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Fang Z, Dang Y, Li X, Zhao Q, Zhang M, Zhao H. Intracranial neural representation of phenomenal and access consciousness in the human brain. Neuroimage 2024; 297:120699. [PMID: 38944172 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2024] [Revised: 06/14/2024] [Accepted: 06/20/2024] [Indexed: 07/01/2024] Open
Abstract
After more than 30 years of extensive investigation, impressive progress has been made in identifying the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). However, the functional role of spatiotemporally distinct consciousness-related neural activity in conscious perception is debated. An influential framework proposed that consciousness-related neural activities could be dissociated into two distinct processes: phenomenal and access consciousness. However, though hotly debated, its authenticity has not been examined in a single paradigm with more informative intracranial recordings. In the present study, we employed a visual awareness task and recorded the local field potential (LFP) of patients with electrodes implanted in cortical and subcortical regions. Overall, we found that the latency of visual awareness-related activity exhibited a bimodal distribution, and the recording sites with short and long latencies were largely separated in location, except in the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC). The mixture of short and long latencies in the lPFC indicates that it plays a critical role in linking phenomenal and access consciousness. However, the division between the two is not as simple as the central sulcus, as proposed previously. Moreover, in 4 patients with electrodes implanted in the bilateral prefrontal cortex, early awareness-related activity was confined to the contralateral side, while late awareness-related activity appeared on both sides. Finally, Granger causality analysis showed that awareness-related information flowed from the early sites to the late sites. These results provide the first LFP evidence of neural correlates of phenomenal and access consciousness, which sheds light on the spatiotemporal dynamics of NCC in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zepeng Fang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Division of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Yuanyuan Dang
- Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
| | - Xiaoli Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Division of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Qianchuan Zhao
- Center for Intelligent and Networked Systems, Department of Automation, TNLIST, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Mingsha Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Division of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
| | - Hulin Zhao
- Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
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2
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Roy A, Girija VS, Kitzlerová E. The Role of Momentary Dissociation in the Sensory Cortex: A Neurophysiological Review and its Implications for Maladaptive Daydreaming. Med Sci Monit 2024; 30:e944209. [PMID: 38848281 PMCID: PMC11166090 DOI: 10.12659/msm.944209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Daydreaming, a form of spontaneous and self-generated mental process, may lead to the disintegration of attention from the immediate external environment. In extreme cases, patients may develop maladaptive daydreaming comorbid with dissociation. The examination of dissociative alterations frequently occurs within the framework of complex cognitive processes. While dissociation may be a neurological and psychological dysfunction of integration, transient dissociative occurrences, i.e., momentary dissociation may signify a dynamic interplay between attentional division and orientation within the sensory cortex. Furthermore, previous studies have recorded the interactivity of attention by stimuli onset with P3 event-related potentials and the active suppression of distractor positivity. In this context, during auditory and visual mismatch negativity, the sensory cortex may interact with attentional orientation. Additionally, distractor positivity during task-relevant stimuli may play a crucial role in predicting momentary dissociation since sensory cortices share cerebral correlates with attentional fluctuations during mental imagery. Thus, this theoretical review investigated the cerebral activities associated with attentional orientation and may be extended to mindfulness. By integrating these findings, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of dissociative states which may lead to a resolution for dissociative psychopathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anney Roy
- Department of Psychiatry, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague and General University Hospital in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | | | - Eva Kitzlerová
- Department of Psychiatry, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague and General University Hospital in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
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3
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Ciupińska K, Orłowska W, Zębrowski A, Łępa L, Koculak M, Bola M, Wierzchoń M. The influence of spatial and temporal attention on visual awareness-a behavioral and ERP study. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae241. [PMID: 38850216 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae241] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Revised: 05/14/2024] [Accepted: 05/22/2024] [Indexed: 06/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Whether attention is a prerequisite of perceptual awareness or an independent and dissociable process remains a matter of debate. Importantly, understanding the relation between attention and awareness is probably not possible without taking into account the fact that both are heterogeneous and multifaceted mechanisms. Therefore, the present study tested the impact on visual awareness of two attentional mechanisms proposed by the Posner model: temporal alerting and spatio-temporal orienting. Specifically, we evaluated the effects of attention on the perceptual level, by measuring objective and subjective awareness of a threshold-level stimulus; and on the neural level, by investigating how attention affects two postulated event-related potential correlates of awareness. We found that alerting and orienting mechanisms additively facilitate perceptual consciousness, with activation of the latter resulting in the most vivid awareness. Furthermore, we found that late positivity is unlikely to constitute a neural correlate of consciousness as its amplitude was modulated by both attentional mechanisms, but early visual awareness negativity was independent of the alerting and orienting mechanisms. In conclusion, our study reveals a nuanced relationship between attention and awareness; moreover, by investigating the effect of the alerting mechanism, this study provides insights into the role of temporal attention in perceptual consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kinga Ciupińska
- Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, 6 Ingardena Street, 30-060 Krakow, Poland
- Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction (S4HRI), Italian Institute of Technology, via Enrico Melen 83, 16152 Genova, Italy
| | - Wiktoria Orłowska
- Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, 6 Ingardena Street, 30-060 Krakow, Poland
- Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University, 34 Rynek Główny, 31-010 Krakow, Poland
| | - Aleksander Zębrowski
- Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University, 34 Rynek Główny, 31-010 Krakow, Poland
- Centre for Brain Research, Jagiellonian University, 50 Kopernika Street, 31-501 Krakow, Poland
| | - Laura Łępa
- Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, 6 Ingardena Street, 30-060 Krakow, Poland
| | - Marcin Koculak
- Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, 6 Ingardena Street, 30-060 Krakow, Poland
| | - Michał Bola
- Centre for Brain Research, Jagiellonian University, 50 Kopernika Street, 31-501 Krakow, Poland
| | - Michał Wierzchoń
- Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, 6 Ingardena Street, 30-060 Krakow, Poland
- Centre for Brain Research, Jagiellonian University, 50 Kopernika Street, 31-501 Krakow, Poland
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4
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Chis-Ciure R, Melloni L, Northoff G. A measure centrality index for systematic empirical comparison of consciousness theories. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 161:105670. [PMID: 38615851 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2024] [Revised: 03/15/2024] [Accepted: 04/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
Consciousness science is marred by disparate constructs and methodologies, making it challenging to systematically compare theories. This foundational crisis casts doubts on the scientific character of the field itself. Addressing it, we propose a framework for systematically comparing consciousness theories by introducing a novel inter-theory classification interface, the Measure Centrality Index (MCI). Recognizing its gradient distribution, the MCI assesses the degree of importance a specific empirical measure has for a given consciousness theory. We apply the MCI to probe how the empirical measures of the Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNW), Integrated Information Theory (IIT), and Temporospatial Theory of Consciousness (TTC) would fare within the context of the other two. We demonstrate that direct comparison of IIT, GNW, and TTC is meaningful and valid for some measures like Lempel-Ziv Complexity (LZC), Autocorrelation Window (ACW), and possibly Mutual Information (MI). In contrast, it is problematic for others like the anatomical and physiological neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) due to their MCI-based differential weightings within the structure of the theories. In sum, we introduce and provide proof-of-principle of a novel systematic method for direct inter-theory empirical comparisons, thereby addressing isolated evolution of theories and confirmatory bias issues in the state-of-the-art neuroscience of consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Chis-Ciure
- New York University (NYU), New York, USA; International Center for Neuroscience and Ethics (CINET), Tatiana Foundation, Madrid, Spain; Wolfram Physics Project, USA.
| | - Lucia Melloni
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Georg Northoff
- University of Ottawa, Institute of Mental Health Research at the Royal Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Canada
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5
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Doradzińska Ł, Bola M. Early Electrophysiological Correlates of Perceptual Consciousness Are Affected by Both Exogenous and Endogenous Attention. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:1297-1324. [PMID: 38579265 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/07/2024]
Abstract
It has been proposed that visual awareness negativity (VAN), which is an early ERP component, constitutes a neural correlate of visual consciousness that is independent of perceptual and cognitive mechanisms. In the present study, we investigated whether VAN is indeed a specific marker of phenomenal awareness or rather reflects the involvement of attention. To this end, we reanalyzed data collected in a previously published EEG experiment in which awareness of visual stimuli and two aspects that define attentional involvement, namely, the inherent saliency and task relevance of a stimulus, were manipulated orthogonally. During the experimental procedure, participants (n = 41) were presented with images of faces that were backward-masked or unmasked, fearful or neutral, and defined as task-relevant targets or task-irrelevant distractors. Single-trial ERP analysis revealed that VAN was highly dependent on attentional manipulations in the early time window (140-200 msec), up to the point that the effect of awareness was not observed for attentionally irrelevant stimuli (i.e., neutral faces presented as distractors). In the late time window (200-350 msec), VAN was present in all attentional conditions, but its amplitude was significantly higher in response to fearful faces and task-relevant face images than in response to neutral ones and task-irrelevant ones, respectively. In conclusion, we demonstrate that the amplitude of VAN is highly dependent on both exogenous (stimulus saliency) and endogenous attention (task requirements). Our results challenge the view that VAN constitutes an attention-independent correlate of phenomenal awareness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Łucja Doradzińska
- Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Michał Bola
- Centre for Brain Research, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
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6
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Panagiotaropoulos TI. An integrative view of the role of prefrontal cortex in consciousness. Neuron 2024; 112:1626-1641. [PMID: 38754374 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.04.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2024] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024]
Abstract
The involvement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in consciousness is an ongoing focus of intense investigation. An important question is whether representations of conscious contents and experiences in the PFC are confounded by post-perceptual processes related to cognitive functions. Here, I review recent findings suggesting that neuronal representations of consciously perceived contents-in the absence of post-perceptual processes-can indeed be observed in the PFC. Slower ongoing fluctuations in the electrophysiological state of the PFC seem to control the stability and updates of these prefrontal representations of conscious awareness. In addition to conscious perception, the PFC has been shown to play a critical role in controlling the levels of consciousness as observed during anesthesia, while prefrontal lesions can result in severe loss of perceptual awareness. Together, the convergence of these processes in the PFC suggests its integrative role in consciousness and highlights the complex nature of consciousness itself.
