is debated. The global neuronal workspace theory of consciousness predicts that PFC neurons should contain a detailed code of the current conscious contents. Previous research showed that PFC is indeed activated in paradigms of conscious visual perception, including no-report paradigms where no voluntary behavioral report...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 Austin Clinton Cooper, Bianca Ventura, Georg Northoff 54 citations
Abstract Meditation can exert a profound impact on our mental life, with proficient practitioners often reporting an experience free of boundaries between a separate self and the environment, suggesting an explicit experience of “nondual awareness.” What are the neural correlates of such experiences and how do they relate to the idea of nondual awareness itself? In order to unravel the effects...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 Gary Bartlett
Tononi et al. claim that their integrated information theory of consciousness makes testable predictions. This article discusses two of the more startling predictions, which follow from the theory's claim that conscious experiences are generated by inactive as well as active neurons. The first prediction is that a subject's conscious experience at a time can be affected by the disabling of...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 Howard Bowman, William Jones, Hannah Pincham et al.
One way to understand a system is to explore how its behaviour degrades when it is overloaded. This approach can be applied to understanding conscious perception by presenting stimuli in rapid succession in the 'same' perceptual event/moment. In previous work, we have identified a striking dissociation during the perceptual moment, between what is encoded into working memory [Lag-1 sparing in...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 A. Arena, B. E. Juel, R. Comolatti et al.
Abstract It remains unclear how specific cortical regions contribute to the brain’s overall capacity for consciousness. Clarifying this could help distinguish between theories of consciousness. Here, we investigate the association between markers of regionally specific (de)activation and the brain’s overall capacity for consciousness. We recorded electroencephalographic responses to cortical...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 Takuya Niikawa, Katsunori Miyahara, H. Hamada et al.
Abstract There are many theories of the functions of consciousness. How these theories relate to each other, how we should assess them, and whether any integration of them is possible are all issues that remain unclear. To contribute to a solution, this paper offers a conceptual framework to clarify the theories of the functions of consciousness. This framework consists of three dimensions: (i)...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022 Diane Derrien, Clémentine Garric, Claire Sergent et al.
Abstract Blindsight regroups the different manifestations of preserved discriminatory visual capacities following the damage to the primary visual cortex. Blindsight types differentially impact objective and subjective perception, patients can report having no visual awareness whilst their behaviour suggests visual processing still occurs at some cortical level. This phenomenon hence presents a...
Neuroscience of Consciousness December 1, 2021 B. Hermann, Aude Sangare, Esteban Munoz-Musat et al.
Abstract The clinical and fundamental exploration of patients suffering from disorders of consciousness (DoC) is commonly used by researchers both to test some of their key theoretical predictions and to serve as a unique source of empirical knowledge about possible dissociations between consciousness and cognitive and/or neural processes. For instance, the existence of states of vigilance free...
Neuroscience of Consciousness December 1, 2021 J. Walter
Abstract Disorders of consciousness (DoCs) pose a significant clinical and ethical challenge because they allow for complex forms of conscious experience in patients where intentional behaviour and communication are highly limited or non-existent. There is a pressing need for brain-based assessments that can precisely and accurately characterize the conscious state of individual DoC patients....
Neuroscience of Consciousness November 1, 2021 Andrea I. Luppi, Pedro A. M. Mediano, Fernando E. Rosas et al. 42 citations
Abstract A central question in neuroscience concerns the relationship between consciousness and its physical substrate. Here, we argue that a richer characterization of consciousness can be obtained by viewing it as constituted of distinct information-theoretic elements. In other words, we propose a shift from quantification of consciousness—viewed as integrated information—to its...
Neuroscience of Consciousness November 1, 2021 S. Katyal, P. Goldin
Abstract Meditation training is proposed to enhance mental well-being by modulating neural activity, particularly alpha and theta brain oscillations, and autonomic activity. Although such enhancement also depends on the quality of meditation, little is known about how these neural and physiological changes relate to meditation quality. One model characterizes meditation quality as five...
Neuroscience of Consciousness October 28, 2021 Andrea Lavazza
Abstract Human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are an in vitro three-dimensional model of early neural development, aimed at modelling and understanding brain development and neurological disorders. In just a few years, there has been a rapid and considerable progress in the attempt to create a brain model capable of showcasing the structure and functions of the human brain. There are still strong...
Neuroscience of Consciousness October 1, 2021 Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Hayato Saigo
Abstract Characterizing consciousness in and of itself is notoriously difficult. Here, we propose an alternative approach to characterize, and eventually define, consciousness through exhaustive descriptions of consciousness’ relationships to all other consciousness. This approach is founded in category theory. Indeed, category theory can prove that two objects A and B in a category can be...
Neuroscience of Consciousness May 1, 2021 C. Fields, J. Glazebrook, Michael Levin
Abstract Theories of consciousness and cognition that assume a neural substrate automatically regard phylogenetically basal, nonneural systems as nonconscious and noncognitive. Here, we advance a scale-free characterization of consciousness and cognition that regards basal systems, including synthetic constructs, as not only informative about the structure and function of experience in more...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2021 Simone Sarasso, Adenauer G. Casali, Silvia Casarotto et al. 183 citations
Abstract Over the last years, a surge of empirical studies converged on complexity-related measures as reliable markers of consciousness across many different conditions, such as sleep, anesthesia, hallucinatory states, coma, and related disorders. Most of these measures were independently proposed by researchers endorsing disparate frameworks and employing different methods and techniques....
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2021 Lars Sandved-Smith, Casper Hesp, Jérémie Mattout et al. 116 citations
Meta-awareness refers to the capacity to explicitly notice the current content of consciousness and has been identified as a key component for the successful control of cognitive states, such as the deliberate direction of attention. This paper proposes a formal model of meta-awareness and attentional control using hierarchical active inference. To do so, we cast mental action as policy...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2021 Francesco Ellia, Jeremiah Hendren, Matteo Grasso et al. 61 citations
Objective correlates-behavioral, functional, and neural-provide essential tools for the scientific study of consciousness. But reliance on these correlates should not lead to the 'fallacy of misplaced objectivity': the assumption that only objective properties should and can be accounted for objectively through science. Instead, what needs to be explained scientifically is what experience is...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2021 George Deane 38 citations
Predictive processing approaches to brain function are increasingly delivering promise for illuminating the computational underpinnings of a wide range of phenomenological states. It remains unclear, however, whether predictive processing is equipped to accommodate a theory of consciousness itself. Furthermore, objectors have argued that without specification of the core computational...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2021 Vaibhav Tripathi, P. Bharadwaj 28 citations
Abstract Yoga as a practice and philosophy of life has been followed for more than 4500 years with known evidence of yogic practices in the Indus Valley Civilization. The last few decades have seen a resurgence in the utility of yoga and meditation as a practice with growing scientific evidence behind it. Significant scientific literature has been published, illustrating the benefits of yogic...