Making Sense of Multiple NCCs and the No-Report Paradigms

A new cognitive model, the Twin Cognitive Cycle (TCC), explains why brain-imaging studies of consciousness often find multiple peaks and widespread activations. The TCC is an executable system that simulates how semantic reports are generated through five stages of activation across four cognitive regions. This model accounts for the multiple neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) observed in ERP and fMRI data and clarifies why no-report paradigms reduce neural activity. The authors suggest that these confounds arise from the process of generating verbal reports, not from consciousness itself, offering a unified framework for understanding previous contradictory findings.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) studies have faced two kinds of confounding empirical findings: multiple peaks and excessive activations recorded by ERP in the temporal domain and by fMRI in the spatial domain, respectively. These confounds have led to the well-known proposals of multiple NCCs and no-report paradigms. However, ‘the exact neural underpinnings of conscious experience remain a mystery.’ This study introduces a cognitive model, the Twin Cognitive Cycle (TCC), a system-level cognitive process model developed from an executable system simulated to generate semantic reports, to make sense of the multiple peaks and ‘overestimated’ activations. The model comprises five stages of activation occurring across four cognitive regions during the generation of a semantic report, consistent with a combination of the characteristics proposed by several multiple-NCC theories. It also offers an explanation for why no-report paradigms are able to drastically reduce neural activity.