Neuroimaging Consciousness: What happens in the brain when we become aware of what we percieve?

Abstract: Although consciousness has been studied since the beginning of the history of psychology, how the brain implements consciousness is seen as one of the last great mysteries. This thesis investigates neural correlates of consciousness by measuring brain activity while specific contents of consciousness are defined and maintained. Study 1 showed that distinct but similar brain regions are activated for the initial creation of a percept and for sustaining that percept over time. Specifically, frontal and parietal regions were activated during both temporal aspects of consciousness. Study 2 investigated the generality of this activation pattern for consciousness in different sensory modalities, and showed that frontal regions were commonly activated for visual and auditory awareness whereas posterior activity was modality specific. However, frontal andparietal regions were jointly activated for both modalities during sustained perception. These results indicate that frontal regions interact with posterior, sensory-specific regions to instantiate a conscious percept. The percept is then maintained by a more general network including frontal and parietal regions.