Activity in part of the neural correlates of consciousness reflects integration.
Consciousness and Cognition October 1, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.07.007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Human participants |
| Keywords | Auditory Brain Consciousness Integration FMRI |
| Key findings | Only left parietal cortex activity increased significantly as a function of increasing demands on integration, while other brain regions associated with consciousness did not show such increases. |
Abstract
Integration is commonly viewed as a key process for generating conscious experiences. Accordingly, there should be increased activity within the neural correlates of consciousness when demands on integration increase. We used fMRI and "informational masking" to isolate the neural correlates of consciousness and measured how the associated brain activity changed as a function of required integration. Integration was manipulated by comparing the experience of hearing simple reoccurring tones to hearing harmonic tone triplets. The neural correlates of auditory consciousness included superior temporal gyrus, lateral and medial frontal regions, cerebellum, and also parietal cortex. Critically, only activity in left parietal cortex increased significantly as a function of increasing demands on integration. We conclude that integration can explain part of the neural activity associated with the generation conscious experiences, but that much of associated brain activity apparently reflects other processes.