Consciousness and Cognition
May 19, 2003
Arne Dietrich
486 citations
Altered states of consciousness—such as dreaming, endurance running, meditation, daydreaming, hypnosis, and drug-induced states—are primarily caused by temporary reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region supporting higher-order cognitive functions. This transient hypofrontality is proposed as the unifying feature across all altered states, while the unique qualities of each state arise from which specific frontal circuits remain more or less active. Consciousness is conceptualized as a hierarchy of cognitive functions, with the prefrontal cortex at the top contributing the most sophisticated content. The framework generates testable hypotheses about how subtle prefrontal changes produce diverse conscious experiences.
Consciousness and Cognition
April 5, 2009
Jakob Hohwy
164 citations
The search for the neural correlates of consciousness faces problems in both of its main approaches. The content-based approach, which contrasts conscious perception of different stimuli like faces versus houses, appears to set aside crucial aspects of consciousness. The state-based approach, which contrasts overall conscious states like dreamless sleep versus wakefulness, seems over-inclusive in a way that is hard to rectify without losing the crucial conscious-unconscious contrast. Consequently, the search for the neural correlates of consciousness needs new experimental paradigms.
Consciousness and Cognition
June 20, 2016
David Saunders, Chris A Roe, Graham Smith et al.
93 citations
A meta-analysis of 34 studies from 1966 to 2016 estimated that 55% of people have had at least one lucid dream in their lifetime, with a 95% confidence interval of 49% to 62%. A separate analysis of 25 studies found that 23% of people experience lucid dreams at least monthly, with a 95% confidence interval of 20% to 25%. The analysis used a quality effects method to reduce the influence of study quality on the estimates. Moderator analyses found no systematic bias from suspected sources of variability. These findings align with earlier estimates but are based on more robust evidence.
Consciousness and Cognition
September 8, 2013
Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, Michael Schredl
88 citations
Applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during REM sleep increased dream lucidity in frequent lucid dreamers, though the effects were not strong. Nineteen participants spent three nights in a sleep laboratory; on the second and third nights they randomly received either 1 mA tDCS for 10 minutes or sham stimulation during each REM period starting with the second one. Self-ratings showed increased lucidity only in frequent lucid dreamers. The results provide preliminary support for the involvement of the DLPFC in lucid dreaming, but further research controlling for indirect effects and including other brain regions is needed.
Consciousness and Cognition
June 1, 1994
Tracey L. Kahan, Stephen LaBerge
87 citations
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Consciousness and Cognition
April 28, 2022
Anna Ciaunica, Anil K. Seth, Jakub Limanowski et al.
76 citations
Depersonalisation disorder may arise when the brain fails to modulate sensory precision, leading to a loss of the normal sense of control over one's own perceptions and actions. The paper proposes that individuals with depersonalisation adopt the hypothesis that they are embodied perceivers who are not in control of their perception, while still recognizing that the controlling agent is themselves. This account uses predictive processing to explain the phenomenology of depersonalisation, including the feeling of being detached from one's own thoughts and actions. The analysis suggests specific psychophysical and physiological abnormalities that could underlie these experiences.
Consciousness and Cognition
November 1, 2020
Charlotte Martial, Jessica Simon, Ninon Puttaert et al.
69 citations
Two scales for measuring near-death experiences (NDEs) were evaluated. The original NDE scale showed several weaknesses. A new 20-item Near-Death Experience Content (NDE-C) scale was developed and validated, revealing a five-factor structure covering relevant dimensions. The NDE-C scale demonstrated very good internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.85) and concurrent validity (correlations above 0.76). This new reliable scale should facilitate future research on NDEs.
Consciousness and Cognition
January 10, 2012
Gráinne Schäfer, Amanda Feilding, Celia J. A. Morgan et al.
60 citations
Cannabis acutely increases schizotypy and chronic use is linked to higher rates of psychosis. Creative individuals tend to have higher schizotypy, but the connection between cannabis, schizotypy, and creativity had not been studied. In 160 cannabis users tested sober and intoxicated, cannabis increased verbal fluency in low-creative individuals to the same level as high-creative individuals. Cannabis also increased state psychosis-like symptoms in both groups. High-creativity participants had significantly higher trait schizotypy, but this was not linked to the verbal fluency change. Acute cannabis use enhances divergent thinking, measured by verbal fluency, specifically in those with low trait creativity.
Consciousness and Cognition
February 16, 2011
Leanne K. Wilkins, Todd A. Girard, J. Allan Cheyne
57 citations
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are linked to specific brain regions, but little is known about the neurochemical systems involved. Ketamine, a drug that produces dissociative effects, offers a way to study this. An online survey of 192 people found that both how often someone had used ketamine in their lifetime and whether they had OBEs while on ketamine were more strongly tied to how often they had OBEs and related experiences than other drugs were. The apparent effects of other drugs could mostly be explained by the fact that people who used them also tended to use ketamine. These findings suggest NMDA receptors play a role in OBEs.