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7
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Ye M, Wang A, Liang H, Liu X. Late Positivity Correlates with Subjective Reports: Evidence from the Low-frequency and High-frequency Reporting Tasks. Neuroscience 2024; 546:143-156. [PMID: 38574798 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.03.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 03/18/2024] [Accepted: 03/29/2024] [Indexed: 04/06/2024]
Abstract
Identifying the neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) is an important way to understand the fundamental nature of consciousness. By recording event-related potentials (ERPs) using EEG, researchers have found three potential electrophysiological NCCs: early positive correlate of consciousness (enhanced P1), visual awareness negativity (VAN), and late positivity (LP). However, LP may reflect post-perceptual processing associated with subjective reports rather than consciousness per se. The present experiment investigated the relationship between LP and subjective reports. We adopted two subjective reporting tasks that differed in the requirement for subjective reports. In the low-frequency reporting task, participants needed to report whether they saw the target picture in 25% of trials, whereas in the high-frequency reporting task, participants needed to report whether they saw the target picture in each trial. Behavioral results showed that the hit rates were lower and false alarm rates were higher on reporting trials in low-frequency reporting tasks than on reporting trials in high-frequency reporting tasks. Unexpectedly, VAN was larger on reporting trials in the low-frequency reporting task than on reporting trials in the high-frequency reporting task. Importantly, our ERP results showed that LP was larger on reporting trials in the high-frequency reporting task than on reporting trials in the low-frequency reporting task. Thus, our findings indicated that when the frequency of reports was increased, the task relevance of the stimuli increased, which led to larger LP amplitudes. These findings suggest that LP correlates with subjective reports.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muwang Ye
- Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China; State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
| | - Anhui Wang
- Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
| | - Haiyang Liang
- Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xiaowen Liu
- Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
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8
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Hense A, Peters A, Bruchmann M, Dellert T, Straube T. Electrophysiological correlates of sustained conscious perception. Sci Rep 2024; 14:10593. [PMID: 38719939 PMCID: PMC11078977 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61281-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Previous research on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) in visual perception revealed an early event-related potential (ERP), the visual awareness negativity (VAN), to be associated with stimulus awareness. However, due to the use of brief stimulus presentations in previous studies, it remains unclear whether awareness-related negativities represent a transient onset-related response or correspond to the duration of a conscious percept. Studies are required that allow prolonged stimulus presentation under aware and unaware conditions. The present ERP study aimed to tackle this challenge by using a novel stimulation design. Male and female human participants (n = 62) performed a visual task while task-irrelevant line stimuli were presented in the background for either 500 or 1000 ms. The line stimuli sometimes contained a face, which needed so-called visual one-shot learning to be seen. Half of the participants were informed about the presence of the face, resulting in faces being perceived by the informed but not by the uninformed participants. Comparing ERPs between the informed and uninformed group revealed an enhanced negativity over occipitotemporal electrodes that persisted for the entire duration of stimulus presentation. Our results suggest that sustained visual awareness negativities (SVAN) are associated with the duration of stimulus presentation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annika Hense
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany.
| | - Antje Peters
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Torge Dellert
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany
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9
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Maffei A, Gambarota F, Liotti M, Dell'Acqua R, Tsuchiya N, Sessa P. Conscious perception of fear in faces: Insights from high-density EEG and perceptual awareness scale with threshold stimuli. Cortex 2024; 174:93-109. [PMID: 38493568 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.02.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Revised: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 02/08/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
Contrary to the extensive research on processing subliminal and/or unattended emotional facial expressions, only a minority of studies have investigated the neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) of emotions conveyed by faces. In the present high-density electroencephalography (EEG) study, we first employed a staircase procedure to identify each participant's perceptual threshold of the emotion expressed by the face and then compared the EEG signals elicited in trials where the participants were aware with the activity elicited in trials where participants were unaware of the emotions expressed by these, otherwise identical, faces. Drawing on existing knowledge of the neural mechanisms of face processing and NCCs, we hypothesized that activity in frontal electrodes would be modulated in relation to participants' awareness of facial emotional content. More specifically, we hypothesized that the NCC of fear seen on someone else's face could be detected as a modulation of a later and more anterior (i.e., at frontal sites) event-related potential (ERP) than the face-sensitive N170. By adopting a data-driven approach and cluster-based statistics to the analysis of EEG signals, the results were clear-cut in showing that visual awareness of fear was associated with the modulation of a frontal ERP component in a 150-300 msec interval. These insights are dissected and contextualized in relation to prevailing theories of visual consciousness and their proposed NCC benchmarks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Maffei
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology (DPSS), University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Filippo Gambarota
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology (DPSS), University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Mario Liotti
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology (DPSS), University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Roberto Dell'Acqua
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology (DPSS), University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Naotsugu Tsuchiya
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health & School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita-shi, Osaka, Japan; Laboratory Head, Laboratory of Qualia Structure, ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, Japan.
| | - Paola Sessa
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology (DPSS), University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
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10
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Rowe EG, Garrido MI, Tsuchiya N. Feedforward connectivity patterns from visual areas to the front of the brain contain information about sensory stimuli regardless of awareness or report. Cortex 2024; 172:284-300. [PMID: 38142179 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.11.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Revised: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 12/25/2023]
Abstract
Current theories of consciousness can be categorized to some extent by their predictions about the putative role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in conscious perception. One family of the theories proposes that the PFC is necessary for conscious perception. The other postulates that the PFC is not necessary and that other areas (e.g., posterior cortical areas) are more important for conscious perception. No-report paradigms could potentially arbitrate the debate as they disentangle task reporting from conscious perception. While previous no-report paradigms tend to point to a reduction in PFC activity, they have not examined the critical role of the PFC in "monitoring" or "reading out" the patterns of activity in the sensory cortex to generate conscious perception. To address this, we reanalysed electroencephalography (EEG) data from a no-report inattentional blindness paradigm (Shafto & Pitts, 2015). We examined the role of feedforward input patterns to the PFC from sensory cortices. We employed nonparametric spectral Granger causality and quantified the amount of information that reflected the contents of consciousness using multivariate classifiers. Unexpectedly, regardless of whether the stimulus was consciously seen or not, we found that information relating to the current sensory stimulus was present in the pattern of inputs from visual areas to the PFC. In light of these findings, we suggest various theories of consciousness need to be revised to accommodate the fact that the contents of consciousness are decodable from the input patterns from posterior sensory regions to the PFC, regardless of awareness (or report).
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise G Rowe
- School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia; Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
| | - Marta I Garrido
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Victoria, Australia
| | - Naotsugu Tsuchiya
- School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia; Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia; Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Osaka, Japan; Department of Qualia Structure, ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, Japan; ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Victoria, Australia
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11
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Zhu Y, Li C, Hendry C, Glass J, Canseco-Gonzalez E, Pitts MA, Dykstra AR. Isolating Neural Signatures of Conscious Speech Perception with a No-Report Sine-Wave Speech Paradigm. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e0145232023. [PMID: 38191569 PMCID: PMC10883607 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0145-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2023] [Revised: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Identifying neural correlates of conscious perception is a fundamental endeavor of cognitive neuroscience. Most studies so far have focused on visual awareness along with trial-by-trial reports of task-relevant stimuli, which can confound neural measures of perceptual awareness with postperceptual processing. Here, we used a three-phase sine-wave speech paradigm that dissociated between conscious speech perception and task relevance while recording EEG in humans of both sexes. Compared with tokens perceived as noise, physically identical sine-wave speech tokens that were perceived as speech elicited a left-lateralized, near-vertex negativity, which we interpret as a phonological version of a perceptual awareness negativity. This response appeared between 200 and 300 ms after token onset and was not present for frequency-flipped control tokens that were never perceived as speech. In contrast, the P3b elicited by task-irrelevant tokens did not significantly differ when the tokens were perceived as speech versus noise and was only enhanced for tokens that were both perceived as speech and relevant to the task. Our results extend the findings from previous studies on visual awareness and speech perception and suggest that correlates of conscious perception, across types of conscious content, are most likely to be found in midlatency negative-going brain responses in content-specific sensory areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunkai Zhu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33143
| | - Charlotte Li
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | - Camille Hendry
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | - James Glass
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | | | - Michael A Pitts
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | - Andrew R Dykstra
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33143
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Eiserbeck A, Enge A, Rabovsky M, Abdel Rahman R. Distrust before first sight? Examining knowledge- and appearance-based effects of trustworthiness on the visual consciousness of faces. Conscious Cogn 2024; 117:103629. [PMID: 38150782 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2023] [Revised: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/29/2023]
Abstract
The present EEG study with 32 healthy participants investigated whether affective knowledge about a person influences the visual awareness of their face, additionally considering the impact of facial appearance. Faces differing in perceived trustworthiness based on appearance were associated with negative or neutral social information and shown as target stimuli in an attentional blink task. As expected, participants showed enhanced awareness of faces associated with negative compared to neutral social information. On the neurophysiological level, this effect was connected to differences in the time range of the early posterior negativity (EPN)-a component associated with enhanced attention and facilitated processing of emotional stimuli. The findings indicate that the social-affective relevance of a face based on emotional knowledge is accessed during a phase of attentional enhancement for conscious perception and can affect prioritization for awareness. In contrast, no clear evidence for influences of facial trustworthiness during the attentional blink was found.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Eiserbeck
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.
| | - Alexander Enge
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Research Group Learning in Early Childhood, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Rasha Abdel Rahman
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.
