Cristina Uribe
Major/Minor: Psychology
Title: Validating the threshold of consciousness
Abstract: Recent neuroscience studies attempting to understand consciousness are focusing on the neural correlates of consciousness with the aim to understand the minimal neuronal mechanisms needed for consciousness. This is a very ambitious research program, and we are years away from truly understanding this. However, there is something very basic that all consciousness models should meet. “Any empirically derived or empirically testable model of conscious versus non-conscious sensory perception will ultimately “draw a line in the sand” between responses (in the brain, behavior, or both) that are conscious and those that, though still perceptual, are not conscious” (Schurger 2008). This distinction means that there must be a threshold above which a conscious experience and below which there is none. If this is the case, then any two stimuli that are both presented below this threshold must be subjectively experienced as the same. And any two stimuli where one is presented above the threshold and one below should be experienced as subjectively different. This is the criterion of subject validity, and any model of consciousness should, at a minimum, meet this criterion. This is extremely valuable as it provides a new empirical way to test models of consciousness.
