Synchrony and subjective experience: the neural correlates of the stream of consciousness.
Trends in cognitive sciences – May 15, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Our moment-to-moment conscious experience emerges from a complex dance of brain activity. Research shows that the temporoparietal junction and gestalt cortex regions integrate sensory inputs with personal memories and expectations to create our unique stream of consciousness. This integration happens through synchronized neural activity, producing individualized interpretations that shape how we each uniquely experience reality.
Abstract
Human subjectivity, our first-person conscious experience of the world, is among the deepest scientific mysteries. This opinion article lays out an approach to examining the neural correlates of subjectivity as it unfolds over time. Subjective experience is inherently idiosyncratic, arising from effortless interpretations that feel like perceived facts (p-interpretations), and integrative, with past and expected future moments influencing the current experience. Differential synchrony effects (i.e., neural synchrony that differs between groups) suggest that parts of gestalt cortex (inferior parietal lobule and posterior temporal cortex) and posterior medial cortex track p-interpretations. Differential synchrony may result from each person's preexisting idiosyncratic non-sensory representations (e.g., expectations, memories, motivations) being integrated with sensory inputs to yield unique meaning-infused immediate experiences across the stream of consciousness.