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13
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Wu M, Auksztulewicz R, Riecke L. Multimodal acoustic-electric trigeminal nerve stimulation modulates conscious perception. Neuroimage 2024; 285:120476. [PMID: 38030051 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Revised: 11/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/26/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Multimodal stimulation can reverse pathological neural activity and improve symptoms in neuropsychiatric diseases. Recent research shows that multimodal acoustic-electric trigeminal-nerve stimulation (TNS) (i.e., musical stimulation synchronized to electrical stimulation of the trigeminal nerve) can improve consciousness in patients with disorders of consciousness. However, the reliability and mechanism of this novel approach remain largely unknown. We explored the effects of multimodal acoustic-electric TNS in healthy human participants by assessing conscious perception before and after stimulation using behavioral and neural measures in tactile and auditory target-detection tasks. To explore the mechanisms underlying the putative effects of acoustic-electric stimulation, we fitted a biologically plausible neural network model to the neural data using dynamic causal modeling. We observed that (1) acoustic-electric stimulation improves conscious tactile perception without a concomitant change in auditory perception, (2) this improvement is caused by the interplay of the acoustic and electric stimulation rather than any of the unimodal stimulation alone, and (3) the effect of acoustic-electric stimulation on conscious perception correlates with inter-regional connection changes in a recurrent neural processing model. These results provide evidence that acoustic-electric TNS can promote conscious perception. Alterations in inter-regional cortical connections might be the mechanism by which acoustic-electric TNS achieves its consciousness benefits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Min Wu
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6229 EV Maastricht, the Netherlands.
| | - Ryszard Auksztulewicz
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 14195, Germany
| | - Lars Riecke
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6229 EV Maastricht, the Netherlands
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14
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Paßler M. The exclusionary approach to consciousness. Neurosci Conscious 2023; 2023:niad022. [PMID: 37810758 PMCID: PMC10553408 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niad022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The standard approach in the field of consciousness research involves identifying the neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) by comparing neural activity between conscious and unconscious trials. However, this method has been met with criticism due to the lack of consensus on how to operationalize and measure consciousness. In this paper, I propose an alternative approach: the exclusionary approach. Rather than utilizing near-threshold conditions to contrast conscious and unconscious trials, this approach leverages the widely accepted notion that subjective reports are reliable under normal conditions. I propose that this can be done by assessing whether consciousness remains stable across trials while manipulating other factors such as reports, tasks, stimulation, or attention. We can use the resulting contrast to exclude certain kinds of neural activity as candidate NCCs. This method produces results that are less contentious, allowing for the establishment of hard criteria for theories of consciousness. Additionally, this approach does not require the development of new research paradigms, but can incorporate existing studies, particularly those aimed at identifying confounding factors in the standard approach. It is important to note, however, that the proposed exclusionary approach does not negate the value of the identification approach. Rather, they should be considered as complementary methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlo Paßler
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstraße 56, Berlin 10117, Germany
- RTG 2386 “Extrospection”, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstraße 56, Berlin 10117, Germany
- Institute of Philosophy, Otto-von-Guericke University, Zschokkestr. 32, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt 39104, Germany
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15
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Wiens S, Andersson A, Gravenfors J. Neural electrophysiological correlates of detection and identification awareness. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2023; 23:1303-1321. [PMID: 37656374 PMCID: PMC10545648 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-023-01120-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Abstract
Humans have conscious experiences of the events in their environment. Previous research from electroencephalography (EEG) has shown visual awareness negativity (VAN) at about 200 ms to be a neural correlate of consciousness (NCC). However, when considering VAN as an NCC, it is important to explore which particular experiences are associated with VAN. Recent research proposes that VAN is an NCC of lower-level experiences (detection) rather than higher-level experiences (identification). However, previous results are mixed and have several limitations. In the present study, the stimulus was a ring with a Gabor patch tilting either left or right. On each trial, subjects rated their awareness on a three-level perceptual awareness scale that captured both detection (something vs. nothing) and identification (identification vs. something). Separate staircases were used to adjust stimulus opacity to the detection threshold and the identification threshold. Bayesian linear mixed models provided extreme evidence (BF10 = 131) that VAN was stronger at the detection threshold than at the identification threshold. Mean VAN decreased from [Formula: see text]2.12 microV [[Formula: see text]2.86, [Formula: see text]1.42] at detection to [Formula: see text]0.46 microV [[Formula: see text]0.79, [Formula: see text]0.11] at identification. These results strongly support the claim that VAN is an NCC of lower-level experiences of seeing something rather than of higher-level experiences of specific properties of the stimuli. Thus, results are consistent with recurrent processing theory in that phenomenal visual consciousness is reflected by VAN. Further, results emphasize that it is important to consider the level of experience when searching for NCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Wiens
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Annika Andersson
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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16
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Qiu Z, Lei X, Becker SI, Pegna AJ. Faces capture spatial attention only when we want them to: An inattentional blindness EEG study. Biol Psychol 2023; 183:108665. [PMID: 37619811 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2023] [Revised: 08/16/2023] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023]
Abstract
Previous research on emotional face processing has shown that emotional faces such as fearful faces may be processed without visual awareness. However, evidence for nonconscious attention capture by fearful faces is limited. In fact, studies using sensory manipulation of awareness (e.g., backward masking paradigms) have shown that fearful faces do not attract attention during subliminal viewings nor when they were task-irrelevant. Here, we used a three-phase inattentional blindness paradigm and electroencephalography to examine whether faces (fearful and neutral) capture attention under different conditions of awareness and task-relevancy. We found that the electrophysiological marker for attention capture, the N2-posterior-contralateral (N2pc), was elicited by face stimuli only when participants were aware of the faces and when they were task-relevant (phase 3). When participants were unaware of the presence of faces (phase 1) or when the faces were irrelevant to the task (phase 2), no N2pc was observed. Together with our previous work, we concluded that fearful faces, or faces in general, do not attract attention unless we want them to.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zeguo Qiu
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia.
