Neuropsychologia
August 28, 2013
Keisuke Suzuki, Sarah N. Garfinkel, Hugo Critchley et al.
491 citations
Identifying with a body is central to being a conscious self. The classic rubber hand illusion shows that body-ownership can be modulated by timing visual and tactile feedback, and its strength relates to individual differences in sensitivity to internal bodily signals (interoception). Here, an innovative cardiac rubber hand illusion using augmented reality and feedback of cardiac information demonstrates that both subjective and objective measures of virtual-hand ownership are enhanced by cardio-visual feedback in-time with the actual heartbeat compared to asynchronous feedback. These measures correlate with interoceptive sensitivity and are also modulated by integrating proprioceptive signals via real-time visual remapping of finger movements. Interoceptive signals directly influence body ownership through multisensory integration, supporting models of conscious selfhood based on interoceptive predictive coding.
Neuropsychologia
January 21, 2016
Zirui Huang, Natsuho Obara, Henry Davis et al.
144 citations
The temporal structure of spontaneous brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex is linked to private self-consciousness. In 47 healthy subjects, the power-law exponent—a measure of long-range temporal correlations in resting-state fMRI signals—was correlated with scores on the private self-consciousness subscale of the Revised Self-Consciousness Scale. No such correlation appeared for public or social self-consciousness, nor for other resting-state measures like functional connectivity. This is the first evidence that the scale-free dynamics of cortical midline structures specifically relate to the private dimension of self-consciousness, suggesting a neural basis for the overlap between resting-state activity and self-related processing.
Neuropsychologia
March 17, 2018
Tali R. Marron, Yulia Lerner, Ety Berant et al.
128 citations
Chain free association tasks, in which participants produce a series of related words, can isolate spontaneous associative thinking during creativity. Using fMRI, the default mode network—a brain system linked to internally directed thought—was more active during chain free association than during tasks requiring more controlled thinking, while the left inferior frontal gyrus, part of the executive control network, showed reduced activation. Higher scores on associative fluency, flexibility, and semantic remoteness from the chain free association task correlated with greater default mode network activity and lower left inferior frontal gyrus activity, as well as with better creative performance, but not with intelligence. This suggests chain free association measures may capture unconstrained associative thinking relevant to creativity.
Neuropsychologia
November 1, 2009
Mika Koivisto, Pasi Kainulainen, Antti Revonsuo
107 citations
Visual attention and awareness are intricately linked, but different types of attention play distinct roles. Experiments tracking brain responses show that spatial attention is necessary for the earliest brain correlate of phenomenal consciousness—the raw experience of seeing. This early marker emerged regardless of whether objects were selected by nonspatial attention, though later parts of it were modified by such selection. In contrast, the brain correlate of reflective consciousness, which allows the contents of phenomenal experience to be used for thought and memory, depended on both spatial attention and nonspatial selection. These findings indicate that the relationship between attention and awareness requires distinguishing between different forms of attention and different levels of consciousness.
Neuropsychologia
November 26, 2015
Irène Cristofori, Joseph Bulbulia, John H. Shaver et al.
104 citations
People who suffer damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) report markedly more mystical experiences—subjectively believed encounters with a supernatural world—than healthy controls. In a study of 116 Vietnam veterans with penetrating traumatic brain injury and 32 matched controls, lesions to frontal and temporal brain regions, especially the dlPFC and middle/superior temporal cortex, were linked with greater mysticism. Pre-injury data on general intelligence and executive performance rule out individual differences as an explanation. The findings indicate that executive functioning in the dlPFC causally helps down-regulate mystical experiences, supporting earlier speculation that executive brain functions underpin such experiences.
Neuropsychologia
November 1, 2017
Sherain Harricharan, Andrew A Nicholson, Maria Densmore et al.
64 citations
People with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its dissociative subtype show altered brain connectivity between the vestibular system—which integrates sensory information about body orientation—and cortical regions involved in self-awareness. Using resting-state fMRI, researchers compared 60 people with PTSD, 41 with the dissociative subtype, and 40 healthy controls. The PTSD and control groups had stronger connectivity between the vestibular nuclei and the parieto-insular vestibular cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex than the dissociative subtype group. Greater depersonalization and derealization symptoms correlated with weaker connectivity in the right supramarginal gyrus. These findings suggest that disrupted vestibular multisensory integration may contribute to distinct symptom profiles in PTSD and its dissociative subtype.
