Distilling the neural correlates of consciousness

NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS

卷:36

Review

Aru, Jaan^1,2  Bachmann, Talis³  Singer, Wolf^1,2,4  Melloni, Lucia^1,4 

[1] Max Planck Inst Brain Res, Dept Neurophysiol, D-60528 Frankfurt, Germany

[2] Frankfurt Inst Adv Studies, D-60438 Frankfurt, Germany

[3] Univ Tartu, EE-10119 Tallinn, Estonia

[4] Max Planck Gesell, Ernst Strungmann Inst Cooperat, D-60528 Frankfurt, Germany

关键词: Neural correlates of consciousness;    Conscious perception;    Contrastive analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.12.003

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Solving the problem of consciousness remains one of the biggest challenges in modern science. One key step towards understanding consciousness is to empirically narrow down neural processes associated with the subjective experience of a particular content. To unravel these neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) a common scientific strategy is to compare perceptual conditions in which consciousness of a particular content is present with those in which it is absent, and to determine differences in measures of brain activity (the so called contrastive analysis). However, this comparison appears not to reveal exclusively the NCC, as the NCC proper can be confounded with prerequisites for and consequences of conscious processing of the particular content. This implies that previous results cannot be unequivocally interpreted as reflecting the neural correlates of conscious experience. Here we review evidence supporting this conjecture and suggest experimental strategies to untangle the NCC from the prerequisites and consequences of conscious experience in order to further develop the otherwise valid and valuable contrastive methodology. (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free