Current biology : CB
April 12, 2021
Karen R Konkoly, Kristoffer Appel, Emma Chabani et al.
126 citations
People who are asleep and having a lucid dream—aware that they are dreaming—can perceive questions from an experimenter and answer them in real time using eye movements and facial muscle contractions. In a study of 36 individuals during REM sleep, including frequent lucid dreamers, a novice, and a patient with narcolepsy, participants performed perceptual analysis of new information, held information in working memory, computed simple answers, and gave volitional replies. Correct answers occurred on 29 occasions across 6 individuals, documented by four independent laboratories. This two-way communication channel allows real-time interrogation of dream cognition and characteristics.
Communications Biology
June 29, 2022
Anira Escrichs, Yonatan Sanz Perl, Carme Uribe et al.
67 citations
Different brain states—resting, meditating, deep sleep, and disorders of consciousness after coma—are underpinned by distinct spatiotemporal dynamics that can be characterized using turbulence theory. Non-conscious states tend to be more synchronous, while conscious states are more asynchronous, but the work goes beyond this simple dichotomy. A model-free analysis of human neuroimaging data applied Kuramoto's turbulence framework with coupled oscillators and measured information cascades across spatial scales. A complementary model-based approach used exhaustive computer simulations of whole-brain models fitted to those measures to study information encoding. The framework shows that turbulence theory provides excellent tools for describing and differentiating between brain states.
Interface Focus
April 14, 2023
Elvira G-Guzmán, Yonatan Sanz Perl, Jakub Vohryzek et al.
34 citations
Living systems must constantly work against equilibrium to survive, a property that can be measured through temporal asymmetry in brain signals. Using statistical physics, researchers analyzed reversibility in functional magnetic resonance imaging data from patients with disorders of consciousness. They found that decreased asymmetry and reduced non-stationarity in brain signals characterize impaired consciousness states, consistent with previous findings in sleep and anesthesia. The work aims to identify biomarkers for patient improvement and classification, and to deepen mechanistic understanding of consciousness disorders.
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.