Author: Guggisberg AG, Dalal SS, Schnider A, Nagarajan SS.
Affiliation: Biomagnetic Imaging Laboratory, Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, University of California, 513 Parnassus Ave. S-362, San Francisco, CA 94143-0628, USA. aguggis@gmail.com
Conference/Journal: Conscious Cogn.
Date published: 2011 Dec
Other:
Volume ID: 20 , Issue ID: 4 , Pages: 1899-915 , Word Count: 163
We explored the neural mechanisms allowing humans to report the subjective onset times of conscious events. Magnetoencephalographic recordings of neural oscillations were obtained while human subjects introspected the timing of sensory, intentional, and motor events during a forced choice task. Brain activity was reconstructed with high spatio-temporal resolution. Event-time introspection was associated with specific neural activity at the time of subjective event onset which was spatially distinct from activity induced by the event itself. Different brain regions were selectively recruited for introspection of different event types, e.g., the bilateral angular gyrus for introspection of intention. Our results suggest that event-time introspection engages specific neural networks to assess the contents of consciousness. Subjective event times should therefore be interpreted as the result of complex interactions between introspection and experience networks, rather than as direct reproduction of the individual's conscious state or as a mere post hoc interpretation.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Comment in
Conscious Cogn. 2011 Dec;20(4):1916-7; author reply 1918-9.
PMID: 21498087