Consciousness and Cognition
March 19, 2017
Lauren E. Moore, Bruce Greyson
46 citations
Memories of near-death experiences are recalled as more vivid and detailed than memories of actual real events or imagined events. In a study of 122 people who had a near-death experience, participants rated their memory of that experience higher on a standard memory questionnaire than their memory of a real event that happened around the same time, which in turn was rated higher than a memory of an imagined event. The findings suggest that near-death experiences are not remembered as imagined or dreamlike but as even more real than everyday experiences.
Consciousness and Cognition
February 26, 2019
R. Prentner
43 citations
Conscious inner life is structured, and a key feature is the unity of consciousness. This work makes precise three features of experience related to unity: environmental embedding, mutual constraint between local and global representations, and top-down object formation. A formal model is introduced based on phenomenal space, defined by quasi-elementary and extended entities, using mereological and topological concepts and a projector-based calculus to capture its dynamical structure. This approach addresses the mind-matter problem by relating environmentally embedded agents to topologically defined objects from decompositions of phenomenal space. The authors suggest consciousness involves a series of transitions between structured layers of experience rather than a single brain-to-mind transition.
Consciousness and Cognition
July 8, 2017
Charlotte Martial, Vanessa Charland-Verville, Héléna Cassol et al.
24 citations
Memories of near-death experiences (NDEs) are detailed and stable over time, yet their rich phenomenology lacks a satisfactory explanation. In 152 individuals who reported a classical NDE during life-threatening conditions, the intensity of the NDE was positively correlated with phenomenological characteristics of the memory, such as sensory details, personal importance, and frequency of reactivation. Those who described more intense NDEs also reported more vivid and detailed memories of the event.
Consciousness and Cognition
July 8, 2024
Veena Kumari, Umisha Tailor, A. Saifullah et al.
5 citations
Startle modulation, specifically habituation and prepulse inhibition (PPI), reflects early sensory processing in the brain. In a comparison of regular meditators (32 individuals) and meditation-naïve individuals (36 individuals), no significant group differences emerged in either habituation or PPI. However, among meditators, those who reported being able to sustain non-dual awareness during practice (18 individuals) showed significantly greater PPI than those who could not (14 individuals). These results suggest that subjective differences in meditation experience may relate to distinct sensory processing characteristics.
Consciousness and Cognition
August 6, 2020
Dylan Black
3 citations
Peter Carruthers claims that the global workspace theory of consciousness leaves no facts about animal consciousness, and this problem extends to other cognitive theories, threatening the entire field. However, this argument also eliminates facts about human consciousness. The key flawed assumption is that scientific theories must explain away the explanatory gap. An alternative strategy is proposed: introspectable inferential connections from phenomenal concepts to functional concepts allow scientists to identify the global workspace through shared capacities in animals and humans, better reflecting actual scientific practice.
Consciousness and Cognition
July 3, 2026
Shun Sasaki, Tokiko Harada, Hideki Ohira
Depersonalization and derealization are dissociative experiences that alter bodily self-awareness and the sense of reality. This study compared the Mirror Gazing Task, where participants looked at their own face, with a Fixed Attention Task, where they stared at a dot on a wall, to see which better induces transient depersonalization- and derealization-like states in 54 non-clinical adults. Both tasks increased depersonalization and derealization ratings compared to baseline, a break, and a follow-up. Depersonalization was higher after the Mirror Gazing Task than after the Fixed Attention Task, but derealization did not clearly differ between tasks. The findings suggest that derealization-like experiences arise from features common to both tasks, while depersonalization-like experiences may be more linked to mirror-based self-focus.
Consciousness and Cognition
June 14, 2026
Cyriel M. A. Pennartz, Micha Engeser
Conscious experiences are not accidental byproducts but serve a specific biological function: they provide a multimodal, situational survey of the brain's environment (including the body) that enables deliberate, planned behaviors. This argument is grounded in a neurorepresentationalist position that rejects the separation of phenomenal consciousness from its neural substrate, treating them as one functional entity. The function is illustrated by perceptual phenomena such as seeing the world upright, multisensory integration, and spatial object constancy. Pathological cases like Anton and Bonnet syndrome, where misrepresentation of reality severely impairs behavior, further support this view. The position is contrasted with other proposals, particularly those emphasizing a learning function of consciousness.
Consciousness and Cognition
February 11, 2026
Teresa Campillo-Ferrer, Antonella Iadarola, Ramona Cordani et al.
Unusual bodily experiences (UBEs)—illusory perceptions such as floating, body distortions, or out-of-body sensations—can occur during meditation and sleep. In a controlled sleep laboratory, 20 of 35 healthy participants reported 36 UBEs, primarily during meditation (wakefulness) but also during arousals, REM sleep, and non-REM sleep. Electroencephalography (EEG) analyses revealed that UBEs emerge during intermediate states of consciousness that combine features of wakefulness and sleep. Specifically, UBEs were associated with EEG reactivation: increased high-frequency activity (beta and gamma) and decreased low-frequency activity (delta and theta), especially around temporal regions. These findings offer new insights into the neural correlates of self-consciousness and body perception across sleep and wakefulness.
