Decoding the contents of consciousness from prefrontal ensembles

Summary

The prefrontal cortex can represent the contents of conscious perception even when no overt report is required. Recordings from macaque monkeys during binocular rivalry—where perception alternates between two conflicting images—showed that neural ensemble activity in the prefrontal cortex decoded which image the animal was seeing as accurately as when images were presented without competition. This decoding remained significant even when eye movements were suppressed, indicating that the signals were not solely due to oculomotor confounds. The findings suggest that prefrontal population dynamics reflect internally driven changes in conscious perception during multistable vision.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Multiple theories attribute to the primate prefrontal cortex a critical role in conscious perception. However, opposing views caution that prefrontal activity could reflect other cognitive variables during paradigms investigating consciousness, such as decision-making, monitoring and motor reports. To resolve this ongoing debate, we recorded from prefrontal ensembles of macaque monkeys during a no-report paradigm of binocular rivalry that instigates internally driven transitions in conscious perception. We could decode the contents of consciousness from prefrontal ensemble activity during binocular rivalry with an accuracy similar to when these stimuli were presented without competition. Oculomotor signals, used to infer conscious content, were not the only source of these representations since visual input could be significantly decoded when eye movements were suppressed. Our results suggest that the collective dynamics of prefrontal cortex populations reflect internally generated changes in the content of consciousness during multistable perception.