The Neural Correlates of Consciousness

2020 ◽  
pp. 231-260
Author(s):  
Jorge Morales ◽  
Hakwan Lau
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Specific Role ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Hierarchical Processing ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness ◽  
Processing Architecture ◽  
Selection Of

Our understanding of the neural basis of consciousness has substantially improved in the last few decades. New imaging and statistical techniques have been introduced, experiments have become more sophisticated, and several unsuccessful hypotheses have been quite conclusively ruled out. However, neuroscientists still do not entirely agree on the critical neural features required for sustaining perceptual conscious experiences in humans and other primates. This chapter discusses a selection of influential views of the neural correlates of consciousness and the predictions they make. By highlighting some neurobiological and computational modelling results, it will be argued that the currently available evidence favors a hierarchical processing architecture that confers a crucial, if subtle and specific, role to prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Crossmodal Links between Vision and Touch in Spatial Attention: A Computational Modelling Study

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Magosso ◽  
Andrea Serino ◽  
Giuseppe di Pellegrino ◽  
Mauro Ursino
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Cooperative Interaction ◽  
Endogenous Attention ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Biased Competition ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Selection Of

Many studies have revealed that attention operates across different sensory modalities, to facilitate the selection of relevant information in the multimodal situations of every-day life. Cross-modal links have been observed either when attention is directed voluntarily (endogenous) or involuntarily (exogenous). The neural basis of cross-modal attention presents a significant challenge to cognitive neuroscience. Here, we used a neural network model to elucidate the neural correlates of visual-tactile interactions in exogenous and endogenous attention. The model includes two unimodal (visual and tactile) areas connected with a bimodal area in each hemisphere and a competition between the two hemispheres. The model is able to explain cross-modal facilitation both in exogenous and endogenous attention, ascribing it to an advantaged activation of the bimodal area on the attended side (via a top-down or bottom-up biasing), with concomitant inhibition towards the opposite side. The model suggests that a competitive/cooperative interaction with biased competition may mediate both forms of cross-modal attention.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of Theory of Mind Are Preserved in Young Women With Anorexia Nervosa

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Leslie ◽  
Daniel Halls ◽  
Jenni Leppanen ◽  
Felicity Sedgewick ◽  
Katherine Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Basis

People with anorexia nervosa (AN) commonly exhibit social difficulties, which may be related to problems with understanding the perspectives of others, commonly known as Theory of Mind (ToM) processing. However, there is a dearth of literature investigating the neural basis of these differences in ToM and at what age they emerge. This study aimed to test for differences in the neural correlates of ToM processes in young women with AN, and young women weight-restored (WR) from AN, as compared to healthy control participants (HC). Based on previous findings in AN, we hypothesized that young women with current or prior AN, as compared to HCs, would exhibit a reduced neural response in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the inferior frontal gyrus, and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) whilst completing a ToM task. We recruited 73 young women with AN, 45 WR young women, and 70 young women without a history of AN to take part in the current study. Whilst undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan, participants completed the Frith-Happé task, which is a commonly used measure of ToM with demonstrated reliability and validity in adult populations. In this task, participants viewed the movements of triangles, which depicted either action movements, simple interactions, or complex social interactions. Viewing trials with more complex social interactions in the Frith-Happé task was associated with increased brain activation in regions including the right TPJ, the bilateral mPFC, the cerebellum, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. There were no group differences in neural activation in response to the ToM contrast. Overall, these results suggest that the neural basis of spontaneous mentalizing is preserved in most young women with AN.

scholarly journals Neuro-computational account of arbitration between imitation and emulation during human observational learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline C. Charpentier ◽  
Kiyohito Iigaya ◽  
John P. O’Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Observational Learning ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Behavioral Task ◽  
Reliable Prediction ◽  
Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
The Brain

AbstractIn observational learning (OL), organisms learn from observing the behavior of others. There are at least two distinct strategies for OL. Imitation involves learning to repeat the previous actions of other agents, while in emulation, learning proceeds from inferring the goals and intentions of others. While putative neural correlates for these forms of learning have been identified, a fundamental question remains unaddressed: how does the brain decides which strategy to use in a given situation? Here we developed a novel computational model in which arbitration between the strategies is determined by the predictive reliability, such that control over behavior is adaptively weighted toward the strategy with the most reliable prediction. To test the theory, we designed a novel behavioral task in which our experimental manipulations produced dissociable effects on the reliability of the two strategies. Participants performed this task while undergoing fMRI in two independent studies (the second a pre-registered replication of the first). Behavior manifested patterns consistent with both emulation and imitation and flexibly changed between the two strategies as expected from the theory. Computational modelling revealed that behavior was best described by an arbitration model, in which the reliability of the emulation strategy determined the relative weights allocated to behavior for each strategy. Emulation reliability - the model’s arbitration signal - was encoded in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction and rostral cingulate cortex. Being replicated across two fMRI studies, these findings suggest a neuro-computational mechanism for allocating control between emulation and imitation during observational learning.