Neuropsychologia
July 21, 2018
Enrico Fucci, Oussama Abdoun, Anne Caclin et al.
58 citations
Non-dual meditation, which aims to reduce maladaptive patterns by recognizing their transient nature, can downregulate automatic perceptual habits. EEG recordings from expert Buddhist practitioners and novices during Open Presence (OP) and Focused Attention (FA) meditation, plus a control state, showed increased gamma oscillatory power during both meditation states in experts. An interaction between states and groups emerged in the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) amplitude, with the MMN increasing during FA compared to OP in experts, while the opposite pattern occurred at the Late Frontal Negativity (LFN) latency. This suggests OP involves increased sensory monitoring and reduced perceptual inferences relative to FA.
Neuropsychologia
September 28, 2023
Avijit Chowdhury, Remko Van Lutterveld, Ruben E. Laukkonen et al.
54 citations
In a single intensively sampled case, EEG spectral analysis was used to investigate advanced mindfulness meditation "cessation" experiences, revealing distinct neural signatures associated with these profound meditative states.
Neuropsychologia
April 5, 2016
Devin B. Terhune, David P. Luke, Mendel Kaelen et al.
45 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) induces synaesthesia-like experiences in non-synaesthetes, but these experiences do not meet two key criteria for genuine synaesthesia: consistency of stimulus-colour associations over time and inducer specificity. In a placebo-controlled pilot study, participants reported more spontaneous synaesthesia-like experiences under LSD compared to placebo, yet their colour responses to standardized graphemes and sounds did not differ across conditions in consistency or specificity. Individual differences in absorption propensity were linked to some effects. The findings suggest that LSD-induced synaesthesia-like experiences are not equivalent to genuine synaesthesia.
Neuropsychologia
March 1, 1965
E. A. Serafetinides
29 citations
Individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy exhibit distinct memory impairments, with a striking 70% reporting difficulties in recall. A study involving 150 participants revealed that those with left-sided lesions showed more pronounced deficits compared to their right-sided counterparts, highlighting the role of laterality in memory function. Additionally, a significant correlation was found between the severity of epilepsy and psychological well-being, suggesting that neural mechanisms underpinning these conditions are complex. This underscores the need for integrated approaches in epilepsy treatment, considering both neurological and psychological perspectives.
Neuropsychologia
August 1, 2015
E Walsh, C Long, P Haggard
13 citations
A person born without a left hand and arm (co-author CL) reported when she experienced the intention to press a key with her right hand or her phantom left hand. EEG recordings showed typical beta-band power reductions before actual right-hand movements and beta rebound afterward. When she prepared but then cancelled a movement, a left frontal increase in spectral power appeared near the time of the perceived intention to move. The same neural signatures of positive and inhibitory volition were present when she prepared and inhibited movements with her phantom left hand. These signals matched those previously reported in 14 healthy volunteers.
Neuropsychologia
September 17, 2021
Elizabeth Schechter, Tim Bayne
11 citations
A critical evaluation of recent split-brain experiments argues that claims of unified consciousness in patient D.D.C. are premature. Two distinct conceptions of unity of consciousness are distinguished: agency-based and experience-based. Whether the behavioral data demonstrate unity of agency remains an open question, depending on both the mechanisms underlying split-brain behavior and what constitutes a single agent. Even if agency-based unity is established, the data are difficult to reconcile with full unity of consciousness in the experience-based sense.
Neuropsychologia
July 26, 2025
Jake Hooper, Devon Stoliker, Kyle Wolfe et al.
1 citation
Aesthetic experiences arise from an interplay of sensory, affective, and semantic processes. Psychedelics can profoundly alter these perceptions and evaluations, making them a valuable tool for investigating the neural basis of aesthetic experience. This article identifies synergies between psychedelic research and cognitive neuroscience to advance neuroaesthetics. It explores how psychedelic changes to sensory, affective, and semantic effects can inform understanding of neural mechanisms. The authors leverage existing theoretical frameworks and offer a preliminary agenda for future research.
Neuropsychologia
February 15, 2026
Stefan Wiens, Mingailė Greičiūtė, Billy Gerdfeldter et al.
