The Brain and the Inner World: An Introduction to the Neuroscience of Subjective Experience

Correspondence Matthias Michel, Sciences, Normes et Démocratie, Sorbonne Université, 1 Rue Victor Cousin, 75005, Paris, France. Email: matthias.michel.curtil@gmail.com Abstract Whether the prefrontal cortex is part of the neural substrates of consciousness is currently debated. Against prefrontal theories of consciousness, many have argued that neural activity in the prefrontal cortex does not correlate with consciousness but with subjective reports. We defend prefrontal theories of consciousness against this argument. We surmise that the requirement for reports is not a satisfying explanation of the difference in neural activity between conscious and unconscious trials, and that prefrontal theories of consciousness come out of this debate unscathed.

/pdf/minority-reports-consciousness-and-the-prefrontal-cortex-4knafl92k6.pdf

Minority reports: Consciousness and the prefrontal cortex

Sleep has been classically described as an all-or-nothing global phenomenon. However, recent research strongly suggests that this view requires tempering. Invasive and non-invasive recordings in animals and humans show that neural activity typically associated with sleep can locally occur during wakefulness. Although local sleep is defined neuronally, it has been associated with impaired performance during cognitive tasks. Comparatively, the phenomenology of local sleep (i.e., what it feels like when your brain is partially asleep) has been less explored. Taking into account the literature on the neuronal and behavioral profile of local sleep intrusions in wakefulness, we propose that occurrences of local sleep could represent the neural mechanism underlying many attentional lapses. In particular, we argue that a unique physiological event such as local sleep could account for a diversity of behavioral outcomes from sluggish to impulsive responses. We further propose that local sleep intrusions could impact individuals' subjective experience. Specifically, we propose that the timing and anatomical sources of local sleep intrusions could be responsible for both the behavioral consequences and subjective content of attentional lapses and may underlie the difference between subjective experiences such as mind wandering and mind blanking. Our framework aims to build a parallel between spontaneous experiences in sleep and wakefulness by integrating evidence across neuronal, behavioral and experiential levels. We use the example of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to illustrate how local sleep could explain complex cognitive profiles which include inattention, impulsivity, mind-wandering and mind-blanking.

/pdf/does-the-mind-wander-when-the-brain-takes-a-break-local-19mft600kw.pdf

Does the Mind Wander When the Brain Takes a Break? Local Sleep in Wakefulness, Attentional Lapses and Mind-Wandering

Is phenomenal consciousness constitutively related to cognitive access? Despite being a fundamental issue for any science of consciousness, its empirical study faces a severe methodological puzzle. Recent years have seen numerous attempts to address this puzzle, either in practice, by offering evidence for a positive or negative answer, or in principle, by proposing a framework for eventual resolution. The present paper critically considers these endeavours, including partial-report, metacognitive and no-report paradigms, as well as the theoretical proposal that we can make progress by studying phenomenal consciousness as a natural kind. It is argued that the methodological puzzle remains obdurately with us and that, for now, we must adopt an attitude of humility towards the phenomenal.This article is part of the theme issue 'Perceptual consciousness and cognitive access'.

/pdf/the-methodological-puzzle-of-phenomenal-consciousness-4blxyym1l1.pdf

The methodological puzzle of phenomenal consciousness.

Mistaking imagination for reality: Congruent mental imagery leads to more liberal perceptual detection.

White dreams are made of colours: What studying contentless dreams can teach about the neural basis of dreaming and conscious experiences

This paper approaches the debate whether perceptual consciousness requires cognitive access from the perspective of dream studies, and investigates what kind of findings could support the opposing views of this debate. Two kinds of arguments are discussed, one that claims that the hypoactivity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in rapid eye movement sleep is directly relevant, and another that proposes that locating the neural correlates of dream experiences can indirectly inform the debate. It is argued that under closer reflection, neither the classical claim about dorsolateral prefrontal cortex hypoactivity nor the more recent emphasis on general posterior hot zone activity during dreaming stand up to scrutiny. White dreaming is identified as the phenomenon that, nevertheless, holds the most promise to have an impact on the debate. Going beyond the topic if studying dreams can contribute to this debate, it is argued that cognitive access is not a monolithic phenomenon, and its neural correlates are not well understood. There seems to be a relevant form of cognitive access that can operate in the absence of activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and maybe also in the whole frontal region. If so, then exclusive posterior activation during conscious experiences might very well be compatible with the hypothesis that perceptual consciousness requires cognitive access.This article is part of the theme issue 'Perceptual consciousness and cognitive access'.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2017.0356

