bioRxiv: Human Consciousness Changes “Reality” 15 Times per Second

A team from the University of California, Berkeley, used a technique known as binocular rivalry suppression. One eye was initially shown a face, then the other eye was presented with a new image while the first remained visible. Under these conditions, the second image typically begins to dominate conscious perception.

The researchers first tested the technique on human participants, who could report what they saw. They then recorded the activity of hundreds of neurons in the brains of macaques viewing competing images. Particular attention was paid to areas of the cortex involved in face recognition.

The researchers found that neurons did not continuously represent the dominant image. Instead, their activity alternated between two states: one more accurately reflected the image available to conscious perception, while the other represented the suppressed image. These neural signals made it possible to reconstruct the content of both images.

However, the two states were not entirely equivalent. When the consciously perceived image was represented, neural responses were more selective. Similar patterns were also observed in the prefrontal cortex.

The findings do not mean that human consciousness literally disappears or changes “reality” 15 times per second. The rapid switches were detected in neural signals from monkeys exposed to a specially created visual conflict. Subjective perception does not necessarily switch at the same frequency.

The authors suggest that access to conscious awareness may depend not only on where information is represented in the brain but also on the temporal organization of neural activity. Further research will be needed to test this hypothesis.