Parallel and functionally segregated processing of task phase and conscious content in the prefrontal cortex.
Vishal Kapoor, Michel Besserve, Nikos K. Logothetis, Theofanis I. Panagiotaropoulos
Communications Biology 2018 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-018-0225-1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | LPFC neurons recorded during a no-report perceptual suppression task |
| Key findings | A distinct population of LPFC neurons exhibits task-phase related activity, captured as canonical response patterns, that is functionally segregated from neurons encoding conscious visual perception. Perceptually suppressed visual input had negligible impact on the sequential firing and functional connectivity of these task-phase neurons, suggesting they operate concurrently with but separately from neurons representing conscious content. |
Abstract
The role of lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) in mediating conscious perception has been recently questioned due to potential confounds resulting from the parallel operation of task related processes. We have previously demonstrated encoding of contents of visual consciousness in LPFC neurons during a no-report task involving perceptual suppression. Here, we report a separate LPFC population that exhibits task-phase related activity during the same task. The activity profile of these neurons could be captured as canonical response patterns (CRPs), with their peak amplitudes sequentially distributed across different task phases. Perceptually suppressed visual input had a negligible impact on sequential firing and functional connectivity structure. Importantly, task-phase related neurons were functionally segregated from the neuronal population, which encoded conscious perception. These results suggest that neurons exhibiting task-phase related activity operate in the LPFC concurrently with, but segregated from neurons representing conscious content during a no-report task involving perceptual suppression.
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- An active inference model of conscious access: How cognitive action selection reconciles the results of report and no-report paradigms. Current Research in Neurobiology 2022
- Isolating Neural Signatures of Conscious Speech Perception with a No-Report Sine-Wave Speech Paradigm. Journal of Neuroscience February 21, 2024
- Feedforward connectivity patterns from visual areas to the front of the brain contain information about sensory stimuli regardless of awareness or report. Cortex March 1, 2024
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