Dream experiences and the neural correlates of perceptual consciousness and cognitive access

Objective: As existing findings are inconclusive, this paper aims to provide a thorough analysis of the bizarreness of everyday dreams and to explore its relations to the emotional quality of dreams and the dreamers' quality of life.Method: 61 women's two week long dream journal (502 dreams) were analyzed using two different kinds of scales in order to capture the bizarre qualities of the reports. The emotional qualities of the dreams were also classified. At the end of the dream log participants filled in the WHOQOL-100 questionnaire to evaluate the different aspects of their quality of life. We examined the frequency and distribution of the distinct forms of distortions in every day dreams by using descriptive statistics. We carried out one-way analysis of variance to analyze the connection between the emotional tone of dreams and their bizarreness. To explore how the inter-individual differences in the qualities of dreams relate to the dreamers quality of life, Spearman correlation and Linear regression were calculated.ResultsAccording to our findings, although most home reported dreams contain some bizarre elements, they are rarely extremely unrealistic, and there is also a considerable amount of totally mundane dreams. The distortions are not randomly distributed but are mostly related to those parts of the reports which are created during the process of narrative formation. Our findings implicate substantial individual differences regarding the bizarreness and emotional tone of everyday dreams, and both of them correlate with some aspects of the subject's quality of life.Conclusions:Those theories should be favored, which can accommodate both unrealistic and totally mundane reports, and can account for the interpersonal differences in this quality of dreams.

The Characteristics and Prevalence of Dream Bizarreness, Inter-individual Differences and Their Relation to Quality of Life.

Az alom- es eber vilagunk kozotti kapcsok megtalalasa szamos kutatot inspiralt mar. Jelen cikkben egy olyan sajat kutatasunkat ismertetjuk, melynek celja az almodas kontinuitas-elmeletenek empirikus vizsgalata es a teoria pontositasa. A kontinuitas-elmelet szerint az almok hű tukrei eletunknek, szemelyisegunknek, gondolatainknak es a minket korulvevő kornyezetnek. A teoria azonban meglehetősen altalanos szinten mozog, nem ad pontos predikciokat az eber es az alomvilag tartalmai kozott varhato konkret osszefuggesekre vonatkozoan. Sajat kutatasunk ezen hipotetikus kapcsolatok egy szeletenek alapos felterkepezeset tűzte ki celul: az eletminőseg es az alomtartalmak kozti viszony megismeresere iranyult. A vizsgalat soran kozep- es időskoru nők kethetes alomnaploinak tartalomelemzeseből nyert mutatokat vetettunk ossze eletminőseguk szamos dimenziojaval. Ez utobbi meresere a WHOQOL-100 kerdőivet hasznaltuk. Az almok elemzese celjabol a Hall es Van de Castle altal specialisan az almokra kidolgozott tartalomelemző...

/pdf/alomtartalmaink-es-eletminosegunk-kapcsolata-the-2gzdyzy6ig.pdf

Álomtartalmaink és életminőségünk kapcsolata = The relationship between dream contents and quality of life

Szamos szemelyisegjellemzőről bebizonyosodott mar, hogy kapcsolatba hozhato az almokra valo emlekezes kepessegevel. Tobb kutatas iranyult az alvasminőseg es az alomfelidezes kapcsolatanak feltarasara is. Szinten sokakat inspiralt az alom tartalmi jellemzői es az almok felidezhetősege kozti viszony megragadasa. Mind ez idaig azonban nem kerult egy kutatas fokuszaba sem az eletminőseg es az alomfelidezes kozti osszefuggesek vizsgalata. Sajat kutatasunk soran egy viszonylag egyseges mintan — kozep- es időskoru nők koreben — talaltunk osszecsengő eredmenyeket a szemely aktualis eletminősegenek szamos aspektusa es az altala felidezett almok szama kozott. Az eletminőseg meresere a WHOqol-100 kerdőivet hasznaltuk, mely az eletminőseg 25 temakoret es az ezeket osszefoglalo 6 targykort ragadja meg, mig az alomfelidezes kethetes alomnaplo-vezetes segitsegevel kerult meresre. Eredmenyeink szerint az eletminőseg 6 targykore kozul egyedul a spiritualitas az — a Holm-Bonferroni korrekciot alkalmazva —, ami szignifikans...

/pdf/az-almokra-valo-emlekezes-kepessege-a-jo-eletminoseg-jele-ceto1yrbll.pdf

Az álmokra való emlékezés képessége: a jó életminőség jele?@@@High dream recall frequency: A sign of good quality of life?

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Georgina Nemeth

Author Tools

Chat about Author