Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Dembski, Cole
• Koch, Christof
• Pitts, Michael

Titel

Perceptual awareness negativity: a physiological correlate of sensory consciousness

Ist Teil von

• Trends in cognitive sciences, 2021-08, Vol.25 (8), p.660-670

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Much research on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) has focused on two evoked potentials, the P3b and the visual or auditory awareness negativity (VAN, AAN). Surveying a broad range of recent experimental evidence, we find that repeated failures to observe the P3b during conscious perception eliminate it as a putative NCC. Neither the VAN nor the AAN have been dissociated from consciousness; furthermore, a similar neural signal correlates with tactile consciousness. These awareness negativities can be maximal contralateral to the evoking stimulus, are likely generated in underlying sensory cortices, and point to the existence of a generalized perceptual awareness negativity (PAN) reflecting the onset of sensory consciousness. Two prominent neural signals have been proposed as neural correlates of consciousness: an early, modality-specific electroencephalography (EEG) negativity, termed the visual or auditory awareness negativity, and a late, modality-independent positivity known as the P3b.A critical review of recent research on visual, auditory, and tactile consciousness reveals that over 12 diverse studies found the P3b to be absent despite consciously perceiving stimuli, ruling out the P3b as a true neural correlate of consciousness (NCC).No convincing evidence for a dissociation between the visual and auditory awareness negativities and consciousness has been reported thus far; furthermore, there is evidence for a similar ‘somatosensory awareness negativity’.The data from these three modalities are consistent with a generalized ‘perceptual awareness negativity’ arising 120–200 ms after stimulus onset that correlates with perceptual consciousness and originates from the appropriate underlying sensory cortices.