Rapid alternation of conscious and suppressed stimulus representations in the primate brain
- 1University of California, Berkeley
Abstract
The neural correlates of consciousness remain elusive [1]. Previous studies found that high-level visual cortex is weakly modulated by conscious perception [2,3], yet a pure signal of conscious perception has not been found anywhere in the brain. Here, we employed Neuropixels recordings across multiple face patches in inferotemporal and prefrontal cortex during a binocular flash suppression paradigm [4], in which one of two images is consciously perceived while the other, though continuously present, is suppressed from awareness. We found that, during a constant stimulus and percept, the brain rapidly alternates, about 15 times per second, between conscious and suppressed micro-epochs. During conscious micro-epochs, a pure signal of conscious perception was present, allowing accurate reconstruction of the conscious image from neural activity. During suppressed micro-epochs this reversed: the pure signal now tracked the suppressed stimulus, allowing accurate reconstruction of the suppressed image. At the single-cell level, neurons responded selectively to the conscious stimulus and not to the suppressed stimulus during conscious micro-epochs; conversely, during suppressed micro-epochs, neurons responded selectively to the suppressed stimulus. Despite this apparent symmetry, the two epochs could be reliably distinguished, with feature tuning amplified during conscious micro-epochs. Recordings in prefrontal cortex yielded qualitatively similar results. Together, these findings show that both inferotemporal and prefrontal cortex rapidly interleave conscious with suppressed content, indicating that conscious access requires temporal selection beyond localization.
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BibTeX
@misc{hesse2026rapid,
title = {{Rapid alternation of conscious and suppressed stimulus representations in the primate brain}},
author = {J. K. Hesse and F. F. Lanfranchi and C. McGrory and Y. Shi and T. A. Engel and D. Y. Tsao},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.15.759299},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759299v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Rapid alternation of conscious and suppressed stimulus representations in the primate brain
AU - J. K. Hesse
AU - F. F. Lanfranchi
AU - C. McGrory
AU - Y. Shi
AU - T. A. Engel
AU - D. Y. Tsao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.15.759299
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759299v1
AB - The neural correlates of consciousness remain elusive [1]. Previous studies found that high-level visual cortex is weakly modulated by conscious perception [2,3], yet a pure signal of conscious perception has not been found anywhere in the brain. Here, we employed Neuropixels recordings across multiple face patches in inferotemporal and prefrontal cortex during a binocular flash suppression paradigm [4], in which one of two images is consciously perceived while the other, though continuously present, is suppressed from awareness. We found that, during a constant stimulus and percept, the brain rapidly alternates, about 15 times per second, between conscious and suppressed micro-epochs. During conscious micro-epochs, a pure signal of conscious perception was present, allowing accurate reconstruction of the conscious image from neural activity. During suppressed micro-epochs this reversed: the pure signal now tracked the suppressed stimulus, allowing accurate reconstruction of the suppressed image. At the single-cell level, neurons responded selectively to the conscious stimulus and not to the suppressed stimulus during conscious micro-epochs; conversely, during suppressed micro-epochs, neurons responded selectively to the suppressed stimulus. Despite this apparent symmetry, the two epochs could be reliably distinguished, with feature tuning amplified during conscious micro-epochs. Recordings in prefrontal cortex yielded qualitatively similar results. Together, these findings show that both inferotemporal and prefrontal cortex rapidly interleave conscious with suppressed content, indicating that conscious access requires temporal selection beyond localization.
ER -