Linguistic cues do not influence subliminal visual processing - An electrophysiological study.

Hypnotic induction and ideomotor suggestions provide a powerful framework for investigating the remarkable capacity of verbal influence to reshape conscious experience, cognition, and motor control. We employed a multimodal, neurophenomenological approach combining high-density electroencephalography, cardiorespiratory, and behavioral monitoring, as well as first-person reports across three conditions: a resting-state baseline, a hypnotic induction, and an ideomotor challenge involving either a suggested arm rigidity with attempted movement or a voluntary wakeful simulation used as a behavioral control condition. Electroencephalography (EEG) analyses revealed that hypnosis induction-related changes unfolded gradually, beginning with parieto-occipital alpha suppression and increased theta activity, followed by enhanced frontoparietal theta connectivity and reduced parasympathetic cardiac modulation. These results confirm and extend prior findings, showing that hypnotic induction suggestions involve an active, high-arousal, top-down reorganization of large-scale brain networks. During ideomotor challenge, participants displayed distinct behavioral patterns, classified as tremblers and non-tremblers, despite reporting comparable disruptions in agency. Phenomenological reports clarified these differences: tremblers attempted movement despite experiencing the action as involuntary or constrained, while non-tremblers refrained from acting due to a felt impossibility or an inhibited motor command. EEG connectivity in tremblers specifically showed increased frontoparietal gamma and reduced delta connectivity, consistent with enhanced sensorimotor prediction error signaling under motor conflict, relative to voluntary simulation. Together, these findings demonstrate that hypnosis dynamically reconfigures neural connectivity and subjective experience depending on suggestion type. They further support predictive coding and dissociation-based accounts of agency disruption and underscore the value of neurophysiological and neurophenomenological methods for advancing consciousness science and informing clinical applications.

The pursuit of a scientific theory of consciousness has gained momentum in neuroscience over the past 25 years. While much research has centered on perceptual consciousness, the dynamic experience of the stream of thought, proposed by William James over a century ago, has remained relatively underexplored. The Dynamic Framework of Thought (DFT) introduced a taxonomy of thought dynamics, emphasizing their role in shaping conscious experiences. The present study explores the introspective accessibility and distinctiveness of two dynamic dimensions of thought, freely moving and deliberately directed, derived from the taxonomy of the DFT. To investigate these dynamics, four experiments were conducted, including laboratory-based and online experiments as well as an fMRI-based experiment, to assess the consistency of the relationship between these thought dynamics across various experimental contexts. In all experiments, participants reported the dynamics of their thoughts during a probed resting period in which they sat quietly with eyes open, viewing a blank screen. Using a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative assessments, this study suggests that individuals can have some introspective access to their thought dynamics. Freely moving and deliberately directed thoughts were distinguishable and negatively correlated but not anticorrelated across participants and experimental contexts. These findings suggest that the stream of thought can be characterized by at least two distinct dynamic dimensions—freely moving and deliberately directed—offering valuable insights for future neurophenomenological research aimed at bridging first-person reports of thought dynamics with third-person data on brain processes.

A central challenge in consciousness research is determining whether observers have a conscious experience of a stimulus. However, present/absent detection judgments are often biased by contextual factors, making it difficult to isolate conscious perception from non-perceptual influences. Traditional psychophysical methods struggle to disentangle these components. To address this, we conducted in-person experiments (N = 505) in which participants detected and reproduced dim and absent contrast-defined Gabor stimuli under three contextual manipulations: attentional cues, asymmetrical base rates, and payoff schemes. Using a reproduction task together with a Hurdle-Gaussian model, we quantitatively decomposed reproduction responses into a perceptual continuous contrast component and a non-perceptual "hurdle" component. We found that statistical priors (base rate) and reward structures (payoff) induced non-perceptual shifts in the reproduction hurdle, whereas attentional cues selectively shifted the continuous contrast component, consistent with changes in conscious experience. Critically, comparing conditions with and without intermixed detection trials revealed that the presence of a detection task contaminates reproduction reports with non-perceptual criterion effects. This highlights the need for caution in using and interpreting results that rely on detection judgments, even when combined with subjective measures like reproduction, especially given the central role that detection tasks play in consciousness research.

