Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
September 19, 2018
Lionel Naccache
138 citations
A popular philosophical distinction holds that conscious experience is far richer than what we can report, calling the reportable part 'access consciousness' and the remainder 'phenomenal consciousness'. This article reviews five major problems with that view and argues that a strict access-consciousness theory, framed within the global workspace model, can account for all conscious experience. Subjective reports are not passive broadcasts but result from dynamic internal processes including interpretation and belief attribution. The article offers testable predictions and counterintuitive hypotheses, suggesting that phenomenal consciousness beyond access may be unnecessary.
Progress in brain research
January 1, 2005
Lionel Naccache
13 citations
Recent advances in understanding the brain's role in consciousness come from studying both brain-damaged patients and healthy people. Certain neuropsychological syndromes, like blindsight, visual form agnosia, and neglect, reveal dissociations that point to principles of how consciousness works in the brain. These principles are tested in healthy subjects using experimental psychology and brain imaging. This chapter reviews findings on visual phenomenal consciousness, highlighting four general principles demonstrated through conditions like visual illusions and subliminal perception. It also outlines a scientific model of consciousness based on a 'global workspace' that integrates the reviewed data.
PNAS nexus
December 1, 2024
Emilia Fló, Laouen Belloli, Álvaro Cabana et al.
10 citations
Directing attention toward the body's internal signals (interoception) versus external sounds (exteroception) produces distinct brain activity patterns. Exteroceptive attention flattened overall brain wave power, while interoceptive attention reduced brain signal complexity, increased frontal connectivity and theta oscillations, and modulated the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP). Classifiers using HEP features correctly identified the attentional state in 17 of 20 healthy participants; power spectral density features classified all 20. In five brain-injured patients, one with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and one with locked-in syndrome showed willful modulation of the HEP, suggesting they could follow commands. These findings highlight how attention shapes sensory processing and may aid diagnosis in disorders of consciousness.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
December 30, 2025
Esteban Munoz-Musat, Arthur Le Coz, Andrew W Corcoran et al.
5 citations
Mind blanking—a state of apparent mental emptiness—produces distinct brain signatures that separate it from mind wandering and focused attention. In 62 participants performing a sustained attention task, mind blanking was associated with behavioral lapses, reduced fast brain oscillations and complexity over posterior electrodes, and decreased long-range connectivity compared to both mind wandering and on-task states. Event-related potentials showed disrupted visual processing beginning 200 milliseconds after a stimulus, suggesting a breakdown in conscious access to sensory information. Brain activity patterns predicted mental states on individual trials, revealing dynamics that subjective reports alone miss. These findings indicate that being awake does not guarantee consciousness of something; mind blanking reflects genuine gaps in the stream of thought, arising from disruptions in generating or accessing thought content.
Scientific reports
July 9, 2025
Aude Sangare, Cécile Eymond, Lise Jodaitis et al.
1 citation
Pupil size is influenced not only by light but also by mental factors like perceived brightness. In healthy people, seeing images that semantically imply brightness (e.g., the sun) causes greater pupil constriction than looking at control images of similar luminance. This study tested whether this effect could detect residual cognition in non-communicating patients with disorders of consciousness. In ten healthy participants and seventeen patients (ten minimally conscious, six in vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, one emerging from minimally conscious state), pupillary responses were measured while viewing photographs of the sun versus matched-luminance controls (moon photos, scrambled sun images, gray squares).