| | - Xue Lei
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
| | - Stefanie I Becker
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
| | - Alan J Pegna
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
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17
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Pennartz CMA, Oude Lohuis MN, Olcese U. How 'visual' is the visual cortex? The interactions between the visual cortex and other sensory, motivational and motor systems as enabling factors for visual perception. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220336. [PMID: 37545313 PMCID: PMC10404929 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The definition of the visual cortex is primarily based on the evidence that lesions of this area impair visual perception. However, this does not exclude that the visual cortex may process more information than of retinal origin alone, or that other brain structures contribute to vision. Indeed, research across the past decades has shown that non-visual information, such as neural activity related to reward expectation and value, locomotion, working memory and other sensory modalities, can modulate primary visual cortical responses to retinal inputs. Nevertheless, the function of this non-visual information is poorly understood. Here we review recent evidence, coming primarily from studies in rodents, arguing that non-visual and motor effects in visual cortex play a role in visual processing itself, for instance disentangling direct auditory effects on visual cortex from effects of sound-evoked orofacial movement. These findings are placed in a broader framework casting vision in terms of predictive processing under control of frontal, reward- and motor-related systems. In contrast to the prevalent notion that vision is exclusively constructed by the visual cortical system, we propose that visual percepts are generated by a larger network-the extended visual system-spanning other sensory cortices, supramodal areas and frontal systems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Decision and control processes in multisensory perception'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cyriel M. A. Pennartz
- Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Matthijs N. Oude Lohuis
- Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Umberto Olcese
- Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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18
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Veyrié A, Noreña A, Sarrazin JC, Pezard L. Information-Theoretic Approaches in EEG Correlates of Auditory Perceptual Awareness under Informational Masking. BIOLOGY 2023; 12:967. [PMID: 37508397 PMCID: PMC10376775 DOI: 10.3390/biology12070967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Revised: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
In informational masking paradigms, the successful segregation between the target and masker creates auditory perceptual awareness. The dynamics of the build-up of auditory perception is based on a set of interactions between bottom-up and top-down processes that generate neuronal modifications within the brain network activity. These neural changes are studied here using event-related potentials (ERPs), entropy, and integrated information, leading to several measures applied to electroencephalogram signals. The main findings show that the auditory perceptual awareness stimulated functional activation in the fronto-temporo-parietal brain network through (i) negative temporal and positive centro-parietal ERP components; (ii) an enhanced processing of multi-information in the temporal cortex; and (iii) an increase in informational content in the fronto-central cortex. These different results provide information-based experimental evidence about the functional activation of the fronto-temporo-parietal brain network during auditory perceptual awareness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Veyrié
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR 7291), Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, Aix-Marseille Université, 13331 Marseille, France
- ONERA, The French Aerospace Lab, 13300 Salon de Provence, France
| | - Arnaud Noreña
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR 7291), Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, Aix-Marseille Université, 13331 Marseille, France
| | | | - Laurent Pezard
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR 7291), Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, Aix-Marseille Université, 13331 Marseille, France
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19
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Canales-Johnson A, Beerendonk L, Chennu S, Davidson MJ, Ince RAA, van Gaal S. Feedback information sharing in the human brain reflects bistable perception in the absence of report. PLoS Biol 2023; 21:e3002120. [PMID: 37155704 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2022] [Revised: 05/18/2023] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023] Open
Abstract
In the search for the neural basis of conscious experience, perception and the cognitive processes associated with reporting perception are typically confounded as neural activity is recorded while participants explicitly report what they experience. Here, we present a novel way to disentangle perception from report using eye movement analysis techniques based on convolutional neural networks and neurodynamical analyses based on information theory. We use a bistable visual stimulus that instantiates two well-known properties of conscious perception: integration and differentiation. At any given moment, observers either perceive the stimulus as one integrated unitary object or as two differentiated objects that are clearly distinct from each other. Using electroencephalography, we show that measures of integration and differentiation based on information theory closely follow participants' perceptual experience of those contents when switches were reported. We observed increased information integration between anterior to posterior electrodes (front to back) prior to a switch to the integrated percept, and higher information differentiation of anterior signals leading up to reporting the differentiated percept. Crucially, information integration was closely linked to perception and even observed in a no-report condition when perceptual transitions were inferred from eye movements alone. In contrast, the link between neural differentiation and perception was observed solely in the active report condition. Our results, therefore, suggest that perception and the processes associated with report require distinct amounts of anterior-posterior network communication and anterior information differentiation. While front-to-back directed information is associated with changes in the content of perception when viewing bistable visual stimuli, regardless of report, frontal information differentiation was absent in the no-report condition and therefore is not directly linked to perception per se.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andres Canales-Johnson
- Conscious Brain Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Brain Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Cambridge Consciousness and Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neurosciences Research Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca, Chile
| | - Lola Beerendonk
- Conscious Brain Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Brain Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Srivas Chennu
- School of Computing, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
| | | | - Robin A A Ince
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
| | - Simon van Gaal
- Conscious Brain Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Amsterdam Brain Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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20
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He BJ. Towards a pluralistic neurobiological understanding of consciousness. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:420-432. [PMID: 36842851 PMCID: PMC10101889 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.02.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2022] [Revised: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 02/03/2023] [Indexed: 02/27/2023]
Abstract
Theories of consciousness are often based on the assumption that a single, unified neurobiological account will explain different types of conscious awareness. However, recent findings show that, even within a single modality such as conscious visual perception, the anatomical location, timing, and information flow of neural activity related to conscious awareness vary depending on both external and internal factors. This suggests that the search for generic neural correlates of consciousness may not be fruitful. I argue that consciousness science requires a more pluralistic approach and propose a new framework: joint determinant theory (JDT). This theory may be capable of accommodating different brain circuit mechanisms for conscious contents as varied as percepts, wills, memories, emotions, and thoughts, as well as their integrated experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Biyu J He
- Neuroscience Institute, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA; Departments of Neurology, Neuroscience and Physiology, Radiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016.
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21
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Sun B, Zeng X, Chen X, Zhao J, Fu S. Neural correlates of conscious processing of emotional faces: Evidence from event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia 2023; 182:108478. [PMID: 36707025 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2022] [Revised: 12/26/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
There is a theoretical debate between the early and late neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs). Previous studies using neutral face stimuli supported an early NCC and suggested that visual awareness negativity (VAN) is associated with consciousness, while late positivity (LP) reflects post-perceptual activity. However, emotional faces may help to examine the relationship between LP and consciousness due to the differences in late processing between emotional and neutral faces. To explore the effects of facial emotional information on NCCs, the present study manipulated consciousness with the inattentional blindness paradigm and used happy, fearful, and neutral faces as visual stimuli. The results showed that the conscious processing of emotional faces was correlated with VAN and LP, while the conscious processing of neutral faces was associated with VAN. First, the results suggest that VAN is an NCC, and the relationship between LP and consciousness is affected by facial emotional information. Second, VAN reflects the early perceptual experience of emotional faces, whereas LP may reflect the late conscious processing of emotional faces. Furthermore, source localization analysis showed that the LPs of emotional faces were mainly located in the frontal and parietal lobes, whereas those of neutral faces showed no significant activation. This suggests that facial emotional information may affect the brain regions associated with conscious processing. Time-frequency analysis showed that conscious processing is related to the enhancement of alpha and theta oscillation, indicating that conscious processing may be associated with the suppression of irrelevant stimuli. Overall, the present study suggests that the integration of the theories that support early and late NCCs helps explain the conscious processing of emotional faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bo Sun
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
| | - Xianqing Zeng
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Xiaomin Chen
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Jin Zhao
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Shimin Fu
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
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22
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Higgins NC, Scurry AN, Jiang F, Little DF, Alain C, Elhilali M, Snyder JS. Adaptation in the sensory cortex drives bistable switching during auditory stream segregation. Neurosci Conscious 2023; 2023:niac019. [PMID: 36751309 PMCID: PMC9899071 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niac019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2022] [Revised: 10/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/26/2022] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Current theories of perception emphasize the role of neural adaptation, inhibitory competition, and noise as key components that lead to switches in perception. Supporting evidence comes from neurophysiological findings of specific neural signatures in modality-specific and supramodal brain areas that appear to be critical to switches in perception. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity around the time of switches in perception while participants listened to a bistable auditory stream segregation stimulus, which can be heard as one integrated stream of tones or two segregated streams of tones. The auditory thalamus showed more activity around the time of a switch from segregated to integrated compared to time periods of stable perception of integrated; in contrast, the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the inferior parietal lobule showed more activity around the time of a switch from integrated to segregated compared to time periods of stable perception of segregated streams, consistent with prior findings of asymmetries in brain activity depending on the switch direction. In sound-responsive areas in the auditory cortex, neural activity increased in strength preceding switches in perception and declined in strength over time following switches in perception. Such dynamics in the auditory cortex are consistent with the role of adaptation proposed by computational models of visual and auditory bistable switching, whereby the strength of neural activity decreases following a switch in perception, which eventually destabilizes the current percept enough to lead to a switch to an alternative percept.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan C Higgins
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, PCD1017, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
| | - Alexandra N Scurry
- Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia Street Mail Stop 0296, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Fang Jiang
- Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia Street Mail Stop 0296, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - David F Little
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Claude Alain
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, 3560 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON M6A 2E1, Canada
| | - Mounya Elhilali
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Joel S Snyder
- Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 4505 Maryland Parkway Mail Stop 5030, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
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23
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Qiu Z, Zhang J, Pegna AJ. Neural processing of lateralised task-irrelevant fearful faces under different awareness conditions. Conscious Cogn 2023; 107:103449. [PMID: 36455416 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2022] [Revised: 11/13/2022] [Accepted: 11/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The neural fate of task-irrelevant emotional faces under different awareness conditions is poorly understood. Here, we examined the electrophysiological activity during an experiment where the location of target information (contrast-induced line) was manipulated orthogonally to the location of task-irrelevant fearful faces, under subliminal or supraliminal viewing conditions. We found that only target lines elicited an N2-posterior-contralateral (N2pc), indexing spatial attention shifting, in the supraliminal condition. No N2pc was found for the targets in the subliminal condition or for task-irrelevant fearful faces in either conditions. However, the mere presence of a fearful face enhanced early neural activity between 200 and 300 ms only in the subliminal condition. Additionally, the presence of a target line, but not a fearful face, enhanced the P3. Our results suggest that the N2pc is dependent on visual awareness and task-relevancy of the information and that laterally-presented task-irrelevant fearful expressions can be processed without awareness during early visual processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zeguo Qiu
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia.
| | - Jun Zhang
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
| | - Alan J Pegna
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
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24
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Dellert T, Krebs S, Bruchmann M, Schindler S, Peters A, Straube T. Neural correlates of consciousness in an attentional blink paradigm with uncertain target relevance. Neuroimage 2022; 264:119679. [PMID: 36220535 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2022] [Revised: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Several event-related potentials (ERPs) have been proposed as neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), most prominently the early visual awareness negativity (VAN) and the late P3b component. Highly influential support for the P3b comes from studies utilizing the attentional blink (AB), where conscious perception of a first visual target (T1) impairs reporting a second target (T2) presented shortly afterwards. Recent no-report studies using other paradigms suggest that the P3b component may reflect post-perceptual processes associated with decision-making rather than awareness. However, no-report studies are limited in their awareness assessment, and their conclusions have not been tested in an AB paradigm. The present study (N = 38) addressed these issues using a novel AB paradigm, which reduced decision-making processes by omitting a discrimination task on T2 stimuli and rendering their relevance uncertain. Nevertheless, awareness was assessed trial by trial. Comparing ERPs in response to seen versus unseen T2 stimuli revealed a VAN but no enhanced P3b regardless of whether they were marked as distinct from distractor stimuli or not. Our results corroborate the VAN and challenge the P3b as NCC despite rigorous trial-by-trial assessment of conscious perception. Thus, they support the idea that awareness emerges during early sensory processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Torge Dellert
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany.
