Cell reports
March 25, 2025
Ulysse Klatzmann, Sean Froudist-Walsh, Daniel P Bliss et al.
14 citations
Conscious access involves 'ignition,' an all-or-none activation across cortical areas. Computer simulations of a detection task using a mesoscale connectome-based model of the macaque cortex reveal a dynamic bifurcation mechanism that produces ignition in a network of associative regions. A hierarchical NMDA/AMPA receptor gradient is critical: fast AMPA receptors drive feedforward signal propagation, while slow NMDA receptors in feedback pathways shape and sustain the ignited network. The model suggests higher NMDA-to-AMPA receptor ratios in sensory areas compared to association areas, a prediction supported by in vitro autoradiography data. The model accounts for diverse behavioral and physiological phenomena linked to consciousness.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
June 22, 2026
Julie Boyer, Nathan Beraud, Benoît Béranger et al.
Conscious perception is linked to all-or-none late brain activations that exhibit bifurcation dynamics, even without a task. Using fMRI and near-threshold auditory stimulation, this study identified the brain networks producing these bifurcations and how they differ depending on task context. Stimulus intensity modulated activity across broad networks including sensory and extra-sensory regions like the prefrontal cortex in both task and no-task contexts. These networks had both shared and distinct components. Single-trial modeling revealed bifurcation dynamics beyond primary sensory cortices and allowed prediction of conscious perception on individual trials in both contexts, resolving previous conflicting results and showing common networks and dynamics underlying conscious perception regardless of task.
Communications Psychology
June 9, 2026
Daphne Rimsky Robert, Matteo Lisi, Kévin Nguy et al.
Conscious perception of a word's meaning can occur even when its visual features are inaccessible. In an experiment, participants viewed briefly flashed, visually masked words. When a semantically related spoken word followed, they could better detect and identify the previous word but could not report its letter casing or screen position. This suggests that a semantic representation can reach awareness via retro-cueing after sensory details are masked, supporting theories that conscious access relies on a secondary broadcasting process largely independent of early sensory buildup.
Frontiers in Psychology
November 5, 2018
Matthias Michel, Stephen M. Fleming, Hakwan Lau et al.
A survey of 249 participants, mostly in academia and about 40% experts in consciousness research, assessed views on the field's progress, funding, job opportunities, and scientific rigor. 78% of respondents said scientific research on consciousness has been making progress. However, most perceived obtaining funding and getting a job in consciousness research as more difficult than in other neuroscience subfields. Work in consciousness research was seen as less rigorous than other neuroscience subfields, but this perception was not linked to the perceived difficulty in funding and jobs. Global workspace theory was rated most promising overall (about 28%), while among non-experts integrated information theory (IIT) was most popular (about 22%).