The Conscious Brain: Empirical Investigations of the Neural Correlates of Perceptual Awareness

Although consciousness has been studied since ancient time, how the brain implements consciousness is still considered a great mystery by most. This book gives an introduction to the subject and presents 3 studies that use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of consciousness in various experimental settings. Specifically, similarities and differences in terms of brain activity for creating and maintaining conscious perception of both visual and auditory stimuli are considered. Based on these studies a model is proposed where sensory regions interact with controlling regions to enable conscious perception. The amount and type of required interaction depend on stimuli and task characteristics, to the extent that higher-order cortical involvement may not be required at all for easily recognizable stimuli.