| | - Sophie Krebs
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Antje Peters
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany
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25
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Budson AE, Richman KA, Kensinger EA. Consciousness as a Memory System. Cogn Behav Neurol 2022; 35:263-297. [PMID: 36178498 PMCID: PMC9708083 DOI: 10.1097/wnn.0000000000000319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 05/03/2022] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
We suggest that there is confusion between why consciousness developed and what additional functions, through continued evolution, it has co-opted. Consider episodic memory. If we believe that episodic memory evolved solely to accurately represent past events, it seems like a terrible system-prone to forgetting and false memories. However, if we believe that episodic memory developed to flexibly and creatively combine and rearrange memories of prior events in order to plan for the future, then it is quite a good system. We argue that consciousness originally developed as part of the episodic memory system-quite likely the part needed to accomplish that flexible recombining of information. We posit further that consciousness was subsequently co-opted to produce other functions that are not directly relevant to memory per se, such as problem-solving, abstract thinking, and language. We suggest that this theory is compatible with many phenomena, such as the slow speed and the after-the-fact order of consciousness, that cannot be explained well by other theories. We believe that our theory may have profound implications for understanding intentional action and consciousness in general. Moreover, we suggest that episodic memory and its associated memory systems of sensory, working, and semantic memory as a whole ought to be considered together as the conscious memory system in that they, together, give rise to the phenomenon of consciousness. Lastly, we suggest that the cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that makes consciousness possible, and that every cortical region contributes to this conscious memory system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew E. Budson
- Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts
- Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Kenneth A. Richman
- Center for Health Humanities, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston, Massachusetts
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26
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Kronemer SI, Aksen M, Ding JZ, Ryu JH, Xin Q, Ding Z, Prince JS, Kwon H, Khalaf A, Forman S, Jin DS, Wang K, Chen K, Hu C, Agarwal A, Saberski E, Wafa SMA, Morgan OP, Wu J, Christison-Lagay KL, Hasulak N, Morrell M, Urban A, Todd Constable R, Pitts M, Mark Richardson R, Crowley MJ, Blumenfeld H. Human visual consciousness involves large scale cortical and subcortical networks independent of task report and eye movement activity. Nat Commun 2022; 13:7342. [PMID: 36446792 PMCID: PMC9707162 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35117-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 11/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The full neural circuits of conscious perception remain unknown. Using a visual perception task, we directly recorded a subcortical thalamic awareness potential (TAP). We also developed a unique paradigm to classify perceived versus not perceived stimuli using eye measurements to remove confounding signals related to reporting on conscious experiences. Using fMRI, we discovered three major brain networks driving conscious visual perception independent of report: first, increases in signal detection regions in visual, fusiform cortex, and frontal eye fields; and in arousal/salience networks involving midbrain, thalamus, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, and anterior insula; second, increases in frontoparietal attention and executive control networks and in the cerebellum; finally, decreases in the default mode network. These results were largely maintained after excluding eye movement-based fMRI changes. Our findings provide evidence that the neurophysiology of consciousness is complex even without overt report, involving multiple cortical and subcortical networks overlapping in space and time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharif I Kronemer
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Mark Aksen
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Julia Z Ding
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Jun Hwan Ryu
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Qilong Xin
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Zhaoxiong Ding
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Jacob S Prince
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Hunki Kwon
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Aya Khalaf
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Biomedical Engineering and Systems, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
| | - Sarit Forman
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - David S Jin
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Kevin Wang
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Kaylie Chen
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Claire Hu
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Akshar Agarwal
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Erik Saberski
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Syed Mohammad Adil Wafa
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - Owen P Morgan
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Jia Wu
- Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | | | | | | | | | - R Todd Constable
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | | | - R Mark Richardson
- Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Hal Blumenfeld
- Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Department of Neurosurgery, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
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27
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Hatamimajoumerd E, Ratan Murty NA, Pitts M, Cohen MA. Decoding perceptual awareness across the brain with a no-report fMRI masking paradigm. Curr Biol 2022; 32:4139-4149.e4. [PMID: 35981538 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Revised: 06/16/2022] [Accepted: 07/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Does perceptual awareness arise within the sensory regions of the brain or within higher-level regions (e.g., the frontal lobe)? To answer this question, researchers traditionally compare neural activity when observers report being aware versus being unaware of a stimulus. However, it is unclear whether the resulting activations are associated with the conscious perception of the stimulus or the post-perceptual processes associated with reporting that stimulus. To address this limitation, we used both report and no-report conditions in a visual masking paradigm while participants were scanned using functional MRI (fMRI). We found that the overall univariate response to visible stimuli in the frontal lobe was robust in the report condition but disappeared in the no-report condition. However, using multivariate patterns, we could still decode in both conditions whether a stimulus reached conscious awareness across the brain, including in the frontal lobe. These results help reconcile key discrepancies in the recent literature and provide a path forward for identifying the neural mechanisms associated with perceptual awareness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elaheh Hatamimajoumerd
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Amherst College, 220 South Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - N Apurva Ratan Murty
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA; Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Michael Pitts
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, 3203 Southeast Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Michael A Cohen
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Amherst College, 220 South Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA, USA.
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28
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Gusso MM, Christison-Lagay KL, Zuckerman D, Chandrasekaran G, Kronemer SI, Ding JZ, Freedman NC, Nohama P, Blumenfeld H. More than a feeling: Scalp EEG and eye signals in conscious tactile perception. Conscious Cogn 2022; 105:103411. [PMID: 36156359 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Revised: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 08/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the neural basis of consciousness is a fundamental goal of neuroscience, and sensory perception is often used as a proxy for consciousness in empirical studies. However, most studies rely on reported perception of visual stimuli. Here we present behavior, high density scalp EEG and eye metric recordings collected simultaneously during a novel tactile threshold perception task. We found significant N80, N140 and P300 event related potentials in perceived trials and in perceived versus not perceived trials. Significance was limited to a P100 and P300 in not perceived trials. We also found an increase in pupil diameter and blink rate and a decrease in microsaccade rate following perceived relative to not perceived tactile stimuli. These findings support the use of eye metrics as a measure of physiological arousal associated with conscious perception. Eye metrics may also represent a novel path toward the creation of tactile no-report tasks in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariana M Gusso
- Departments of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologia em Saúde, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, R. Imaculada Conceição, 1155, Prado Velho, Curitiba, Paraná 80215-901, Brazil
| | - Kate L Christison-Lagay
- Departments of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - David Zuckerman
- Departments of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Ganesh Chandrasekaran
- Departments of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Sharif I Kronemer
- Departments of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Departments of Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Julia Z Ding
- Departments of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Noah C Freedman
- Departments of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Percy Nohama
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologia em Saúde, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, R. Imaculada Conceição, 1155, Prado Velho, Curitiba, Paraná 80215-901, Brazil
| | - Hal Blumenfeld
- Departments of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Departments of Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Departments of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Departments of Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
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29
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Roth-Paysen ML, Bröcker A, Bruchmann M, Straube T. Early and late electrophysiological correlates of gradual perceptual awareness in- and outside the Attentional Blink window. Neuroimage 2022; 263:119652. [PMID: 36167269 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Revised: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
There is an ongoing debate on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) in the attentional blink (AB). Theoretical accounts propose that NCC during the attentional blink occur late in the processing hierarchy and that this quality is specific to the AB. We investigated this question by recording event-related potentials during an AB experiment with faces as T2. We analyzed ERPs to T2 stimuli inside (short lag) and outside (long lag) the AB window after carefully calibrating T2 stimuli to ensure equal visibility ratings across lags. We found that the N170, the visual awareness negativity (VAN), and the P3b showed an increased amplitude for seen compared to unseen face stimuli regardless of stimulus lag and that all these components scale linearly with subjective visibility. These findings suggest similar early and late mechanisms of graded perceptual awareness within and outside the AB across perceptual (N170, VAN) and post-perceptual (P3b) processing stages.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Anne Bröcker
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany.
