The Behavioral and brain sciences
April 21, 2025
Stephen M Fleming, Matthias Michel
26 citations
Conscious vision is surprisingly slow, with unconscious integration windows lasting up to 400 milliseconds, as shown by postdictive effects. Because it is slow, conscious vision cannot guide online actions; instead, it evolved to support offline cognition, such as planning and internal simulation. This shift likely accompanied the water-to-land transition, where larger terrestrial visual horizons made model-based planning advantageous over the fast, reflexive actions typical of aquatic environments. The capacity for internal simulation created pressure for reality monitoring—distinguishing internal from external signals and solving when to stop integrating evidence to fix a model of reality. This reality monitoring function is linked to the emergence of consciousness, in line with higher-order theories. The account generates novel predictions about conscious versus unconscious vision in aquatic and terrestrial animals.
Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science
January 1, 2024
Pietro Amerio, Matthias Michel, Stephan Goerttler et al.
5 citations
Comparing conscious and unconscious perception is central to consciousness science, but many studies fail to control for criterion biases when assessing awareness. In this study, observers tried to discriminate subjectively invisible offsets of Vernier stimuli, with visibility probed using a bias-free task. Stimuli were made less visible by backward masking or very brief presentation (1-3 milliseconds) using a modern tachistoscope. Some behavioral indicators of perception without awareness appeared, but no conclusive evidence emerged. Bayesian observer model simulations, including models generating visibility judgments alongside type-1 judgments, best fit observers with slightly suboptimal conscious access to sensory evidence. The stimuli and manipulations produced mild blindsight-like behavior, suitable for future investigation.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
November 19, 2025
Daniel K Freeman, Brian Odegaard, Seung-Schik Yoo et al.
Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) can stimulate the human brain non-invasively with millimeter-scale precision, targeting both cortical and deep structures. This new tool offers a potential breakthrough for studying the neural correlates of conscious perception, overcoming the coarse spatial resolution and limited depth of traditional electrical or magnetic stimulation. Because tFUS requires extensive preparation and regulatory approvals, careful experimental planning is essential. The authors provide a roadmap for using tFUS in humans to explore the neural substrate of conscious perception.
arXiv Preprint Archive
July 11, 2025
Daniel K. Freeman, Brian Odegaard, Seung-Schik Yoo et al.
Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) can stimulate the human brain non-invasively through the skull with millimeter-scale spatial resolution, targeting both cortical and deep brain structures. This emerging tool offers a promising method for investigating the neural basis of conscious perception, overcoming the coarse spatial resolution of traditional electrical or magnetic stimulation. The authors provide a roadmap for using tFUS in humans to explore the neural substrate of conscious perception, emphasizing the need for careful experimental planning due to extensive preparation and regulatory approvals.
arXiv Preprint Archive
August 17, 2023
Patrick Butlin, Robert Long, Eric Elmoznino et al.
No current AI systems are conscious, but there are no obvious technical barriers to building ones that might be, according to an analysis grounded in neuroscientific theories of consciousness. The report surveys prominent theories—recurrent processing, global workspace, higher-order, predictive processing, and attention schema—and derives computational indicator properties from them. Applying these indicators to recent AI systems yields no evidence of consciousness, but the authors argue that future systems could potentially implement the necessary properties.
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%).