Consciousness and Cognition
December 15, 2025
Andreas Krabbe, Pilleriin Sikka, Jussi Jylkkä
Meditation practice may enhance the benefits of psychedelic experiences and can confound associations between psychedelic use and well-being. In two cross-sectional online surveys, when examined separately, both cumulative psychedelic use and meditation practice were associated with greater well-being and psychological flexibility. However, when considered jointly, the associations for psychedelics were reduced or became nonsignificant, while meditation remained consistently associated with outcomes. In a second study, participants who experienced a personally meaningful event through meditation alone or combined with psychedelics reported significantly greater improvements in well-being compared with those who used psychedelics alone, though all groups showed positive change on average. Weak evidence suggested a potential synergy between the two practices.
Consciousness and Cognition
August 13, 2025
Azenet Lopez, Wanja Wiese
Consciousness science has many competing theories that often conflict, making progress toward a mature theory difficult. A building-block approach offers a way forward by focusing on simpler elements that make up theories, such as key notions or assumptions, rather than committing to entire theoretical proposals. This approach can help assess, integrate, and unify diverse theories. Two potential building blocks discussed are attention and information generation, given their roles in leading theories. The paper argues that shifting focus to these foundational constructs facilitates addressing urgent questions about consciousness in both natural and artificial systems.
Consciousness and Cognition
June 19, 2024
Dmitri Filimonov, Sampo Tanskanen, Antti Revonsuo et al.
The level-of-processing (LoP) hypothesis, which describes how awareness of visual stimuli can be either gradual or all-or-none depending on feature depth, was tested in hearing for the first time. Participants heard words from different categories spoken in different pitches near the perceptual threshold. Results indicate that LoP also applies to the auditory modality. The auditory awareness negativity (AAN) was an early correlate of awareness independent of LoP, while late positivity (LP) was modulated by awareness, performance accuracy, and level of processing.
Consciousness and Cognition
February 28, 2024
Johannes Kleiner
A structural turn is emerging across consciousness studies, replacing verbal descriptions of conscious experience with mathematical spaces and other structural tools. The author offers three essential comments to prevent early misunderstandings: metaphysical premises underlying structural approaches, the viability of structure-preserving mappings, and clarifying what a structure of conscious experience actually is. The piece also explains the great promises of structural methodologies and their potential impact on consciousness science.
Consciousness and Cognition
February 27, 2024
K. Evers, M. Farisco, C. Pennartz
The paper examines how diverse current theories of consciousness are and whether they share common ground. It argues that logical and empirical commensurability—the ability to compare theories along specific dimensions—is necessary for identifying shared features. Comparing a subset of neuroscience-based theories reveals no single unifying model; theories that appear similar on one dimension may differ on another. The authors propose using multiple probing questions to assess overall similarities and differences between theories. Despite conflicting background definitions of consciousness, they conclude that a shared methodological approach to studying brain-consciousness relationships could eventually allow different theories to be integrated and merged, overcoming the current fragmentation.
Consciousness and Cognition
January 1, 2024
Louise Dupraz, J. Bourgin, L. Pia et al.
Seeing an embodied humanoid avatar move its arms can make an observer feel as though their own static arms are moving, treating the avatar's kinematic signals like those from a biological body. Two experiments showed that the sense of body ownership over an avatar seen from a first-person perspective was closely linked to visuomotor synchrony. However, kinaesthetic illusions did not depend on this synchrony, indicating that the avatar is inevitably processed at the sensorimotor level as one's own body, whether consciously considered as such or not. The findings suggest that body ownership and kinaesthetic illusions may be underpinned by distinct representations: the body image and the body schema.
Consciousness and Cognition
November 1, 2023
R. Watanabe, Y. Moriguchi
Young children aged 5–6 years and adults performed a figure discrimination task while reporting their subjective awareness of a target stimulus (square or diamond) presented at varying durations. Objective accuracy thresholds were larger for children than for adults. Subjective awareness thresholds were also larger for children when using a four-point scale but not a two-point scale. No age differences were found in the emergent process of consciousness, suggesting that the way consciousness arises is similar across ages, though children require longer stimulus exposure to reach the same level of awareness.
Consciousness and Cognition
June 13, 2023
Felix A. Schoeller
Primary states of consciousness are phylogenetically older than secondary states, which are shaped by sociocultural inhibition. The authors review the concept's history in psychiatry and neurobiology and propose that primary states involve a temporary breakdown of self-control, merging action, communication, and emotion (ACE fusion) that are normally separate in adults. This model relates to neural dedifferentiation, loss of modularity during altered states, and increased corticostriatal connectivity. The article offers a perspective on consciousness as a mechanism of differentiation and control, suggests a gradient from primary to secondary states based on thalamocortical interactions and arousal, and proposes testable hypotheses for their distinct signatures.