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
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30
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Darki F, Ferrario A, Rankin J. Hierarchical processing underpins competition in tactile perceptual bistability. J Comput Neurosci 2022; 51:343-360. [PMID: 37204542 PMCID: PMC10404575 DOI: 10.1007/s10827-023-00852-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2022] [Revised: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 04/28/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Ambiguous sensory information can lead to spontaneous alternations between perceptual states, recently shown to extend to tactile perception. The authors recently proposed a simplified form of tactile rivalry which evokes two competing percepts for a fixed difference in input amplitudes across antiphase, pulsatile stimulation of the left and right fingers. This study addresses the need for a tactile rivalry model that captures the dynamics of perceptual alternations and that incorporates the structure of the somatosensory system. The model features hierarchical processing with two stages. The first and the second stages of model could be located at the secondary somatosensory cortex (area S2), or in higher areas driven by S2. The model captures dynamical features specific to the tactile rivalry percepts and produces general characteristics of perceptual rivalry: input strength dependence of dominance times (Levelt's proposition II), short-tailed skewness of dominance time distributions and the ratio of distribution moments. The presented modelling work leads to experimentally testable predictions. The same hierarchical model could generalise to account for percept formation, competition and alternations for bistable stimuli that involve pulsatile inputs from the visual and auditory domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farzaneh Darki
- Department of Mathematics, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Andrea Ferrario
- Biorobotics Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - James Rankin
- Department of Mathematics, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
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31
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Ehret G, Romand R. Awareness and consciousness in humans and animals – neural and behavioral correlates in an evolutionary perspective. Front Syst Neurosci 2022; 16:941534. [PMID: 35910003 PMCID: PMC9331465 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.941534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 06/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Awareness or consciousness in the context of stimulus perception can directly be assessed in well controlled test situations with humans via the persons’ reports about their subjective experiences with the stimuli. Since we have no direct access to subjective experiences in animals, their possible awareness or consciousness in stimulus perception tasks has often been inferred from behavior and cognitive abilities previously observed in aware and conscious humans. Here, we analyze published human data primarily on event-related potentials and brain-wave generation during perception and responding to sensory stimuli and extract neural markers (mainly latencies of evoked-potential peaks and of gamma-wave occurrence) indicating that a person became aware or conscious of the perceived stimulus. These neural correlates of consciousness were then applied to sets of corresponding data from various animals including several species of mammals, and one species each of birds, fish, cephalopods, and insects. We found that the neural markers from studies in humans could also successfully be applied to the mammal and bird data suggesting that species in these animal groups can become subjectively aware of and conscious about perceived stimuli. Fish, cephalopod and insect data remained inconclusive. In an evolutionary perspective we have to consider that both awareness of and consciousness about perceived stimuli appear as evolved, attention-dependent options added to the ongoing neural activities of stimulus processing and action generation. Since gamma-wave generation for functional coupling of brain areas in aware/conscious states is energetically highly cost-intensive, it remains to be shown which animal species under which conditions of lifestyle and ecological niche may achieve significant advantages in reproductive fitness by drawing upon these options. Hence, we started our discussion about awareness and consciousness in animals with the question in how far these expressions of brain activity are necessary attributes for perceiving stimuli and responding in an adaptive way.
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Affiliation(s)
- Günter Ehret
- Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
- *Correspondence: Günter Ehret,
| | - Raymond Romand
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC), University of Strasbourg and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Strasbourg, France
- Raymond Romand,
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32
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The Effects of Spatial Attention Focus and Visual Awareness on the Processing of Fearful Faces: An ERP Study. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12070823. [PMID: 35884630 PMCID: PMC9313043 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12070823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2022] [Revised: 06/22/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous research on the relationship between attention and emotion processing have focused essentially on consciously-viewed, supraliminal stimuli, while the attention-emotion interplay remains unexplored in situations where visual awareness is restricted. Here, we presented participants with face pairs in a backward masking paradigm and examined the electrophysiological activity in response to fearful and neutral expressions under different conditions of attention (spatially attended vs. unattended) and stimulus visibility (subliminal vs. supraliminal). We found an enhanced N2 (visual awareness negativity -VAN-) and an enhanced P3 for supraliminal compared to subliminal faces. The VAN, indexing the early perceptual awareness, was enhanced when the faces were spatially attended compared to when they were unattended, showing that the VAN does not require spatial attention focus but can be enhanced by it. Fearful relative to neutral expressions enhanced the early neural activity (N2) regardless of spatial attention but only in the supraliminal viewing condition. However, fear-related enhancements on later neural activity (P3) were found when stimuli were both attended and presented supraliminally. These findings suggest that visual awareness is needed for emotion processing during both early and late stages. Spatial attention is required for emotion processing at the later stage but not at the early stage.
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Spatial attention shifting to fearful faces depends on visual awareness in attentional blink: An ERP study. Neuropsychologia 2022; 172:108283. [PMID: 35661782 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2022] [Revised: 05/07/2022] [Accepted: 05/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
It remains unclear to date whether spatial attention towards emotional faces is contingent on, or independent of visual awareness. To investigate this question, a bilateral attentional blink paradigm was used in which lateralised fearful faces were presented at various levels of detectability. Twenty-six healthy participants were presented with two rapid serial streams of human faces, while they attempted to detect a pair of target faces (T2) displayed in close or distant succession of a first target pair (T1). Spatial attention shifting to the T2 fearful faces, indexed by the N2-posterior-contralateral component, was dependent on visual awareness and its magnitude covaried with the visual awareness negativity, a neural marker of awareness at the perceptual level. Additionally, information consolidation in working memory, indexed by the sustained posterior contralateral negativity, positively correlated with the level of visual awareness and spatial attention shifting. These findings demonstrate that spatial attention shifting to fearful faces depends on visual awareness, and these early processes are closely linked to information maintenance in working memory.
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34
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A leaky evidence accumulation process for perceptual experience. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:451-461. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2021] [Revised: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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35
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Munoz Musat E, Rohaut B, Sangare A, Benhaiem JM, Naccache L. Hypnotic Induction of Deafness to Elementary Sounds: An Electroencephalography Case-Study and a Proposed Cognitive and Neural Scenario. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:756651. [PMID: 35368254 PMCID: PMC8969744 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.756651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 01/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Hypnosis can be conceived as a unique opportunity to explore how top-down effects can influence various conscious and non-conscious processes. In the field of perception, such modulatory effects have been described in distinct sensory modalities. In the present study we focused on the auditory channel and aimed at creating a radical deafness to elementary sounds by a specific hypnotic suggestion. We report here a single case-study in a highly suggestible healthy volunteer who reported a total hypnotically suggested deafness. We recorded high-density scalp EEG during an auditory odd-ball paradigm before and after hypnotic deafness suggestion. While both early auditory event-related potentials to sounds (P1) and mismatch negativity component were not affected by hypnotic deafness, we observed a total disappearance of the late P3 complex component when the subject reported being deaf. Moreover, a centro-mesial positivity was present exclusively during the hypnotic condition prior to the P3 complex. Interestingly, source localization suggested an anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) origin of this neural event. Multivariate decoding analyses confirmed and specified these findings. Resting state analyses confirmed a similar level of conscious state in both conditions, and suggested a functional disconnection between auditory areas and other cortical areas. Taken together these results suggest the following plausible scenario: (i) preserved early processing of auditory information unaffected by hypnotic suggestion, (ii) conscious setting of an inhibitory process (ACC) preventing conscious access to sounds, (iii) functional disconnection between the modular and unconscious representations of sounds and global neuronal workspace. This single subject study presents several limits that are discussed and remains open to alternative interpretations. This original proof-of-concept paves the way to a larger study that will test the predictions stemming from our theoretical model and from this first report.
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Affiliation(s)
- Esteban Munoz Musat
- INSERM U1127, CNRS 7225, Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
- *Correspondence: Esteban Munoz Musat, ,
| | - Benjamin Rohaut
- INSERM U1127, CNRS 7225, Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
- Department of Neurology, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
| | - Aude Sangare
- INSERM U1127, CNRS 7225, Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | | | - Lionel Naccache
- INSERM U1127, CNRS 7225, Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
- Department of Neurophysiology, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
- Lionel Naccache,
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36
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Qiu Z, Becker SI, Pegna AJ. Spatial Attention Shifting to Emotional Faces is Contingent on Awareness and Task Relevancy. Cortex 2022; 151:30-48. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.02.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2021] [Revised: 12/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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P3b Does Not Reflect Perceived Contrasts. eNeuro 2022; 9:ENEURO.0387-21.2022. [PMID: 35346962 PMCID: PMC8994538 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0387-21.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2021] [Revised: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been shown that P3b is not a signature of perceptual awareness per se but is instead more closely associated with postperceptual processing (Cohen et al., 2020). Here, we seek to investigate whether human participants’ attentional states are different in the report and the no-report conditions. This difference in attentional states, if exists, may lead to degraded consciousness of the stimuli in the no-report condition, and it therefore remains unknown whether the disappearance of P3b is because of a lack of reportability or degraded consciousness. Results of our experiment 1 showed that participants did experience degraded contents of consciousness in the no-report condition. However, results of experiment 2 showed that the degraded contents of consciousness did not influence the amplitude of P3b. These findings strengthen the claim that P3b is not a signature of perceptual awareness but is associated with postperceptual processing.
