Your brain processes far more information than you ever become aware of—you can steer a car through traffic while your mind wanders elsewhere, unaware of the driving itself. This project tackles a foundational gap in neuroscience: why some mental contents enter conscious awareness while others do not. Despite decades of research, the computational and neural mechanisms that produce awareness remain poorly understood. The researcher will test a new model proposing that awareness depends on global, abstract representations of whether mental content is present or absent. To do this, they will combine psychophysics, computational simulations, and advanced human neuroimaging—including 7 Tesla fMRI and optically-pumped MEG—to visualise the brain activity underlying awareness judgments at unprecedented detail. This is fundamental science, not applied research. There is no immediate practical application. But answering this question could reshape psychological theory, mental health treatments, and our understanding of personal autonomy and conscious thought. Past fundamental discoveries about unconscious processing, for example, have already influenced how clinicians treat patients with brain injuries or psychiatric conditions. A mechanistic account of awareness could open similarly unexpected frontiers—including, eventually, how to design artificial systems that might one day possess something like conscious experience.
View original technical description
At any one moment in time we are aware of only a fraction of the information processed by our brains. We may be aware of the detail of a visual scene, a painting, or the words on a page, and yet remain unaware of our digestion, breathing or feel of the clothes on our skin. Even when conscious level is held constant - when we are awake, and attentive - the contents of awareness may vary, and do so in ways that are independent of other aspects of mental function - for instance, the experience of mind-wandering while driving, despite continuing to steer, change gear, and respond to changes in traffic. In recent decades, new tools and techniques have been developed to characterise dissociations between performance and awareness. However, the psychological, computational and neural mechanisms that enable awareness of mental contents remain poorly understood. ConsciousComputation aims to reverse engineer how human awareness judgments are formed. I will test a new model that proposes that awareness depends on global, abstract representations of the presence or absence of mental contents. To test this theory I will combine psychophysics, computational model simulations and recent advances in human neuroimaging (including 7 Tesla fMRI and optically-pumped MEG) to visualise the neurocomputational components supporting awareness judgments at an unprecedented level of detail. My proposal addresses a foundational challenge for 21st century science: why certain aspects of (biological or artificial) information processing are conscious, and others are not. An answer to this question will revolutionise how we understand the difference between aware and unaware mental states - with widespread ramifications for psychological theory, mental health treatments, and our understanding of personal-level autonomy and conscious thought. The findings of ConsciousComputation will open up new research frontiers and create a cognitive computational neuroscience of conscious awareness.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know