A longstanding debate in consciousness research concerns whether subjective perceptual experiences arise primarily from activity in sensory cortices or rely critically on inferences made in higher-order brain regions. We address this question using a compelling visual illusion (perceptual filling-in) that isolates neural processes underlying transitions from veridical to illusory conscious experience. Using whole-brain magnetoencephalographic imaging and rapid invisible frequency tagging, we tracked cortical dynamics during filling-in and assessed their modulation by microsaccadic eye movements, which are known to delay the illusion. We found that transitions in conscious perception involved two dissociable mechanisms: (i) boundary fading in visual cortex, reflected by increased excitability and reduced alpha-band activity, consistent with a shift in excitation-inhibition balance, and (ii) higher-order perceptual monitoring processes involving motor cortex, indexed by decreased high-alpha and beta-band activity. Microsaccades selectively reset both processes. These findings support a hierarchical framework in which visual and motor systems jointly shape transitions in conscious visual experience.

Advanced meditation, sleep, and consciousness science: An emerging frontier.

As Tsikandilakis et al. (2025) illustrate, an intense back and forth scientific debate on the existence and scope of unconscious processing has existed for at least 2000 years and within the field of psychology for well over 100 years. The focus of my commentary highlights important contributions from signal detection theory, which my work was based upon, beginning over 30 years ago (Haase, 1994). Much more research has been done in the last 30 years as interest in the topic has grown and achieved a higher degree of respect within psychology and related disciplines. The controversy is obviously not resolved, but ideas are offered for making progress, some of which are emphasized in Tsikandilakis et al. (2025). Other approaches may have merit as well, based on experimental and observational data that acknowledge and emphasize the importance of subjective principles such as weak or fragmentary conscious experiences of masked prime stimuli that continue to "haunt" interpretations of unconscious perception.

Recent developments in intracranial EEG (iEEG) allow direct recordings from the human thalamus, offering new insight into thalamocortical relationships in the human brain. In this study, we applied direct intracranial electrical stimulation (iES) to the mid-thalamus, within or close to the mediodorsal nucleus, to examine its impact on conscious experience and causal brain connectivity in 30 patients with focal epilepsy (10 females, 128 sites; 4±1 sites per patient). Applying 50Hz stimulations (iESHF) in the mid-thalamus region elicited changes in conscious experience in 11 of 12 patients (39 sites; 83 stimulations across 27 unique pairs), predominantly in the visceral, emotional, or somatosensory domains and often described as unpleasant without any seemingly obvious lateralization effect. Our connectivity analyses based on single pulse 0.5Hz stimulations (iESLF), at the individual brain level, revealed strong electrophysiological connectivity between the mid-thalamus and the insula, anterior- and mid-cingulate, as well as the other prefrontal cortices (PFC) and medial temporal lobe structures. Notably, inflow signals from some of the sites to the mid-thalamus were significantly stronger than those in the reverse direction, indicating clear asymmetry in connectivity. These findings demonstrate that stimulation of the human thalamus modulates conscious experience and reveal an asymmetric electrophysiological relationship between the thalamus and human cerebral cortex.Significance statement Our findings provide a functional and causal map of the mid-thalamus in the human brain. We provide direct evidence that stimulation of the human thalamus can modulate conscious experience. This study also holds clinical and translational value for identifying thalamic pathways involved in the propagation and generalization of seizures, especially seizures involving the medial temporal lobe, as well as for neuromodulation in epilepsy and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Conscious experiences appear to play a central role in human behavior, yet most neural processing occurs outside of consciousness. Understanding how the mind prioritizes information for consciousness is, therefore, crucial for theories of cognition. Prior research has largely focused on vision, but generalization is tenuous given the vastly different characteristics of the senses-particularly for audition, which lacks foveation and cannot be intentionally stopped. We examine the affective domain, for which prioritization is not well understood. In three experiments (two preregistered), 101 Hebrew-speaking adults completed a visual task with a stream of auditory pseudowords in the background. Occasionally a meaningful word appeared, and participants were asked about its presence. Using objective and subjective awareness measures, we found that neutral words were prioritized over negative words, regardless of task difficulty, intelligibility, and low-level features. These findings challenge theorizing and modal intuitions, and we discuss ways in which those can be reconciled.

EEG microstates reveal distinct network dynamics in lucid and non-lucid REM sleep.

Aphantasia, the strong diminution or complete absence of mental imagery, challenges long-standing views of imagery as central to cognition. Competing accounts variously explain the phenomenon as a failure of sensory reactivation or as unconscious mental imagery. Here, we propose a new framework, the integration model of aphantasia, which argues that reactivated sensory information must undergo multi-stage integration to yield imagery experience. Against unconscious imagery accounts, we argue that the neural activations observed in aphantasics are not imagery but sensory precursors: rudimentary sensory codes that lack perceptual status. Only when sensory precursors are locally integrated do they become perceptual representations, and only when these are further integrated with interoceptive signals do they give rise to conscious imagery experience. We present the integration model as a dual-stream framework that unifies recent attention- and interoception-based accounts, situate it within existing theories of mental imagery and aphantasia, and highlight its clinical relevance. In doing so, we reframe the debate on unconscious imagery and draw attention to the role of multi-stage integration as a key mechanism underlying mental imagery and its absence across different subtypes of aphantasia.