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38
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Hutchinson BT, Bandara KH, McGovern HT, Talipski LA. Insights on overflow from failure to report tasks. Behav Brain Res 2022; 417:113610. [PMID: 34600961 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2021] [Revised: 09/18/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Theories of consciousness diverge on the functional requirement that a conscious state need be reportable. Some maintain that the perceptual system's capacity for consciousness exceeds that of its capacity for access. Others contend that what is accessed is all there is to consciousness. Here, we suggest a compelling case for access-free consciousness cannot be made reliant on experimental evidence where access is necessarily invoked. However, a bona fide empirical separation of consciousness and report could counter the claim that reportability, and hence access, is all there is to consciousness. We first overview recent neurophysiological findings from no-report tasks, before examining a series of studies in which participants were unable to report features of clearly visible items. These new data present a challenge for a hard "access-only" view of consciousness, as they appear to demonstrate that properties of our visual experience can remain unreportable. In so doing, we highlight the utility and underappreciated value of so-called failure to report tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kavindu H Bandara
- Research School of Psychology, Australian National University, Australia
| | | | - Louisa A Talipski
- Research School of Psychology, Australian National University, Australia
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39
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Whyte CJ, Hohwy J, Smith R. 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; 3:100036. [PMID: 36304590 PMCID: PMC9593308 DOI: 10.1016/j.crneur.2022.100036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/18/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive theories of consciousness, such as global workspace theory and higher-order theories, posit that frontoparietal circuits play a crucial role in conscious access. However, recent studies using no-report paradigms have posed a challenge to cognitive theories by demonstrating conscious accessibility in the apparent absence of prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation. To address this challenge, this paper presents a computational model of conscious access, based upon active inference, that treats working memory gating as a cognitive action. We simulate a visual masking task and show that late P3b-like event-related potentials (ERPs), and increased PFC activity, are induced by the working memory demands of self-report generation. When reporting demands are removed, these late ERPs vanish and PFC activity is reduced. These results therefore reproduce, and potentially explain, results from no-report paradigms. However, even without reporting demands, our model shows that simulated PFC activity on visible stimulus trials still crosses the threshold for reportability - maintaining the link between PFC and conscious access. Therefore, our simulations show that evidence provided by no-report paradigms does not necessarily contradict cognitive theories of consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J. Whyte
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Corresponding author. MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Rd, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK.
| | - Jakob Hohwy
- Centre for Consciousness & Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Ryan Smith
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
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40
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Pei L, Longcamp M, Leung FKS, Ouyang G. Temporally resolved neural dynamics underlying handwriting. Neuroimage 2021; 244:118578. [PMID: 34534659 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Revised: 08/31/2021] [Accepted: 09/14/2021] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
How do the temporal dynamics of neural activity encode highly coordinated visual-motor behaviour? To capture the millisecond-resolved neural activations associated with fine visual-motor skills, we devised a co-registration system to simultaneously record electroencephalogram and handwriting kinematics while participants were performing four handwriting tasks (writing in Chinese/English scripts with their dominant/non-dominant hand). The neural activation associated with each stroke was clearly identified with a well-structured and reliable pattern. The functional significance of this pattern was validated by its significant associations with language, hand and the cognitive stages and kinematics of handwriting. Furthermore, the handwriting rhythmicity was found to be synchronised to the brain's ongoing theta oscillation, and the synchronisation was associated with the factor of language and hand. These major findings imply an implication between motor skill formation and the interplay between the rhythms in the brain and the peripheral systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leisi Pei
- Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | | | | | - Guang Ouyang
- Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
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41
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Kern L, Niedeggen M. ERP signatures of auditory awareness in cross-modal distractor-induced deafness. Conscious Cogn 2021; 96:103241. [PMID: 34823076 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103241] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/05/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Previous research showed that dual-task processes such as the attentional blink are not always transferable from unimodal to cross-modal settings. This study investigated whether such a transfer can be stated for a distractor-induced impairment of target detection established in vision (distractor-induced blindness, DIB) and recently observed in the auditory modality (distractor-induced deafness, DID). A cross-modal DID effect was confirmed: The detection of an auditory target indicated by a visual cue was impaired if multiple auditory distractors preceded the target. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to identify psychophysiological correlates of target detection. A frontal negativity about 200 ms succeeded by a sustained, widespread negativity was associated with auditory target awareness. In contrast to unimodal findings, P3 amplitude was not enhanced for hits. The results support the notion that early frontal attentional processes are linked to auditory awareness, whereas the P3 does not seem to be a reliable indicator of target access.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lea Kern
- Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Education and Psychology, Division General Psychology and Neuropsychology, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
| | - Michael Niedeggen
- Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Education and Psychology, Division General Psychology and Neuropsychology, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
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42
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Frigato G. The Neural Correlates of Access Consciousness and Phenomenal Consciousness Seem to Coincide and Would Correspond to a Memory Center, an Activation Center and Eight Parallel Convergence Centers. Front Psychol 2021; 12:749610. [PMID: 34659068 PMCID: PMC8511498 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.749610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 09/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
An increasing number of authors suggest that the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) have no selective, executive, or metacognitive function. It is believed that attention unconsciously selects the contents that will become conscious. Consciousness would have only the fundamental function of transforming the selected contents into a format easily used by high-level processors, such as working memory, language, or autobiographical memory. According to Dehaene, the neural correlates (NC) of access consciousness (AC; cognitive consciousness) constitute a widespread network in the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortices. While Tononi localized the correlates of phenomenal consciousness (PC; subjective consciousness) to a posterior “hot zone” in the temporo-parietal cortex. A careful examination of the works of these two groups leads to the conclusion that the correlates of access and PC coincide. The two consciousnesses are therefore two faces of the same single consciousness with both its cognitive and subjective contents. A review of the literature of the pathology called “neglect” confirms that the common correlates include 10: a memory center, an activation center, and eight parallel centers. From study of the “imagery” it can be deduced that these eight parallel centers would operate as points of convergence in the third person linking the respective eight sensory-motor-emotional areas activated by external perceptions and the corresponding memories of these perceptions deposited in the memory center. The first four centers of convergence appear in the most evolved fish and gradually reach eight in humans.
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43
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Dellert T, Müller-Bardorff M, Schlossmacher I, Pitts M, Hofmann D, Bruchmann M, Straube T. Dissociating the Neural Correlates of Consciousness and Task Relevance in Face Perception Using Simultaneous EEG-fMRI. J Neurosci 2021; 41:7864-7875. [PMID: 34301829 PMCID: PMC8445054 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2799-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2020] [Revised: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Current theories of visual consciousness disagree about whether it emerges during early stages of processing in sensory brain regions or later when a widespread frontoparietal network becomes involved. Moreover, disentangling conscious perception from task-related postperceptual processes (e.g., report) and integrating results across different neuroscientific methods remain ongoing challenges. The present study addressed these problems using simultaneous EEG-fMRI and a specific inattentional blindness paradigm with three physically identical phases in female and male human participants. In phase 1, participants performed a distractor task during which line drawings of faces and control stimuli were presented centrally. While some participants spontaneously noticed the faces in phase 1, others remained inattentionally blind. In phase 2, all participants were made aware of the task-irrelevant faces but continued the distractor task. In phase 3, the faces became task-relevant. Bayesian analysis of brain responses demonstrated that conscious face perception was most strongly associated with activation in fusiform gyrus (fMRI) as well as the N170 and visual awareness negativity (EEG). Smaller awareness effects were revealed in the occipital and prefrontal cortex (fMRI). Task-relevant face processing, on the other hand, led to strong, extensive activation of occipitotemporal, frontoparietal, and attentional networks (fMRI). In EEG, it enhanced early negativities and elicited a pronounced P3b component. Overall, we provide evidence that conscious visual perception is linked with early processing in stimulus-specific sensory brain areas but may additionally involve prefrontal cortex. In contrast, the strong activation of widespread brain networks and the P3b are more likely associated with task-related processes.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT How does our brain generate visual consciousness-the subjective experience of what it is like to see, for example, a face? To date, it is hotly debated whether it emerges early in sensory brain regions or later when a widespread frontoparietal network is activated. Here, we use simultaneous fMRI and EEG for high spatial and temporal resolution and demonstrate that conscious face perception is predominantly linked to early and occipitotemporal processes, but also prefrontal activity. Task-related processes (e.g., decision-making), on the other hand, elicit brain-wide activations including late and strong frontoparietal activity. These findings challenge numerous previous studies and highlight the importance of investigating the neural correlates of consciousness in the absence of task relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Torge Dellert
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Miriam Müller-Bardorff
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Insa Schlossmacher
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Michael Pitts
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | - David Hofmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
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44
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Eiserbeck A, Enge A, Rabovsky M, Abdel Rahman R. Electrophysiological Chronometry of Graded Consciousness during the Attentional Blink. Cereb Cortex 2021; 32:1244-1259. [PMID: 34435621 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Revised: 07/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
