Head of the working group: Dr. Antje Peters

The search for neural correlates of consciousness is mainly based on experiments with very short stimulus presentations. These experiments do not allow to separate transient from sustained neural mechanisms underlying conscious perception. Since many of the leading candidate theories of phenomenological consciousness are methodologically (and thus theoretically) limited to brief and discrete percepts, they cannot explain the continuity of consciousness. The working group aims to better understand how the duration of conscious perception is reflected in neuronal activity measured with  EEG and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). To this end, the working group concentrates on the development of experiments that allow a sustained stimulus presentation and at the same time a control of typical post-perceptual artefacts of consciousness research. Effects are investigated regarding different sensory modalities and levels of information processing. The transient and temporally coherent phenomena of neuronal activation that underlie phenomenal consciousness are analysed using a variety of methods, including multivariate pattern analysis.

1. Are there transient and sustained neuronal mechanisms of conscious perception?
2. To what extent are previously described neural correlates of perception altered during sustained conscious processes?
3. To what extent are fronto-parietal areas involved in transient and/or sustained mechanisms of conscious stimulus perception?
4. How do neuronal correlates of perception differ depending on the level of perceptual performance?

• Hense, A.*, Peters, A.*, Bruchmann, M., Dellert, T., & Straube, T. (2024). Electrophysiological correlates of sustained conscious perception. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 10593. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-61281-2
• Peters, A., Brockhoff, L., Bruchmann, M., Dellert, T., Moeck, R., Schlossmacher, I., & Straube, T. (2023). Visual perceptual load and processing of somatosensory stimuli in primary and secondary somatosensory cortices. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 7005. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34225-5  
• Peters, A., Bruchmann, M., Dellert, T., Moeck, R., Schlossmacher, I., & Straube, T. (2023). Stimulus awareness is associated with secondary somatosensory cortex activation in an inattentional numbness paradigm. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 22575. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-49857-w  
• Schlossmacher, I., Lucka, F., Peters, A., Bruchmann, M., & Straube, T. (2022). Effects of awareness and task relevance on neurocomputational models of mismatch negativity generation. NeuroImage, 262, 119530. doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119530

* shared first authorshop