Consciousness and Cognition
February 1, 2023
T. Bachmann, Jaan Aru
The science of consciousness depends on experimental paradigms that compare conscious and unconscious processing. This review highlights a class of paradigms called "conscious interpretation," in which an object is consciously perceived as a set of features, but the interpretation of that set alternates in consciousness. The authors compare these paradigms with other types and review past and recent studies. They propose that for certain stimuli with a hierarchy of interpretations, conscious experience is drawn toward the higher-level interpretation and cannot revert to the lower level. The paper discusses how theories of consciousness might incorporate constraints arising from conscious interpretation.
Consciousness and Cognition
August 10, 2022
Dylan Ludwig
Consciousness likely serves multiple distinct functions rather than a single capacity, as leading theories assume. Conscious processes are a heterogeneous class supported by various neurobiological mechanisms, suggesting different functional contributions across psychological domains. This paper develops a methodological framework for isolating functions associated with conscious experience and argues that Global Workspace Theories, Higher Order Thought Theory, and Information Integration Theory all fail to acknowledge this functional pluralism, limiting their applicability as theories of consciousness.
Consciousness and Cognition
January 22, 2021
Francesco Ianì
When people incorporate an external object or body into their sense of self—a process called embodiment—there is a measurable cost to their actual body. This review examines evidence from studies of action observation, tool use, the rubber hand illusion, and full-body illusions. The findings suggest that embodiment involves both benefits, such as extending one's capabilities, and costs, including partial disembodiment of one's own body. The argument has implications for the embodied cognition approach.
Consciousness and Cognition
September 1, 2019
Daniel Pillersdorf, A. Scoboria
Chronic cannabis users show a reduced fading affect bias for unpleasant memories and less detailed recall of autobiographical events compared to non-users. The fading affect bias is a normal emotional regulation process in which the intensity of negative memories fades faster than that of positive ones. In this study, 47 cannabis users and 52 non-users recalled and rated positive and negative events and completed a memory specificity task. Cannabis users exhibited less fading of negative affect over time and lower memory specificity, suggesting cannabis use may interfere with adaptive emotional processing and memory detail.
Consciousness and Cognition
July 1, 2019
Adrien Doerig, Aaron Schurger, K. Hess et al.
Theories that identify consciousness with specific causal structures in the brain, such as those requiring feedback loops, are either false or unscientific. Using theorems from computation theory, the authors demonstrate that causal structure theories—including Information Integration Theory (IIT) and Recurrent Processing Theory (RPT)—cannot be empirically tested because any causal structure can be realized by systems that lack consciousness. This undermines the claim that feedforward systems are never conscious and feedback systems always are. The argument suggests that consciousness research should focus instead on functional explanations, such as global workspace or higher-order theories, which are compatible with diverse neural implementations.
Consciousness and Cognition
May 1, 2016
R. Costa, J. Pestaña, D. Costa et al.
Altered states of consciousness involving changes in the sense of self, time, and space are linked to sexual responsiveness. In a study of 116 subjects, greater body awareness and lesser awareness of time and space were associated with higher satisfaction, desire, arousal, and orgasm occurrence. For women, satisfaction, desire, and arousal were especially tied to reduced time awareness. Female orgasms during vaginal intercourse were related to greater body awareness and less time awareness, but orgasms from noncoital activities showed no such link. The findings suggest that attentional absorption during sex enhances sexual responsiveness, particularly in women, and to a lesser degree in men.
Consciousness and Cognition
June 1, 2012
The philosophical interpretation of the search for neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) as a neutral, correlation-based enterprise is mistaken. While Chalmers characterized NCC research as correlating conscious experience with neural representations, the actual experimental paradigms and explanatory standards of neuroscience presuppose a causal, mechanistic relationship between brain activity and consciousness. The author argues that NCC research is better understood as an attempt to locate causally relevant neural mechanisms, not merely discrete representations whose contents correlate with experience. The first "C" in NCC should thus stand for "causes" rather than "correlates."
Consciousness and Cognition
December 1, 2004
A strategy for identifying neural correlates of consciousness is proposed, based on a state space approach from dynamical systems theory. The article focuses on phenomenal awareness, a constituent of consciousness, and suggests several rudimentary requirements for identifying its neural correlates. These requirements are related to empirical data on selective attention, completely intrinsic selection, and globally unconscious states. As an example, neuroscientific findings on synchronized gamma activity are categorized according to these requirements, illustrating how the strategy might be applied.