One of the ongoing debates about visual consciousness is whether it can be considered as an all-or-none or a graded phenomenon. While there is increasing evidence for the existence of graded states of conscious awareness based on paradigms such as visual masking, only little and mixed evidence is available for the attentional blink paradigm, specifically in regard to electrophysiological measures. Thereby, the all-or-none pattern reported in some attentional blink studies might have originated from specifics of the experimental design, suggesting the need to examine the generalizability of results. In the present event-related potential (ERP) study (N = 32), visual awareness of T2 face targets was assessed via subjective visibility ratings on a perceptual awareness scale in combination with ERPs time-locked to T2 onset (components P1, N1, N2, and P3). Furthermore, a classification task preceding visibility ratings allowed to track task performance. The behavioral results indicate a graded rather than an all-or-none pattern of visual awareness. Corresponding graded differences in the N1, N2, and P3 components were observed for the comparison of visibility levels. These findings suggest that conscious perception during the attentional blink can occur in a graded fashion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Eiserbeck
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 12489, Germany
| | - Alexander Enge
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 12489, Germany.,Research Group Learning in Early Childhood, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Milena Rabovsky
- Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam 14476, Germany
| | - Rasha Abdel Rahman
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 12489, Germany
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45
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Huang CW, Lin CH, Lin YH, Tsai HY, Tseng MT. Neural Basis of Somatosensory Spatial and Temporal Discrimination in Humans: The Role of Sensory Detection. Cereb Cortex 2021; 32:1480-1493. [PMID: 34427294 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Revised: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
While detecting somatic stimuli from the external environment, an accurate determination of their spatial and temporal properties is essential for human behavior. Whether and how detection relates to human capacity for somatosensory spatial discrimination (SD) and temporal discrimination (TD) remains unclear. Here, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning when simply detecting vibrotactile stimuli of the leg, judging their location (SD), or deciding their number in time (TD). By conceptualizing tactile discrimination as consisting of detection and determination processes, we found that tactile detection elicited activation specifically involved in SD within the right inferior and superior parietal lobules, 2 regions previously implicated in the control of spatial attention. These 2 regions remained activated in the determination process, during which functional connectivity between these 2 regions predicted individual SD ability. In contrast, tactile detection produced little activation specifically related to TD. Participants' TD ability was implemented in brain regions implicated in coding temporal structures of somatic stimuli (primary somatosensory cortex) and time estimation (anterior cingulate, pre-supplementary motor area, and putamen). Together, our findings indicate a close link between somatosensory detection and SD (but not TD) at the neural level, which aids in explaining why we can promptly respond toward detected somatic stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheng-Wei Huang
- Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chin-Hsien Lin
- Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Hsuan Lin
- Taiwan International Graduate Program in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsin-Yun Tsai
- Taiwan International Graduate Program in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ming-Tsung Tseng
- Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
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46
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Naro A, Pignolo L, Lucca LF, Calabrò RS. An action-observation/motor-imagery based approach to differentiate disorders of consciousness: what is beneath the tip of the iceberg? Restor Neurol Neurosci 2021; 39:181-197. [PMID: 33998559 DOI: 10.3233/rnn-201130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The evaluation of motor imagery in persons with prolonged Disorders of Consciousness (pDOC) is a practical approach to differentiate between patients with Minimally Conscious State (MCS) and Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS) and to identify residual awareness even in individuals with UWS. Investigating the influence of motor observation on motor imagery could be helpful in this regard. OBJECTIVE In order to corroborate the clinical diagnosis and identify misdiagnosed individuals, we used EEG recordings, to assess the influence of the low-level perceptual and motoric mechanisms on motor observation on motor imagery, taking into account the role of the high-level cognitive mechanisms in patients with pDOC. METHODS We assessed the influence of motor observation of walking in first-person or third-person view (by a video provision) on motor imagery of walking in the first-person view on the visual N190 (expression of motor observation processing), the readiness potential (RP) (expressing motor preparation), and the P3 component (high-level cognitive processes) in a sample of 10 persons with MCS, 10 with UWS, and 10 healthy controls (CG). Specifically, the video showed a first-view or third-view walk down the street while the participants were asked to imagine a first-view walking down the street. RESULTS CG showed greater N190 response (low-level sensorimotor processing) in the non-matching than in the matching condition. Conversely, the P3 and RP responses (high-level sensorimotor processing) were greater in the matching than in the non-matching condition. Remarkably, 6 out of 10 patients with MCS showed the preservation of both high- and low-level sensorimotor processing. One UWS patient showed responses similar to those six patients, suggesting a preservation of cognitively-mediated sensorimotor processing despite a detrimental motor preparation process. The remaining patients with MCS did not show diversified EEG responses, suggesting limited cognitive functioning. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that identifying the low-level visual and high-level motor preparation processes in response to a simple influence of motor observation of motor imagery tasks potentially supports the clinical differential diagnosis of with MCS and UWS. This might help identify UWS patients which were misdiagnosed and who deserve more sophisticated diagnoses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonino Naro
- IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo, Messina, Italy
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47
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Perceptual awareness negativity: a physiological correlate of sensory consciousness. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:660-670. [PMID: 34172384 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2021] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Much research on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) has focused on two evoked potentials, the P3b and the visual or auditory awareness negativity (VAN, AAN). Surveying a broad range of recent experimental evidence, we find that repeated failures to observe the P3b during conscious perception eliminate it as a putative NCC. Neither the VAN nor the AAN have been dissociated from consciousness; furthermore, a similar neural signal correlates with tactile consciousness. These awareness negativities can be maximal contralateral to the evoking stimulus, are likely generated in underlying sensory cortices, and point to the existence of a generalized perceptual awareness negativity (PAN) reflecting the onset of sensory consciousness.
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48
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Schröder P, Nierhaus T, Blankenburg F. Dissociating Perceptual Awareness and Postperceptual Processing: The P300 Is Not a Reliable Marker of Somatosensory Target Detection. J Neurosci 2021; 41:4686-4696. [PMID: 33849946 PMCID: PMC8260252 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2950-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2020] [Revised: 01/26/2021] [Accepted: 03/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
A central challenge in the study of conscious perception lies in dissociating the neural correlates of perceptual awareness from those reflecting its precursors and consequences. No-report paradigms have been instrumental in this endeavor, demonstrating that the event-related potential P300, recorded from the human scalp, reflects reports rather than awareness. However, these paradigms cannot probe the degree to which stimuli are consciously processed from trial to trial and, thus, leave open the possibility that the P300 is a genuine correlate of conscious access enabling reports. Here, instead of removing report requirements, we took the opposite approach and equated postperceptual task demands across conscious and unconscious trials by orthogonalizing target detection and overt reports in a somatosensory detection task. We used Bayesian model selection to track the transformation from physical to perceptual processing stages in the EEG data of 24 male and female participants and show that the early P50 component scaled with physical stimulus intensity, whereas the N140 component was the first correlate of target detection. The late P300 component was elicited for both perceived and unperceived stimuli and was not substantially modulated by target detection. This was in stark contrast to a control experiment using a classical direct report task, which replicated the P50 and N140 effects but additionally showed a strong effect of target detection in the P300 time range. Our results demonstrate the task dependence of the P300 in the somatosensory modality and show that late cortical potentials dissociate from perceptual awareness even when stimuli are always reported.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The time it takes for sensory information to enter our conscious experience can be an indicator of the neural processing stages that lead to perceptual awareness. However, because many cognitive processes routinely correlate with perception, isolating those signals that uniquely reflect perceptual awareness is not a trivial task. Here, we show that late electroencephalography signals cease to correlate with somatosensory awareness when common task confounds are controlled. Importantly, by balancing report requirements instead of abolishing them, we show that the lack of late effects cannot be explained by a lack of conscious access. Instead, we propose that conscious access occurs earlier, at ∼150 ms, supporting the view that early activity in sensory cortices is a neural correlate of conscious perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pia Schröder
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Till Nierhaus
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Felix Blankenburg
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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Del Vecchio M. Don't tell anyone: the importance of no-report paradigms in neuroscience of consciousness. J Neurophysiol 2021; 125:1577-1579. [PMID: 33788637 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00569.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The neural correlates of perceptual awareness are usually investigated by comparing experimental conditions in which subjects are aware or not aware of the delivered stimulus. This, however, implies that subjects report their experience, possibly biasing the neural responses with the postperceptual processes involved. This Neuro Forum article reviews evidence from an electroencephalography (EEG) study by Cohen and colleagues (Cohen M, Ortego K, Kyroudis A, Pitts M. J Neurosci 40: 4925-4935, 2020) addressing the importance of no-report paradigms in the neuroscience of consciousness. In particular, authors show that P3b, one of the proposed canonical "signatures" of the conscious processing, is strongly elicited only when subjects have to report their experience, proposing a reconsideration in the approach to the neuroscience of consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Del Vecchio
- Institute of Neuroscience, National Council of Research, Parma, Italy
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50
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Bifurcation in brain dynamics reveals a signature of conscious processing independent of report. Nat Commun 2021; 12:1149. [PMID: 33608533 PMCID: PMC7895979 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21393-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2019] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
An outstanding challenge for consciousness research is to characterize the neural signature of conscious access independently of any decisional processes. Here we present a model-based approach that uses inter-trial variability to identify the brain dynamics associated with stimulus processing. We demonstrate that, even in the absence of any task or behavior, the electroencephalographic response to auditory stimuli shows bifurcation dynamics around 250–300 milliseconds post-stimulus. Namely, the same stimulus gives rise to late sustained activity on some trials, and not on others. This late neural activity is predictive of task-related reports, and also of reports of conscious contents that are randomly sampled during task-free listening. Source localization further suggests that task-free conscious access recruits the same neural networks as those associated with explicit report, except for frontal executive components. Studying brain dynamics through variability could thus play a key role for identifying the core signatures of conscious access, independent of report. Current knowledge on the neural basis of consciousness mostly relies on situations where people report their perception. Here, the authors provide evidence for the idea that bifurcation in brain dynamics reflects conscious perception independent of report.
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