Consciousness Research Group

Aims

The Consciousness Research Group studies the relationship between consciousness and the brain from a multidisciplinary perspective, including the philosophical “Explanatory Gap” between neural and mental phenomena and the empirical measurement of different states and contents of consciousness to discover their neural correlates and mechanisms. The main lines of research include philosophical theories of consciousness as a biological phenomenon (“Biological Realism”), evolutionary simulation theories of dreaming (the Threat Simulation Theory and the Social Simulation Theory); the neural correlates and mechanisms of visual consciousness, especially the ERP correlate called “Visual Awareness Negativity”, and the neural correlates and phenomenal contents in different states of consciousness, including sleep, dreaming, general anesthesia, hypnosis, mind-wandering and daydreaming.