What is a global state of consciousness?

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (II) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Kenneth Mckilliam
Keyword(s):  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Global State ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Level Of Consciousness ◽  
Phenomenal States ◽  
Mature Science ◽  
Global States

The notion of a global state (or level) of consciousness is an increasingly important construct in the science of consciousness. However, exactly what a global state of consciousness is remains poorly understood. In this paper I offer an account of global states of consciousness as consciousness-related capacity modulations. On this view global states are not themselves phenomenal states – they are not occurring experiences. Rather, they are states that specify which of a creature’s overall consciousness-related capacities are currently online. Given that the search for the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), as it is currently conceived, is the search for the neural basis of occurrent experiences, the NCC framework is incapable of revealing the neural basis of global states. As such, a mature science of consciousness will need to move beyond the search for NCCs, as that project is currently conceived.

scholarly journals Neuroanatomical Correlates of Executive Functions: A Neuropsychological Approach Using the EXAMINER Battery

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Robinson ◽  
Matthew Calamia ◽  
Jan Gläscher ◽  
Joel Bruss ◽  
Daniel Tranel
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Frontal Lobes ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Response Monitoring ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal

AbstractExecutive functions (EF) encompass a variety of higher-order capacities such as judgment, planning, decision-making, response monitoring, insight, and self-regulation. Measuring such abilities quantitatively and establishing their neural correlates has proven to be challenging. Here, using a lesion-deficit approach, we report the neural correlates of a variety of EF tests that were developed under the auspices of the NINDS-supported EXAMINER project (Kramer, 2011;www.examiner.ucsf.edu). We administered a diverse set of EF tasks that tap three general domains—cognitive, social/emotional, and insight—to 37 patients with focal lesions to the frontal lobes, and 25 patients with lesions outside the frontal lobes. Using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM), we found that damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) was predominately associated with deficits in social/emotional aspects of EF, while damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and anterior cingulate was predominately associated with deficits in cognitive aspects of EF. Evidence for an important role of some non-frontal regions (e.g., the temporal poles) in some aspects of EF was also found. The results provide further evidence for the neural basis of EF, and extend previous findings of the dissociation between the roles of the ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal sectors in organizing, implementing, and monitoring goal-directed behavior. (JINS, 2013,19, 1–12)

Alcohol reduces the activity of somatostatin interneurons in the mouse prefrontal cortex: a neural basis for its disinhibitory effect?

2021 ◽  
pp. 108501
Author(s):  
Miao Li ◽  
David Cabrera-Garcia ◽  
Michael C. Salling ◽  
Edmund Au ◽  
Guang Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Basis

scholarly journals Can binocular rivalry reveal neural correlates of consciousness?

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1641) ◽  
pp. 20130211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randolph Blake ◽  
Jan Brascamp ◽  
David J. Heeger
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Binocular Rivalry ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Neural Correlate ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness ◽  
Neural Correlate Of Consciousness

This essay critically examines the extent to which binocular rivalry can provide important clues about the neural correlates of conscious visual perception. Our ideas are presented within the framework of four questions about the use of rivalry for this purpose: (i) what constitutes an adequate comparison condition for gauging rivalry's impact on awareness, (ii) how can one distinguish abolished awareness from inattention, (iii) when one obtains unequivocal evidence for a causal link between a fluctuating measure of neural activity and fluctuating perceptual states during rivalry, will it generalize to other stimulus conditions and perceptual phenomena and (iv) does such evidence necessarily indicate that this neural activity constitutes a neural correlate of consciousness? While arriving at sceptical answers to these four questions, the essay nonetheless offers some ideas about how a more nuanced utilization of binocular rivalry may still provide fundamental insights about neural dynamics, and glimpses of at least some of the ingredients comprising neural correlates of consciousness, including those involved in perceptual decision-making.

Compressed acoustic sealing foam optimization investigation using statistical approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (1) ◽  
pp. 4955-4961
Author(s):  
Mathieu Gontier ◽  
Barbara Romeyns
Keyword(s):  
Porous Materials ◽  
Statistical Approach ◽  
Complete System ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Industrial Equipment ◽  
Acoustic Performance ◽  
Material Characteristics ◽  
Sealing Performance ◽  
The Right ◽  
Selection Of

In industry segments such as automotive and industrial equipment the use of compressed porous materials is well known to improve the global acoustic performance of the complete system. Such porous materials should be designed in a specific way in order to reach a significant acoustic sealing performance at different compression rates. Unfortunately, there are no standard measurement procedures nor predefined material characteristics that allow the selection of the right material with the optimal acoustic performance. The main goal of this research is to link acoustic performance of compressed porous materials with intrinsic material characteristics using statistical techniques.

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