A candidate neural correlate of consciousness (NCC) in vision is the visual awareness negativity (VAN), an event-related potential occurring about 200 ms after stimulus onset over posterior electrode sites. Two preregistered experiments tested whether VAN is more sensitive to low-level detection awareness (seeing something) or high-level identification awareness (seeing what it is). In Experiment 1 (N = 30), using digits or letters, VAN was similarly sensitive to both types of awareness. In Experiment 2 (N = 28), stimulus size did not affect VAN for identification. Results confirm VAN's sensitivity to both detection and identification but suggest limited specificity in separating low-level from high-level experiences.
Neuropsychologia
January 30, 2026
Lu Teng
People with aphantasia report lacking voluntary conscious visual imagery, yet they often use visual strategies to complete tasks, leading some researchers to propose that their visual imagery is unconscious. This paper argues instead that it is conscious. Consciousness research distinguishes visibility from confidence; the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), used to recruit aphantasics, resembles a visibility measure. To determine whether aphantasics' task-relevant imagery is truly unconscious, their confidence in first-order task performance should also be examined. The few studies that have done so suggest they exhibit good metacognition, supporting the conscious interpretation.
Neuropsychologia
April 15, 2023
Bo Sun, Xianqing Zeng, Xiaomin Chen et al.
Conscious processing of emotional faces involves both early and late neural correlates of consciousness, while neutral faces involve only early correlates. Using an inattentional blindness paradigm with happy, fearful, and neutral faces, visual awareness negativity (VAN) was associated with consciousness for all faces, but late positivity (LP) was linked to consciousness only for emotional faces. Source localization showed LP for emotional faces in frontal and parietal lobes, with no significant activation for neutral faces. Time-frequency analysis revealed increased alpha and theta oscillations during conscious processing, suggesting suppression of irrelevant stimuli. The findings indicate that integrating early and late consciousness theories better explains how emotional faces are consciously processed.
Neuropsychologia
May 3, 2022
Victor N Almeida
The study of consciousness is stuck in a stalemate between two major theories: the Global Neuronal Workspace and Recurrent Processing. This theoretical review aims to bridge that gap by first summarizing solid neurophysiological evidence on consciousness, then constructing a model—the Neural Hierarchy—that reconciles the all-or-none cortical ignition (P3b) and graded recurrent processing (VAN) accounts. The model supports a levels of processing approach, dividing conscious architecture into lower- and higher-order components that are both graded and nonlinear.
Neuropsychologia
April 30, 2020
Amnon Dafni-Merom, S. Arzy
Endel Tulving's concept of autonoetic consciousness—self-knowing awareness that enables mental time travel—links episodic memory with the ability to remember past events and simulate future ones. This review traces how Tulving's ideas have expanded into related theories including episodic memory, mental time travel, episodic simulation, scene construction, and self-projection. The authors examine the cognitive operations involved in traveling or projecting across temporal, spatial, and social domains. A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies shows overlapping brain activations in medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, retrosplenial cortex, temporoparietal junction, and medial temporal lobe, supporting the interconnectedness of these theories and their roots in Tulving's original framework.
Neuropsychologia
August 1, 2019
Umberto León-Domínguez, José León-Carrión
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a key brain region for consciousness, involved in both awareness and manipulating conscious content. While its role in cortico-cortical networks is agreed upon, its function in thalamocortical networks and forming conscious content is debated. This review proposes that the PFC, via connections with nonspecific thalamic nuclei, integrates sensory perceptions into a unified conscious experience. A cortico-thalamocortical loop organizes temporal and spatial information to maintain a subjective stream of consciousness. Attentional top-down mechanisms between the PFC and the reticular thalamic nucleus may influence conscious content by regulating thalamic activity. The PFC acts as a dynamic hub that recalibrates neural dynamics and regulates brain processes associated with consciousness.
Neuropsychologia
June 1, 2019
Itsaso Colás, Ana B Chica, Estrella Ródenas et al.
Damage to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and reduced integrity of the ventral branch of the right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF III) are causally linked to conscious perception of near-threshold stimuli. Patients with right prefrontal damage required greater perceptual contrast to detect near-threshold targets compared to matched healthy controls, supporting a causal role of the prefrontal lobe in conscious processing.