Many attempts have been made to link neural mechanisms to different states of consciousness. For example, high-amplitude EEG activity has been associated with non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and anesthesia, and fast, low-amplitude EEG activity with wakefulness and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Additionally, healthy, awake individuals more frequently demonstrate a distinct fMRI brain pattern characterized by high spatial complexity and interregional connectivity indicating brain-wide coordination, while individuals in an unconscious state more frequently demonstrate a pattern characterized by low complexity and reduced interregional connectivity. These findings have been foundational in formulating theories of consciousness such as integrated information theory and global workspace theory. Despite this, a variety of rare diseases and pharmacological manipulations have revealed that these neural markers may paradoxically appear outside of the state they are associated with. For example, Angelman syndrome is a rare genetic disorder in which children display an EEG phenotype typical of slow wave sleep during wakeful consciousness. Such paradoxical dissociations are useful both for identifying the common denominator that remains across all conscious states, and also for selecting amongst theories of consciousness by falsifying those theories that are incompatible with the observed dissociation.
In this Research Topic, we wish to refine existing biomarkers of conscious state by exploring their limits and reporting counterexamples that may challenge them. By using counterexamples as black swans in a Popperian sense, this direction of research may reveal generalizable or "universal" biomarkers of consciousness which mark the presence of subjective experience under all conditions, including abnormal conditions in which typical neural activity patterns are absent or altered, such as anesthesia awareness or covert consciousness in unresponsive patients.
We are interested in original research, clinical case study, review, mini review, systematic review, general commentary, and opinion articles on the following topics:
1) Paradoxical dissociations in healthy individuals or patients between neural signatures of consciousness (e.g., neural oscillations, signal entropy, functional connectivity, etc.) and conscious state (e.g., wakefulness, anesthesia, NREM sleep, REM sleep/dreaming, psychedelic states, etc.).
2) Pharmacological manipulations that reversibly induce dissociations between observable brain activity and consciousness.
3) Direct comparisons of different putative biomarkers of consciousness (e.g., oscillations vs entropy), particularly in contexts known to present paradoxical dissociations between neural activity and conscious state.
4) Models explaining the paradoxical presence of a neural biomarker in unexpected scenarios (such as high amplitude delta oscillations during conscious wakefulness in Angelman syndrome or other rare conditions, epilepsies, pharmacological manipulations, etc.)
5) Discussions and reviews that use dissociations between EEG activity and consciousness to support or falsify theories of consciousness.
Many attempts have been made to link neural mechanisms to different states of consciousness. For example, high-amplitude EEG activity has been associated with non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and anesthesia, and fast, low-amplitude EEG activity with wakefulness and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Additionally, healthy, awake individuals more frequently demonstrate a distinct fMRI brain pattern characterized by high spatial complexity and interregional connectivity indicating brain-wide coordination, while individuals in an unconscious state more frequently demonstrate a pattern characterized by low complexity and reduced interregional connectivity. These findings have been foundational in formulating theories of consciousness such as integrated information theory and global workspace theory. Despite this, a variety of rare diseases and pharmacological manipulations have revealed that these neural markers may paradoxically appear outside of the state they are associated with. For example, Angelman syndrome is a rare genetic disorder in which children display an EEG phenotype typical of slow wave sleep during wakeful consciousness. Such paradoxical dissociations are useful both for identifying the common denominator that remains across all conscious states, and also for selecting amongst theories of consciousness by falsifying those theories that are incompatible with the observed dissociation.
In this Research Topic, we wish to refine existing biomarkers of conscious state by exploring their limits and reporting counterexamples that may challenge them. By using counterexamples as black swans in a Popperian sense, this direction of research may reveal generalizable or "universal" biomarkers of consciousness which mark the presence of subjective experience under all conditions, including abnormal conditions in which typical neural activity patterns are absent or altered, such as anesthesia awareness or covert consciousness in unresponsive patients.
We are interested in original research, clinical case study, review, mini review, systematic review, general commentary, and opinion articles on the following topics:
1) Paradoxical dissociations in healthy individuals or patients between neural signatures of consciousness (e.g., neural oscillations, signal entropy, functional connectivity, etc.) and conscious state (e.g., wakefulness, anesthesia, NREM sleep, REM sleep/dreaming, psychedelic states, etc.).
2) Pharmacological manipulations that reversibly induce dissociations between observable brain activity and consciousness.
3) Direct comparisons of different putative biomarkers of consciousness (e.g., oscillations vs entropy), particularly in contexts known to present paradoxical dissociations between neural activity and conscious state.
4) Models explaining the paradoxical presence of a neural biomarker in unexpected scenarios (such as high amplitude delta oscillations during conscious wakefulness in Angelman syndrome or other rare conditions, epilepsies, pharmacological manipulations, etc.)
5) Discussions and reviews that use dissociations between EEG activity and consciousness to support or falsify theories of consciousness.
