The Behavioral and brain sciences
July 22, 2025
François Stockart, Maor Schreiber, Pietro Amerio et al.
20 citations
The scope of unconscious processing remains hotly debated, driven by diverse methods for manipulating and measuring perceptual awareness. Through dialogue among researchers with varied theoretical backgrounds, ten recommendations and nine outstanding issues are provided for designing experimental paradigms, analyzing data, and reporting results. These guidelines aim to evoke discussion about norms in studying unconscious processes and help researchers make informed decisions. While some recommendations may not align with existing approaches and will likely evolve, they are intended to foster a more convergent understanding of the extent and limits of unconscious processing.
September 2, 2025
Zefan Zheng, Robert Chis-Ciure, Peter Thestrup Waade et al.
1 citation
preprint
Consciousness science is fragmented, with theories operating orthogonally and accumulating anomalies. The principle of recurrency—functional and architectural feedback loops—offers a unifying scaffold. All theories tacitly invoke feedback loops and can be re-expressed along a single axis of recursion. Four nested levels (cellular, local inter-areal, global, and lateral) map onto state, phenomenal content, manipulative access, and experiential similarity, tying evolved anatomy to phenomenon. The phenomenal-versus-access distinction dissolves into a graded cascade where deeper recursion expands reportable variables. Recurrence is evolutionarily favored, rebutting feed-forward objections, while brain-body loops ground selfhood. Clinically, targeting recurrent pathways promises new biomarkers and alleviation in disorders of consciousness.