Transpersonal psychology has contributed significantly to the understanding of spiritual emergence and crisis by legitimizing non-ordinary states of consciousness and anomalous experiences. However, many prevailing frameworks continue to rely on intrapsychic explanatory models that lack clear evidential thresholds when confronted with experiences that appear to involve autonomous or external agency. This paper proposes a critical-evidential transpersonal framework that integrates phenomenological insight with empirical standards drawn from parapsychological research. Central to this framework is the construct of Direct Spiritual Intelligent Intrusion (DSII), introduced as a provisional model for investigating spiritual crises that present with convergent subjective and objective indicators not readily accounted for by internal psychological processes alone. Using established transpersonal approaches and contemporary narrative-based therapies as illustrative cases, this paper examines the epistemic limitations of a priori intrapsychic reductionism and argues for the necessity of differential diagnosis in the assessment of spiritual crisis. By emphasizing ontological suspension, graduated evidential assessment, and clinical humility, the framework seeks to bridge the methodological divide between transpersonal psychology and parapsychology while reducing the risk of misclassification, premature pathologization, and explanatory closure.

Although theory suggests that discrimination generates health inequalities in a variety of ways, research today concentrates almost exclusively on one particular mechanism: the conscious experience of unfair treatment, often termed “perceived discrimination.” To rethink perceived discrimination as one among other mechanisms, this review draws on the social stress model, reinterpreted as a macro-micro-macro sociological explanation. This reframing additionally reveals that the social stress model rests on an implicit theory of the emotional actor that provides no guidance to distinguish psychiatric illness (an individual problem) from nondisordered but painful emotional responses to external adversity (a social problem). To prevent this confusion, the review puts forward an account of the emotions that emphasizes their rootedness in the social world. On the empirical front, the review covers ethnic differences in depression and psychosis, as well as recent studies indicating that only a small portion of discriminatory treatment surfaces in the target's consciousness as perceived discrimination.

ABSTRACT In an earlier article, we argued that post-mortem privacy is not sufficiently protected in England and Wales. In this article, we draw from Boonin’s posthumous harm thesis and posthumous wrong thesis to develop a framework and rationale for justifying the recognition and enforcement of a privacy right post-mortem. Essentially, our theoretical framework suggests that, just as a living person can be harmed by an act that does not have any effect on their conscious experience, such as the frustration of their desires, the dead can also suffer unfelt harm. We test and illustrate the analytical and explanatory power of this theoretical framework with a USA post-mortem privacy case and five relevant practical examples. Furthermore, we examine some important cases in England and Wales, and some cases from the ECtHR, to show how the use of our framework could lead to the recognition and justification of a privacy right post-mortem.

This research aims to uncover the meaning of sustainable accounting as experienced and lived by the accountant of the dam construction project within the scope of PT. Nindya Karya. This research uses an interpretive paradigm with Husserl's transcendental phenomenological approach to understand the conscious experience of accountants in interpreting sustainability accounting practices. Data was obtained through in-depth interviews with project accountants and analyzed through a phenomenological reduction process that included the identification of noema, noesis, intentionality, and the essential meaning of experience. The results of the study show that sustainability accounting practices in construction projects are not only understood as a formal reporting mechanism, but as a professional practice that functions to maintain the financial order of projects, bridge the reality of construction work with the representation of figures in financial statements, and integrate social and environmental dimensions through the project budgeting system. Accountants interpret sustainability accounting as a professional compass that helps navigate the tension between the demands of project efficiency and responsibility to society and the environment. Integrity, professional responsibility, and moral awareness of development impacts are key values that shape sustainability accounting practices in the experience of project accountants. This research contributes to the development of sustainability accounting literature by presenting a phenomenological perspective that places accountants as reflective actors in negotiating sustainability values in the midst of infrastructure project dynamics.

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores pre-service early childhood teachers’ perceptions of preparing and implementing art activities that integrate natural and sustainable materials through holistic and experience-based approaches. Conducted within the Art Education in Early Childhood course offered in a teacher education programme at a state university in Turkey, the research adopted a case study design grounded in the interpretive paradigm. Data were collected from 78 participants through 16 focus group interviews and analyzed using inductive content analysis. The findings revealed that pre-service teachers valued creativity, collaboration, and hands-on learning while recognising the pedagogical and environmental benefits of using natural and sustainable materials. These activities were found to foster imagination, reflective thinking, and awareness of children’s developmental needs. However, participants reported challenges related to material organisation, time management, age-appropriate activity design, and classroom management. The experience further enabled them to link theory with practice and develop a deeper understanding of effective teaching strategies. Overall, the study highlights the importance of experiential and reflective learning in enhancing teacher preparation and underscores that integrating natural and sustainable materials into art-based pedagogies can promote meaningful, cost-effective, and environmentally conscious learning experiences that support teachers’ professional growth.

