Elsevier

Consciousness and Cognition

Volume 49, March 2017, Pages 70-85
Consciousness and Cognition

Review article
Missing piece of the puzzle in the science of consciousness: Resting state and endogenous correlates of consciousness

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.01.006Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Default mode network offers correlates of consciousness and conscious experience.

  • Thalamus is losing its position as primary region of conscious experience.

  • Precuneus as the central region for the internally oriented conscious experience.

Abstract

Consciousness still stands as one of the most interesting and the most elusive problems of neuroscience. Finding its correlates is the first step toward its satisfactory explanation. Several theories have proposed its correlates but none of them seem to be generally accepted even though most of them share some very similar elements. These elements are the activity of the thalamus, which is considered by some as the central region for consciousness, and gamma synchronization, which should be the general principal for the emergence of conscious experience. However, all of these proposed theories share one characteristic and that is that they do not take into consideration the recently discovered endogenous activity of the brain, which is generally associated with the default mode network. Although the activity of this large scale brain network is in correlation with various levels of consciousness it is still missing in discussions of consciousness. This review recognizes the importance of endogenous activity and points out the important discoveries of endogenous activity that could be an important step toward a satisfactory explanation of consciousness.

Keywords

Consciousness
Correlate(s) (of consciousness)
Background state (of consciousness)
Stream(s) (of consciousness)
Specific states (of consciousness)
Default mode network (DMN)
Endogenous brain activity

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