What is the role of subsonic and low-frequency vibration in consciousness, music, and health? This article draws on neurophysiological, evolutionary, and clinical perspectives to examine the Pacini system — the body's subsonic vibratory perceptual system — and its relation to consciousness studies, music perception, and health and well-being. The Pacini system, while commonly overlooked, is structurally and functionally interlinked with various sensory, emotion, and pain processing pathways, and thereby modulates brain function and overall conscious experience. It also plays a key role in music perception, music stimulation, and treatments that rely on these, due to its sensitivity to lower ranges of the auditory system, including mid to low bass ranges. This paper presents a novel music stimulation treatment called High Amplitude Low Frequency Music Impulse Stimulation (HALF-MIS). HALF-MIS purposefully activates the Pacini system via subsonic and low-frequency vibrations, while also incorporating specifically designed, composed, and produced music that delivers an harmonic sonic experience. We will discuss results and potential mechanisms of action from case studies and ongoing clinical trials of HALF-MIS, which provide promising indications of its efficacy in reducing pain, depression, anxiety, and long COVID-19 symptoms.

Acute requirement for the hippocampus in putatively conscious vision revealed by a mouse model of blindsight.

Consciousness science has generated diverse theoretical frameworks, each offering insights into different aspects of conscious experience. However, this diversity has created a fractured landscape: theories operate at different explanatory levels, and a principled account of how conscious phenomena arise from specific neural computations remains largely absent. This work argues that State Space Theory (SST) can serve as a unifying mechanistic framework for consciousness science. SST proposes that consciousness arises from hierarchical delay coordinate embedding (DCE) - the reconstruction of dynamical system structure from time-delayed signals - implemented through recurrent cortical circuits ('DCE engines'), with gain modulation determining which reconstructions achieve system-wide influence. SST identifies these dynamics with consciousness itself, not merely as correlates. We draw on recent empirical and theoretical work to demonstrate the feasibility of this proposal, including empirical demonstrations that recurrent networks learn via embedding and mathematical results linking recurrent dynamics to embedding theory. We identify how major cognitive theories map onto this architecture mechanistically: parallel DCE engines correspond to Dennett's competing "drafts," global broadcasting reflects gain-amplified propagation, recurrent processing enables the temporal integration DCE requires, and the attention schema emerges as a higher-order reconstruction of gain modulation dynamics. SST's fundamentally process-based character provides immunity to the unfolding argument and resolves the temporal paradox facing causal structure theories. The framework generates a number of falsifiable predictions related to topological structure of perceptual dynamics, temporal vulnerability windows, and selective disruption of recurrent timing. SST thus offers a computational foundation for consciousness research that grounds existing theories mechanistically while generating empirical commitments.

Consciousness presents a structural puzzle: a unified, context-sensitive, globally integrated mode of experience emerging from distributed neural dynamics. While classical neuroscience has mapped synaptic, oscillatory, and network-level mechanisms with increasing precision, debate persists as to whether classical formalisms fully capture the integrative and contextual features of conscious processing. This review examines whether quantum principles offer explanatory leverage in two distinct senses: as formal mathematical frameworks for modeling contextual cognition, and as mechanistic hypotheses proposing biologically instantiated non-classical states. We surveyed empirical and theoretical developments spanning zero-quantum-coherence in MRI signals, entanglement-structured learning paradigms, quantum-inspired computational models, and proposed neural substrates, including microtubules, nuclear spins, and photonic architectures. Although certain findings have been interpreted as consistent with a non-classical structure, no study to date has demonstrated entanglement, long-lived coherence, or collapse dynamics in neural tissue under operational criteria comparable to those used in controlled quantum systems. Replication remains limited, biological entanglement witnesses are not yet established, and nonlinear classical dynamics can reproduce many putative quantum signatures. Accordingly, the decisive question is not whether the brain is quantum, but whether its dynamics exceed the explanatory reach of rigorously defined classical models. Progress hinges on replication, adversarial scrutiny, and operational criteria precise enough to discriminate genuine non-classical correlations from classical complexity. Whether quantum mechanisms ultimately prove necessary or refined classical models remain sufficient, this inquiry compels a deeper understanding of integration, contextuality, and the physical constraints shaping conscious experience.